Just got him yesterday and in the tank at 4pm, it’s now 10am the next day and I’ve tried feeding him twice, he won’t eat, just picked a little at the flakes yesterday but nothing this morning so I’m getting pellets today to try a different food. He’s mostly staying near the top of the tank and I don’t know anything about fish, is this normal? Does he just need a couple days to get used to the new space?
https://v.redd.it/9r5yx639whgg1
Posted by celinabarts
5 Comments
he definitely may need a couple days but i’m seeing the telltale bubbles that indicate an uncycled tank – what did you do to *prep the tank and water for him and how did you add him in?
please answer the auto mod questions too
You JUST got the fish, let him relax and try again in 2-3 days.
How long has your tank been running?
What are the parameters?
What’s the temp of the tank?
How large is the tank?
In addition to the questions others have asked and the major concerns about an uncycled tank, would you be able to post a full tank picture ? Thanks
This tank is clearly new. You’ll need to research fish-in cycling to keep your boy as healthy as he can be, given the circumstances.
In the future, you need to cycle your tanks for 6-8 weeks BEFORE getting a fish. This allows beneficial bacteria time to grow and settle to get rid of ammonia and other nasty chemicals uneaten food and fish poop produces.
You made a mistake, but you can still cycle with fish added. It isn’t a death sentence yet. Buy some big bottles of Prime to continuously detoxify (temporarily) ammonia and nitrites.
Buy some Fritz turbo start for freshwater and add a cap every day for as many days as recommended on the instructions. This stuff is healthy bacteria which is needed. Do NOT change your filter out. The bacteria grows here mostly and if you change it out, you will crash your tank’s cycle. Simply rinse out a filter in tank water if it gets too dirty where flow rates go down.
Do partial water changes a bit more often too and buy a liquid water testing kit as you track the cycle
Ammonia will be high if you’ve had him awhile because of waste and food.
Once your test reads 0 ammonia, you may still see nitrites as high on tests. That means new bacteria that thrive on nitrites must grow to eat those.
Once ammonia and nitrites are zero, you will have some NITRATES. NitrAtes are far less toxic and at this point you do water changes every couple weeks or as needed to flush them from the tank, UNLESS you heavily plant your tank. Plants will use the nitrates, and you can get it to where nitrates never become an issue as the plants consume it too quickly for levels to ever become concerning.