cardinal neons

[caroliney]

Hi,

I bought a biorb and set it up, leaving the filter to run for over two weeks before I bought 3 silver tip's (barb's I think!). They were fine and swimming around happily for over a week.

On tuesday, I added 2 clown loaches, a red-tailed black 'shark' and 10 cardinal tetras. All the fish are fine apart from the tetras, of which there is only 1 left!

I have no idea what iIve done wrong and am now scared for the others and also worried about putting more fish in. But it looks quite empty so I would like to add more if its safe.

I must confess i haven't checked the ph value, just left the filter running, put the chemicals in to get rid of chlorine and get it ready for fish and made sure it was the right temperature.

Any reason why the cardinals didn't make it? And with the loaches and 'shark' what fish do you recommend i add at this stage - i would like some pretty mid-water swimmers. (I was thinking tiger barbs?)

Thanks,

Caroline

 

[sinistral]

Hi caroliney,

to the forums~~

I would recommend that the first thing you do is check out the pinned article at the top of this forum titled "Avoiding and Treating New Tank Syndrome". Here is the link to that topic. If this information is already something you understand thoroughly my apologies in advance.

I think what's likely happened is you may have added more fish before the tank was properly cycled. How large is your tank? I urge you to read this article which will probably answer most of your questions. Then, c'mon back and we can all discuss it!

 

[EddieW]

Caroline,

I agree with Sinistral that you added too many fish at once which your filtration could not deal with. Cardinal Tetras can be a bit delicate.

I am also going to have to upset you - the tank is WAY overstocked. As far as I know the Bi-Orb tanks are the 30 litre/7 UK gall globe type aquariums, if that is the case your maximum recommended stock level is about 12" of fish added gradually.

3 silver tips (tetras?) up to 1.2" each = 3.6"
2 clown loaches up to 9.8" each = 19.6"
1 red-tailed black 'shark' up to 4.7"
10 cardinal tetras up to 1.2" each = 12"

This is almost 40" of fish!!! The clown loaches need to go back to the shop as soon as possible in my opinion as they require a much much larger tank. They may be small at the moment but they will rapidly grow and need a tank at least 36" long or larger. They are also prone is Ich when stressed - were there are white dots on them or the dead tetras?

The red tail will also be unhappy in such a small tank as these can be hostile towards other fish. In a larger tank they will be able to mark out their own territory and leave the fish in the rest of the tank alone.

Personally I would take back the loaches and shark and get store credit to enable you to either buy some more cardinals (not 10) and a dwarf otocinclus or two to keep the algae under control.

The Bi-Orb is really only designed for small fish or one or two slightly larger but sedentary fish.

HTH, Eddie

 

[caroliney]

Hiya,

Firstly, thanks to all for your help. This forum is the best thing I've found to help with a new tank.

Although it will make me very sad I'm going to take my fish back to the shop tomorrow and start cycling my tank with no fish until i'm 100% sure it can cope. I've printed off the info on cycling and will follow to the letter.

In response to the amount of fish for the tank - will i ever be able to have a couple of small clown loaches? I could always take them back if they get too big?! (I am a real lover of them!)

I'll let you know how I get on...

Thanks again!

 

[caroliney]

Another quick question - I am going to need something to test the water. I've read about the various 5 in 1 type strips that test ph value, general and carbonate hardness, nitrite and nitrate.

Are these any good? I have seen the individual test kits and it looks quite expensive to buy them all?

I am a newbie that needs help!!

 

[waterwatereverywhere]

I haven't used the strips, but from what I've heard from those that have, I'm planning to get some. Apparently they're not as accurate as the individual liquid tests, but are quick and easy to use and give you a general idea of the tank conditions.

After all, any amount of nitrite in a cycled tank is bad, so if that shows up at all then there's a problem. Similarly, all you really need to know about nitrates is the rough order of magnitude, not to the nearest ppm.

So it's a balance really. I think I'm going to start using the strips for frequent check-ups, and one or two standard individual ones for things I'm more interested in getting exact readings for, such as pH, which I don't want to fluctuate much.

But as I said I've not used them yet - hopefully others who've used them might be able to give you their experiences.

 

[sinistral]

Hi caroliney,

Glad to hear things are starting to sort themselves out. I've never had clown loaches, but from what I understand they are quite active and need space. They really do grow to an impressive size for a common tropical fish. I don't know if it's the best policy to get fish that you plan to return, particularly from my perspective because I tend to get very attached to my pets and prefer to keep them if at all possible! Any possibility that you could get a larger tank???

Actually, I'm not joking about that, as bigger tanks tends to be more stable in terms of temperature and water chemistry. I got a 10 US gallon tank recently and can really tell the difference between that tank's stability (or lack thereof) and that of my original 29 US gallon tank (very stable!). Plus, with a larger tank you could get the clown loaches you're hoping for!

If I were you, I would get tests for pH, ammonia, and nitrIte. I think those are the most important startup tests (if you didn't have the money, you could probably get away with just ammonia and nitrite, but pH is very good to have as well). As long as you keep up with regular water changes I'd put less emphasis on testing for nitrAtes and kH. Also, general hardness tends to be quite stable over time. Unless you are getting something other than the typical hardy, newbie friendly freshwater fish (some more exotic types of fish require a specific degree of hardness), I wouldn't worry overmuch about gH and kH.

HTH~

 

[caroliney]

I can't really get a bigger tank now as I only got this one at the beginning of March for my birthday! It sounds like I should resort to taking the bigger (but very loved) fish back to the shop, waiting until my tank has 'cycled', then starting again with some smaller, hardier fish.

Any recommendations? I really like the tiger barbs despite their fin nipping! Would they live happily with an algae eating cat fish?

 

[sewfishy]

Hi Caroliney,
Is there any way you could return the Bi-Orb and convert the cash into a larger regular tank? They (Bi-orb) are rather expensive for the volume, although nice to look at, was it a gift? Would that person understand if you returned it providing of course it can be returned; if you explained your reasons? Just an option to prevent having to return any future fish.

Sewfishy

 

[caroliney]

Hi Sewfishy!

Oh dear! If only I had found out about this site before choosing the Bi-orb! It was from my parents who wouldn't mind me changing it, but I'm not sure its something you can return as it comes with all the bits, such as filter, light, gravel in bags etc which have all now been used. I'll see what I can do. Shame though - as you say, they do look really nice.

I'm going back to my local shop tomorrow and will see what they say. If I can't exchange it, I'll be back on here asking for more advice!

 

[sewfishy]

Good Luck! There are always future holidays to expand your set up.

SewFishy

 

[ted2]

Cardinals are fragile fish.
I once had the healthiest one in the shop die in a 2 mile transit!
My quickest fish failure.