# Planted Tanks > Beginners' Corner >  My new neon tetras keep staying at the bottom...

## Bruno

Hi all. I have just bought a 30L fish tank and set up a fresh water aquarium with about 11 Neon tetras and 10 black tetras. However, I observed that they kept staying at the bottom of the tank below the live plants, especially when I turn on the tank roof lights. I am concerned about the feeding as they do not swim more than 3 inches above the ground and thus most of the food pellets either dropped and get stuck in between the leaves or just fall off on the soil. The tank just looks so empty with the tetras hiding below and I am thinking of getting guppies to fill up the middle part. Just a couple of questions I hope gurus here can help me out.

Here is a pic of my tank.
Attachment 27752

Was thinking whether was it becoz I had not cycle it enough. I put in the substrate, added in the water followed by the plants. Put in the anti-clorine solution and ran this setup without fish for about 2 days before I put in the tetras. Filters are at the back of the tank with a 5W pumphead with activated carbon, ceramic white pieces and couple of sponges.

1) Is the tank overcrowded?

2) Is the light too bright?

3) Do I need a thermometer with heater in Singapore climate?

4) I have bought a bottle of bacteria enzyme. Should I use it if the tank is not cycled through?

5) Do I need to remove the uneaten food on the leaves and the soil?

6) Finally, what can I do about the aquarium now?

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## stormhawk

You are correct in that you probably did not cycle it long enough. When the bacteria start to form nitrite from ammonia, this is when it gets extremely lethal to your fish. 2 days of waiting is insufficient to be certain of the fishes' conditions. Only when the nitrite is at zero and there is nitrates being produced is your tank ready for any additions. You should never add a lot of fish all at once, but a few at a time. Proper acclimatisation of the fish helps to reduce the stress on them. If you just dump them in and the water parameters in your tank is vastly different than that of the LFS or the water in the fish bag, they will die from shock in some cases.

I cannot see your picture but there is probably too many fishes for the initial introduction. You should always clear up uneaten food or else they rot and contribute to the overall deterioration of the conditions in the tank.

You do not need a thermo-controlled heater in our climate. They are only useful for certain species like discus, otherwise are not needed since we do not experience cold conditions here.

Adding the bacteria enzyme can help, but chances are, some of the fish may die in this period. I hope you are prepared for this eventuality, should it happen. Good luck though.  :Smile:

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## Bruno

Thanks for the reply..anyway, here's the picture of my tank, hopefully it shows up....
IMG_0066.jpg

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## stormhawk

Are you using coral sand as the gravel? Looks like it from the picture. 

The tank in the picture is way too small for so many tetras.

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## AquaObsession

Look like the water condition is not right. 

Most likely they are likely to die soon. I'm not here to discourage you. Just take this as a learning experience. 

Also neona do prefer neutral to acidic water.if these are coral chips they make raise the ph and gh of the water, hence not good for neons.

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## Bruno

Till date I have in my 30L tank

8 Neon Tetras
6 Black Neon Tetras
5 Fire Head Tetras
2 Platys
2 Guppies
1 Cory

I know its kinda overcrowded so I am waiting for something to happen or can anyone tell me whats the right number of fish for these?
Anyway, I noticed one of the Neon tetras have some white spots. Is there any medication I can use to put into tank regularly to prevent diseases or should I only put when there is visible problems?

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## AquaObsession

Isolate the sick neon
There is white spot medicine. Or general aid.

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## takaco

1) Is the tank overcrowded? Kind of..

2) Is the light too bright? Lighting wont be a problem

3) Do I need a thermometer with heater in Singapore climate? Answer no

4) I have bought a bottle of bacteria enzyme. Should I use it if the tank is not cycled through?You can try it since u bought it but den normally ppl will just use some live media filter floss, ceramic rings, substrate and others to build bacteria..

5) Do I need to remove the uneaten food on the leaves and the soil?Excess Food yes

6) Finally, what can I do about the aquarium now?Tell us what filter media you are using,. Den your tank is overcrowd.

quarantine all the acting weird tetras ..add general aid liquid..tell us more about the symptom of your fish eg:bloated,the part near the head of the fish turn red etc



All my comment its jus what i think n what i feel so dont flame me if im wrong  :Angel:

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## Bruno

I have done some research on the symption my Neon Tetra is having and thats the cause of a parasite. Its called ICH or ICK. Anyone got any good experience on this and know how should I go about killing this parasite in the system? I read alot about using medication, raising temperature and also using salt. I think i prefer to use medication but I also read that activated carbon has to be removed during treatment and my tank water has to do 20-30% water changes daily with also some color changes due to medication. 
Any advice?

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## AquaObsession

Read the last 2 replies

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## morning breakfast eat

Hi any updates on ur fish? anyway i think it is def overstocked. I have like only 3 neons in my 40l tank

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## mincedmeat

Based on what I know, ICK/ICH is usually hard to cure and most of the time leads to death of the fish. You would ideally have to isolate the sick fish so that the infection would not be wide-spread. I am sure your LFS would have stock of the liquid aid for the fish. I am currently using protozin (for whitespot and fungus) to treat one of my bettas.

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## Bruno

Well...the white spots really spread fast. Within a day or so, all my fishes have it. I have used the SUPER Slime, White Spot & Velvet Away solution from Ocean Free on alternate days for about 3 times as mentioned in the instructions and all white spots are gone. Casualty are the 2 guppies. The rest are still good. Of course in between i made some water changes of a quarter before I put in the solution. Till now, I have made another change of a quarter tank of water and also put back in the activated carbon. All is good now for about a week or so after the last white spot was seen. My drift wood was also stained with some greenish stuff but its getting back its original color now.....Success i supposed.

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## stormhawk

> Based on what I know, ICK/ICH is usually hard to cure and most of the time leads to death of the fish. You would ideally have to isolate the sick fish so that the infection would not be wide-spread. I am sure your LFS would have stock of the liquid aid for the fish. I am currently using protozin (for whitespot and fungus) to treat one of my bettas.


It is not hard to cure if you follow the methods given online or on the bottle of medication. There is no way to isolate the affected fish because ich is a parasitic infection which can overtake an entire tank in just a matter of days.

@Bruno,

A tank of your size should not have so many fish in there. A small school of perhaps 6 tetras is sufficient and with the hood down, the temperature can go even higher in there. Without ventilation it will be exactly like a greenhouse.

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