Help platy and molly not eating food staying on top of the tank

[parvataneni]

Hi,

I bought 1 platy and 1 molly yesterday evening and had them in my 10 gallon tank I didnt feed them yesterday ...molly was fine yesterday playing all over the tank but platy was always at one corner not moving much ..but today morning when I woke up and saw both platy and molly are at one corner near the heater and at the top of the tank and when I feed them flakes they didnt even eat a little ...sitll at one corner ... I have airstone and filter running all time but I didnt see then eating at all ...not sure what is wrong ..temperature is about 74 and reading are 0,0,10

Please help .

 

[ppate1977]

Seems like ammonia issue if you didn't say it was 0 already.

 

[parvataneni]

Ammonia is at 0 ... my reading are

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10

 

[jetajockey]

did you acclimate the fish? have you cleaned your tank recently with any chemicals? it sounds like they are stressed.

 

[parvataneni]

yes I left the fish in there for 30 min before I introuduced them ... No I haven't cleaned my tank with any chemicals. The only change was I kept a Air stone yesterday ...but I did wash it with cold water for 5 min before I kept that in the tank. I see the fish is stressed really not moving at all .. pretty much staying at one end and as if they are sleeping all the time .

Is there any think I can ...like if I do 50% water change and add prime would that help ?

 

[jetajockey]

Might as well try a water change just to see if it changes anything. I had a similar issue with one of my fry tanks, water parameters were fine then one day I noticed that they were all hovering in a corner. did a few big water changes and they stayed acting the same. Increased aeration, no change. Completely emptied the tank and filter, scrubbed it all down in hot water. Put them back in, they were fine for an hour or 2, but then hovering again. Ended up putting them all in a different tank, and most of them recovered completely. The only thing I did was put a new hood (used) on the tank a week prior, but whatever leached off of that hood caused them all to get really sick, because I removed the hood completely and the tank has been fine since.

Best of luck.

 

[parvataneni]

I did 50 % water change and removed airstone which I introduced yesterday. added close to 1.5 dose of prime ...

I did see a white paste kind of thing over the suction cap of heater ... I did see a little over the corners where the glass are connected all over the four coners ..I removed the sucking caps ..cleaned them with cold water and replaced them back ... I don't have another tank to move them .. I had danios first for cycling ..then after I gave them back to LFS ... I kept the tank for almost 2 weeks and did little decoration change ...jsut added silk plants and did run the tank empty without fish for close to 1 week and did water change every day...yesterday also before introducing the fish I did water change and added prime ..verified reading and then after 3 hrs I added the fish ... molly was fine till this morning and then from morining both platy and molly are acting the same .My cory is also not moving at the bottom of the tank ..when I did water change that when it was moving but I haven't seen any change since then.

 

[Shawnie]

can you get the lot #s off your test kit? just to make sure its not expired...allot of kits have been sold that are already expired and also, leaving the tank without fish after returning them and having it empty for so long, what ammonia source were you feeding the bacteria to keep it cycled? and maybe it could also be a ph shock...meaning your ph is much different than the ph they were use to at the LFS ....hope they perk up!

 

[forgetti]

I only just started, but I had the same problem with my Guppies this week, they were hanging around in the corner of the tank, I did a 25% water change and that didn't make any difference, than realized I hadn't changed the carbon in the filter, was supposed to last 8 weeks and it had only been in for 6. The next day the Guppie returned to normal like nothing ever happened. I think I will get rid of the carbon and replace it with another layer of sponge and floss, because you just don't know when the carbon is saturated

 

[parvataneni]

My test kit # says 1109 I think its made in Nov 2009 is that correct.... I am not sure about my Carbon change ? what is carbon how does it look like ?

 

[parvataneni]

Sad part is I just lost one of my platy ...since the time I introduced it to tank ..I didnt see it even single time moving much or swimming freely ..I believe its sick from LFS ... not sure ..it died sometime back.

 

[Aquarist]

Good morning,

When you acclimated your fish to the tank, did you add water from the tank into the bag the fish were in? Did you just place the bag in the tank to match the temperatures then put them in?

I'm concerned about pH issues. If the pH in the bag was higher than the pH in the tank they could have pH shock. Taking a fish from a high pH level and putting it in water with a low pH can be fatal.

Here is a link on acclimation:
https://www.fishlore.com/acclimating-tropicalfish.htm

Ken

 

[parvataneni]

I haven't added water to the bag ..I took 25% water into a clean bucket and let the bag float in there for 30 min ...later I removed the fish from the bag and added them to the tank ..may be that was the issue ..they are stressed out .... is there any think I could do to make them feel better .... I see my molly and platy not all active ... once in a while I see them swimming one end to other end of the tank and then they stay at the top for long time not moving ... I did 50 % water change yesterday twice .once in afternoon and once in midnight .

 

[FriendsNotFood]

Might be acclimatising stress. The whole point of letting the bag float in the water is to get the temperatures the same, and get them used to your water parameters. You let it sit for 15mins for the temperature change, then add water from your tank to the bag then let them sit some more for the parameter change (PH, nitrate etc). By you removing the water from the tank, you weren't acclimatising the fish to the temperature of the tank. It's possible the bucket would stay the same temp as the tank, but unlikely. But if it was just temperature shock they should be over it by now though.

The amount of water you add during acclimatisation, and number of times you do it depends on the differences between your water and the LFS water. If your PH etc are the same, adding water from the tank twice with 15min intervals should be fine. For a PH change of anything over .5 you should try stagger it over a couple hours. Maybe just call your LFS and ask what the PH in their guppy/molly tank is and compare it to yours? If it's majorly different, that's probably the issue.

One more thing, make sure when you're doing water changes that you add the conditioner to the water BEFORE you pour it in. Don't add straight tap water to the tank then pour in Prime or something. Fill the bucket with your tap water, add the conditioner, then pour it in gently. I confess to doing this when I was a newbie tank owner :3

And as ForgettI said, mollies and guppies tend to like activated carbon. Carbon neutralises toxins in your tank/water. Normally looks like little black pellets in a net bag inside your filter. If it has gunk growing over it, its past its use and should be replaced. When it gets to that stage all it's doing is releasing toxins back into your water. Needs to be replaced about every month.

Try clicking on words with blue underlines to find out more info

 

[parvataneni]

Thank you so much for all the info ..this morning I have changed the cartridge ... and did water change too ... I see my molly pretty much staying right next to heater alll the times and another molly is hiding in the decoration. when I go close to the tank when they see me ..they look like frightened and keep running away here and there .. I want let leave them for 2 days not go near the tank and want to see how they behave.

 

[FriendsNotFood]

Whoa whoa...
Cartridge? I'm hoping you have a carbon cartridge thing in it you're refering too.
Whatever you do DON'T change the whole filter! In a normal filter the only thing that should be changed is carbon, and by changing to a new filter, or getting new bioballs/ filter sponge you're getting rid of a lot of the beneficial bacteria.

 

[catsma_97504]

What kind of filter do you have? Does it come with a cartridge that includes carbon and a blue covering?

 

[parvataneni]

I have Aqueon Power Filter , I didnt change the whole filter .its just carbon catridge.

 

[FriendsNotFood]

Sounds good
Hope your fishies are doing better!