Why was my fish acting funny when I put him in the new tank?
So Pog dies like 2 weeks ago at the age of 3 and there was an open spot in that tank, so I scrubbed everything and did the regular qt and a couple days ago I put in Jalapeno, who had been in a plastic tub, I did the temps right. The nitrate was pretty high in the tank so I had done a 50% change and there was alot of floating debris because I didn't want to do more that a 50%. He started being lethargic and swimming spurratically (like not moving and suddenly really fast everywhere and then not moving) and he got stuck on the filter even I have never seen a fish get stuck to that one. I decided to do another 25% change and go to bed and the next day when I got home from school he was fine. Was it stress or something? It was half a 20 gal he had. but I have 2 ten gallon filters in there.
Maybe he was darting around because he enjoyed having more space to swim around? I have seen a lot of fish do different things when they're put into the new tank... It could have been a little bit of shock. If the nitrates were high and you only did a 50% change, he could have been a little shocked from sudden exposure to nitrates. Fish that have never been in a cycled tank have probably never been exposed to nitrates. He could have also been freaked out by the filter.
What was the debris from if you scrubbed the whole tank? What size and temp is the tank? Do you use a siphon?
If he's acting fine, now, I wouldn't worry too much. Most of the time, with shock, they recover quickly as long as the water is clean and warm.
I'm also going to point out that I've had experience with quite a few sicknesses and a lot of them cause both lethargy and darting around randomly like that. I'd just keep an eye on him...
I started mixing in old water more and more 1 week after pog died and one week before he went in. Also it looked stressed, like the only time I have seen movements like that is in sick fish. I guess maybe he was stressed, idk
Old water into the new tank? I don't understand...?
Normally for chemistry acclimation you float the fish in the new tank - in the cup they came in or a bag even.. for roughly 20-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so remove about 1/4 water from the bag (toss it out, don't use it) and replace with equal amount of water from the tank. Do that 4-5 times before releasing him.. that way he does acclimate to the new water both temp and chemistry wise.
It sounded like you add in old tank water into new water.. which isn't a good idea, nothing positive will come from that, just bad bacteria.
I acclimate my fish over a period of five hours switching out water every 30 minutes xD...then again my newest guy was a Thailand import and it's suggested to give them more time to acclimate since the water here is so vastly different.
Normally for chemistry acclimation you float the fish in the new tank - in the cup they came in or a bag even.. for roughly 20-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so remove about 1/4 water from the bag (toss it out, don't use it) and replace with equal amount of water from the tank. Do that 4-5 times before releasing him.. that way he does acclimate to the new water both temp and chemistry wise.
This is good to know! I've always done the floating bit, but I'd never known about the slow water acclimations or about keeping cup/bag water out of the tank. I'm glad I read this before I pick up my new betta today! I definitely want him to be as stress free as possible
Old water into the new tank? I don't understand...?
Normally for chemistry acclimation you float the fish in the new tank - in the cup they came in or a bag even.. for roughly 20-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so remove about 1/4 water from the bag (toss it out, don't use it) and replace with equal amount of water from the tank. Do that 4-5 times before releasing him.. that way he does acclimate to the new water both temp and chemistry wise.
It sounded like you add in old tank water into new water.. which isn't a good idea, nothing positive will come from that, just bad bacteria.
I started mixing the water from pog's old tank into Jal's old tank along with his water changes to acclimate him slowly over the week, esp because of the huge difference in nitrates (because of the ammonia spike after pog's death because i wasn't home to remove him) and I didn't think a day was a short enough time to not cause stress with the big change for both tanks. (I wasn't leaving the nitrate that high) so I did it over a week
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