Panda Platy Swimming Near Surface

I have just started a freshwater 10 gal aquarium that has been running for about 2 weeks. I currently have 2 swordtail platys, 2 sterbaI corys, and 2 panda platys. Since the beginning one of my panda platys would often rest on the sand not moving but today he is hovering around the surface not swimming much.

Tank Parameters: Ph 7.4, Ammonium 0.25ppm , Nitrite 0ppm

I am currently using seachem prime, doing 25% water changes daily to keep my ammonium down.

Is there anything I can do to help him survive my nitrogen cycle?

 

First of all, I would've done a fishless cycle instead of a fish in cycle. But can't fix that now.

The little guy is definitely going through a rough ride, I'd suggest maybe trying to speed up the cycle a bit, maybe try some Tetra Safe Start, basically a bunch of beneficial bacteria in a bottle that you can add to help add bacteria while the others grow, but it can be a hit or miss and sometimes it won't help at all but for me it did in the process of cycling my 20g.

I'd definitely recommend taking some fish out and putting them in an already cycled tank, if you have one, and just keep a fish or two while the cycle goes on.

Also limit feedings, more the fish are fed, more waste they produce, and the more waste, means more Ammonia.

Good luck and hope you can utilize some of what I've suggested.

Also, welcome to FishLore!

 

Prime will neutralise the 0.25 your seeing. Keep up the water changes

Looking at the water, doesn’t appear to be much if any surface agitation? Try to achieve this either by the filter breaking the surface or add an air stone

Tank is probably overstocked and uncycled, so compounds this more

Hovering may be an indication there’s low O2, combined with high heat means not much dissolved oxygen in the water, hence the hovering at the top

Try this first, keep adding prime to de toxify and measure daily with water changes and your fish in should be fine through the cycle

 

Prime will neutralise the 0.25 your seeing. Keep up the water changes

Looking at the water, doesn’t appear to be much if any surface agitation? Try to achieve this either by the filter breaking the surface or add an air stone

Tank is probably overstocked and uncycled, so compounds this more

Hovering may be an indication there’s low O2, combined with high heat means not much dissolved oxygen in the water, hence the hovering at the top

Try this first, keep adding prime to de toxify and measure daily with water changes and your fish in should be fine through the cycle

Thanks, I will go out and buy prime tomorrow to try that. I did turn up the filter power to increase the surface agitation to help with the possible oxygen problem. However he is the only one acting that way so I temporarily put him into a bowl (only place I currently had at midnight) because I thought he had ammonia poisoning and he seems a little bit better.

First of all, I would've done a fishless cycle instead of a fish in cycle. But can't fix that now.

The little guy is definitely going through a rough ride, I'd suggest maybe trying to speed up the cycle a bit, maybe try some Tetra Safe Start, basically a bunch of beneficial bacteria in a bottle that you can add to help add bacteria while the others grow, but it can be a hit or miss and sometimes it won't help at all but for me it did in the process of cycling my 20g.

I'd definitely recommend taking some fish out and putting them in an already cycled tank, if you have one, and just keep a fish or two while the cycle goes on.

Also limit feedings, more the fish are fed, more waste they produce, and the more waste, means more Ammonia.

Good luck and hope you can utilize some of what I've suggested.

Also, welcome to FishLore!

Thank you. I was planning on doing a fishless cycle but my local pet store highly recommended a fish cycle so that's what I had going. Unfortunately it is hard to limit feeding them because of them being omnivores in a planted tank but I will try to clean the bottom out more often to get rid of the waste. Maybe that will help with the ammonia

Well more like a giant plant vase than a bowl...

 

Welcome to FishLore! I hope you finds the site helpful