Big fish / small fish

[Magnum Man]

so, I've never had good luck with a few fish, over all the years & yet have had several that have likely died of old age, or grown so big, they have been able to jump out of even weighted covered tanks...

Angel fish have been my nemesis... ( part of the problem is likely my water, which I working on... RO unit installing ) but a good portion on my problem fish, have been little ones... again maybe small softer water fish aren't as resilient to hard water as bigger soft water fish... but even in seasoned tanks with plants & driftwood... my water is still pretty hard, I've never had a Neon, or Cardinal Tetra, last more than a day or so... & even Guppies that if I remember right can take harder water, have never seemed to last long... I used to feed some specific fish baby guppies 15 years ago, & yes they did breed, but I still had a higher mortality rate on adults than I should have, & often had to buy more adults to add to that breeding tank

I guess I'm just venting, & letting you aquarists that can keep & even breed smaller fish, know that I respect you, & am jealous of your abilities...

 

[emeraldking]

Sad to hear that you didn't had that much luck with keeping fish of any kind. But don't give up if it's your wish to keep them in a good way.

I guess I'm just venting, & letting you aquarists that can keep & even breed smaller fish, know that I respect you, & am jealous of your abilities..

Venting is okay! Everybody needs that from time to time...
I guess, you just need to take your time to get educated how to keep each specific species properly. Sometimes, when we want things to go fast, things may go wrong... And if you're just lucky, it will go really fine. But there's nothing wrong about taking your time. Start simple, end strong...

 

[Colin_T]

Maybe try getting fish from different shops and quarantining them.

If fish are dying within 24 hours of you getting them, they are either sick when you get them, the tank water is bad or completely different to the shop's water, or the fish are being handled badly at the shop or on the way home or during the acclimatisation period. Other possibilities include the fish having just come into the shop or the shop did a water change on the day you got the fish.

 

[GaryE]

I lived for as short a time as possible in a small town. The water was really high in mineral content, and in pH.

All my Amazonian fish died, but that was where I learned to choose fish for my water, and not doctor water for my fish. I had beautiful livebearers there.

The guy next door bought 6 neons every paycheque. He was stubborn, and after about 6 purchases, has 3 messed up looking neons lingering in his totally inappropriate water. I used to try to help him, even going with him to the store and showing him which fish would work in our awful water, but he was set in his ways.

At a certain point, you have to adapt. The fish can't. If I were you, I'd look for coastal fish from hard water.

 

[Colin_T]

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

What symptoms do the fish show when they die?

 

[Magnum Man]

I have have very hard well water… so hard that the whole house runs through a softener … I’m the process of installing an RO unit for the aquariums… will blend that in to start with, and add minerals, when I get to that point

 

[Magnum Man]

BTW… I filled the chamber on one of my magnum hot filters with those peat beads on my 45 gallon and no change on ph, carbonate hardness, or total alkalinity, in 3 days ( all 3 of these are maxed out n my test strips… pretty much determined, that if I’m going to keep 1/2 the fish I want, I’m going to need an RO unit for fish tank water

Funny how some softer water fish take hard water better than others… my barns are all doing excellent… the Cory’s in my rainbow fish tank have all grown a lot, and seem to be healthy and happy… my angels not so much

 

[Magnum Man]

Using my api test kit, on high ph, I got a ph reading of 8.2, after 3 days of running the peat beads in my filter… thinking RO is the only way

 

[anewbie]

If you have hard water try swordtails and guppies