Nearly new to aquarium life

[BLK]

Hello! It's been over twenty five years (Jeez!) since I dabbled in aquarium care. Back then I had a pretty successful experience with several hardy species of fish: Tetras, Danios, Tiger Barbs, a larger and beautiful catfish... . Many of them remained energetic and seemingly well for about a year, after which i re-homed them prior to moving out of state to pursue a college degree. Fast forward to today I'm now 3 months or so into the hobby and am enjoying every bit of it, minus, however, a few deaths These deaths have been heartbreaking and are from causes that are still unclear, but my goal is to more deeply understand the intricate needs of fish as well as learn from my mistakes, preferably sooner rather than later. I enjoy research and science, love animals and am in this for the long haul. But can't do it all by myself. Needing an aquarium tribe to journey along with. Grateful to have found this site and look forward to getting to know you and receiving guidance and helping others along the way! Thanks in advance for your patience.

 

[Byron]

That is a good approach. Welcome to TFF.

 

[Avel1896]

These deaths have been heartbreaking and are from causes that are still unclear

Hey
The only way to suggest cause(s) is to know all this past or present :

Setup :
Pics of the tank/pond
Liters/gallons
Live plants
Nitrogen cycle
Filter capacity
Temp.

Parameters :
pH
GH (hardness)
KH (alkalinity)
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitrates
Water changes
Tests
Livestock number and species

 

[flowman]

Welcome! Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose fish, but it's a lot more fun when they thrive.

 

[Metalman]

Hello! It's been over twenty five years (Jeez!) since I dabbled in aquarium care. Back then I had a pretty successful experience with several hardy species of fish: Tetras, Danios, Tiger Barbs, a larger and beautiful catfish... . Many of them remained energetic and seemingly well for about a year, after which i re-homed them prior to moving out of state to pursue a college degree. Fast forward to today I'm now 3 months or so into the hobby and am enjoying every bit of it, minus, however, a few deaths These deaths have been heartbreaking and are from causes that are still unclear, but my goal is to more deeply understand the intricate needs of fish as well as learn from my mistakes, preferably sooner rather than later. I enjoy research and science, love animals and am in this for the long haul. But can't do it all by myself. Needing an aquarium tribe to journey along with. Grateful to have found this site and look forward to getting to know you and receiving guidance and helping others along the way! Thanks in advance for your patience.

Hi BLK and welcome back to the lovely life of aquarium life.
My wife and I do a diff approach to most here and have purely natural tanks, no chemicals used plenty of plants and no water changes EVER.
We feed the fish max twice a week and not too much I must add, so we force the fish to be fish and forage for food.....so clean tank themselves. In nearly a year we have had no deaths apart from two mollies (white) the wife got actually four of them and for some reason they didn’t fit in so two died and other two I moved to upstairs tank and doing ok.
Now all fish going well to extent that every month a new batch of live bearers are born and we now leave them to fend for themselves.
So enjoy and have fun with back to tank life

 

[Jadzir]

Hi and welcome.

 

[Metalman]

What kind of fish do you keep? How big‘s the tank? Or tanks.

Hi Jenny ok large tank is 200ltr and fish as I can recall (wife’s tank)
4 black mollies 1-2”
1 large bristlenose cat
1 old rainbow schiclid (mr grumpy)
4 pentazona barbs
8 neon tetras
4 olgae corys (the masons)
2 Pakistani loaches (the chuckle brothers)

My tank upstairs 40ltr

3 pearl gourami
6 yellow fin tetras
2 white mollies
8 black mollies (from brooder tank)
2 small loaches pakistani

 

[itiwhetu]

Give us a photo. A photo is like a thousand words. By the way Welcome, I hope you have a happy journey we are here to help as much as we can.

 

[Avel1896]

Hello

4 black mollies 1-2”

8 black mollies (from brooder tank)

Mollies are hard alkaline water fishes that have nothing to do with your other fishes thar are soft acidic water ones.

 

[Avel1896]

Hi @BLK could you please answer the questions I touched above ?

 

[FishHobby99]

Once, sadly not too long ago, I was do dumb I thought mollies were cold water goldfish. Like the Dalmatian ones

 

[Avel1896]

Once, sadly not too long ago, I was do dumb I thought mollies were cold water goldfish. Like the Dalmatian ones

I love Mollies, so many colors and patterns !

 

[FishHobby99]

Yes, nice fish! Guy at pet store keep one male for every 2 or 3 females. Are they little polygamists?

 

[Avel1896]

Many fishes are polygamists

 

[Avel1896]

Maybe................ partner-swapping