Newbie Warning

[LJH]

Hi,

I am a newbie to fish, my only experiance with fish are gold fish the ones you win on the fair, my hubby purchesed a 15 gallon tank last week we have 11 tetra's, 2 kissing gourami, 2 albino cat fish, 1 angel fish (did have 2 but one died lastnight) 1 sucker fish and 1 albino rainbow shark, look forward to getting any advice of you guy's.

 

[YngUrbanCMH]

That's alot of fish to start out with, but the tank sounds beautiful! Chances are pretty good that you're going to lose alot more than just one of your angels unfortunately because of new tank syndrome . Most suckerfish (especially plecos) are pretty sensitive to new tank conditions, as are some types of tetra's such as neons. If you don't already have one, you might want to go out and buy a freshwater test kit so you can closely monitor ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. There's also a bunch of great articles on this site about the nitrogen cycle that you might want to read.

Also, if you know anyone with an already established aquarium you might see if you can have a few scoops of gravel from their tank. That way you can get an already established beneficial bacteria colony.
Enjoy!

 

[dolphin]

Hi LJH

to the forum.

That is way too many fish, in a new tank. It is not surprising that one of the angels died.

You need to allow the filter/tank to cycle before adding lots of fish. You should only have 3-4 hardy fish in a new tank.

Do you have any test kits? Because you will need to check for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

You have come to the right place, as we will be able to help you, with your new tank.

 

[LJH]

Thanks for the welcome,

I know now that the tank is over stocked but the woman in the lfs said it was ok and it wouldn't be over stocked, I didn't know anything about the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, I was under the illusion you got a tank filled it up put the fish in and leave it how wrong was I.

So far I have lost 1 angel fish and some terta's 4 I think, looks like I will lose the albino rainbow shark as well as this is behaving very weird, plus the fish have white spot so treating for that atm this is one steep learning curve for me a few times I have nearly thrown in the towel

 

[Tanked]

LJH,

Im sorry to hear about the new tank troubles. I made the same mistake. unfortunatly the people at most LFS's are just in it for the money. with what you've got I have one of 2 recomendations. either take some of the fish back (if you can) or do daily water changes of about 25%. The daily water changes will prolong the cycling period but will help keep the ammonia from getting to fatal levels.

Oh year one more option I forgot. If you can get bio-spira. It nearly eliminated new tank syndrome for me.

and how rude of me... to the forum

 

[Jht]

my advice is like tanked try and take some of fish back if you cannot do daily water changes for a while buy a liquid cycler like cycle from hagen and eventually when everything has calmed down the ammonia etc and the tank has cycled enough you can start do slowly add fish theres lots of articles on the net to help you and welcome

 

[jbjnc63]

Hey everyone. I'm new at this too, but very vigilant at researching and obtaining information. Here are a couple of links to sites I have found very helpful for newbies like myself. I never buy a fish and add to tank without researching the fish to see who it can live with, temperment, etc.

http/www.liveaquaria.com/default.cfm?siteid=20
http/faq.thekrib.com/begin.html

I also just purchased some "Prime" which is a water conditioner that detoxifies both ammonia and nitrates, the biggest fish killers in a cycling tank. It will not intefere with the cycle, just detoxifies. I've also had someone suggest to add about 1/8 teaspoon of table salt to the aquarium to help the fish breath during nitrite spike. My 29 gal is spiking nitrites right now. I fish gods must be smiling on me because I haven't lost a fish yet. I kind of over did it too, but am soo impaitent, and I can't spell.

I have:
1 Gold Gourami
1 Pearl Gourami
1 Dwarf Gourami
1 Blue Ram
1 Dalamtion Molly
3 Zebra Danios
6 Neon Tetras
2 Cory Cats
1 Pleco

I might add some more neons and cories once the tank is completely cycled, but pretty much done stocking the tank. Everyone seems to get along great and happy. I also have a 5 gal tank that I started with that has a couple of platies and 2 danios. I found that the platies were a bit nippy of gouramis so had to move them to the smaller tank.

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi guys - welcome

jbjnc63 - 'the fish gods must be smiling on me' - must be m8

 

[YngUrbanCMH]

If they won't take the fish back, they ought to at least refund all ur' money for any of the fish that die since it was their stinkin' fault! I wouldn't settle for in store credit either, who knows what kind of shape all of the rest of their fish are in if they're that shady.

 

[Dragonslair]

Hi LJH
Welcome to the forum. No lectures-just a warm hello and glad you are here to join us.

 

[jbjnc63]

Cool dudes! I've added a picture of my tank to mini profile.

 

[smb]

Thanks for the welcome,

I know now that the tank is over stocked but the woman in the lfs said it was ok and it wouldn't be over stocked, I didn't know anything about the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, I was under the illusion you got a tank filled it up put the fish in and leave it how wrong was I.

So far I have lost 1 angel fish and some terta's 4 I think, looks like I will lose the albino rainbow shark as well as this is behaving very weird, plus the fish have white spot so treating for that atm this is one steep learning curve for me a few times I have nearly thrown in the towel 

Welcome to the forum.


Wow LJH. You seem to be way ahead of the game already! Just hang in there and keep asking a ton of questions. We'd all love to help you.

I know it might not seem so now but you know more than I did.