rockaway54

I'm new to the hobby (2 weeks). I am cycling the 20g tank with 5 fish - 2 Mickey Mouse Platys and 3 Buenos Aires Tetras. The tetras are all doing fine. One of the Platys died on the 2nd day. Yesterday, another platy started hiding - inside the coral castle, under the tree, etc. When he does come out, he looks listless and just bounces into the glass. I've done two 20% water changes so far (treating with StressCoat) and put in StressZyme to build bacteria. The ammonia level hasn't gone higher than 0.5 yet. Any ideas on why he's tweaking out? Thanks!

Chief_waterchanger

You shouldn't use fish to cycle a tank. Cycling a tank is the establishing of good bacteria to help break down ammonia and nitrites. The process creates a lot of chemical fluxuations which are severely unhealth/deadly for fish. Since you are doing it though, you should do 25% waterchanges on a daily basis until you no longer get ammonia or nitrite readings.

There should be NO ammonia and NO nitrites before fish are added.

Welcome to Fishlore.

(You may benefit from checking out the nitrogen cycle information on the site.)

http://www.fishlore.com/WaterChemistry.htm
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore. CWC is right and cycling fishless is the best.

If you can't return the fish, then I'd recommend using Prime for water conditioner and doing 40% water changes every day or 2.

I'd recommend not using StressZyme either, it doesn't really help and in fact, can hinder the tank cycling.