initiallyfish

Thanks Trish! I will keep all this in mind moving forward 😊

Oh interesting, I had no idea. They don't seem to eat a lot so I worried that if I don't feed them often enough they might straight up be missing out on food for a long time. But I'll try to keep it at once per day for now, maybe it'll also help with their appetite. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I have an update. You were all definitely right about the cycling process. I tested my water just now and the ammonia levels read between 0.25 and 0.5, nitrites were around 0.25, and nitrates were at 5. I've never seen these numbers before they're usually around zero. I did a 50% water change and now the ammonia reads somewhere between 0 and 0.25 (hard to tell because of the light), nitrates are back to 0 and nitrates seem to be somewhere between 0 and 5 (nearly 0 but not quite perfectly yellow). I'll try to get in touch with the fish store that's a bit far away but so far my plan of action is to do 50% water changes daily, the fish don't really get too stressed by it and I get to clean the gravel at the same time. And also using Prime. Hopefully this helps. Thank you to everyone for your replies!

Yes, I've been dechlorinating it! Indeed, I think for the time being I'm definitely gonna be doing daily water changes and getting my hands on Prime. I just did a 50% water change earlier and the fish seem to be really happy about that!

I'm definitely gonna check out if there are "fish in" cycle vids on youtube now that I know that's the problem! Thanks 🙂

There's one over an hour away. I'll try calling them and seeing if there are options available. Thanks!!

That sounds great I'll try to do that. I've been using Nutrafin Aqua Plus thinking it was equivalent to the Prime but it's not now that I look it up. I'm gonna get a hold of that ASAP. Thank you!

I don't have any, only a big pet store from which I got them. I've added plants but I don't have any old aquarium things...

Thank you! I hope so. I've posted on a general topics just now to see if anyone can help me with my problem. This seems like a very kind and caring community I'm happy to join.

Hello, I'm entirely new to forums so I hope I am posting this in the correct thread. I'm a new fishkeeper (its been a bit less than 2 weeks) and I started with longtail cherry barbs. I read that they are very hardy so I chose to keep them after having my aquarium cycle for 3 days after using one of the Cycle products. I have read the posts about beneficial bacteria and the nitrogen cycle but I figured the 3 day and them being a hardy species means they will be able to handle it... but I was wrong. I test water parameters constantly and have only ever noticed ammonia spike up to 0.25 and nitrates up to 20 I think but I've been doing water changes every few days and sometimes daily. So as far as water parameters they are in check. The problem is that one of my fish had been lethargic for a couple days: would stay in the same spot and seem to open its mouth and close it a lot and didn't seem to want to eat. I read online that keeping the water a little bit warmer and adding aquarium salt would help but it didn't really. I tried to fish her out to care for her separately and she died. A day or two later, two more of my fish started exhibiting similar patterns so I was very worried. I read up and saw that the problem might have been with insufficient water movement. I went out and bought an air pump connected to an air stone and another mini pump connected to a smaller stone. The fish have been pretty active and seem to be doing okay since then. They don't seem particularly lethargic anymore but sometimes their appetite is variable. All of my fish seem to have low appetite but I think they just may be nibbling on leftover food that sinks or gets trapped in the plants. The problem remains that they seem to still have that very rapid open and closing of the mouth thing still going on. So far I'm sure that the water parameters are ok and the tank is sufficiently oxygenated. I'm feeding them 2-3 times a day as well. I wonder if it is just a matter of time before they get better?? I forgot to mention that for one of the fish i tried giving them a 10 second dip in a methylene blue bath, it didn't seem to do anything. I've also been using Stress Guard for a couple days. Sorry for the long post. If anyone can offer their 2 cents about the topic I'd be very grateful. Below are screenshots of the fish that seem to be sick. I have a video of them but I don't know how to post it in here. Thank you!