sick fish help asap plz

G

gctyrant

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Aug 15, 2005
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i got a new 5 gal tank bout a week ago and started adding new fish bout 4 days ago. at first it was just one tiger barb then it was one tiger barb and one swordtail now its both barbs and both swordtails they just kinda float round dont swim unless u disturb the tank ! they still eat but thye kinda just sit at the top of the tank and the barbs float slanted with their face down below the rest of their body ! ppl have told me that it was ammonia so yesterday i went to the pet store and got some ammo lock which says to instantly get rid of harmful ammonia - but then someone else told me that it dont work to well and i would be better off cycleing the water so i changed 50% of it today and it still hasnt done anything noticable will it get better or is there something else i need to do. i am new at this so ne help would be greatly apperciated. i dont have a test kit but i am gettin one soon but is there ne thing i can do 2 get my fish back to normal i need some help thanks
- Jacob
 
You are already,IMO, over crowed. What else to you have in the tank besides 2 tiger barbs and 2 swordtails? What kind of filter do you have? Read everything you can on how to cycle a tank and tell us as much about the tank as you can.

50% water changes can be very dangerous. With a 5 gal tank, 1/2 gal in the morning and 1/2 gal again in the evening.
 
Yes you are way over crowded! I used to have a 6 gallon tank with a goldfish, gold and blue gourami, and 2 snails! Talk about over crowded and not compatible! That was my first aquarium. Is this your first one?
 
You should get another tank. None of your fish will succeed in a 5g. 4 fish? a 10-15g would work.

you should do a water change of 25%-30% very soon. Your fish probably have ammonia poisoning. Then do that every other day if not daily or as stated above.

find out about cycling. there is a sticky. It is about a 1-2 month process. It is a pretty dangerous process for fish to be in, and you may have fish die. you need to cycle if you are keeping most aquatic animals.

get a test kit so you know when you have dangerous levels of toxins in the water. you'll NEED this for cycling.

ammo-lock works for water conditioning and possibly ammonia removal. If you have chlorinated public water, you need conditioner. Do the water changes to make your fish healthy. It is more effective.
 
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since the tank is so small, theres no reason you can't do at least 50% water changes daily, that will help keep the amonia and nitrite down (both should be 0). You may even need to do more than that since the tank is so overstocked. There is nothing "dangerous" about a large water change, just make sure the temp is the same and use dechlor.
 
You really should get another tank and move some of your fish. Amquel Plus neutralizes ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. It says that it wont interfere with your cycle :huh: so maybe you could use it to help save the remaining fish until you can get another tank or return some fish...
 
Holly9937 said:
There is nothing "dangerous" about a large water change, just make sure the temp is the same and use dechlor.
Click to expand...

If the pH in the tank has dropped radically, doing 50% water changes could further shock the already weakened fish. A series of smaller changer more often would be better for the fish, IMO.

Look at Myth #2 & #3 at http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/wchange.html

This quote "The benefits of water changes must be balanced by the stress caused by a sudden change of your tank's water chemistry. If tank water has similar pH, GH and KH as tap water, changing 50% (or more) of the water at one time will not affect fish. On the other hand, if your tank's pH is (for example) 6.3, while your replacement water has a pH of 7.5, replacing 50% of the water all at once will change the pH of your tank significantly (possibly more than 50% depending on buffering factors), which will stress your fish, possibly enough to kill them." is from http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-changes.html

IMO, the best bet would be to do 1 gal water changes every hour until you get ahead of the curve and then do large ones often.
 
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