New tank one poorly minnow

[ReadingRiot]

DS2 has recently set up his first tank.

He followed all the advice from the shop and had it running for a week before introducing fish.

Then he bight three golden minnows as advised by the shop and introduced them to the tank gradually following instructions.

The next day, one of them had its fin kind of folded over and was much slower than the others. A week on and he's now almost stationary.Fin almost gone and colour duller than the others.

The other two went a bit odd on day three darting about, hitting the glass and the bottom but they've settled down a now and appear to be OK.

So the question, presumably this is all down to stress? Is there anything he can/should do? Is there any chance fish will recover or should DS cut his losses and remove it now? Will leaving it harm the other fish?

Anyone

Did the shop give you advice about checking for nitrates in the water and how to 'cycle' the tank before introducing fish?

I've not had a tank for a few years now (so I'm no expert) but when you start a tank from scratch you have to let it build up the bacteria that allow the tank to cope with the waste the fish produce. Some shops are good at explaining this but many are just awful. It sounds as though the level of nitrates in the tank are very high and causing the fish distress. If you have a nitrate testing kit you can check this - my memory is you then need to do a partial water change.

There are some very good online forums that can help - this one I remember was good www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/

Good luck with it.

Thank you, I will yes they explained about cycling and we did that. They didn't recommend a testing kit but did say we can take a sample in and they'll test it for a £1 donation to charity.

Running a tank empty for a week without adding any organic matter doesn't mature a tank. If the shop tested the water before you got the fish, they might as well be testing water straight from a tap. It only started the cycle once you added the fish.

How is the minnow now?

Cycling a tank takes weeks. You've probably got a massive ammonia problem. How big is the tank? It might be worth getting some mature filter media from.another person with a tank x