Blue Neon Glo Fish Tetra

Ok so ive had this blue tetra for about 9 weeks now he was one of the originals. My tank is 29 gallons. I jabe a baby platy and full grown platy. Ive got 4 neon glo fish tetra 1 bristle nose pleco and 4 fancy guppies right now. My nitrites and nitrates are within normal my ammonia still hasn't gone down to 0 bit it usually stays at .25 and my ph is a 6. This blue tetra has looked "fat" for several weeks and it doesn't typically act strange he swims and schools and eats and such. Just wondering if I should be worried.

 

What are all of your parameters? Include the results from the tap. Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

 

Yes I know about the nitrogen cycle. My nitrite is like almost 0 my nitrates are around 10 ppm and my ammonia is .25 ppm.

 

What kind of a pet store did you pick the fish up from? Do you know what their quarantining procedures were or if they had any?

The bloating could be a number of things, it could just be constipation or it could be a sign of something much worse like dropsy or a parasitic infection. You could try peas and fasting your fish for a couple of day which would help if he has constipation.

Also your platies and guppies would probably prefer water that is around 7.6 in terms of pH rather than an acidic 6 as they are livebearers. I don't keep tetras myself and don't really know what kind of parameters they prefer so not sure if this is contributing to your problem or not.

 

Agree. The very low pH could indicate that your KH is also low. Livebearers need hard water to survive.

Having a low pH will also impact your bacteria's ability to survive and do their jobs.

What method did you use to cycle the tank? How often and how much water do you change? What are the parameters out of the tap. Your tank is not cycled yet but luckily at low pH the toxins change to nontoxic forms.

 

I did a fish in cycle well am doing ita been running for 9 weeks. I did not know beforehand not to do the cycle with the fish . I have been looking for crished coral but cannot find it anywhere. Is there an online store I can purchase? And I habe gotten the fish that I have from 2 different pet stores. I'm not sure the quarantine procedures. I don't have the money or space for a quarantine tank at my house. Ive tried to use ph up but ir never does anything. I was changing 5 gallons out every day but ive started just doing 8 gallons every other day trying to not disturb the substrate too much.

 

You can do a fish-in cycle without harm it's just extra work.

Can you get crushed oyster shells? Available at any farm supply for laying hens.

 

I will look we have tons of farm supply stores I live in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I will check and get some. I was going go get a media bag and hang it in my filter. Will that work?

 

Ok so there are definitely places you can get the crushed coral online, just looked it up on amazon and got heaps of hits so I'm sure there are other places that will sell it as well. I have heard those pH up and downs are no good in the long run anyway. Otherwise the crushed oyster shells will work as well.
My question about the pet stores was trying to work out whether there was something that came through from there as the ones with poor quarantine practices are more likely to give infested/sick fish. I myself am dealing with a worm infestation from getting a couple of fish from a dodgy shop.

 

Hmmm. Not sure that is possible. Ive tried fasting but 8 hours and it seems like they are acting like I'm starving them to death. How long is it ok to fast them. And I searched crushed coral online but wasn't really sure what I was looking for and didnt want to buy sonething usless.

And my tap has a ph of about 7 and no ammonia I didnt check the other parameters for the tap.

 

It's fine to fast for a couple of days (say like 2 or 3 maybe).They will act like they are hungry but they will be fine.

 

I will look we have tons of farm supply stores I live in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I will check and get some. I was going go get a media bag and hang it in my filter. Will that work?

Yep! That will work. I needed a lot so I just added it to my substrate. Coral is really expensive for me here so oyster shells were a much smarter choice.

 

Maybe get him some fellow glofish? He might be stressed out alone

 

UglyAsian They already have 4 glofish, and why would that cause him to bloat up?

 

Oh, I thought maybe he was stressed out