Urgent Help Needed Please

[jimr75262000]

I'm just new to tropical fish as I just got my 1st lot of fish on Monday last and they seemed to be behaving normally but over the past few days i've had 2 dead tiger barbs 2 dead neon tetras and a whole load of dead babies in their breeding/hospital unit.

The babies were born on Friday night and seemed ok and when I woke up this morning I couldn't see them in the breeding unit.

I now have a male guppy thats swimming about and floating on his back and don't know if this is normal behaviour for thembut part of his tail looks like other fish have been nibbling at it so i've now put him in the breeder/hospital tank so he can hopefully recover.

The temperature i've just checked is at 73 degrees is this too cold and should I turn the thermostat up it's a 2ft x 1ft tank and the heater is a Resun Sunlike - 100 which i'm presuming is 100 watts is this a big enough heater or do I need a more powerful one.

Sorry for all the questions

Please help

Jim

 

[QuotheRaven]

first question is the tank cycled??
Second: I need size of the tank and what fish are in it

 

[jimr75262000]

The temperature i've just checked is at 73 degrees is this too cold and should I turn the thermostat up.

t's a 2ft x 1ft tank and the heater is a Resun Sunlike - 100 which i'm presuming is 100 watts is this a big enough heater or do I need a more powerful one.


The fish in it were 10 Neon Tetras, 3 female Guppies (as I just bought 2 males yesterday 1 of which as I said is acting strangely), 5 Tiger Barbs and 3 Swordtails.

There are also 4 Apple Snails that I bought on Thursday for general tank cleaning and it's since I put them in that i've had the fish dying.


Sorry not sure what you mean by cycled is that when I had the tank running for 3 weeks without fish in it?

 

[QuotheRaven]

well if your not sure what cycling means then it pretty much means your tank isn't cycled. Cycling is the build up of ammonia in a tank which is toxic to fish and is produced by fish aswell now when your tank is new it does not contain bacteria to fight ammonia over time the filter will create bacteria called nitrite which kills ammonia but is also toxic to fish but over time if the filter is kept in the tank it will build up nitrifying bacteria called NitrAte which kills off nitrite and is "harmless" to fish...Now essentially thats the gist of it although I am no expert on cycling and cannot give a great definition of it I do "know" what cycling a tank is but the specifics with me are sketchy I suggest you look up cycling

 

[jimr75262000]

Is there any way of doing this cycling now with the help of chemicals?

 

[QuotheRaven]

I would say buying a product such as Tetra Safe start would help the loss of fish slow down as the product review in Practical Fishkeeping magazine (Oh and congrats to George Farmer and Monks for articles etc in the november issue bought a copy the other day hard to track down in Aus) and I would advise a 15% water change, buy a test kit to test nitrite, ammonia etc...Im sure some more wise and experienced fish keepers have some more sound advice but I would advise getting some tetra safestart for the good of the fish (it apparently works...)

 

[DarkEntity]

Read the sticky on cycling a tank. That will give options on what to do now, so that the toxic water doesnt kill the rest of your fish.

 

[F.O.H]

i have got a treatment which is supposedly speeds up the cycling process it seems to do the job but it also say it will speed it up so much you can put fish in after 48 hours, that i dont beleive but i will give you the name of it any way, bactozym. i hope it does help you.

 

[kev350d]

This has nothing to do with cycling but more to do with your stocking : consider ditching your tiger barbs as they are the mafia of the community tank especially if you have fancy guppy's as they will make their life hell (its gonna be hard for the fish in an uncycled tank without their fins being shreded)

As for your cycling (it can be achieved perfectly with fish although most on this site dont condone it) BUT and this is a HUGE factor you select your fish carefully and in accordance to your tanks size and the ammount of care you are going to give them as this is vital..

Your problem has more than likely arose from the LFS cashing in on a new customer as the choice and ammount of fish is certainly far from ideal to enter a newly established tank and certainly one of 2ft.

I would have started with a few zebra danio or Pearl gourami (3 that you could return) and nothing else.. But only after the treated water has stood a short while maybies a few days (once in then you would have to keep up on very regular small water changes 10% every couple days) and maybies a 30% weekly in order to keep a fresh turnover and manage your feeding.

You havnt specified what filtration you use and instead of purchasing more fish buy yourself a GOOD test kit as this will become your best friend in the coming months.

I would go with the flow and reccommend a fishless cycle but considering you already have fish i doubt you need to hear about this.

Your heater being a 100w should be fine for a 2ft tank just turn it up slightly to around 26° this is an ideal temp for most community fishes.

 

[jimr75262000]

I went to pets at home today with a water sample and the guy said PH was good it's the Nitrate that was way in the Orange/Yellow he said it's down to over feeding the fish as we we're feeding them as per the maker (Aquarian) instructions which says 2 to 3 times a day he (the guy in P. @. H) said only once per day is enough.

So he sold me one of those gravel cleaners but i'm not sure if i'm using it properly as he said that you just move it up and down in the tank and it sucks the gravel to get all the dirt out of it.

I'm going to invest in one of these test kits but in the meantime i'm not sure what to do.

Jim

 

[juicebox]

the male guppy may have eaten the baby fish if you put him in the same tank as them.

 

[jimr75262000]

Thanks for your input Juicebox but if you read my post you'll see that a whole load of dead babies in their breeding/hospital unit so the Male couldn't have eaten them.

Jim

 

[kev350d]

I went to pets at home today with a water sample and the guy said PH was good it's the Nitrate that was way in the Orange/Yellow he said it's down to over feeding the fish
Jim

Do you buy everything from these "fish etc" and is it this pet store that is supplying you with advice as to how to care for your aquarium if so the first thing i would advise is to find an alternative..

Now i dont see what he means by your Ph is ok, but your nitrates are high as everything that takes place during the cycle process is a knock on effect of the other Fish waste --> ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate so taken into account the length of time your tank has been running would lead me to believe its an ammonia issue and NOT nitrates as the guy at P@H leads you to believe as for him saying its high because the liquid turned yellow would mean nothing to you as a customer and anyone worth their weight would have given you numbers to work with and explained exactly what they mean and how to avoid / correct them. (IF ITS CAUSED BY OVER FEEDING THIS EARLY THEN IM MORE THAN POSITIVE ITS AMMONIA RELATED) and ammonia is a very quick killer of fish (go for a large water change and feed sparingly once a day, if any food is left over you are certainly over feeding "i wouldnt go on the understanding that feeding the fish as much as they can eat in a short space of time is correct" Some fish will take food as long as you give it but the waste they then produce is equally as bad as decaying food on the bottom of your tank.

The size of your tank and quantity of fish you own should be easy to judge how much and often to feed them (ignore the tub as different species require different approaches) you will soon fiqure out what works for yours.

So in Brief :

1, Carry out a 50% water change using treated water and your "gravel cleaner" followed by 10-20% daily then once you start seeing a change move to every 3 days then 30% per week people may say its a little extreme but ive never had problems due to regular water changes just make sure that your temp or the water your putting back is pretty much the same as whats in your tank to start with (i use tetra aqua safe and swear by it)
2, Cut back on feeding (even skip for a day or 2) your fish will die alot easier and quicker through ammonia poisoning than starvation.
3, If levels are still high think of purchasing some ammo lock to lend a helping hand (kinda temp fix) not an option i'd use but certainly can help you along.

4. MOST IMMPORTANT ONE "BUY YOUR OWN MASTER TEST KIT ASAP" so you dont have to take others word for it

Read this as it clearly explains the cycle process:

http/fish.orbust.net/cycling.html