3 wk old 10 Gallon Tank

[txbelle221]

I had a male Betta that I had for about 9 months, "King Arthur", that I absolutely adored. I started out with the vase, then moved him to a 1.5 gal, then I decided he needed more room so I bought a 10 gallon tank with a filter and air. After running for 2 days I put him in the tank and he did really well. He seemed to love it. I then decided that he needed some company, so the following week I went to Petco and asked the person working there what I could put with my Betta. She suggested that I only get Mollies or Platys since anything else would possibly be a fin nipper or he might be aggressive towards them and she said that I should put no more than 5 total in the tank. So I bought 2 Silver Lyretail Molly, 1 Dalmation Molly and 1 orange colored Platy(all of them female). They all did well together for the first 4 days or so. Then I found my Dalmation dead under my "bubble treasure chest" I thought she had gotten caught underneath it and died so I just unplugged it. I went back to Petco and bought another Dalmation Molly and 2 more Platys and two days later the Dalmation was dead, then one of my Silver was dead(she was pregnant) then after that the next day I woke up and my Betta was missing almost all of his tail and was strangely discolored all the way up on his body. I couldn't figure out if it was tail rot, velvet or ich. I immediately got my vase and put fresh water in it and put him in there hoping that he would get better, but he didn't. He died that night . Then my other Silver Molly gave birth and she died. All the fry died too. One of my Platys gave birth that same day and I managed to net 5 of those and put in my fry net.
Now this is where I am: All my Platys are doing great. I finally bought Test strips and started checking my water and my water is very soft--registers 0 on the strip. I tried putting bottled drinking water in the tank when I changed the water but it doesn't seem to help. This is the reading that I got tonight after I changed 3 gallons of the water with drinking water and not my tap water(which I used to set the tank up with):
Nitrate 30
Nitrite 0
Hardness 0
Alkalinity 120
PH between 7.8 and 8.4

I am ready to replace my Betta and would like to get something else to put in there with him and the Platys. I am just wondering if the soft water is what caused all of my problems(aside from not cycling long enough)but the one Platy has been in there since the start and she is doing great. Or what about the high Ph level?

Any advice from anyone? I would appreciate any help that can be given. BTW, I have been reading the forum for the last couple of weeks and I have learned an enormous amount of information.
Thanks,
Christy

 

[sinistral]

to the forum!

Sorry to hear about your recent losses I'm a relative newbie myself, but if I had to guess, I would say it's a variant of new tank syndrome.

What's your ammonia measure at? I don't know if fish can die from hardness, but if I had to hypothesize, I'd wager that adding the five fish to the uncycled 10 gallon might have been too stressful. It's possible that the tank got an ammonia spike not long after the addition of your new fish, and that's what killed the mollies and stressed your betta sufficiently to the point where he couldn't ward off disease. I'm interested to hear how you were feeding the fish. Did the lady from petco sell you a dechlorinator? Another guess is that platies tend to be rather hardy. I don't know about mollies never having kept them, but I've heard different things about their ability to tolerate stress. Perhaps one of the experts can chime in...

As long as your water conditions are stable over time I think that's the most important thing. The pH where I'm from is about 7.6-8.0 after dechlorination, and I don't do anything to adjust the water other than try to keep up with water changes. Your betta sounds like he did very well for over 9 months in those water conditions too!

Before going any further I think it would be important to find out what the ammonia level is. I'm really happy to hear that you weren't discouraged by what happened to the point that you wanted to give up on fish!

 

[big_fresh]

I agree with sinistral, setting up your 10g tank for 2 days before putting in 5 fish + your Betta could be the cause of your fish dying.

However the problem with your betta losing its tail fin???

 

[txbelle221]

I had a sample dechlorinator that I had used, but had a hard time measuring it for the water changes so I bought some other dechlorinator at wal-mart. As far as feeding, I had Betta pellets for my Betta, that he seemed to like better than anything else, and I continued to feed those to him and the Mollies seemed to like them too. I am using sample"Tropical Fish" flakes for my Platys, they can't seem to eat the pellets but they clean up every little crumb in the tank. I also bought some freeze dried brine shrimp for a "treat".

Before I purchased the 10 gallon tank I had my Betta in the 1.5 gal, I just used regular bottled drinking water for his water changes so I didn't have to mess with the dechlorinator.

My test strips don't test for ammonia, when I bought them(at Wal Mart) there were only two kinds to choose from so I will try to find something today.

I didn't realize that I was going to enjoy my fish so much, although I do miss my Betta, I have to keep trying!!

 

[Idolz]

when you rushed to put the betta in a new vase you may have put him in shock because of the temperature changing so quickly. Also like sinistral said, no benificial bacteria.

 

[sinistral]

I am using sample"Tropical Fish" flakes for my Platys, they can't seem to eat the pellets but they clean up every little crumb in the tank. I also bought some freeze dried brine shrimp for a "treat".

I didn't realize that I was going to enjoy my fish so much, although I do miss my Betta, I have to keep trying!!

My platies are terrific also about poking around in the plants and gravel for food. They eat algae too, although not quite like an oto or chinese algae eater might.

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the hobby and that you'll keep trying! I've toyed around with the thought of getting a betta to put in a 5 gallon tank because they are so attractive.

I'm interested to hear what your plan is now about stocking the 10 gallon.

 

[txbelle221]

Well, the plan now is another Betta.....I just got back from buying 2!!! I couldn't pick so I bought both of them and now I have to decide which one to take home for the 10 gallon and which one to set up in my office(I already have my 1.5 gal set up in my office with a Betta that my boss' daughter didn't want). I went back by Petco to get a couple more Platys(since they do so well in my tank) and I had two very unique ones picked out and it turns out that the tank had ich, so the saleslady didn't want to sell them(which is fine with me ) So I told her that I would just come back next week.

 

[sinistral]

That's terrific!! B) Best of luck with your new bettas. You're making me think I should set up a small tank and get one...

 

[txbelle221]

Thanks ....You should get a Betta....they are very entertaining fish.....of course I am new to the other fish so I am sure there are others out there that are just as entertaining. I know I'll get the hang of it. Thanks everyone for the advice.

 

[txbelle221]

I just added a pic of one of my new Bettas.....I made him my avatar. I am going to try to get some better pics to post on the aquarium pic section.