Stressed out guppies and tetras-PLEASE HELP

K

kata.lex

New Fish
#1
Jan 6, 2015
1
0
0
#1
On Christmas Eve, I set up a new 10 gallon tank. I let it run for a week before I put any fish in it. Then I added 3 neon tetras and 3 male guppies. Well, the tetras were immediately stressed mostly likely just due to the change of environment and it being cold outside here and everything. They hung out in the back of the tank at the bottom underneath the bubble bar. I kept the lights off to try and ease the transition. The next day my guppies started exhibiting signs of stress as well: swimming up and down the glass on the same side of the tank. My water conditions have been holding steady:

pH - 7.8
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0 (the last few days have been less than 20)
Hardness - Very soft
Ammonia - 0
Temp - 78

I’ve been checking my water using test strips (I know they aren’t as accurate, but they are what I can afford right now) every day and I have taken samples in to Petco to have it tested and all has been good. As of yesterday, my ammonia levels did come up a tad to 0.5 ppm, which I was taking as a sign that my tank is still going through its initial cycle. However, my fish seemed less stressed when the ammonia was up than when it was down, which I know doesn’t make sense. The tetras were actually swimming around the tank and the guppies weren’t riding the glass.

The fish have been in the tank about 6 days now and, with the ammonia coming up, I figured it was about time to do a partial water change. I did about 25%, conditioned the water with Stress Coat, and was careful about the temperature. Now the fish are super stressed again. The guppies look like they’re about to leap out of the tank.

Please help! I don’t want to lose any of these fish, but I have no idea what to do to calm them down.
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#2
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#2
kata, welcome.

With this number of fish in an uncycled 10g, you should be doing daily water changes. You don't want to see any ammonia in a tank containing fish. You can leave some measurable ammonia in the tank if dosing a quality dechlorinator like Prime that will convert ammonia to less toxic ammonium.

Hate to sound like a broken record, but your best bet ALWAYS, is to get some established, healthy, used filtration bio media from someone and run it in your filter. Better yet, a used sponge bubbler filter. That's an instant cycle.
 

CAPSLOCK

CAPSLOCK

Elite Fish
#3
Jul 19, 2004
3,682
33
48
39
Cape Cod
#3
What Freshly said. Live plants will also help if you get lower light plants (eg java fern, anachris, many mosses) as they will utilize some of that out of the water column. In the meantime, the more hiding places that you have available, the more secure the fish will be. And they'll actually hide less. Plants work great for this too - real or fake.
 

A

arabella

New Fish
#4
Feb 7, 2015
2
0
0
#4
Hate to sound like a broken record, but your best bet ALWAYS, is to get some established, healthy, used filtration bio media from someone and run it in your filter. Better yet, a used sponge bubbler filter. That's an instant cycle.
 

A

arabella

New Fish
#5
Feb 7, 2015
2
0
0
#5
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