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Strange tetra behavior

1K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  caoder 
#1 ·
Hello, I'm fairly new to the aquarium world but I have done my fair share of research about all types of fish. I've had lots of guppies and have had no luck with them. Yesterday my last male turquoise guppy died and I cleaned out my tank and did the proper steps to get any bad bacteria out. I just added 5 new additions, Long finned black skirt tetra's. They seem to be doing great now but earlier they seemed to be acting a bit strange. 2 of them were not really swimming around very much and it appeared as if they were "shaking" but I'm not sure if they were really shaking. They were making really sharp movements in a single place. I'm not sure what's wrong with them if anything but it has got me a little worried because of my bad luck with my guppies. If anyone has any advice to give me I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
 
#3 ·
What kind of treatment did you use for the water before adding them in? Also, what's the temperature of the tank and what was the temperature of the water that the tetra's were in?

Without much else, it sounds like your fish are having a tough time acclimating to your tank. This could be caused by a number of reasons, but we'd need more information from you about your tank specs and how you acclimated them.

The most common culprits I've seen from poor acclimatization are:
- ammonica/chlorine (if your aquarium water wasn't properly dechlorinated/cycled)
- temperature shock (if there is a wide temperature difference between your tank water and the water your fish were in; anything >1 degree can be considered large)
- pH shock (if the fish are being moved from a basic to acidic pH environment)
 
#4 ·
I did a complete water change before I put my new fish in the tank. The temperature is set at 78 degrees and I used Seachem Prime for the removal of chlorine and ammonia. It's supposed to detoxify nitrates and nitrites too. I acclimated the fish by keeping them in their bag but I opened the bag and hung it on the side of the tank in the water for about 30 to 40 minutes. Then I released the fish into my tank. They seem to be doing a bit better today but there's one that's still acting strange to me. He's eating ok and he's swimming but it looks like he's still "shaking." My tank has been up and running for at least 3 months. It actually was already cycled when I got it. I haven't checked the PH level's but I am going to check that today to make sure that's balanced enough. Anyway, thanks for the help guys.
 
#7 ·
It sounds to me that the fish are probably still acclimating and went through some sort of shock. Doesn't sound like temperature is the culprit, but it could be pH shock since it doesn't sound like you directly acclimated them with the tank water.

From personal experience, I've found that drip acclimation using an airline hose works wonders for all sorts of fish and takes almost no work if you have the necessary equipment.

- White gallon size bucket
- Sufficient length of airline hose
- 1/2gph or 1gph drip-valves sold at Lowes or other hardware/gardening stores (they're usually found in the rain, plumbing, or gardening sections and are super cheap <$1)
- Clip or suction cups to anchor airline hose

Just fill the bucket with just enough water to cover the fish and then run the drip for as long as it takes to fill the bucket up 2x (empty the bucket to 1/4 after the first fill-up). If you know how much of a pH difference there is between your water and the water at the fish store, you can figure out just how much drip acclimation you need to do. A pH difference of 1 will require about 10x dilution (so if you had 1cup of fish store water, you need to add 9 cups of aquarium water).
 
#9 ·
well make sure you add water into the bag as you are acclimating. Also never put LFS water into your tank, that's always asking for trouble (mainly diseases). Net the fishes out and they should be fine. With that much fish loss, it sounds like its not properly cycled causing a lot of stress on the fish.
 
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