Introduce Yourself!

clown fish are a very social fish and better kept in slightly larger numbers when i first had mine i suffered a few losses and droped down to just two and i could see that they wasnt happy so purchased another 3 and they soon were all playing about happily causeing trouble together , clowns are a wonderful fish to own but are better in larger numbers so give it alot of thort before purchasing - mine are in with small fish and ammano shrimp and there not bothered by the smaller things in the tank mostly just pass them bye but they can play little games from time to time there a very cheeky fish when in the mood

Hi Jilly

Welcome....and can we have some piccies please....some people on here are REALLY nosey

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Resa, I'll see what I can do. Assuming I can work out how to upload pics to here! 

Hello everyone!  I'm very new to fish keeping (and it shows ).  We started a 38L freshwater tropical tank 2 1/2 months ago.  To date, things have been ok (I think), but we've realised that the way we've started is SO WRONG.  It's now a matter of doing what we can to learn what to do to avoid harming / losing any fish during the cycle . We were guided by the fish shop to introduce 4 red balloon platys on day 12, who checked our water and said we'd cycled?? (we planned for all girls but definitely have 1 boy, possibly 2!), followed by 2 blue girl wagtail platys in week 6, and 2 female calico sunset platys in week 9.  They are beautiful and I so want to make sure they're ok. Water readings are mostly checked daily (with API master liquid kit) and have been fairly stable throughout - Ammonia 0-0.25 (I've never seen it rise above 0.25 and the colour always seems to be somewhere in between the '0' yellow and '0.25' pale green), No2 - 0, No3 -30-40ppm (try to lower this without drastic water changes, and realised our tap water is around 50+ about 6 weeks ago, so have been using bottle water since), KH - 6- 8 (trying to keep at 8 with remineralise in W/Cs but drops down again), pH - 8 - 8.2.  I doubt the tank has cycled, and this makes me very nervous.  I do 10-15% W/Cs once or twice a week (depending on readings) with tap safe and remineralise.  We started with live plants, but I took them out last week, and replaced with artificial ones, as a lot of brown algae started forming on them, and the plants were breaking down quite a bit.  I was worried about keeping the plants in there in case they caused a problem with the water quality (perhaps something to go back to when I'm better versed in the subject?).  I rinsed out the filter, last week, for the first time (in old tank water & didn't change anything), and did a partial gravel clean with a small syphon the week before that, but wary of doing too much at once, so took it easy.  I stated using API stress zyme in the last two WCs also.  So, all in all, the fish seem happy (maybe not so much with the plastic plants - I've just ordered some silk ones which I hope will be softer and nicer for them?).  One concern has arisen just this morning - one of my calico sunset platys has closed her top fin and seems a bit jaded.  Then she seems to 'snap out of it' for a while.  I understand this is stress?  I'm going to read up a bit more on this, as i see a few threads about this on this site.  Sorry for the long introduction!

Hi ellen, welcome to the forum 

We've all been there at some point. Shops are not the best places for advice, as you have found.

How many platies do you have now? And what's the male/female ratio? From your intro, I make it 8 in total with one, possibly 2 males.

It does seem odd that you haven't seen a very high reading for ammonia. The usual thing is for the ammonia to get very high, often off the top of the scale. Can I just check that you are adding reagents from both bottles for the ammonia test? I don't mean to insult you but it is worth checking every possibility  Brown algae is diatoms which are common in new tanks as the result of a lot of ammonia in the water, which is at odds with your readings.
8 platies is a lot for 38 litres, even 4 for the first few weeks is a lot for fish-in cycling and I would have expected higher ammonia and nitrite, though you say you have been doing drastic water changes which would have kept them low.

Clamped fins is a sign of stress. But as this fish is female, she could be about to give birth. Have you had any fry at all since you got the first platies? Though they might all have been eaten so perhaps I should ask, have you noticed any females suddenly looking thinner?

You mention having done a partial gravel clean - with that many fish that poo as much as platies do I would clean all the gravel every week. There will be some bacteria on the gravel but unless it is very deep, you shouldn't churn it up enough to bury all the bacteria in the top layers of gravel.
Washing the filter media (the stuff inside it) in tank water was the right thing to do. It's tapwater that can do damage to the bacteria colonies. As long as you aren't so rough that you dislodge the biofilm on the media, washing it is quite safe, and a good idea. The slimeyness on the surface of the media isn't biofilm, you can wash that off.

API stress zyme is supposed to break down sludge. But regular, thorough cleaning of that tank will do that too 

So from here -
keep up the water changes and weekly gravel cleans.
Keep checking the ammonia and nitrite levels, and do a water change is you see a reading for either approaching 0.25. Once the readings stay at zero without having to do any water changes, you can start doing weekly water changes. With your stocking, I'd suggest around 30 to 35% a week.
Keep an eye on the platy you are concerned about. It could be she is about to drop fry or it could be a health issue. The calicos were the last ones in so she shouldn't have been through the worst of the cycle.
And regarding fry, don't try to save any. With 6 or 7 females in the tank each dropping a couple of dozen fry (probably more) every month, the fish population will get out of control if you try to save any.




I'll leave the plant question to someone else. After 18 years of fish keeping, it is only this year that have finally replaced all my fake plants with live ones, and easy live ones at that.

Hello Sue, many thanks for your advice and time.  Yes, we were unclear about stocking limits for our tank (you won't be surprised we were initially told to build up to 20 platys!!).  Needless to say, we won't be taking that piece of advice, and we've definitely stopped now.  You counted right at 8 (6 girls, 1 definite boy, and 1 undecided but think male).  I've been concerned about the ammonia readings not showing above 0.25 (in terms of expecting it to, and why it hasn't before now).  I've been using two separate ammonia kits (both API liquid) just in case one was giving false readings (I'm using both reagents - bottle 1 x 8 drops & bottle 2 x 8 drops and shake ).  I will step up the WC to 30-35% and do gravel cleaning once a week - thank you, I was just a bit scared of overdoing it.  On the pregnancy front - I've been watching for any changes in the girls, and to be honest, I can't say I've noticed any suddenly looking slimmer, but one of the red balloons is looking a little more rounded underneath - I find it quite tricky to tell with the balloons' shape, but I try to check them from above too, when feeding them, for any body shape changes - I'll keep watching.  As for the calico with closed fin - she doesn't look obviously pregnant (but I'm not sure I can tell yet).  She's still dipping in and out of having spurts of 'social activity' with the others.  She comes out from a rock arch, with fin up  , mingles around with the others for a bit, before that fin goes back down, and then slopes back under the rock .  I wonder if the male, who's chasing all the girls, a lot of the time, has given her a hard time over the last couple of days, or perhaps as we're overstocked, she's finding it a bit too busy?  Oh dear 

Thank you Sue, I'll get reading up on platy pregnancy/illness, step up the WC amounts and frequency of gravel cleaning, and hope we haven't done these beautiful fish a huge disservice!   
   

Livebearer females usually look more or less square when viewed from the side when they are about to give birth. Sort of \_/ shape. When endler females are about to give birth, they get grumpy with any fish that go near, they go off by themselves, go off their food and sort of pant for breath. I don't know if platy females show the same signs but those are things to look for.

Hello Colin    Thank you very much for your message & advice.  I've just captured a picture of the fish I'm worried about, in response to Sue's note below, to see if she looked pregnant (I don't think she is unfortunately).  I just can't upload them yet, as the files are too big, so I'll try and reduce them enough to post them when I get back from work today.  I isolated her, within the tank, last night because I was a bit worried some of the other fish were being too inquisitive (she stuck herself between a rock at the side of the tank for a while yesterday evening), but came up to the top, almost as normal, when I opened the lid.  She seemed fine this morning, too, so I released her back.  After a few mins of swimming about (see group photo!), she's hidden under the rock bridge.  The tank looks more bare than it did with real plants, so I'm hoping the ones I've ordered will be here today/tomorrow to break up the line of sight again.  I just wish I could do something for her but I guess it's, as you say, going to happen.  .  This only started yesterday morning - I don't suppose immune boosting medication helps, does it?  As for being 'normal', and bigger tanks... We had no idea how 'small' the tank we bought was, for keeping fish, so we're definitely going to upgrade  

Hi Ellen welcome to the forum! Hope your plate survives, but if it doesn't dont blame yourself, bad advice coupled with platies not being that tough anymore has contributed far more than anything you've done!

Glad we could all be of help. It sounds like you have multiple tank syndrome already 

Hello, and welcome to the forum, Lynda.