So I got a firefish yesterday as my first fish for my new tank. He had a long drive from the LFS because they are all so far away, and with acclimation was in his bag for about an hour and a half. It was a pretty small bag they gave me too.
He’s in a quarantine tank, temp 77 and pH 8.4, salinity 1.025-1.026. No nitrite or nitrate. It’s being treated with Nox-Ich and I also added the seachem stress coat. A small filter is running with only a sponge, mostly for aeration.
Ammonia is at 0.25. I added some top fin ammonia down cause I just had some but it probably doesn’t do anything right? I also have a brand new seachem ammonia alert badge which shows it being at less than 0.02, not sure what to trust. The 0.25 is from a freshwater API kit, I assumed it would work fine.
Yesterday he was laying low and hidden near the corner when he first came out as expected. Later during the day he was out and exploring, looking quite better.
This morning however, he’s really really hiding inside the decor. I’m not sure if he’s worse or if I’m overreacting and he just needs some time. I don’t see any disease symptoms but he is breathing rather slowly.
What can I do better? Normally I would change the water due to the ammonia but he seems so stressed from all the change, Im not sure if I should stress him more. I also don’t know for sure if the ammonia is high when one test is telling me one thing and one another thing. The API test is telling me 0.25 both yesterday and this morning, and the ammonia badge is still saying 0 after about 20 hours.
Any help would be appreciated! This is my first saltwater fish so I might be making many mistakes.
He’s in a quarantine tank, temp 77 and pH 8.4, salinity 1.025-1.026. No nitrite or nitrate. It’s being treated with Nox-Ich and I also added the seachem stress coat. A small filter is running with only a sponge, mostly for aeration.
Ammonia is at 0.25. I added some top fin ammonia down cause I just had some but it probably doesn’t do anything right? I also have a brand new seachem ammonia alert badge which shows it being at less than 0.02, not sure what to trust. The 0.25 is from a freshwater API kit, I assumed it would work fine.
Yesterday he was laying low and hidden near the corner when he first came out as expected. Later during the day he was out and exploring, looking quite better.
This morning however, he’s really really hiding inside the decor. I’m not sure if he’s worse or if I’m overreacting and he just needs some time. I don’t see any disease symptoms but he is breathing rather slowly.
What can I do better? Normally I would change the water due to the ammonia but he seems so stressed from all the change, Im not sure if I should stress him more. I also don’t know for sure if the ammonia is high when one test is telling me one thing and one another thing. The API test is telling me 0.25 both yesterday and this morning, and the ammonia badge is still saying 0 after about 20 hours.
Any help would be appreciated! This is my first saltwater fish so I might be making many mistakes.