2/3 Fish dead in a week

[abelo]

I am new to the game. I was given a 5 gallon tank and filter by a friend that knew I wanted to start a aquarium. After going to store I walked out with a 50watt heater, some Stress Zyme, ChlorOut, a test kit, an air pump with a rock and tube that attache to it. I was told to come back in two days and i could get some fish. So due to the Electrical Blackout of the century I went back after 3 days. I picked up 1 Balloon Mollie, 1 Royal Red Velvet swordtail and a bloodfin tetra. I asked a number of times if the fist would live we together and was told by what seemed to be a summer student and his manager the college student that all was well and I would be fine.

Well about 3 days later I found the Mollie on the bottom of the tank. This after a day of just kind of swimming in the same spot for minutes on end. Then today I found the Swordtail on the bottom of the tank. The tetra seems to be alive still but I don't know for how long.

After having done more investigation I have read that the Mollie like salt in the water and someone else told me that possibly the Swordtail likes salt. Could this be? Should the people at the store not have told me this? I must admit that I find this a bit discuraging.

I just checked the levels in the water and the Nitrite has seemed to have spiked but this was not the case last night or before the first fish died.

I think I should have known not to buy from them when they gave me conflicting reports as to if I needed to check the acidity of the water and didn't tell me what temperature they I should set them at.

I will admit that I may have been somewhat naive in my purchase but I went into it thinking that the sales guy would give me advice unlike thinking the sales man was basically like a car sales man and just there to sell high volume. And yes this was an Aquarium only store. With about 15 locations accrues Canada.

Does anyone have any advice for me to before I venture out to buy some more fish to put in. I intend on just building it up slowly and thought that three was slow. Should I just stick with the Tetra in there for a few more weeks and see how that survives then add one fish at a time?

 

[Alien Anna]

Don't be too hard on yourself - but do try to learn from your mistake. Mistake #1: You trusted a Local Fish Shop employee

OK, fish keeping is not straightforward and you're bound to make a lot more mistakes before you're through, but if you hang around here and are prepared to learn, it should be fine in the end and very rewarding

Your first and biggest problem is that your tank is not "cycled". This means the beneficial bacteria that break down the fish waste into harmless nitrates have not got established. The bacteria convert the ammonia from fish waste into nitrite, and then nitrite into nitrate. I suspect your molly died from an ammonia spike and sadly, you may lose the other fish before the tank is completely cycled.

However, you can reduce the risk not by buying anything more, particularly chemicals (except dechlorinator) and doing a 10-15% water change every day until both ammonia and nitrite read zero. At that point you can review your fish stock situation and decide what to do next.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pH or salinity of the water at this stage (the molly was the only fish that really needed salt and the tetra wouldn't cope well with it, I suspect). I would assume the pH is about the same as the LFS anyway. Just get the Nitrogen Cycle going and make sure the water is free of toxins. In the meantime, study your fish and learn as much as you can. With luck, they'll both survive.

For future reference, a 5 gal tank is considered small so you'll have to be modest in the number of fish you finally keep in it. A rough rule-of-thumb is one inch of fish (not including tail) per gallon, but in a small tank you could probably squeeze in a little more. However, be aware that the down side is that small tanks have much more unstable water quality and you may have to work harder than with a larger tank. Tetras are schooling fish, so should not really be kept in groups less than 4 (6-8 would be better). I'm not very familiar with swords, but I suspect they also like to be in groups.

I suggest that once your tank is cycled you add another 3 or 4 tetras. Bloodfins can grow to around 2" long by adulthood, so you may well be looking at upgrading to a 10 gal tank soon. I'm a little worried to read that swordtails can grow to 5" long, but I also see they are happy on their own so that sounds all right. Watch for the tetras nipping his tail. Make sure they've got some plants and "caves" to hide in, and if you can get a small piece of bogwood to go in there, it would be a good investment (do pre-soak it for a couple of weeks, however).

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[bigfish]

Tropicals like to be like to be kept at 25'C. first things first i would check to see what Ph your water is at, as some species like swords and mollies prefer Ph of 7.6 to 8.0.

Your nitrite spike could of have happened from over feeding while the tank is still cycling.

I wouldn't add any more fish until or ammonnia and nitrite levels have reached zero, then i would add 1-2 more fish and then wait and see what your levels are.

I would do 10% water change everyday or couple of days to keep the levels down while tank is cycling.

Swords and mollies do like salt but isn't always necessary.

HTH

 

[Alien Anna]

P.S. Only feed your fish a tiny amount of food every other day. Fish are cold blooded and require much less food than mammals, but excess food will increase the ammonia and nitrite in your tank. Fasting is actually good for fish.

 

[jerenycool]

everyone makes mistakes it will be fine

 

[Pufferpack]

Welcome to the wonderful world of fish keeping ....you have been given lesson #1...Do your research before buying...NEVER take the advise of the lfs unless you know you can trust them, and even then double check on the forums with some of the experienced fish keepers for their opinions ...best rule of thumb to remember "Shops will lie/misinform to sell fish" , while not all shops are this way, many just have staff working for them that are sometimes uninformed themselves.
I got into fishkeeping because one lfs sold my wife 6 Dwarf puffers and assured her that they were "great for a community tank" ...well after a few ripped fins and dead fish I adopted them and gave them their own tank....the rest is history

You are on the right track, use the single fish to "cycle" your tank (the process of maturing the tank enviroment so that there is enough "good" bacteria to convert the waste chemicals; ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) which will take upwards of 6 weeks. After your tank is cycled you can continue to slowly add a couple fish at a time (too many new additions will cause your tank to go through a mini-cycle). Try to stick to the general rule of 1 inch of fish (expected full grown size) per 1 gallon of fish, so 5 inches of fish for your tank (which is not many).

edit: Hows that for quick replies, there were none when I started typing

 

[Alien Anna]

Oh, I've just re-read the original post and realised she only has one tetra left. I feel a bit sorry for the poor fellow all alone like that but it wouldn't be sensible to risk any more fish. A small school of tetras in a tank with some attractive plants and a bit of bogwood would be a good place to start (while you save up for your bigger tank!)

 

[smb]

Welcome to the wonderful world of fish keeping ....you have been given lesson #1...Do your research before buying...NEVER take the advise of the lfs unless you know you can trust them, and even then double check on the forums with some of the experienced fish keepers for their opinions ...best rule of thumb to remember "Shops will lie/misinform to sell fish" , while not all shops are this way, many just have staff working for them that are sometimes uninformed themselves.

Just wanted to say that I couldn't agree more.

Listen to pufferpack because this is sound advice, imo.

There are many here that know so much and pufferpack is definitely one of them. Another I would listen to as gospel is cichlidmaster. They know their stuff and so do so many others here. It's unbelievable the knowledge present here at this forum.

 

[ostrow]

Your tetra is unlikely to be happy alone. With that size tank, either a small school of tetras (you could handle maybe 5 of them), or return the tetra and try others like livebearers (mollies/platies/swords), etc.

I disagree that you could "squeeze more" in a smaller tank. In fact it is the opposite as water quality is harder to manage.

I keep a 6G tank for goldfish for my son. They don't live much more than a month or two. We keep 2 in there, should only keep one. Prior to this I tried platies in that tank and had no success keeping them alive.

That doesn't mean it's impossible. But small, frequent, regular water changes will be essential -- at least weekly change 1-2 gallons.

Let it settle with the bloodfin while you decide what to keep. Then, if the tetra perishes, when the water is stable try the fish you like, or, if the tetra survives either get him some mates or return him if you can and pick up some others. By the way, mollies have been known to be aggressive in small tanks (I had one that was so bad I had to bring him back to the shop), though this is supposedly rare.