help! fish keep dying

[droogygirl]

Hi,

My son has a Splish & Splash tank, it is 5 Gallons. He has a 55w heater and a overflow filter.
AquaOne medium aquarium (36cm long, 19 litres)

We went to the fish shop and were given 8 fish to put in it, I am not sure what kind, one is an angel fish I think, 4 little blue fish that changes to green. one with a black body with red fins the name had shark on the end, and a silver one with black fins, and a little silver one with a round body i am not sure with the last one.

both the shark ones, (red & silver, black & silver) 3 of the little green/blue ones have died. the red & black one sort of floated around the tank, head down & tail up.looked like he was swimming upside down???

we use a water conditioner in the tank.

what I need to know is a) how many fish should we have in a tank this size, what tropical fish are good for kids (ie: pretty and long lasting) B) why are they dying?

it is really upsetting, I hate to think I am doing something wrong and causing the little dears to depart. any help would be great.

cheers,

 

[Susielyd]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate start to fishkeeping!
Have a look at the pinned articles in the beginner section - that will explain a lot
I would say that you will definately need to take the Angel back - what I have learned on this forum is that they need WAY more room than 5 gallons.
My guess is that the others have died from ammonia poisoning if the tank is uncycled (read about cycling in the beginner section)
I have a 6 gallon tank and started with 2guppies and 3 platties & was advised by many that I was at my absolute limit if not overstocked. When stocking a tank a general rule is 1 inch of adult fish per gallon~ so when you have 8 fish in a 5 gallon that are presumably not full grown, there is an overstocking issue (even though I don't know the grown sizes of your fish). Some don't follow that rule, but as a newbie I found it helpful to at least get started until you know a bit more aobut the fish and what they need etc etc
It is unfortunate that most LFS (local fish shops) don't really know what they are doing - but at least you ended up here, there are lots of very cluey people and I think most started in your same position (I sure did!!!).

So anyway - have a look at the pinned stuff in beginners, get test kits for Ammonia & NitrIte asap and let us know how you go

Kind regards,
Susan

 

[WILDER]

Sorry there isn't much choice in fish for a 5 gal, if you want to keep a wider selection you need a bigger tank, the bigger the better, only thing for a 5gal is one betta, sorry for your losses. R.I.P., did the lfs who sold you the fish no that they were going in a 5gal if so that's disgusting.

 

[droogygirl]

hi,

I don't think it is an angel fish, I was looking at pictures, it kinda looks like one but smaller.

There are 3 left now, little ones, but they seem to be doing really well.

yeah the guy did know, I told him what kind of tank it was.

so in 5g tank, only 1 fish??

what is a good size tank?

 

[B75]

The bigger the tank the better.

 

[BettaMomma]

You should give the fish store a call and ask him to get on this forum and LEARN about fish. He obviously doesn't know what he's doing. I wonder how many other folks he's misdirected and how many fish's lives have been lost due to that. YIKES.

Depending on what type of fish your son really likes, I'd get something like a little Eclipse 12 gallon - you can have your fish in it that you already have (you'll have to find out what kind they are, to figure out what other ones can go with him) but once your 5 gallon tank has gone through it's cycle (read the pinned article on cycling) you'll be able to use gravel from that to seed the bigger tank.

THEN... you can make your 5 gallon a great home for a beautiful betta.

 

[BettaMomma]

OH, and do you really have a 55 Watt heater for a 5 gallon tank?
You should have 5 watts per gallon, so you should get a 25 W heater instead for that tank!

 

[fishys]

no clue y there dyin but try and get a betta there cool cause u can get any color u want and myby a dwarf frog would be cool

 

[SMSBrunetteGirl]

I think your son`s overstocked

 

[WILDER]

Take a look here also it will tell what size tank they should have been in.
http/species.fishindex.com/search.php?p=...0tailed%20shark

 

[Eric9647]

In addition to the above statements, it sounds like the tank is not cycled. Initially, you need to purchase goldfish to raise the ammonia and nitrate. after 4-7 weeks, both should drop down to nearly zero and the tank is healthy for exotic fish.

- Eric

 

[rocknurworld2006]

i am assomunig the blue little fish are probably neon tetras and they are sensitive to water conditions. As everyone else has said you are way overstocked but its not your fault, it has happened to us all. I would get rid of the angel as neons will nip it and its gonna get far too big for a tiny tank like that. Also you shouldnt have red tailed black shark in there or the silver one which i assume is the silver shark which can grow to 30cm! so really you should only have a small shoal of neons for that tank out of these fish. The reason for the deaths will be ammonia poisining as previously said by susielyd. Your tank needs to cycle before adding fish.

 

[theredguy]

did you bed the tank in before adding the fish, you need to run the tank with just water and gravel for at least two weeks before adding fish so the freindly bacteria has time to grow in the filter so the fish waste can be broken down once the fish are added. also adding too many fish too fast no matter what size or age tank you have is not good unless your really good at fish keeping and really clever[/font]

 

[kribensis12]

Got any pic's? So we could identify them? I hope you get a bigger tank and the fish live!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You need to learn up about water quality in aquariums and how it works, once you've got the water quality sussed out and working well then your fishes chances of survival will increase dramatically.

When you set up a tank with a filter and fish, a beneficial nitrifying bacteria starts to establish itself inside the filter, this bacteria converts ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates.
Ammonia and nitrites are harmful to fish and without the nitrifying bacteria to convert them into relatively harmless nitrates, toxins like ammonia will quickly build up in the tank from stuff like fish poop and will kill all of the fish off.

The process of the nitrifying bacteria establishing itself is called "cycling" and you need to buy some accurate water quality testing kits to see how bad or good your water quality is and at what point in the cycle the tank is at etc so you can know if you need to do any sudden water changes etc (doing small/medium sized water changes is the best way to lower harmful toxins like nitrites or ammonia in the tank etc). You don't want ammonia or nitrites to build up lots while the tank is cycling (which they will do if you have a lots of fish in the tank and it is not very large) because of the harm such toxins do to fish.

For more info on understanding how the water quality in your tank works (which i recommend), click on this link below;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099




Fishkeeping takes responsability, and although looking after fish may be less work than looking after a pet like a dog, they still need a lot of care and can differ greatly in their needs and basic requirements. Some fish sold at petshops can grow to over 4ft in length, others only 4inches, some fish can live for 50yrs while others only 5yrs etc, and many petshop staff are not very well trained when it comes to keeping fish (petshops are no more obliged to tell people how to look after fish properly than what car dealers are to tell people how to be good drivers), so you need to research these things and arm yourself with knowledge before even going down to the petshop .

You need to find out what type of fish you have exactly and buy some water quality test kits so you can find out what state the water quality of your tank is in and how to look after your fish, since if you do not even know what they are you cannot hope to look after them properly.
Fishkeeping can be a very enjoyable and rewarding hobby, and nothing looks better than a brightly lit and beautifully decorated aquarium with happy and healthy fish swimming about in it going about their day to day lives, but you need to know and understand what you are doing and be prepared to look after the fish well to acheive this .