Can I Save My Fish?

[poindexter]

I put fish in a barely cycled tank, i now know this is a VERY BAD thing, and I feel super guilty for the three fish that have died as a result, but i was wondering if there is a way I can make the tank a little nicer for the remaining residents? Its a warm 20gal, and it has a pleco (Sucky), a glass fish (Pisquali), a Green Tiger Barb (Speedy, who i kind of hate, he has a bad attitude), and two Neon Tetras (Ninja & Turtle -- Teenage & Mutant died ) Im getting some real plants and a water test kit tomorrow, is there anything else i can do? ~sarie

 

[smb]

About all you can do is to do small wc's every day. This will probably prolong the cycling process but it's worth it to try and help your fish out.

 

[aquamanis]

Hi Poindexter, are you sure the neons died from bad water? The tiger barb may have hounded them. Its not his fault though he just doing whats natural for him. You really need 6 TBs to stop them being aggressive. I would take that one back to the LFS if you can.

 

[guppymonkey]

I would try to get rid of those fish and get something easier to take care of like a few platies. Platies are a lot hardier than neons and can survive the cycle (usually). Or you could return the fish and do a fishless cycle and then get fish. I used a product I found called Cycle and it helped to reduce the fishless cycle to two weeks. And I haven't lost a fish in that tank since then (though I have lost some neons they always die because they are little wussy fish).