how to care for glofish?
by Aquaboy on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 | 3 Comments
hello, i have 2 glofish… i have never owned a fish tank before.. so i talked to the man at walmart and he told me to buy aquasafe,, so i did… the bottle does not tell you how long after you use it to put the fish in.. so i looked online and someone said RIGHT AWAY… so today i cleaned the tank and put water and put in aqua safe.. and one of my fish, who was fine before, died almost instantly… it started seizing and trying to jump out of the water then it sank.. started seizing again.. and then finnally sank to the bottom… anyone have any tips on what maybe i did wrong.. if anything.. or any tips on taking care of these fish….. the website for glofish doesn’t help as much as you think
The Glofish website is rubbish. Glofish are genetically modified Zebra Danios – they have EXACTLY the same care needs as Zebra Danios! They are shoaling fish – you should never have been sold just two – and very very active – really needing at least a 2ft long tank!
How much aqua safe did you add? How did you clean the tank? If you just poured out water, dumped in new water, added aqua safe and then fish, it could well have been temperature shock that killed the fish, not the aqua safe. Did you add the correct amount of aqua safe?
Fish are fragile creatures, they are very sensitive to their surroundings and will get sick or die if something is done wrong.
I think you’d be better off returning the remaining Glofish, researching proper fish care, and then going about the hobby the right way!
Glofish are not difficult to care for, but there are some basic requirements you should meet before getting them. First, you should not keep them in anything shorter than a 20 gallon long aquarium. They are incredibly active fish and need a lot of horizontal room for swimming. Second, your tank needs to be cycled completely with either pure, undyed and unscented ammonia or fish food. Read up on fishless cycling to find out how to do this. It will be at least a month and a half before you actually have fish in your tank. With glofish/zebra danios, you should have a school of at least five, and more is better. I am guessing that your fish died from shock from a sudden change in water temperature and water cheistry. This is why it’s important to acclimate your fish when introducing them to your aquarium. This is also why it is necessary to have a filtered, established tank that you only perform weekly partial water changes on. It’s important to do your research before getting any pet to avoid instances such as these.
It might be a salt water fish talk to a expert about what type of fish it is and what you should do.