Slightly Cloudy water, slightly split fins

L

loserkid

Complete Newb..
Jan 31, 2005
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I have a 20gallon tank that I got for Christmas, I set it up according to my girlfriends instructions (she works at a pet store) so nothing should be too messed up, I didn't add the fish all at one time, I only put two or three in at a time, and spaced them out at least a week before adding more (per her instructions).

The tank contains :
2 neon blue dwarf gouramis
2 flame dwarf gouramis
2 platinum gouramis
1 opaline gourami
1 pearl gourami

I have a penguin 125 filter, which I'm told is a fairly decent filter.
The fish are all small as of right now (i plan to get a larger tank to necessitate the fish when they get bigger), but since they're small right now overcrowding isnt a problem, they all have plenty of room to swim. I have plenty of plants and places for the dwarves to hide, since they're shy.

My problems, and they aren't extreme problems, are as follows :
The water is slightly cloudy. It isn't terribly cloudy, but after seeing my girlfriends tank, I realize that the water isn't as clear as it could, or should, be. I tried adding some stuff from the pet store called clear water, but it hasn't made a difference at all. I was wondering what I could do to clear up the water more, I've vacuumed the tank, as well as changing some of the water.

Another problem, which doesn't seem to be huge :
The neon blue dwarves tail fins are split a little bit, I don't think its from other fish picking on them, they always seem to get along and swim together fine, and I've never seen them nipping at each other. The flame dwarves fins are fine. The fish are acting perfectly normal, they swim around and eat normally, and there doesn't seem to be any problem other than the split fins.

Thanks for any help anyone might have
 
The cloudy water could be an indication that the tank is going through its early cycling stage where ammonia consuming bacteria is establishing themselves. As you add more fish, the amount of ammonia will increase, and so will the bacteria and cloudy water. It should go away once the bacteria anchors themselves to a surface after a day or 2. Test the waters to make sure that ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are at an acceptable level and do water changes when necessary.

A warning about gouramis, the male gouramis are usually territorial against their own kind and you have a lot og gouramis for a 20 gallon tank. They may not be fighting now but I'd keep an eye out for it.
 
I'll watch out for the fighting, so far they've all been good with each other.

As for the cloudy water explanation, that's what I assumed at first, but should it take this long for that to happen, its been like this for quite awhile now. (from a few days after i set up the tank, until now)
 
Do you know what you ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are? If not, get them tested, it should give an indication on where your tank is during the cycling process.

For a short term fix, using carbon filtration media will help clear up the water.
 
i'll go buy test strips to check the levels tomorrow, and as for the carbon, my filter already has carbon in it, is there anything else i should add?
 
so today I took my water in to the pet store that was on my way to school, as they can test my water there for free. apparently my ammonia levels are WAY too high, I thought I avoided the newbie mistakes of stocking too quickly and not letting the tank cycle, but apparently I did indeed make them. The lady at the pet store (my girlfriend used to work with her, she's apparently a fish fanatic, so i trust her opinion, unless someone here tells me not to) told me to do a 25% water change, which I did, then toldme to get this stuff called ammo lock that is supposed to make the ammonia less harmful for the fish, she also told me to start adding the zyme bacteria stuff to the water again. So, i did all of that, added the ammo lock and the biozyme stuff, so hopefully I'm okay now, but if anyone else has any opinions or ideas, feel free to run them by me, I'm open to suggestion

thanks for the advice
 
whoa, that's a load of gouramis... they're very territorial fish, so I would not at all be surprised if they're beating on each other when you're not looking. Usually one dominant gourami will herd the rest into a corner, and attack them if they ever get out of place. Mixing that many territorial fish in a tank of that size is gonna borrow trouble if you ask me...

The stock you've chosen may not be ideal for that size tank. As they age, they're going to become increasingly aggressive towards other gouramis.

See if Petsmart will take back your fish or hold your fish while you do a fishless cycle (see above sticky)... Cycling allows bacteria to build up in the filter. These bacteria are the actual filter, and without them, your Emperor doesn't do much good. This will solve your ammonia problem- or doing multiple water changes as necessary (usually daily) to get ammonia below harmful levels.

Stocking one gourami in a community tank is generally the best way to go. If you choose to have multiple gouramis in the same tank, prepare to treat for nipped fins and scales. It's really not fair to house that many aggressive fish in that size of a tank.

I know gouramis are incredible fish (one of my favourites) but they will harass each other into sickness and even death if housed too closely.
 
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I have heard at my lfs that ammo lock will only hold for 24 hours and then the ammonia will bounce back and the best things I can think of are adding live bacteria such as cycle or stress zyme, add ammo chips and changing some water to dillute the ammonia and I ran into the same problem w/ my first tank and I lost about 3 fish out 5 in a 10g tank and I had to make alot of water changes. Also if you want to monitor ammonia without using a test kit, you can buy this product call ammonia alert and is made by Seachem and is very accurate and here is a link to the product.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Product...+Kits/T1/F73+0343+0079/EDP/6161/Itemdy00.aspx
 
i have this stuff called biozyme, its a powder that comes in a little yellow cannister, is that the same as stress zyme and cycle?
 
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