Is this normal

Elfëa

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We - me and my partner - bought a fish tank few weeks ago. I've never had fish before, and it's been years since my bf had a tank (it was his dad's really... :rolleyes: )

Anyway this is what we did:

We bought second hand tank - app. 2ftx1ftx1ft. And we bought some chemicals - tapwater thing and Ph 6,5 thing... (I wish my English was better here...) And of course, water tester kit.
Because we were impatient we bought some fish next day - the water test at the LFS was perfect according them. And we got:

2 chocolate mollies
2 female guppies 1 male
2 sunset platy

the recommended not buying any plants for new tank.

The fishes seemed happy and all...

Few days later, another LFS we bought (yes, I know, too early, but :no: that's just me... :no: )

1 male betta
5 neon tetras

Day later one of our chocolate mollies died for no apparent reason - we tested the water, all normal (to the instructions of yet another LFS where bf bought the chemicals) basicly: NO3 <25mg, NO2<14mg, KH 3 (who on earth I'm gonna do taht circle up in the air?) and ph 6,5. I know now (after lurking here) that the test kit should test for at least ammonia as well.

Then, 2 days later apparently the other chocolate molly had babies. We managed to see the last one of them being eaten :( (Having been away all day)

Few days later our betta started to look bit down - and eventually hid behind the heater constantly and, according the man, prolly burnt himself. Anyway, he died. We took him back to the fish shop, as they provided their fishes with warranty - they wanted water sample too.
Only thing they said about the water was that ammonia was bit high, but that would be expected with the betta dying - and also that the water was due for change next day really...
We bought some plants for the refund, to provide more oxygen in the tank. (as we're waiting for new airpump to arrive on postal order, as the one that came with the tank was packed up. Currently the filter pump provides the air in the water. And it's hell noisy...)

Next day bf did 50% water change. And managed to kill (we assume) one of the guppies...
Then the male guppy choked on bloodworm... that he'd been prolly choking on for a day...
And later same day, neon tetra decided to get stuck in the filter...

And today I found neon tetra dead.

Water statistics stay all the same all the time.


Is this amouth of deaths really normal, are we just unlucky or is our tank cursed? :no:
 
Well, you added way too many fish way too quickly. Tanks have to establish their cycle first - the process that converts the ammonia from fish waste into nitrite and from there, into nitrate. Without that cycle being established, the tank just couldn't handle all that ammonia that your fish were producing. Your fish probably died from ammonia poisoning.

Shame on the lfs for letting you stock so much so quickly.

Check out the topics pinned to the top of the forum, especially Avoiding and Treating New Tank Syndrome.
 
No, the amount of ammonia is down that's the thing - we've had the water tested by several lfs and by the kit we've got as well so I don't know how it could be ammonia? :unsure:

And I've been thru all the pinned topics... several times ;) (I'm internet freak kinda... or have too much time)
 
I am in Sweden and I get Tetra Bactozym that comes from Germany, this is a gel tab that puts the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate in the system. I also use tetra aquasafe to fix the tap water when I do a water change. Check yor temperature as well. Plants can go in right away and help to absorb some nitrate but partial water changes(20-40%) are needed to get the nitrates down.HTH
 
Hehe, I'm actually from Finland but live in Uk ;)

Tempature - according the metre (damn my spelling) that came with the tank - 26C and our accurate metre says 25C...
 

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