Help - Lost One After 24 Hours

[cdncrouton]

Hi all,

We just bought a tank, 10 gallon. Set it up and let it sit for a week, we introduced three cardinal tetras to it yesterday around 2 p.m. and one has now died about 7 p.m. today - he was alive albeit not wanting to swim with the other two, earlier today. One of the two remaining fish now seems to have part of his fin gone. We don't know what happened but it was there this morning. This same fish seems to be moving his lips rapidly - like he is gasping for air, if that was where he was breathing (which we know it is not).

Can someone help? We don't know what we are doing wrong. The tempature is about 25 and we don't have any of the test kits you are referring to. We bought a starter kit and it didn't come with anything but the chemicals, waste control, aqua plus and cycle. We have followed their instructions to the letter but don't know the problem. The water also does seem a bit cloudy - but not by much.

HELP

Thanks,
Mark and Becca

 

[bobbicus]

hope i aint hindered you with the pm!!!!

 

[jwddboy]

1st... the problem is probably that you r tank has not cycled. The fish in your tank may be dying from a thing called new tank syndrome.

The gasping you have seen IS caused by them not being able to breathe (as they breathe through the water) and is probably caused by one of these things:

1. (most likley) Your tank has only just started its cycle and you have just had an ammonia spike in your tank. This stops your fishes gills from working and makes them unable to breathe.

2. Your tank may also not have enough air in the water, make sure the top of your water has some movement on it, this will oxygenate your tank. It is a common missconception that the bubbles from an airstone airate your tank as they rise, the only way they add oxygen is when they surface and pop.

The cloudyness is probably caused because your tank may just start to have a bacteria bloom. This quite often happens during a cycle.

 

[bobbicus]

good luck mark & becca

i bet ALL of us on here and more besides have made errors - WE DEFINATELY DONT MAKE EM AGAIN!!

 

[@ombomb]

It's not what you want to hear, but the other two are goners as well unless you take them back to the shop as A the tank has now got plenty of ammonia in the water and no way of remoing it and B they need to be kept in decent sized groups.

Cycle the tank, research which fish you want to keep and start again is my advice.

As has been said already, many of us made the same mistakes when we set our first tanks, so don't be too hard on yourselves.

 

[cdncrouton]

Thanks everyone.

As the stores are closed and we can't take anything back tonight, we did a partial water change and will be buying test kits tomorrow. The store we bought the fish from is not close to us so unfortunately we may not be able to take them back during normal hours. Darn jobs - they get in the way

If either of us can swing it we will take them back tomorrow, otherwise we will test the water and continue doing water changes. We will post levels tomorrow night once we are home.

Thanks again to all for the advice and for being understanding. I think we will become regulars in this forum. We discovered today that we really don't know the first thing and it's not as easy as it looks.

Mark and Becca.

 

[jwddboy]

no problem. Thats what we are here for.

See you soon with those water parameters.

 

[cdncrouton]

So here's the update.. They made it.. The other two cardinals are happily swimming and seemed to have perked up a lot since the water change. We couldn't get to the store in time to get the kit - well a proper fish store. We had to go with the local department store. They only had an amonia test kit. Our water tested at 0.2.

We haven't fed them since yesterday - early afternoon, so when would you suggest doing so now?

We thought we would change the water again tomorrow, or should we do that tonight as well?

Thanks,

Hi all,

We just bought a tank, 10 gallon. Set it up and let it sit for a week, we introduced three cardinal tetras to it yesterday around 2 p.m. and one has now died about 7 p.m. today - he was alive albeit not wanting to swim with the other two, earlier today. One of the two remaining fish now seems to have part of his fin gone. We don't know what happened but it was there this morning. This same fish seems to be moving his lips rapidly - like he is gasping for air, if that was where he was breathing (which we know it is not).

Can someone help? We don't know what we are doing wrong. The tempature is about 25 and we don't have any of the test kits you are referring to. We bought a starter kit and it didn't come with anything but the chemicals, waste control, aqua plus and cycle. We have followed their instructions to the letter but don't know the problem. The water also does seem a bit cloudy - but not by much.

HELP

Thanks,
Mark and Becca