Figure 8 Behaviour Change

[Iliveinazoo]

1st thing's first:
Tank: 100 litre
Filter: Back hung (rubbish) and Eden 501 external.
Plants: Apongenton Crispus, Java Fern, Java Moss, Bacopa Monnieri.
Decor: Rock Arch type structure
Pump: Small old water feature pump
Fish: 2 x Figure 8's (5cm), 1 x Waspfish (3cm), 5 x Bumblebee Gobies
Tank has been running with the waspfish and gobies for 6 months.
Ammonia: <0.1ppm
Nitrite: <0.1ppm
Nitrate: between 10 and 25ppm (my guess is that it's closer to 20)
PH: between 7 and 8 (the colour is nearer .

Fishless Cycle but we removed the ammonia source about a week before we added fish and the tank went through another cycle period after we added the Waspfish and gobies (thankfully they survived and are doing well)

We bought 2 figure 8's 3 weeks ago and they started off fine, swimming around constantly and approaching the front whenever they could see us. But all of a sudden they have both stopped feeding and one has even slowed down his swimming, he now stays motionless near the surface. They both swim around fairly energetically (not as excited as before though) when food is placed into the water but they don't appear to eat it. Their colouration is fine (no dark patches as has been described elsewhere). What I can't understand is that they aren't skinny but they also don't have a rounded belly like they have just eaten, they are [almost] perfectly conical in shape.

Sorry about the number of brackets i've used, but please help anyway!

[bazil323]

My guess is that they got over the initial "What's this?" settling period. You'll probably have to get a bigger tank though. F8s need 15-20 gallons per puffer. I'm not sure about the other fish, but I think 5 bbgs need 10 gallons. I've never heard of a waspfish before, and I couldn't find much online about them.

So I'm thinking that just for the F8s and bbgs, you'll need at a minimum 35-40 gallons. 100 liters equals just over 26 gallons. The one who is staying near the surface is probably having trouble breathing because of water conditions. Having any reading other than 0 for ammonia and nitrite is dangerous. Your nitrate level is probably fine; most like theirs under 20. Good luck!

[StormySkiez]

It would be best to do good size water change until you have 0 ammonia to see if that helps to start with. How often do you do WC's? Are you using a liquid test kit?

[Iliveinazoo]

My guess is that they got over the initial "What's this?" settling period. You'll probably have to get a bigger tank though. F8s need 15-20 gallons per puffer. I'm not sure about the other fish, but I think 5 bbgs need 10 gallons. I've never heard of a waspfish before, and I couldn't find much online about them.

So I'm thinking that just for the F8s and bbgs, you'll need at a minimum 35-40 gallons. 100 liters equals just over 26 gallons. The one who is staying near the surface is probably having trouble breathing because of water conditions. Having any reading other than 0 for ammonia and nitrite is dangerous. Your nitrate level is probably fine; most like theirs under 20. Good luck!

50% water changes weekly and the test readings for the ammonia and nitrite are almost clear meaning that they are less than 0.1 but there are obviously traces in there, I would be suprised if the test ever went completely clear but then again we've only had our tank up and running for 6 months and the filter that we got with the tank did not look 'man' enough, hence the reason I bought the second filter. Hopefully the extra filtration will reduce the levels even further.

The Waspfish is sometimes known as a butterfly goby and I've not been able to find out much information on them, our LFS has only ever had one in stock and we bought it. It's an ambush predator and looks similar to a grouper. It will sometimes be all white and sometimes all black or a mixture of both depending on where he's located in the tank - a very cool fish but will only take live food.

We will upgrade the tank as soon as we can afford it, the tank was an impulse buy and we were going to keep a couple of goldfish in it but then we got adventurous while doing some research and now we're hooked!

[Iliveinazoo]

It would be best to do good size water change until you have 0 ammonia to see if that helps to start with. How often do you do WC's? Are you using a liquid test kit?

50% weekly WC's and it's a tablet test kit.

[Iliveinazoo]

Forgot to add that my salinity is 1.006!