Please help me help my rainbow shark. ;(

Well ... =\ I didn't realise.. He seems to have calmed down a little bit.. Could stress make him more aggressive? I think I caused some stress earlier when I was catching the cichlid and shark to return... The cichlid was a nightmare to catch..

 

Stress could easily make him more aggressive. The pictus and the remaining cichlid should be returned as soon as possible.

 

Everything has calmed down again... I think they just freaked out because I had to move things around to pull out the one cichlid.. the Gourami is completely relaxed again and just floating around like normal. He eats fine, swims around.. He likes the middle of the coral and the tall plant in the corner.

The pictus is eating and behaving normal. I think he was just stressed about a new environment.. Reading other forums, they can take a while to calm down and adjust to new tanks.. Everyone seems happy and healthy now..

I will post videos later But I sincerely appreciate everything. I did a 50% water change and added the prime earlier as well, after returning the auratus cichlid.. So that may have added to a little stress on the gourami, potentially. not sure. But again... Everything seems very peaceful now.

Will update and everything later tonight, or tomorrow morning. As of the foreseeable future, I don't see anymore problems arising (God forbid) and I'm monitoring the levels still, via petsmart but will have the apI kit hopefully by next weekend.

 

Everything has calmed down again... I think they just freaked out because I had to move things around to pull out the one cichlid.. the Gourami is completely relaxed again and just floating around like normal. He eats fine, swims around.. He likes the middle of the coral and the tall plant in the corner.

The pictus is eating and behaving normal. I think he was just stressed about a new environment.. Reading other forums, they can take a while to calm down and adjust to new tanks.. Everyone seems happy and healthy now..

I will post videos later But I sincerely appreciate everything. I did a 50% water change and added the prime earlier as well, after returning the auratus cichlid.. So that may have added to a little stress on the gourami, potentially. not sure. But again... Everything seems very peaceful now.

Will update and everything later tonight, or tomorrow morning. As of the foreseeable future, I don't see anymore problems arising (God forbid) and I'm monitoring the levels still, via petsmart but will have the apI kit hopefully by next weekend.

They're not happy, and they won't remain healthy for long if they're stressed. Pictus need to be in groups in large tanks, and rift lake cichlids need to be kept in particular numbers with particular species to prevent aggression.

 

Hello, welcome to fishlore

In looking at the results you posted, your alkalinity looks good though your water is soft. Are any of the fish you are keeping meant for hard water? I know the platies need hard water. Once you figure out your stocking then we can figure out what to do with your water hardness.

As long as you do 30% or so weekly water changes and don't over stock, your PH "should" remain stable if its really 120. I am assuming they used test strips which are kind of a ball park measurement, but somewhere to start.

What the petsmart manager told you was incorrect about the Jungle start zyme. If you haven't opened it I would exchange it for Seachem Stability. There are different types of bacterial products and how they word things is confusing and misleading imho. That product contains enzymes and bacteria that break down organics like food and poop. It does not contain, to the best of my knowledge, true nitrifyers. There are only a few that do, and some the might, not sure. Tetra Safe Start Plus and Seachem Stability are both reliable products and will seed your filter media. There are others such as the Marineland bacteria, Nutrafin Cycle, API Quick Start that someone may or may not have success with, kinda iffy on those.

Either way you will cycle but you will save yourself a lot of headache and time doing countless water changes if you start off with the right product.

Until your liquid test kit arrives, to keep your fish safe, I would be doing a 30% water change every other day and dosing Prime for the full volume of your tank once a day (1 cap full). When your kit arrives we can go from there.