New Tank (Keeping My Fish Alive) :(

[pufferk]

Hello Fish experts I am brand new to this whole aquarium upkeep but i am very interested in learning on how to do it right and keep my great fish alive. I first went to 3 different fish shops and got told three different things. From everything i have read online i'm sure i'm doing something wrong and don't want my fish to die. So here is what i have done so far. Last week i bought a 20g aquarium. I hooked up the air pump with the filter and put the stress coat drops and the other stress zyme drops into the water and let it sit for 48 hours. I then purchased 3 different kind of fish and placed them in the aquarium. The water started to get a bit foggy so i know it wasn't clean. I then went to a different fish shop and they told me to purchase a bigger filter and it would clear it up right away if i did a water exchange. So yesterday i did a 5 gallon water exchange and put some more stress and zyme drops in the water. It cleared up a tiny bit. Well my lil sister was extra fascinated by the new tank and purchased two more fish to add to the tank. I placed them in this morning. but from what i am reading that was a bad idea. Now i have 5 fish in the tank the aquarium was just purchased on Tuesday and the water is still not clear. What can i do to save my fish and also get the water clear? Please help!!! thank you so much.

you can either right me back on this forum or email me at [email protected]

 

[jamesmacc]

you didnt cycle the tank before adding th fish? the fish will quite likly die from the huge ammonia levels as there is no bacteria to break it down to nitrite and then nitrate. i would rehome the fish and do a fishless cycle or try a fish-in cycle. im sure one of the experts will come along and explain the cycle, if you google it you will see hundreds of pages on how to do it.
and welcome to the site

 

[CezzaXV]

If you look in the beginner's resource centre at the top of this forum, there are some very detailed guides on how to cycle your tank. Unfortunately you've already got fish so you're stuck doing a fish-in cycle. The short version is very frequent water changes, but do go read the guide for more details.

 

[fluttermoth]

You'll probably need to do 50% water changes daily; that should keep your fish safe while you read up on fish-in cycles and the nitrogen cycles (in the beginner's resource centre, link in my sig) and get yourself sorted with some test kits; you need only ammonia and nitrite ones for the moment; you don't need to worry about pH, nitrate or hardness until your cycle is finished.

Make sure your new water is warmed and dechlorinated, and don't let the fish shops talk you into any 'filter starts' or 'tonics' or 'algae away' products, you don't need them; the best thing for your fish right now is plenty of good, clean water.

Don't worry too much abou the clarity of the water; hydrochloric acid is clear, but it wouldn't do your fish much good! Your tank is just experiencing a 'bacterial bloom' (not the same kind of bacteria that we want in the filter, unfortunately!). It's very common in new tanks and is harmless to fish and will soon clear up with some water changes.

Can you find out what kind of fish you have? If you post pics (you'll need to upload them to a hosting site, like Photobucket or Flickr first) we can identify them for you. Not all fish are suitable for all tanks, or to be kept together.

 

[moochy13]

1. take your fish back if you can, if not do what fluttermoth said.

2. dont listen to any lfs ever again, they are full of #105### and just want your money. suggesting a bigger filter was just trying to ge more money out of you. if your tank came with a filter, it should be up to the job, for now at least.

 

[the_lock_man]

1. take your fish back if you can, if not do what fluttermoth said.

2. dont listen to any lfs ever again, they are full of #105### and just want your money. suggesting a bigger filter was just trying to ge more money out of you. if your tank came with a filter, it should be up to the job, for now at least.

Any fish shop that doesn't diagnose cloudy water in a brand new tank as being a bacterial bloom is, in my eyes, discredited. Whether that was a deliberate attempt to separate you from your money, or just plain incompetence, I wouldn't like to say. There are some good LFS around, I think Moochy is overstating things rather, the trick is to recognise a good one when you find it.

It would be interesting to know which species of fish you currently have.

As Fluttermoth says, it is imperative that you get test kits for ammonia and nitrite, make sure they are liquid-based, not the paper strips, which are notoriously unreliable.

If you've not got around to reading those articles others have suggested, the precis is that fish produce ammonia as they live and respirate. This ammonia is poisonous. In the fullness of time, you will grow some bacteria colonies in your filter. They will turn the ammonia into nitrite (also poisonous) and the nitrite into nitrate (which is much less harmful).

In the meantime, there is only one way to remove those poisons from your aquarium - taking water out, and putting fresh water back in (making sure it's been dechlorinated, and is roughly the same temperature). And you'll be needing to do this every day for several weeks.

I'm sure you'll have loads of questions, I certainly did when I was new to the hobby - just ask them, however silly you think the questions are. THere are loads of people on this forum who can and will answer any questions.

Good luck!

 

[moochy13]

i might have over exaggerated, but ive been in 8 local shops, armed with a couple of specific questions that i know the asnwers to - from here - and none of them told me the right info. some were close, some were genuinely trying hard but wrong, and some were blatantly winging it and trying to sell me stuff i didnt need or couldnt have. once you've built up a bit of knowledge, and have researched about what you want/have, you can use any lfs you want beause you're not going to get fobbed off. you might have a disagreement with shop staff, but hey-ho, go spend your money somewhere else.

 

[pufferk]

Thank you everybody so much for replying it has been very very helpful.!

Having good clean water for the fish does seem like the best option at this point. But how again do i get clean water im a bit confused? last night i did another 5gallon water change. What i did is took 5 gallons out and then put 5 new gallons of tap water in a bucket and 1 table spoon of both the stress and zyme coat in that water. waited a little bit and then poured that 5 gallons back into the tank to make it full. Am i doing this water change correctly? I have 5 different fish and i believe they all get along in exception for 1 kind of looks like a white skinny catfish. I will post pictures of the fishes later on today.

Thank you. Thank you.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, it sounds like you're doing your water exchanges perfectly; you only need to use the stress coat though; the stress zyme claims to contain the helpful bacteria, but in actual fact there's veery little evidence that it does any good, the bacteria need a food source and flowing water to stay alive, so will just die off in a bottle.

 

[HayzH]

Thank you everybody so much for replying it has been very very helpful.!

Having good clean water for the fish does seem like the best option at this point. But how again do i get clean water im a bit confused? last night i did another 5gallon water change. What i did is took 5 gallons out and then put 5 new gallons of tap water in a bucket and 1 table spoon of both the stress and zyme coat in that water. waited a little bit and then poured that 5 gallons back into the tank to make it full. Am i doing this water change correctly? I have 5 different fish and i believe they all get along in exception for 1 kind of looks like a white skinny catfish. I will post pictures of the fishes later on today.

Thank you. Thank you.

are you dechlorinating your water?? leave out the stress zyme...its conpletely useless....ALL your filter needs to build up good bacteria (Nitrates) is Ammonia...which you have (fish)...so just regular 50% water changes Daily(with dechlorinated warm water) and regular water tests...you will be fine..Unfortunately you are now in a fish-IN cycle..which does take longer than a fishLESS cycle i believe.

read up on fish-in cycling in the beginners section..this will help you all the way xx
Good Luck...and i hope your fish make it through the cycle

 

[pufferk]

How do i dechlorinate the water?

Thank you everybody so much for replying it has been very very helpful.!

Having good clean water for the fish does seem like the best option at this point. But how again do i get clean water im a bit confused? last night i did another 5gallon water change. What i did is took 5 gallons out and then put 5 new gallons of tap water in a bucket and 1 table spoon of both the stress and zyme coat in that water. waited a little bit and then poured that 5 gallons back into the tank to make it full. Am i doing this water change correctly? I have 5 different fish and i believe they all get along in exception for 1 kind of looks like a white skinny catfish. I will post pictures of the fishes later on today.

Thank you. Thank you.

are you dechlorinating your water?? leave out the stress zyme...its conpletely useless....ALL your filter needs to build up good bacteria (Nitrates) is Ammonia...which you have (fish)...so just regular 50% water changes Daily(with dechlorinated warm water) and regular water tests...you will be fine..Unfortunately you are now in a fish-IN cycle..which does take longer than a fishLESS cycle i believe.

read up on fish-in cycling in the beginners section..this will help you all the way xx
Good Luck...and i hope your fish make it through the cycle

<a href="http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6162643033/" title="IMG_1502 by tastykush, on Flickr"><img src="http/farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6162643033_61939d4f54.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1502"></a>

http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6162643033/

http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6162643573/

http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6163177886/

http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6163177728/

http/www.flickr.com/photos/50420745@N04/6163177242/ (my favorite)

 

[the_lock_man]

How do i dechlorinate the water?

Don't panic, you said in your first post that you use Stress Coat and Stress Zyme. Stress Coat is a dechlorinator.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid your fish are not compatible, either with each other, or the size of the tank.

The orange fish is a 'blood red parrot cichlid', a man-made hybrid of some Central/south American cichlids that can grow to about 8" long and can be very aggressive; not all are, but it needs a larger tank than 20g whatever it's temperament.

The white catfish, I'm not entirely certain of, but it looks like it might be an albino iridescent shark; if it is that then it needs brackish water as it grows and could potentially get to over three feet...you'll have to Google 'iridescent shark' or 'pangasius' to confirm.

The blue and yellow fish are also cichlids; from Lake Malawi this time, and are also very agressive; they need to be overcrowded (to reduce aggression) in a 4'+ tank with very hard, alkaline water water and lots of rockwork and other Malawis

Your favourite fish is a puffer, possibly a green/spotted puffer, although it might be a dwarf, which is also highly aggressive and needs to be in a species tank (even if it turns out to be a dwarf puffer); the green/spotted puffer also needs brackish water, I believe, although I'm not an expert on puffers.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but not one of those fish is a suitable inhabitant for a 20g

I'd return the whole lot to your LFS and do a fish-less cycle while you research some more suitable fish.

 

[HayzH]

ahhhh..sorry for the confusion...i use API tap safe...so didnt reconise stress coat. Apologees.
i know nothing about these species as i am still learning too...but i do trust Fluttermoth's advice...so you may not have these fish for long hun...sorry xx

 

[pufferk]

This really sucks Hopefully i can return most of them. the white looking catfish is actually the most aggresive one and im really worried that he is going to have killed most of my fish by the time i get home today. the red yellow and blue fish were the first 3 i had and seem to have gotten along fine. so your best suggestion is to return them all? if i cant return them i dont want to kill them.

What is brackish water?

I'm afraid your fish are not compatible, either with each other, or the size of the tank.

The orange fish is a 'blood red parrot cichlid', a man-made hybrid of some Central/south American cichlids that can grow to about 8" long and can be very aggressive; not all are, but it needs a larger tank than 20g whatever it's temperament.

The white catfish, I'm not entirely certain of, but it looks like it might be an albino iridescent shark; if it is that then it needs brackish water as it grows and could potentially get to over three feet...you'll have to Google 'iridescent shark' or 'pangasius' to confirm.

The blue and yellow fish are also cichlids; from Lake Malawi this time, and are also very agressive; they need to be overcrowded (to reduce aggression) in a 4'+ tank with very hard, alkaline water water and lots of rockwork and other Malawis

Your favourite fish is a puffer, possibly a green/spotted puffer, although it might be a dwarf, which is also highly aggressive and needs to be in a species tank (even if it turns out to be a dwarf puffer); the green/spotted puffer also needs brackish water, I believe, although I'm not an expert on puffers.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but not one of those fish is a suitable inhabitant for a 20g

I'd return the whole lot to your LFS and do a fish-less cycle while you research some more suitable fish.