my green tiger is hanging at the bottom of the tank?

[genocidex]

it seems to be struggling with the very slow current in the tank, and wont eat. very rarely does it come to mid tank and then goes back down, it wont school with the others.
the only think i can see wrong with it is its left gill seems to be opening wider than any other of my barbs.

i was about to qt it but the only heater i have spare is a 300w and that in a 5.5g i dont know if its too much.

so any ideas whats wrong, and should i just use the heater in the 5.5g and qt it?

thanks guys/gals

[genocidex]

sorry i totaly forgot about the parameter, 0 nitrites 40 nitrates (wc is schedualed for tomorow) and possibly some ammonia but i think its a false positive. its reading less than .25ppm. but they only thing ive done with my tank is add a sponge filter.....
kh is almost 0 (or above 14 degrees ....) and ph is 6.2ish seems a little lower than useually.

oddly enough tho my taps ph is not 7.0 strange things >.>

now that lights are off she seems to be swimming with the others in the room's light. gona go watch her swimming for a few mins.

[genocidex]

ph is now*

[genocidex]

when ever the light is on its in the same spot and looks like its struggling, im confused >.> i have a single t5 24w bulb.
any ideas?

[Yo Danio]

Chances are you bought these tigher barbs from Petsmart huh?

Petsmart is atrocious, don't get me wrong, I will purchase items from them, even some fish, but on the whole Petsmart is a terrible place to purchase fish, and even their aquarium supplies are overpriced by as much as 20% m.s.r.p

Dont buy the new specially bred 'fad' fish from them. As of a couple months these green tiger barbs started to appear at all my other local fish stores, and soon enough Petsmart caught on.

I don't know if Petsmart just gets inferior quality stock from their vendors or if they ruin perfectly good fish with the filthy tank care. Either way stick with regular Tiger barbs if your going to buy fish from there.


Also stay the hell away from their Albino Tiger barbs, all 5 of mine died, one at a time for seemingly no reason, they were kept with 2 goldfish and there is no way I was responsible for all 5 of those deaths.

Go to real fish store and get some Diamond Platinum Green Tiger Barbs if you want a crazy tiger barb mutation.

[genocidex]

i did buy some tigers at petsmart, but the one that recently passed (the one i was talking about) was bought at a great pet shop. im thinking my fish died from ammonia poisoning. the past few weeks ive had to do 30%+ water changes a day to keep the ammonia down. not sure whats up but its still pulling .5ppm ammonia a day. and one of my black ruby barbs is following the same behavior. if i see any of those diamond plat. greens ill have to pick some up. they are all moving to my 40g breeder soon XD

[Yo Danio]

4 of 9 Tigers were bought at Petsmart, so it's not that you cant buy their fish but take your time looking at the fish in the tank, making sure there arent dead fish in there with them, and that they are ich-free and free of fin nips/rot. And dont be afraid to demand the best of the stock in that tank, those people are so arrogant and get payed for it.

Right now I have 3 regular color morphs, and the rest are pretty heavy green. I wouldnt seperate it as the stress might kill it faster, just check him everyday and remove his body asap.

[Yo Danio]

Also it sounds like you didnt wait long wnough for your tank to cycle maybe?

Was it a brand new tank and filter set up?

[genocidex]

i did a full fishless cycle that finished in march(ish). i think something killed off some of my bb in one of my filters, not sure what tho.

any time i go to petsmart i always check out my fish before i buy any XD. i also insist on catching my own, but thats not always what ends up happening.

[Yo Danio]

Wow i've never even bothered to ask to do that unless the person cant even reach the bottom of the tank.

Yeah they normally shouldnt let you do that since you would be responsible for injuring other fish in the process.

I have
6 Giant Danio
9 Tiger Barbs
4 Ember Barbs
3 Clown Barbs
3 Black Sail Corydoras
1 Chinese Algae Eater

and they all do great together