ahh my 10 new exos. arent acting right.

[Retuks]

i just picked up 3 more from the lfs that had them recently returned so now i can have a balanced number of em... total cost: $83.66... is that normal?!

my exos arent acting like they did at the store... when the latch was open the exos would chase your finger if u tapped the water and basically "kill" anything that moves. this is the 2nd day ive had all the exos and they run away from my finger when i tap the water... they also dont eat very aggressively like most youtube vids show. they dont even notice any food i throw in except carnivore pellets which only one or two MAY go after and then loose interest quickly...

why aren't they acting at all like they did at the LFS? besides circling each other around the bog-pillar like they naturally do?

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

Well anytime you dump 13 fish into a smaller tank you will get a mini cycle. Unless you traded bio load. Like took out the same amount you put in. So if the tank was cycled with a small bio load like a few small fish. Then you more than likely have high ammonia in the tank. Or if it was not cycled then you definetly have a ammonia problem. So test your water parameters and get back to us. Check for ammonia, nitrite, ph, temp. With the first 2 being most important. If you do not have a test kit, then do a 50% water change and go get 1. If you can not afford one put some water in a clean pop bottle, then do a 50% water change and then take the pop bottle to your lfs and they should test your water for free. And if you have ammonia present in your water look for a product called safe start by aqua safe. Get a bottle of that and put it in the tank the same day as your water change. If you have to wait a day do another water change.

 

[Retuks]

i will do that. but i did trade the bio load. this tank housed 10 small convicts and alot more guppies before i got the exos and gave the convicts all to my gf. over time i put about 75% of the guppies in my monster tank so now there are around 10 or less, and eventually that wont be a guppy holding tank anymore and just an established exo tank.

i ran a penguin 100 before i got the exos and with perfect timing it jammed and i had to put the 15 gal power filter it came with back on and i added a small 10gal wall filter. im going to do the water change right now.

 

[channarox]

theyre simply adjusting...

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

Sounds like when the filter quit on you and you had to trade it out with a unused filter, you may have lost some of the bio filter. Or like channa said they could be adjusting. But just in case I would do daily water changes until you get that water tested. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Cerbios]

Probably change in water like they said, but just to add another possibility to the stack. I had a shoal of them for a while and found they take on the personality of the largest or most dominate fish. Did you buy the LFS's whole shoal or did you leave some? Mine for example were afraid of everything till I added a slightly bigger one who had been bullying RBP's of similar size after he joined the shoal they feared nothing. Its possible you separated them from their leader.

 

[famous323]

retuks your avatar is weird!

 

[Retuks]

Sounds like when the filter quit on you and you had to trade it out with a unused filter, you may have lost some of the bio filter. Or like channa said they could be adjusting. But just in case I would do daily water changes until you get that water tested. Better safe than sorry.

yep ive been taking out 1 milk jug of water each day so far. (though its a 1 gallon jug, the water level seems to drop alot more than 1/10 the tank... another mystery for later...) though i wonder sometimes that they are panzied from being spooked by my jug and constant activity with the tank, opening and closing the lids etc...

im curious, but how exactly does water quality affect how aggressive or depressive my fish are?

its not that their mood is being hampered because they still shoal around the tank like they are on crack... but they never chase my finger or notice and attack food with that exo-famed "zealousness" of theirs anymore...

 

[Cerbios]

Poor water = less oxygen = less energy

 

[Retuks]

Poor water = less oxygen = less energy

Energy is *definitely* not what they lack... they could donate some to the less fortunate if they wanted to. and yes, i have bought the whole shoal. the store was only keeping 10 of them in a lightly planted tank, and so i bought them all.

the demonstrations the LFS provided me in store was how they would normally act, they would swim around and try to nip each other unsuccessfully with short bursts and stop, then to show their aggression the staff member would let me do things like tapping the water with my finger and the whole shoal rushes towards it. i also asked them to throw a large cricket in to see if they would attack it and they shredded it apart in the blink of an eye.

now... the SAME shoal (meaning, all of them) wont even touch a cricket, nor attack my finger. the only kills they made upon arrival was 2 swordtails in their tank over night the first night i had them. and since then they haven't attacked a thing, not even the other swordtails in their tank! dont get me wrong, they still swim like exos, VERY fanatic shoalers. swimming like 10 neutrons and electrons spiraling an invisible atom, or circling a portion of the tank like sharks, chasing eachother briefly, you know, what exodons do...

to famous: thank you.