New fish behaving most odd

[flump1]

We are the proud owners of two silver sharks , barely two inches long . We readied the tank, had the water running for weeks before introducing new fish. We did the introduction of new fish ( bag in water ) thing. About four hours later they are falling backwards in the water , barely swimming , just kind of floating about almost vertical. Most odd. Anyone come across this before ?

[wildwood]

The best way to introduce fish is to test the water that they come in and your water. There are cheap testing kits available for this. If you only have one tank, take some water with you to the shop. Any half decent shop owner would test both and suggest how to balance the change over.

[B00]

As wildwood has mentioned- did you test the water before adding the fish?

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

[flump1]

Hi guys ...yes the water was tested and was all ok . The fish where we got ours from may have been dodgy ...they tell me now...there were some dead fish in tanks . I am at a loss otherwise.

[icemaiden]

Hi flump

Very disappointing for you. It could well be where the fish have come from but....ideally the best fish to start with would be mountain minnows or zebra danios. Silver sharks are not really good for being the first fish in a newly set up tank. Minnows and danios are a lot hardier and will help mature the tank.

[flump1]

Thanks for that ice, I will pass that on .

[Stationmistress]

What is the temperature of your tank? Check the heater/your thermometer is working properly. We've got an external filter and can see it working as we fill the tank half way up the pipe so we can always see - have you checked yours?
I'd recommend the thinkfish site - we had a few emergencies when we started up and it can be very costly. Bala sharks are lovely fish and we have two - they grow to a large size, ours are at least 12 cm now - to be comfortable they need at least a 400L tank when fully grown, they like to swim in a straight line.