A Sad Little Green Tiger Barb

I'm new to fish keeping too myself, this forum and its seasoned members have proved an invaluable resource!

I'm a little concerned by what you're saying - you left the water for 4 - 5 days after adding fish? Tropical fish need something called the nitrogen cycle to be established in order for them to be happy and well, and this can take anywhere between 6 - 8 weeks or more. Fish produce ammonia, which is poisonous to them. Ammonia is converted to nitrite, which again is poisonous to them. Nitrite is eventually converted to nitrate, which is lower levels is all well and good. What you're doing right now appears to be a 'fish in cycle' - however, it sounds like you've only done one water change since you got your fish? Have you got a test kit in order to test Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite and your Ph? Ammonia and nitrite need to be kept at 0 or 0.25 in order for your fish to be happy. Since you haven't cycled your filter, I would imagine you'd need to be doing water changes every day in order to bring the levels in your tank to an acceptable level. Don't panic - it is possible, but you really need to keep this up for the long-term happiness of your fishies! Whenever you add new water it's important that it's treated with a dechlorinator and warmed to roughly the same temperature as the water in the tank.

Here's Sue's article about fish-in cycling:

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,17.0.html

I would imagine some other more experience people will pop by to your thread to advise you more too!

Also a note about your filter - at this stage it is better to leave it well alone for about a month or so, in order for the correct bacteria to grow on it. Also what chemicals are you adding to remove nitrates?

Everything Jesnon said is correct.... you need a test kit a.s.a.p.

Tiger barbs are shoaling species and need a) at least 6, and better 10 to be happy, and b) a tank that's at least 60cm long as they're active fish. It's no wonder yours is so unhappy.

At the top bar of the page is a tab 'information' and in there is 'knowledge' - please start reading the articles and we'll do everything possible to help you.

I would suggest taking your Tiger Barb back to the shop and explaining what's happened.... it will only be miserable in your set-up.

Thanks for all the info, I'm working a late shift this evening. I'm able to get out and a out at work though so I'll take a sample of water to work with me. I'll speak to them there about returning the fish and exchanging it for another species.

I'm lucky to have 5-6 LFS where I live so I'll shop around a bit if I have any problems with this one. When I first went in the seemed pretty good, they advised against neon tetras saying they are not as hardy as they used to be and that these were tough little things.  They also said to leave the tank with this three for a couple of weeks then bring in a sample of water to check before they'll sell me any more to me, which I thought was responsible as they could have told me to keep adding to make money out of me....although I know not to do that!!

I'll update you when I done this.  Thanks again.

Ah - you replied as I did. Good ideas - but don't get another fish, it will only add to your 'bioload' and make it more difficult to cycle the tank. Get a credit note or money off the API kit - or just give it back and take the hit. They really shouldn't have let you take those fish knowing the size of your tank and that it was un-cycled. Totally irresponsible of them.

Yep - avoid Tiger Barbs in that sized tank. Stick with the Platy and Guppy for now and don't add anymore fish until the tank is cycled.

I've just used the Community Creator with your tank and stock (I assumed a length of 30cm and an actual water volume of 30litres, plus an internal filter) and you're 23% stocked without the Tiger Barb. You should be able to get through a fish-in cycle with that, though guppies can be a bit fragile.

Adding a Tiger Barb raises that to 40% (far too much for a fish-in cycle) and throws up a number of warnings about tank size, the need for them to be in shoals, and that they're nippy and likely to take chunks out of your guppies tail fin.

Afterwards (say two months) you could perhaps add three cherry barbs (1m:2f), they're really interesting fish and tough little things and will be fine in that sized tank.

Hope this helps - keep letting us know how you're getting on - we love to help.

We also love pictures! Of the tank - not you

Water test done; ammonia levels ok but the nitrite was too high. They recommended remove the barb altogether, cut the feeding down to once a day, do another water change and add some more nitrite remover.

They said to leave it with two fish for 2-3 more weeks and come back.

They have also apologised for the poor advice and being sold the barb.  Just got to get rid of the snails I've just found now!!!

Didn't get the levels. I have bought a testing kits myself though, so I'll do some testing later.

Thankfully they will take the barb back, I'll be doing that tomorrow first thing!!

A few water changes later and here are some results:-

NO3 - 50
NO2 - 0
GH - 16
KH - 6
pH - 7.6-8
CL2 - 0

It looks like nitrate is high, so should I be doing another water change or just add some more 'quick start', which helps dissolve the nitrate?

Straight from the tap are as follows:-

NO3 - 25
NO2 - 0
GH - 16
KH - 15
pH - 7.2-7.6
CL2 - 0.8

I'll have to get some ammonia testing kits.

So your tank nitrate is about 25 higher than the tap nitrate. In that case yes, a water change would help. How often do you clean the tank, how much water do you take out (roughly, a fifth, half etc?) and do you clean the gravel, if that's what's on the bottom, at the same time?
There are a few causes of a too-high nitrate. Too many fish for the tank size; feeding too much; not cleaning any left over food out of the gravel; not doing frequent enough water changes; not doing big enough water changes.

And don't worry about the difference in pH. Freshly run tapwater usually has a different pH from tank water or tapwater that's stood for 24 hours. A lot of water cpmanies add carbon dioxide to the water to help prevent limescale deposits in the mains pipes. This makes the water slightly acid, but it gasses out when the tapwater stands so the pH rises slightly.

Colin- if the nitrate is high, could that be reducing the KH so much? I'm very aware of what acids (nitrite, nitrate) can do after the pH crash when I was cycling.