Longfin blue danios behavior?

I just bought my first fish, 3 longfin blue danios. Two are bigger than the other and are swimming constantly near the top of the tank. The third is slightly smaller and is just barely swimming to keep from sinking around the middle of the tank. Any reason that he's doing this?

 

Does he seem to be struggling to swim? If so I would say it's sick ad came from the store that way. Do you have some place you can put him to get him out of the tank? just in case he's really sick you don't want him to make the other two sick too.
Carol

 

Not really struggling to swim, but he just kinda exerts an effort, then sinks a little, then swims again, then sinks. He's not really schooling with the other two. I just got them today, so I thought it might be stress. Anyone else have an opinion?

 

he may be having swim bladder problems.. if you turn the filter off temporarily, does it change his behavior?

 

Danios are normally extremely active. If he isn't swimming much, it probably means he's sick. If you have a q tank I would move him there right away. If not, it would be a very good idea to set up a q tank.

 

You mentioned that you just set this 20 gallon tank up a week ago. Have you tested the water perimeters yet? It hasnt cycled yet unless you used bio spira. So you may be having a nitrate poisoning situation happening there. If you have a water testing kit and have tested the water, can you post the results for us?
thanks, kate

 

I have not tested the water yet. I plan on getting a test kit this afternoon. Will the bio spira essentially solve the nitrate problem? Or are there other steps in addition I should take to speed up the cycle of my tank?

 

did you just add the tap water to a tank turn the filter and heater on and put the fish in?

i'm no expert yet but i'm not sure if you have cycled the tank. if not the fish will be stressed for a while yet, until the tank is cycled.

 

if you haven't got the test kit yet the generally most seem to like the API liquid kits. I first got the interpet tablet kit and the readings were incorrect on the nitrate.

 

I have not tested the water yet. I plan on getting a test kit this afternoon. Will the bio spira essentially solve the nitrate problem? Or are there other steps in addition I should take to speed up the cycle of my tank?

Hi, the bio spiro will cycle your tank for you, but its hard to find, as it has to be refridgerated and most LFS do not carry it, but ask at yours, they may have it. It won't help with the nitrate problem if you are having problems with that now. IF the nitrates are high I would do a water change asap. At least a 30%-50% water change. A high nitrate can killl your fish. They get lathargic.. swim in one area, and lack of strength to swim against a current are some of the symptoms that I found. The test results will help and as mentioned the API water test is the best one to get. There are steps to take to cycle your tank, after you get your test results Let us know how it goes... and we can all take it from there ~ kate

 

If you just set up your tank, it has probably not completed the cycle yet. Test the water as soon as possible. It is really important that you have good water perimeters otherwise your fish are going to get sick. My tank took 6 weeks to complete its cycle. During this time my ammonia levels reached as high as 8.0 which caused my goldfish to get septicemia. I learned a hard lesson and that is don't fill your tank with fish unless it is completely cycled. Let us know what your water perimeters are.

 

Thanks for all the advice, I'm going to pick up my test kit in a few hours and I will let you all know what the results are. I also did about a 30% water change this afternoon in hopes it might save the two fish that are lethargic right now.

Thanks again.

 

Have you read up on the nitrogen cycle? Rigth now you are probably in the middle of your ammonia spike (though it's hard to know without testing your water...you may already have nitrites). The ammonia is what's stressing out your fish.

 

Ok here are my test results:

Nitrate is 20 ppm
Nitrite is somewhere around 0.5 ppm
Alkaninity is about 40 ppm
hardness, chlorine, and pH are all normal

So should I just continue to do water changes? Whats the next step?

 

what is the ammonia? are you using the apI kit? if you got test strips, it's likely to be varied or innaccurate unfortunately. for now, water changes and treating the water with prime is the best general advice I could give, giving liquid vitamins also if possible.

 

You're farther along in your cycle than I would have thought, unless you have tap water that contains nitrates. I would test your tap water. I am surprised that you would have such a high nitrate reading so soon. You may need to filter your tap water or use part bottled water if your tap water has a bunch of nitrates in it.

You also should get an ammonia test kit. Of all the products of the nitrogen cycle, ammonia is the most toxic.

 

You are probably aware but if you do a water change trat the water before adding to remove the Chlorine. you can get this at your shop if you haven't already.

If you don't any bacteria that has built up to remove the ammonia or nitrite will be killed off and the cycle will have to start again putting the fish through more stress

 

Ok I got an ammonia test kit. The first test said there was between 0 and .25 pmm. I also found an item called "Biozyme" which claims to have living nitrifying bacteria and enzymes in it. Has anyone heard of this product or have any thoughts on it?
-Also, is it safe for my fish to be eating th Biozyme once I've added to the tank?
-One other thing. I think one of my danios has become extremely territorial. He harasses the other two as soon as they leave the corner. Anything I can do about it?

 

Has the behavior in your danios changed since you did a 30% water change yesterday? Its possible that the amount of ammonia reduced because you did the water change before testing. A usual sign of ammonia poisoning is your fish rise up to the top as if gasping for air. In my case, my fishes didn't react to the 8.0 ammonia level (atleast not in behavior). If your fishes behavior hasn't changed for better since your water change then I think you may have bought them sick.

 

I've never heard of Biozyme but I doubt it will help much. There are many products claiming to speed up the cycle, but Bio Spira is the only product that actually has the right kind of bacteria that I am aware of.

The territorial behavior is probably because they are in a small group. Danios should be kept in shoals of 6 or more. Once your tank is cycled, get some more Danios (of the same species) and this should help reduce any bullying.

 

I personally don't go for any bacteria products other than bio-spira and zymbac FW, but I know a lot of people like to use other products. That ammonia level isn't too bad and maybe was influenced by a recent water change. if you test again a day or 2 after the last water change and get the same result, then that would be a good sign on ammonia, particularly if you get a yellow result next test.

 

Well the little guy who's been struggling since day one is now in a better place. RIP. The other two are still very active and seem to be getting along better. I'm going to continue to use Biozyme and continue to test the water everyday. The product says to use everyday for the first 7 days in a new tank, so we'll see how it is in a week. Hope for the best!

 

Sorry to hear that one of them passed away. Likely he came from the store sick. Keep us updated on how the other danios are doing.

 

:'( we're sorry to hear that you lost him.

 

My tests for nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia continue to show safe amounts. I'm doing 20-25% water changes everyday as well. I really want to add 3-4 more danios so that the two that I have now get along better. Do you think this is safe to do considering my chemical levels and if I continue to do the water changes that I'm doing?

 

What are your current readings of amm., nitrite, and nitrate? How big is your tank (sorry if you already said)?

 

ammonia is between 0 and .25 ppm
nitrate is 0 ppm
nitrite is between 0 and .5 ppm

and its a 20 gallon tank

 

anyone have an input as to weather I can add 3-4 more danios to make peace in my tank? The readings that I took yesterday are in the previous post, and I will continue to do 20-25% water changes everyday until my tank is cycled. Thanks for any advice!

 

they might sort things out with an even 6 in there, but your tank is still cycling. I think if you're doing daily water changes and using prime they should be ok.

 

I would personally wait until the tank is completely cycled and then add 4 more. But it's up to you if you want to add them sooner. Feed sparingly when you first add more fish so you can let the filter adjust.

Also make sure you quarintine any new fish you get at this point to prevent the spread of disease. Do you have a q tank set up yet?