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Hi

I recently purchased a 125 litre tank (80x35x45cm). I have a Bristlenose Pleco, 4 black Phantoms and 6 Neon Teras.

All the fish seem perfectly happy except for one Neon Tetra which, stays in the corner of the tank and seems to stare at its reflection for most of the day?

Can anyone help Please?

Also, can anyone recommend some other fish for me to purchase? I would like another bottom feeder (if poss) and some larger medium/top living fish. No aggresive fish please.

Thaks

Welcome to the site, I'm suggesting that this be moved to hospital as I'm sure you'll get more responses.

In the meantime is it possible to provide us with ph ammonia, nitrIte and NitrAte numbers for the tank? Also how long have you had the neons in there and if the fish is displaying any other symptoms.

^_^

[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"

Hi Babelfish

I purchased the tetras last Sunday. I waited a week before getting them to give the filter etc time to work its magic. I then carried out the appropriate procedures to allow the fish to adjust to the temp of the tank.

The readings I can remember are as follows and I will the other readings when I am home tonight:

Temp: 26 degrees C
PH: 6.4

Many Thanks

Hi Babelfish

Tank readings are as follows:

NO3: 0
NO2: 0
GH: 6
KH: 3
PH: 7.2
Temp: 26 degrees C

Thanks

I'm a little confused on your water quality numbers. You should have a nitrATe reading on a cycled tank. Correct me if you're wrong but you bought the tank, ran it for a week then added fish?

If this is correct then the tank is still uncycled. For one reason or another the one tetra may be displaying symptoms from cycling whereas the others arent.

If the tank had been cycled (ammonia and nitrIte both had a spike followed by dropping to zero) then it is likely something else (Yes I know not entirely helpful . Is the fish still eating @all?

^_^

[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

Hi

Yes, I ran the tank for a week and then added the fish. All fish are eating well.

Sorry, I do not understand about the tank been uncycled. Is there anything I can do to correct this issue?

Many thanks

Okay first take a look [link=at this link]http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] it's all about the cycling process.

The important thing is that right now you have the tank stocked with fish that aren't what we call "cycle hardy". The stress from cycling is likely to cause you to lose most of them. I'm not familar with which products are available in the UK for assisting with the biological filtration. Here in the states there are Cycle and Bio Spira the latter being more expensive but faster and more sucessful. If possible you'll want to look into having your LFS hold your fish for you (many of them run fishsitting services) or return them for now to be purchased back once the tank is cycled. If you do keep them and cycle the tank with them you'll be putting them thru a great deal of stress, they may not survive.

^_^[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

Some fish are much hardier than others when it comes to being used to initially cycle a tank. The process involves the fact that the ammonia in fish urine is extremely toxic for them to breathe (as it is for us to breathe) and that if you let it build up in the tank, you will literally be forcing the poor little buggers to breathe poison gas. You want, therfore, to establish growths of two kinds of beneficial bacteria in your tank (largely in your filter's sponge) -- one of which digests ammonia and converts it into nitrites (which are still toxic), and the other of which converts nitrites into nitrates (far less toxic -- although you should still change about 10% of the water in your tank once a week, despite the existence of a filter, to keep nitrates and some other chemicals from accumulating too high).

The long-time custom has therefore been to populate any newly started tank with just a few fish which are particularly resistant to ammonia and nitrites, so that they can survive long enough for the small traces of these two kinds of bacteria which initially exist in your tank to multiply in response to the buildup of these toxins. After those fish are inserted, you will first get a rise in the tank's ammonia level -- then, as the first kind of bacteria respond to this by rapidly multiplying and feeding off the ammonia, the ammonia level will drop but you'll get a sharp rise in the nitrite level until the initial traces of the second type of bacteria respond to that in turn by multiplying, digesting the nitrites, and turning them into nitrates.

There are quite a few types of fish that can be used for this; I've found that Black Tetras, for example, are excellent for the purpose. But -- as the above posters mention -- you can now buy very cheap liquid cultures of these two kinds of bacteria to pour into your tank and give the cycling process a very dramatic jump-start. Even then I wouldn't put any more delicate fish in your tank for about a week.

In my experience these are the two key tricks to keeping freshwater tropicals -- cycle your tank before dumping large numbers of fish into it, and change about 10% of the water once a week despite the presence of your filter. (Also, whenever you clean off the filter sponge, do so only by squeezing it out in some of the tank water that you're disposing of -- if you clean it with chlorinated tap water, you'll kill off the very bacteria in it that you want to maintain!) Follow these two simple tricks and keeping freshwater tropicals is amazingly easy -- but huge numbers of people don't know about them, lose their fish, and conclude logically but incorrectly that keeping aquarium fish is very difficult and only a fanatic who babies them full-time can keep them alive. Not so.

One more note: the charcoal in your filter removes a fair number of toxic chemicals -- but it is almost useless for removing ammonia or nitrites. To do that, you must establish those bacteria in your tank to carry out what's referred to in the trade as "biological filtration".