Why do fish stay under filters?

[mesto]

Ahh, then it makes sense you haven't had detectable ammonia yet, if the fish just went in 2 days ago. Sorry I missed that from your OP. You will have ammonia. Keep testing and stay up on water changes. Maybe they are just playing now, but they will be stressed soon.

I think that you can still see ammonium (what Prime changes the ammonia to) on your ammonia liquid test kit? I don't have prime so I've never tested this out myself. Hopefully others can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong on this but I don't think you need to wait 24 hours after adding it to test.

 

[JamieMonster]

Yeah, you can still see ammonia/nitrite readings when using prime even if it is neutralized. Go ahead and do your tests daily, and water change with the prime as needed.

 

[Reign]

Oh okay, but looking at the two vials of tank water I have, and comparing it to the Ammonia vial for my tap water, I noticed that the two tank vials(the one I tested before the water change and the one I kept until now), are all "yellowish", but the two tank vials have a noticeably darker tint to them, almost orangish/light brownish. This seems strange since the color chart only goes from yellow to dark green. Is this just because of Prime?



EDIT: Also, all the danios seem to want to swim behind cover now, they're behind plants and decorations, seem to be chasing each other, but they don't seem to want to come anywhere they can be seen. They come out of cover once in a while, maybe with another danio in tow, then go back behind the decorations.

 

[mesto]

Hmmm, hard (for me, a non prime user) to say. Have you run an experiment where you put a bit of prime in straight tap water and tested that? That would be interesting.

It sometimes takes a week to have readable ammonia I have heard. I've also heard that once you get detectable ammonia it often shoots up very quickly. This didn't happen to me, because I have a ton of plants that love ammonia, so my reading never went about 0.5 ppm or so. But it did happen with nitrites. Nothing for what seemed like quite a long time to me, and then one day a detectable nitrite reading and then the very next day I was almost off the charts on nitrite. So keep testing often, as you are doing - it's actually quite interesting to see how the cycle plays out in each new aquarium, in my opinion.

 

[JamieMonster]

Hmmm- no, it shouldn't have an orange or brown color at all for the ammonia test, and the prime won't make it read that way. The high end PH test has a brown/orange area, so does the nitrate test. I'm not sure what's going on there... maybe your chemical bottles are mislabeled? Try running a test with all of your chemicals & see if any of the other tests match the colors you're getting. Or try exchanging it at the store as defective, maybe? An ammonia test does not come out orange or brown... at least not the API master kit. You're sure you've got the freshwater version, right?

 

[Technico]

Yeah ammonia is yellow to green, and if u do have the ruby test kit and it is working properly, I sense a lot of work cut out for u soon

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Reign]

Here's a pic of the vials tested for ammonia, the one in the middle is the tap water, and the ones at the ends are the tank water, and a pic of the bottles I used. Should I disregard all information given by the ammonia test as untrustworthy?

EDIT: Oh and I just found the biggest Danio, the one I said was staying under the filter, lying on the sand under a tower-like decoration, motionless and upright. At first I thought she might have died, but she seemed to notice me and swam away to somewhere I couldn't see. Is this just how they sleep?

I'm really worried about her, she spent most of the day under the filter, but this time, she went about 16 inches lower and was hovering above the sand. Her stomach is huge too, I think she might also be pregnant.

 

[JamieMonster]

I do believe your bottle that is labeled at ammonia testing solutions is actually a nitrite testing solution and is mislabeled. Run out and get a different ammonia test kit so you can do your check. If you're already reading nitrates, you are already having spikes of the other 2 nitrogen compounds. What is your nitrite reading? Bottom sitting is a sign of stress, they usually don't sleep on the substrate. Are her scales sticking out when you look at her from above?

 

[Reign]

I do believe your bottle that is labeled at ammonia testing solutions is actually a nitrite testing solution and is mislabeled. Run out and get a different ammonia test kit so you can do your check. If you're already reading nitrates, you are already having spikes of the other 2 nitrogen compounds. What is your nitrite reading? Bottom sitting is a sign of stress, they usually don't sleep on the substrate. Are her scales sticking out when you look at her from above?

I haven't tested Nitrite yet since I didn't think there would be any, I will test that as soon as I can. Also, the other two Danios appear to be fine, one is swimming up top in the current, and the other is just swimming randomly near the bottom. And I can't see her since she swam away and it's so dark. Should I open the lights so I can see, or will that shock them?



EDIT: I also used the Ammonia bottles earlier to test a sample today before I did the daily water change, and it came up yellow like the middle one in the picture.

 

[JamieMonster]

I haven't tested Nitrite yet since I didn't think there would be any, I will test that as soon as I can. Also, the other two Danios appear to be fine, one is swimming up top in the current, and the other is just swimming randomly near the bottom. And I can't see her since she swam away and it's so dark. Should I open the lights so I can see, or will that shock them?



EDIT: I also used the Ammonia bottles earlier to test a sample today before I did the daily water change, and it came up yellow like the middle one in the picture.

What I am trying to tell you is that I think your bottles are mislabeled, and you have not been testing for ammonia at all, as I think the chemicals in the bottle labeled "ammonia" are actually the chemicals to test for nitrate. It is coming out the color of the nitrate test when it reads at 5. Test for nitrite as soon as you can to see what that reading is saying to test this theory further. Whatever the chemicals are in the bottles labeled ammonia are not the ammonia chemicals, as they do not ever come out that color, but the nitrate test does.