Mountain minnow depressed....

[siymdapolio]

Hey guys another question for the great community! I hope yall dont mind:19:

I have a group of Gold White Cloud Mountain Minnows and i have 4 males and 1 female. Today one of the small males( 2 males around this size) and he is up in the corner all by himself and have lost a lot of his pretty orange color!

All the other fish are as happy as can be! I have no idea what to do and i dont want to bother him because it seems to me I push him into the group and then he seperates and is not getting picked on by the males.

I have no idea what to do except add another female for some loving from the other sex lol????


help guys hes sad!

[smoochxoxo]

I went through this not to long ago it seems. What I think was my minnow deal was water parameters. I had 6 minnows 1 died for no reason, then they all started hiding and not being their active selves. (keep in mind that my water parameters were great....except my alkalinity I think was the term my lfs used) They had me start using an acid buffer in my aquarium and that very day the 4 fish that were left were roaming the tank and being social again. Also I thought that they were a 'cold water' species and to my surprise they acutally need heater settings of 76-almost 80. My lfs keeps their tank at 76 or so. I kept mine at around 74-76 and since the slight raise to 78 they have been more active and not hiding or seperate anymore.
Sooo maybe something as little as that might help them.
OH and I also give them bloodworms 1 time a week and that seems to help with nutrients. Being new to this hobby I am not 100% sure if any of this will work for you but it has for me.
Good luck with your minnows. Aren't they the coolest!!!
Hugs

[siymdapolio]

They buddy thanks so much for the response!! I love these fish tey are so freakin active and display so much beauty of nature!

I have checked my ph, if the water is alkalinity then the ph is below 7.2 which is neutral. The water right from our tap is 7.3 or something like that so the ph is very neutral and i feed them a treat just like you do and they love it! I will check my parameters and i dont have an ammonia nitrite or nitrate testter so i dont know except for ph! and its neutral and the temp is at 78 and all the other minnows seem fine like your ordeal. I will try to tend to the fish. I am nervous about it i really like him.

Thanks so much for the response :thumb: ill keep you updated if you want.

[smoochxoxo]

Def. get the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia tester. My LFS said that even a high ph with these fish is ok they are very tolerant. My ph is 8.3 but I don't have a good buffer I think it is in my tank for acids, so that is why they recomended an acid buffer (seachem is the brand) This was on the 16th so basically within a few hours of adding this stuff the fish started acting normal again and coming out and flashing their fins. Don't know if that was the true help but it seems to have been.
I plan on getting a gh/kh test kit within this next week. I have well water and it is very soft with a high ph so the buffering capacity is off I guess.
I look forward to hearing more about your fish. Hope they perk up!!!
Good Luck and keep us all informed!!!!!
hugs

[siymdapolio]

Thanks so much I will. I just checked ph and it is neutral! :S
I have no idea the buffering capacity of my water but since its soft i am guessing its not very good so if i wanted to add ph or lower ph it wouldnt stay very long!
I have also read that to keep ph stable and within reasonable reading is more important than fluncuating it constantly trying to get the h just right.
The other fish seem just fine they are all dancing except that one male and his color is so lost that you can see right through them.

These are gold white clouds so the males are very orange.

Thanks so much for the concern, much appreciated! and will keep yall updated.

Waiting for api master test kit in the mail..............

[siymdapolio]

I just started up a current and that seems to help the guy but he is in the back of the line at least a half a foot away from everybody else. I hope he makes it :(