I NEED HELP! I live in North Carolina about 3200 ft above sea level. I bought some Gambusia out of lower Georgia. When they arrive they were in beautiful health. I have an aquarium all set up for weeks for them. I adjust them easily and put them in their new home ...with in hours they are swimming with their heads up and their tails down.I know they are doomed.
I have a NEW TANK...no other fish have been in it....I have let the tank filter cycle for a week before the fish have been put in it...the tanks water is between 7.5 and 8.0 alkaili IT HAS LOTS OF PLANTS! WHAT IS GOING WRONG! Does anyone know?
THANK YOU!
Raven

Send us a picture. I got some Gambusia affinis and they normally swim like that.

Hi Raven, Your tanks water is going through the Nitrogen Cycle. It takes a month to six weeks for your water to go through this cycle. If you look back on this site you will find we talked about this already and Betty/dataguru left a link to a great article she wrote on this subject. I think you should look back and read it. Right now I would make a small water change and make sure you dechlorinate the water first. I would use Prime to dechlorinate the water ,it would also help make the ammonia in your tank less toxic .I would invest in a AP freshwater master test kit.

here you go.
http://thegab.org/Water-Quality/water ... ys-cycling-your-tank.html

Definitely get your water tested and do partial water changes.

If you collected your Gambusia near the Okefenokee Swamp there's a good chance the water was soft and acidic. You say that your water is alkaline. If it is also hard, 250ppm or higher, then the Gambusia are going to have a hard time adjusting. One way to soften up hard tap water is to cut it with rain water. I always take a simple water test kit with me when i collect. This way I know what kind of water the collected fish are from. I also do this for fish I buy. I usually ask the seller what the water conditions are in their tanks, but sometimes one persons moderately soft water turns into anothers very hard water. A simple test kit solves this problem. Good luck.

If the issue is the hardness of the water. Adding RO water if you donot have rainwater may help, though pH swings and hardness swings be very harmful to your fish. I usually test bag water and aquarium water to see if parameters are the same, and do drip accilmation. Are the fish darting around? Are they gasping?