Glo-Fish

[TherryChicken]

We got my son 3 glo fish for his birthday, one died from im not sure what, but the others were doing well. Now he has an orange/peach looking one and a purple one. The purple one is smaller then the orange. I cleaned their tank yesterday as it was full of nasty algea. Now today I tried feeding them and no interest, no one else fed them. However I noticed the purple fish is really staying to the orange one and turning its back towards it and giggling around. Does the other side like that too and just stays on its tail. Do I have a male and female glo fish or why are they acting this way?

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I believe glofish are either a type of danio or tetra, depending on the species that you chose. Both of these species are schooling fish and tend to stay in a group, so this is most likely what you are seeing.

How did you go about setting up the tank? Sometimes if it's not fully cycled, you can lose fish to some nasty chemicals that build up. Once bacteria is established, you should have a reduction in the amount of algae that grows. Sometimes I have issues with algae if my tank is in too much sun though, so that could also be something to look into.

Best of luck with the others though. Once the fish tank is fully established, you could add another if the size of the tank will support the addition of another fish. I find schooling fish to exist better in groups of three or more.

 

[TherryChicken]

I believe glofish are either a type of danio or tetra, depending on the species that you chose. Both of these species are schooling fish and tend to stay in a group, so this is most likely what you are seeing.

How did you go about setting up the tank? Sometimes if it's not fully cycled, you can lose fish to some nasty chemicals that build up. Once bacteria is established, you should have a reduction in the amount of algae that grows. Sometimes I have issues with algae if my tank is in too much sun though, so that could also be something to look into.

Best of luck with the others though. Once the fish tank is fully established, you could add another if the size of the tank will support the addition of another fish. I find schooling fish to exist better in groups of three or more.

uhm I had cleaned the tank because it was filled with nasty algea, I used bottled water that has been sitting room temperature for about a week. Theyre not dead, was just acting funny. Didnt eat either. However they did eat today. It could hold maybe 5 nicely, but no more th en that.

 

[jentralala]

What size tank is it?

Cleaning the tank removes beneficial bacteria, which makes you have to start cycling all over again (the process of converting ammonia (fish waste), into nitrite, into nitrate.) Without a cycle, the fish are susceptible to the built up ammonia which can easily kill them. That's most likely what the first one died from.

The algae was growing to consume the excess ammonia/nitrite, and was helping to keep the fish safe from those toxins.

 

[MeepBeep]

Algae is a result of too much light and too many nitrates, nitrate excess is likely due to overfeeding and/or an uncycled or undersized filtration system...

To fix it you need a better established filtration system, less light and closer monitoring of food amounts...

As for fish behavior it's hard to say what they are doing, if your filtration is out of whack you could be causing all sorts of water perimeter issues that cause all sorts of odd behaviors...

Bottled water is honestly not the best choice most of the time, it's over filtered and lacks many of the trace elements that make a good ecosystem... Best to use well water if you can locate a source (when I was on city water I used to go to the forest preserve as they had hand pumps on a well that was for watering pets)... If you have to use city water put it in a container and hit it with some over the counter water conditioner, it will then be safe for the fish...

Beware on cleaning the tank, filtration systems should not be 'cleaned' per say, more so just rinsed off with cool/warm water, you need to keep that established bacteria colony and not kill it or else you risk ammonia spikes in the water that will be fatal to the fish in short...

May I suggest for the next week you do, 50% daily water changes, this will help prevent any ammonia build up while the filter gets going again... Then proceed with 50% water changes every week, this removes chemical build ups that filtration won't remove and provides for fresh trace elements the tank needs...

 

[TherryChicken]

What do you mean 50% change? The tank doesnt have a filter system persay. It has a thing you stick in a pipe and it blows bubbles for oxygen. The bottled water was filled with tap water. We actually had a filter feeder, but it just dissapeared, or I accidently poured it down the drain. One or the other. But honestly we havent seen it days before I cleaned the tank. We plan on getting a different one or a snail. One or the other to help keep algea down, the other didnt do its job at all. Also I did tend to give them a little too much food, I have lowered the amount of feed though.

 

[TherryChicken]

Here is the tank

 

[MeepBeep]

What do you mean 50% change?

Scoop out 50% of the water, aka empty the tank half way and refill it with fresh water, each day for the first week and then proceed to do the same once a week if not twice a week... This will remove the excess ammonia build ups initially for the first week until the bacteria establishes and then the weekly changes will remove stuff like heavy metals and salts that accumulate in the tank that do harm...

Am I to assume the bubble tube is attached to an under gravel filter? AKA a raised plate with slits that the gravel sits on, and the bubble going up create a vacuum that draws stuff into the gravel using that as a filter... It's an old school filter method, mostly frond upon nowadays but it sorta works...

A lot of the stuff us 'older' people were taught when growing up about maintaining fish bowls/tanks is outdated, a lot has happened in the last say 20 years in regards to filtration methods and basically although the old school methods were sorta working and still sorta work, there are WAY better methods in place today in the hobby that make for healthier and longer living fish... For example back when I was a kid you put in some under gravel filters, filled the tank up and tossed the fish in and then just topped off the water when it was low.... Nowadays you can hardly give away under gravel filters, and most people in the hobby are doing 50% or more water changes every week... My tanks are down right now due to the move but when I had it up and running it had a 24/7 drip of fresh water and overflowed into a drain, basically I was getting about a 20% water change every day in my tank or a complete water change every 5 days...

 

[TherryChicken]

Oh ok and kind of, it bubbles, doesnt drawl anything in