Something is wrong with my new long skirt tetras!!

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I bought some new fish to ad to my tank (40gallon) and I realized two of my long skirt tetras were swimming weird. One is flopping at the bottom of the tank barley moving, the other is swimming nose pointed up, and the third one seems okay. I took these three out and put them In a 10 gallon tank about half full. I have no idea what's wrong with them !!??

Please help!!

Also, any information about tank care & what to do to keep my tank clean (the water Seems to be kinda dirty like not clear even if I do a water change) would greatly be appericated.

I have mollies, and other tetras in my 40 gallon tank and one coy catfish & one loach he's back & white.

 

What are the readings? How long has this been set up? Is it cycled? Can you post photos?

 

My 40 gallon tank has been set up for about three months. I started with 3 tetra & 2 black mollies & 2 silver mollies & 2 marble mollies ... And they all were fine... One silver Mollie dies other than that no problems. I have a filter & a bubble stone in the tank. And a heater.


I haven't tested the levels of anything yet because I never thought I had a reason to since my fish all seem.fine.

The 10 gallon tank I placed the three long skirts in doesn't have anything besides some water. I placed them.in there about an hour ago.



Yesterday I added the black & white loach, 3 lemons tetra (I believe that's what they're called) & 3 of some kind of small fish the fish store said I could put in there, I forgot what they are honestly.


I know I have a big tank for not knowing 100% sure what I'm doing but all my other fish seem fine

 

I'd test the water they where in when you can. Do you have a liquid test kit? Did you add water from your 40 gallon to your 10g? I might be wrong as I'm not great at stocking, but that sounds over stocked. Also tetras need to be in at least a group of 5, preferably 6. Same with the loach. What's your female to make ratio on the mollies? I'm not sure how much help I can be on figuring out what's wrong with them, so hopefully someone with more experience can help. I hope all turns out well!

 

I used half new water & half old water from the 40 gal tank.


Yeah I kinda felt like I might of gotten too excited buying fish..... I went to Petco and the guy said everything I was doing was ok.... I don't even know if I'm supposed to have that many different kind of fish together ??

 

Piece of advice, never take what the pet store says as truth. They can either want your money or be inexperienced. Of course sometimes you get the one person that knows as much as you do, but still research before you buy. But I understand how it's exciting to get fish, so sometimes it's rather easy to go overboard(<- water joke there, don't know if that's funny or not...)How many fish did you add at a time?

 

Welcome to Fishlore

Can you provide the exact number of fish and species you have? If you don't know the name of the fish, can you post a picture? You will likely also need to adjust your stocking by returning/rehoming some fish because it does sound overstocked to me.

It also sounds like this tank was never cycled and could be the reason behind the fish deaths. I would first research the nitrogen cycle and also get the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.

How often and how large are your water changes?

 

The ones who have been in there that was 9 and the coy catfish . yesterday I added 3 lemon tetra & 3 other kind of tetra & the loach & the 3 long black skirt tetra so I added 9 new fish yesterday & the loach

 

Wow, that's a lot to add in one go. I'm thinking you've got an ammonia spike going on. Next time you add fish to an aquarium I suggest doing 3-4 max per week. I'd test the water first, then if you've got a high amount of ammonia do daily 50% water changes. I also suggest rehoming/returning some of your fish like el337 said. Hope this helps and everything goes well!

 

I have in my 40 gallon tank

2 black mollies
2 marble mollies
1 silver mollie
3 regular tetra (they're black & silver)
3 lemon tetra (I think that's their name)
And 3 of some other small fish ... I'll try to get pics of them


Oh and also a school of 5 gold colored fish. Not gold fish but I think they're some kind of Mollie.

I do have an extra 10 gallon tank but my 3 long skirts are in there. They're the only ones with any problems.

I also have a 5.5 gallon tank my mom has in her room that has 2 gold & black mollies in it

And I have a 10 gallon tank with a betta fish in it that I've had since a he was a baby.

I'll try to get pics of my fish. My lighting is bad right now.

I've taken out about 50% of the water & add new water about every 6 weeks. I've done it twice & had this tank.about 90 days with fish in it

 

I have in my 40 gallon tank

2 black mollies
2 marble mollies
1 silver mollie
3 regular tetra (they're black & silver)
3 lemon tetra (I think that's their name)
And 3 of some other small fish ... I'll try to get pics of them


Oh and also a school of 5 gold colored fish. Not gold fish but I think they're some kind of Mollie.

I do have an extra 10 gallon tank but my 3 long skirts are in there. They're the only ones with any problems.

I also have a 5.5 gallon tank my mom has in her room that has 2 gold & black mollies in it

And I have a 10 gallon tank with a betta fish in it that I've had since a he was a baby.

I'll try to get pics of my fish. My lighting is bad right now.

I would definitely rehome 3 of the mollies in your 40g. Do you know the genders of all of them? You'll quickly be overrun with fry if you have a male/female mix. You should also definitely rehome the ones in your mom's 5g. They should not be in anything less than a 30g. I'd imagine that tank is not cycled either.

I'd also move your skirt tetras back to the 40 gallon if the 10 gallon is not filtered or heated. And just because these 3 fish are showing issues doesn't mean your other fish won't.

Depending on what other fish you actually have, you'll have to rehome more I'm afraid. Here's a thread on how to attach photos:

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/how-to-attach-pictures-to-posts.169875/

I've taken out about 50% of the water & add new water about every 6 weeks. I've done it twice & had this tank.about 90 days with fish in it

Changing the water every 6 weeks is not good, especially in an uncycled tank with all those fish. For now, I recommend daily water changes of at least 50% on both your tank and your mom's. What water conditioner do you use? I highly recommend Seachem Prime as it also detoxifies ammonia and nitrite up to 1ppm for 24 hrs.

Again, please read up on the nitrogen cycle and get that liquid test kit asap.

 

2 mollies require a 30 gallon tank ?

 

Minimum 30g. They get up to 5 inches.

Edit: not only that, they're extremely huge waste producers which add even more to the bioload.

 

Welcome to FishLore! I'm sorry you're having issues with your fish. Unfortunately what the others are saying is true. I highly recommend taking their good advice.

 

Okay I understand all this but its not answering what could be wrong with the fish that are having problems ? My other fish are fine. They swim around & seem happy ....

So basically what do I do with the guys who something is wrong with? They acted funny the minute I brought them.home & the one that's real.bad off, he stayed stuck in the corner of the bag the whole trip home from the store so I knew there was kind of something wrong with him but I thought he was just panicking.

 

Well its very stressful moving, especially for fish as they have no idea what's going on lol
How did you acclimate them?
Your best option right now is to take them back. Your tank is heavily overstocked already. This mixed with the stress of moving and the stress of not being in proper schools, I find it unlikely for them to survive long

 

Okay.

What kind of filter do you recommend ? I bought one at Walmart I believe when I got my tank, but I don't feel like it is doing a good job & I feel like it's probably bottom of the line quality

All I did was float the bag they were in for 20 minutes than put them in my tank. I'm just doing what I've been told is ok

 

I use the Tetra filters and they do good jobs. Did you dump them into the tank or did you met them out of the bag first?

 

I dumped them into the tank.... Oops....


Last night I ran to Walmart & got 5 in 1 test strips just because I was curious more than anything & this "safe start" stuff that is supposed to fix the PH & make the water safe & all that good stuff...

My 3 long skirt are still by themselves, I didn't want to put them back in there because one of them kept getting stuck in the plants and also I didn't want to stress them even more. They're doing a little better. Still swimming like they're drunk... I know 3 is too many for a 10 gallon but for right this second I think they're happier there. All of my other fish are pretty busy & these three seem pretty chill.


Just for argument sake.... How big of a tank do I really need for the amount of fish I have?

And also, I have no idea my male to female ratio... I've been told how to tell them apart but I still can't sometimes.

And also, I've tried to look up cycling & exactly what it is... Its soooo confusing.

My moms tank has been set up for like a year, do you still recommend the 50% water change?

And my betta I have in my 10 gallon tank (that's my favorite its name is Riley) idk if it's a male or female... I bought it as a baby it was marked a boy but it didn't get huge fins like most Bettas but he's kinda big to be a female.... Anyhow. He has to be alone, right ?

 

As I am bad at stocking and all but I want to say 100 gallon at least, that's with the correct number of species. The test strips are pretty inaccurate, but what are the readings? How did they tell you how to sex them? I'll tell you how just in case they told you wrong-
This is a male, see how his analfin is pointing straight back
This is a female, see how her analfin is fanned
They could also be clamping their fins and when they do that it's hard to tell.
Betas can be kept with some shrimp and snails, sometimes cories other fish, but the 10 gallon is to small for any cories.

 

this is Riley.

Any idea what those little spots are on his fins?

 

I didn't add this in my last post, but this is the info on the nitrogen cycle-
https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
I'm sorry but I'm not sure what spots your talking about. What do they look like?

 

They're little brown spots..

How often should I clean his tank out?






Nitrate 160
Nitrite .5
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 40
PH 7.8

The colors are slightly darker on the strip than it looks

 

Ok, these strips usually aren't all that accurate, but if your Nitrate is 160 and Nitrite is .5, then that's not good. You need to do daily 50% water changes until that goes down. The brown spots might be natural colouring, but I'd wait for someone to identify/confirm.

 

We can't advise you on what tank size you should have because you still haven't provided all of the species and numbers of your fish.

You can tell the male from the pointy analfin while the female's is fan-shaped.

As mentioned above, the test strips aren't very accurate nor does it give you a test for ammonia. Until you get the liquid test kit we recommended, I would be doing large daily water changes on all your tanks, dosed with Seachem Prime.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!
I just want to say that these guys have given me some really great advise. I would get the liquid test for your water like recommended. I also had the test strips when I first found this site, and was given bad advise from a pet store. I also did 50% daily water changes on my tank, and all of my fish lived through my cycle and everything is now running great.
The API Master Kit cost me about 25 bucks, I used it daily for weeks, and now I only use it before I do my weekly water change. I have had the original kit I bought for more than 3 months now. Was a great investment for my fish babies.
Again, welcome!! Good luck with your tank.

One other thing, someone recommended that I create a journal of my water test results. I really loved the idea and still write down my readings today.

 

Just an update. I think my fish are okay they were just in shock...

And also I'll try for pics of my other fish ASAP its hard sometimes because some of them move around so much

I'm not sure what these guys are. All the others are mollies & tetras.


he's the one having the most problems. I feel like his top fin looks weird

 

I'm thinking you might be right about it being shock, are you going to return them?

 

Glad the fish seem better!