How to deal with stress fish?

[HeMan]

Hi everyone

Please bear with me a little cause im newbie

Its been 2 weeks since i start this hobby, i would like to know if you guys
experience this: my harlequin raboras and otos keep swmming up and down
left and right brushing again the wall of my tank since 2 days ago i bought them back from LFS , is it normal?

Heres my tank information:
Tank: Leo tank 43cm x 24cm x 25cm bundle with build in pump and sponge filter in the water and LED lights

Plants: ferns , moss ball( i not sure what u call these its mosses roll into a ball for shrimps) and a drift wood

Gex soil
1 cooling fan
1 bag of ceremic ring under the filter compartment
Cycle: running on 2nd week
Temperature: 26.4c ( using tokobuki fan) special thanks for the intro By Wongce

Ammonia 0, nitrite 0 , nitrate about 20-40 , ph 6.0 , gh 30 kh 0 (all using 5in1 API Strips type)

Is there anything wrong? Please advice thanks alot
Cause my intention is to keep shrimps , bought those fishes to run in my water
1 oto and 2 harlequin already jumped out yesterday and went missing

Thanks again







1

[boxedfish]

nitrate a bit on the high side, GH is very high, KH should be 4 to be able to buffer for PH swings.. maybe it is your water that is making them stress.. or is your pump too strong? Are they gasping for air in the surface? your LED lights may not be sufficient for your plants to photosynthesize enough to provide enough oxygen..

[HeMan]

I dont think the fish are gasping for air .
Yes my pump might be too strong , the fish were wwave off once they got too close to it
but my pump power cannot be ajust.

Btw how to do you control the level of gh, kh & nitrate in your tank

Thanks alot boxedfish

[boxedfish]

lower GH, add distilled water.. i see that you use a fan, so your water top up must be often, which means if u continue to top up without water change, the substance that attributes to GH keeps building up more and more, which may be the reason you have high GH.

up KH, add sodium bicarbonate or baking soda from supermarket

lower nitrate, add fast growing plants which will absorb nitrate during photosynthesis, and or water change

[HeMan]

Thanks alot bro
Guess i bought the wrong test kit strip type
should have buy those liquid type, wasted my
$ again

[boxedfish]

it;s ok.. i also started buying those strip types at first.. learn from experience..

[HeMan]

Btw whats the solution to 0 ammonia and nitrite if you are having >0.1

[stormhawk]

Your nitrite and ammonia levels are in the safe zone, though I believe the issue here is the GH, or your test strip is not working. A liquid reagent test from Sera or API should be good.

Fish can get stressed from a variety of reasons. If you were intending to keep shrimp in the tank, you should not have put those fish in the tank just to "run it". If the powerhead is the problem, change to a weaker one. Most fish appreciate a gentle current but not when it's close to a washing machine in there. Imagine yourself as the fish.

How many harlequin and oto did you originally have? If your fishes are rushing up and down the walls and going from left to right, the lights may be too bright or something else in the water is affecting their behavior. For a 43cm tank it is crucial not to over-stock or you have a disaster waiting to happen.

[HeMan]

Thanks alot stormhawk

Initially i bought 2 otos and 3 harlequin to start( i have a post "new beginner"
bros advice me to buy fish to start, i intend to keep only Shrimps + a few otos
& maybe 1 or 2 tiny unagressive fish.

Now i left only 1 harlequin and 1 oto , probably what you said my water current
is tooo strong, have already done lowering the flow , both my fish looks ok now
, no stress.

Now i have another issue again sigh... Yesterday i tried to check my pump trying
to figure out how come the water that pumps out theres tiny little air bubbles, so
i did a check on my filter and air pump , i notice inside the pump tude there is alot
those transparent slippery and jelly like substance( sorry i dont know what do you guys
call it) i use a tissue to wipe the other part of the tude, then the tiny air bubbles stopped.

Do you know whats is the substance on & inside the air pump tude? Its transparent jelly like algae ?
do i really need to clean every week Or just leave it? My water is clear .

Thanks alot

By the way: can i start to buy cherries shrimp now?

[stormhawk]

Air pump tube? Probably a lubricant of some sort.

You can test with a bag of cherries, not more than 10 pieces. If your current livestock are doing fine and your GH, KH, pH and TDS are within the requirements for the cherries then I think it should be fine. Water temperature should not exceed 28 deg C. The cooler the better.

[HeMan]

H stormhawk,thanks

I already started with 15 sakuras i bought from forum bros, seems ok
I notice 2 started to molt.

Btw what us tds ? Sorry for this noob question and how do you measure it?

I have done a 15% distilled WC yesterday

[stormhawk]

TDS is total dissolved solids, which is basically a measurement of how hard or soft your water is. You can get a TDS meter to measure it. However, since you have Sakura, probably not that necessary. Read this link for the basic info on how to keep them.

http://www.planetinverts.com/Red%20Cherry%20Shrimp.html

As long as they can molt properly they should be fine.

[HeMan]

Thanks bro.