The fish i got today are hanging out at the top a lot and around the filter output is there something wrong?

Question

The tank is 5 gallons and they're fresh water fish. Mollys specifically

Answer 1

I can think of a few reasons why they might be doing this. First, since they're new, they might be looking for a place to hide if they're up under where the water comes out of the filter. it's natural for a fish to be nervous after being move into a new tank - they don't know if there are any predators arond that might try to eat them. If you turn the light on the tank of (leave a light on in the room) they may become braver and come out more - they'll probably do this in a day or so anyway if that's all that's wrong.

Secondly, what is the water temperature in the tank? If the fish you have are tropicals, the temperature should be 76-82oF for most. If you have goldfish, white clouds, or other coolwater species, the temperature should be below 76o. Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen, and where the water comes out of the filter is where the oxygen level would be the highest. If the temperature is too high, they may be trying to get more oxygen.

A third possibility, and this should have happened unless you added a lot of fish and have overfed them, is that you're dealing with ammonia poisoning. This will be more likely to happen in a few days after the fish were put in. This is from the fish producing ammonia as a part of their wastes. Ammonia is toxic to fish in a small amount, and it prevents them from being able to process that oxygen correctly - it can't bind to molecules that carry it through their blood, so they are trying to get oxygen. In a mature tank, the ammonia will be converted to nitrite (which is also toxic in small amounts), then to nitrate, which your fish can handle in much larger concentrations. Until you have the bacteria reproduce so you have enough, you'll need to do water changes on a regular basis to make sure your fish don't have the ammonia build up too high (you might also see the water getting cloudy for the next few weeks - this is a normal part of the bacterial reproduction process).

Please see these for more on this:

Answer 2

How big is the tank? How many fish did you just buy and put in it? How long has it been set up? What is the temperature?
Did you acclimate them Properly? Did you do any research on the fish before you bought them? Do you know the species of the fish you bought?

Hanging out at the top is usually a symptom of too little oxygen in the water. Or too high of a temp in the tank which will drive out O2 also.

If you did not acclimate them by opening the bag and putting a half cup of tank water into the bag every 15 minutes for at least an hour and a half, they may be suffering from pH shock which can be fatal if there is a big difference between the bag water and the tank water.

If it is a brand new set up, it may still be cycling and you are getting spikes in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

Email me if any of these questions are close to what is going on in your tank. I will be glad to help if you give me more info to go on.
8

Answer 3

ok...What kind of fish? Fresh or salt water tank? How large is your tank? Are these fish in addition to fish already in your tank, or are they the first you added? How many fish did you add? Do you know what your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are? Based simply on the info you provided, it sounds like the fish are not getting enough oxygen. Do you have an air bubbler going?

Answer 4

tremendously intelligent flow identifying to purchase the 29 gallon. A universal rule of thumb is 10 gallons for each fish, or you are able to stunt the upward thrust, and that they are easily very grimy fish. The golfish do look to have a low furnish of air, that should be the difficulty, however the area difficulty would have been a extensive contribution.Filters do no longer save the oxygen ranges up, I propose spending one extra 10 money on an air pump so which you will pump oxygen into your new tank. :)

Answer 5

I think maybe the water they were in was quite a bit diffrent than yours. Hopefully you acclimated them. before putting them in the tank. I agree that you need to check your ammonia,, if you don't have a test kit, do a water change and add fresh dechlorinated water. this might help

Answer 6

Your fish is prabaly dead, or it just likes to stay in one spot for a long time.

Answer 7

if they are saltwater they have ammonia poising