4 Dead Fish Today

[Southyorkshirefishkeeper]

I have noticed that 4 of my fish have died today, 3 rumynose tetras and 1 angelfish.

My tank has been cycling for 20 days now, a few days ago i added some bactinettes to my tank to help produce more bacteria in the tank.

The remaining fish i have in my 45 gallon tank are 3 clownloaches, 1 angelfish, 5 zebra danios, 2 aqua dwarf frogs, 1 rummynose tetra and 3 neon tetras.

Yesterday i added a red tailed black shark to my tank and i have kept an eye on him alot, he never seems to annoy the other fish, i've always seen him keeping himself to himself.

Either ammonia levels have killed the fish or they have been bullied.

 

[lilfishie]

do you have the stats? if the tank has only been cycling 20 days then its probably ammonia or a nitrite spike, did you notice any odd behaviour?

 

[cheesy feet]

I am guessing as it is quite new (less then 3 weeks) it has not totally cylced.With the high bioload ammonia must of shot up.Either something like that or overheating i should think, weather has been hot and I lost alot of guppies due to that.

 

[Southyorkshirefishkeeper]

do you have the stats? if the tank has only been cycling 20 days then its probably ammonia or a nitrite spike, did you notice any odd behaviour?

No, the fish have been fine, they seem to be playing with each other and seem happy, they are eating ok as well but i think it could be a ammonia spike.

 

[lilfishie]

has there been a lot of chasing/nipping? and the loaches will need a bigger tank in future

 

[Southyorkshirefishkeeper]

has there been a lot of chasing/nipping? and the loaches will need a bigger tank in future

No i haven't seen any chasing or nipping, i haven't really got any fin nipping fish.

I will be getting a 150 gallon tank near the end of the year as i know clownloaches get quite big

 

[lilfishie]

glad to see your planning ahead, but for now if you don't have a test kit your best to get one, API master kits are recommended by many on here ebay usually has them at good prices have a read though THIS

 

[vinylman]

If you keep adding fish while the tank is trying to cycle, it's going to take some time. Please don't add any more fish, you're making the ammonia and nitrites worse. Please do some research. A fishless cycle would have made things much easier and your fish wouldn't be dying. It's not bullying. What advice were you given by your LFS when buying these fish?. It sounds like they don't have a clue. See if you can at least return the RTBS and Clown Loaches to the shop.

 

[Southyorkshirefishkeeper]

Thing is i added two pots of bactinettes to the tank afew days ago, i was told that i would be able to add some more fish once adding this as i would have added alot of live bacteria to the tank.

 

[vinylman]

That's what you should have done before you had any fish in there. You really need to take some fish back. Have you been taking advice from your LFS?. You already have unsuitable fish in your tank; all of them have been put into an uncycled tank. Neons shouldn't be added until 5-6 weeks after a tank has cycled and matured; the same for Angels - they're very sensitive to less than perfect water, as are the Clown Loaches. The RTBS sounds like an impulse buy - again, too many large fish in there including the Clowns. What you must remember when buying fish is the EVENTUAL size they'll reach. Don't rely on what the LFS tells you, research fish and their preferred conditions and tankmates first. You may move onto a larger tank later, but you need to do something about these unsuitable fish NOW. The answer to the problems in the tank is not to keep buying more fish. I'd think about starting again from scratch if you can get the shop to take the fish back for a credit note. I hope I'm not coming across as being consistently negative (the fact that you're posting here shows you want to put things right), but there is just so much wrong about that tank. There are lots of pinned threads and guides on this site that would have prevented your problems.