i'm _neon_some_help
New Member
Please accept my apologies in advance for this being soooooo long and detailed. Note that all fish, equipment and other necessities have been purchased from a chain store.
My UNEDUCATED [please give me some slack for this] intro to freshwater tropical fish keeping started about two months ago when I purchased a Betta who was creatively named “Fishy” - my husbands contribution, and a 1/2 gallon bowl [which I soon found out was horribly torturous to Fishy]. About a month later we purchased a 5 gallon tank for Fishy and decided he needed friends [which I was told was fine as long as they were “community fish”]. Along came two guppies, and a swordtail [who tried committing suicide during the transfer from bag to tank by flopping and falling 6 feet to the wood floor – don’t be alarmed, it’s been two weeks and he seems fine – seems is the operative word here].
Fishy was a little aggressive at first but began to lose interest in the others until 4 days later when I found one of the guppies belly up at the bottom of the tank. I’ll cut this short and just say a 4 year old was very happy to find she had a new pet for her birthday.
This left me with the swordtail, and one guppy. I followed the “1 in. of fish per gallon” rule and decided to add a clown platty and a tetra [clear body and red tail fin]. Before adding the new fish I did a 10% water change, following the “rules” I found on various websites [de-chlorinate water, bring up to temperature, etc]. The platty decided he was the dominant fish and began dive bombing the guppy which led the swordtail and tetra to follow in step. So, my platty landed himself in the “time out” bowl for a day which has remedied the “kamikaze” issue. All was running smoothly……….
Just so you know; I feed morning and night alternating between freeze dried blood worms and regular tropical flakes – they seem to enjoy the worms a bit more.
There hadn’t been a heater in the tank due to the fact that the apartment had been kept quite warm and the water was constantly at 75. Since summer is approaching, my place will be air conditioned –I was afraid that this would cause the water to cool, so I decided to purchase a heater in order to sustain the temp. It had been a week since the last water change so I did another 10% using a siphon hose, and rinsed the filter with the old tank water. I then set up the tank with the heater. In the first 24 hours of introducing the heater, the temp spiked to 81; after reducing the heat it got to a low of 74. I have been successful in keeping it between 75 and 77 for the past few days.
During this time, I found that my guppy had become lethargic, floating near the top and hiding behind the filter. He was eating regularly so I wasn’t sure what was wrong. A few days later I found that his color had become quite dull, his tail fin was deteriorating and he had white spots on his body. After doing a bit of research, I came to the conclusion that he had acquired Ich. So I rushed to the chain store and purchased parasite medication, a water testing kit and water conditioner in case the toxins needed to be lowered. I had just learned the concept of cycling the tank and of the importance of water testing – neither of which was ever done.
I tested the water and found the pH was about 7.2, the ammonia was between 0 and .25, the nitrIte was about 2 and the nitrAte was about 5. I didn’t add anything to the water to lower the nitrIte level because the instructions said that it wasn’t abnormal for the level to get as high as 5 during the first 4 to 6 weeks of a new tank – it’s currently week 3.
I then removed the carbon filter and added a ½ teaspoon of the medication [per the directions on the bottle] to the tank. Before going to bed I checked the guppy and he was still hanging around the top. I was afraid he may infect the others so I filled a small bowl with tank water and removed the guppy – he became a bit more active in seclusion so I felt a better about his recovery. Unfortunately, at 7:30 this morning I was informed by my husband that Guppy had perished [one day before the expiration of the warranty – is it bad to be happy that I’ll at least get my money back?].
I’ve been reading quite a bit on a number of websites and I’m afraid that I have harmed the fish because the water hadn’t been cycled in the beginning. The gills of the platty and the tetra are red and I don’t know if the amount of redness is normal or too much. There’s an asymmetrical white patch on the sword tail starting at his chin and ending at the fins on his belly [don’t know the technical name]. The water has an odor – like a mildew smell. I don’t know if I’m feeding them too much or too little, there doesn’t appear to be much lying on the bottom of the tank. Since I bought them at a chain store have I doomed my self from the beginning? Did adding the heater kill the guppy? Am I now contributing to the suffering of these remaining fish? Is it time to purchase a good fish keeping book?
Thanks for your advice/comments.
My UNEDUCATED [please give me some slack for this] intro to freshwater tropical fish keeping started about two months ago when I purchased a Betta who was creatively named “Fishy” - my husbands contribution, and a 1/2 gallon bowl [which I soon found out was horribly torturous to Fishy]. About a month later we purchased a 5 gallon tank for Fishy and decided he needed friends [which I was told was fine as long as they were “community fish”]. Along came two guppies, and a swordtail [who tried committing suicide during the transfer from bag to tank by flopping and falling 6 feet to the wood floor – don’t be alarmed, it’s been two weeks and he seems fine – seems is the operative word here].
Fishy was a little aggressive at first but began to lose interest in the others until 4 days later when I found one of the guppies belly up at the bottom of the tank. I’ll cut this short and just say a 4 year old was very happy to find she had a new pet for her birthday.
This left me with the swordtail, and one guppy. I followed the “1 in. of fish per gallon” rule and decided to add a clown platty and a tetra [clear body and red tail fin]. Before adding the new fish I did a 10% water change, following the “rules” I found on various websites [de-chlorinate water, bring up to temperature, etc]. The platty decided he was the dominant fish and began dive bombing the guppy which led the swordtail and tetra to follow in step. So, my platty landed himself in the “time out” bowl for a day which has remedied the “kamikaze” issue. All was running smoothly……….
Just so you know; I feed morning and night alternating between freeze dried blood worms and regular tropical flakes – they seem to enjoy the worms a bit more.
There hadn’t been a heater in the tank due to the fact that the apartment had been kept quite warm and the water was constantly at 75. Since summer is approaching, my place will be air conditioned –I was afraid that this would cause the water to cool, so I decided to purchase a heater in order to sustain the temp. It had been a week since the last water change so I did another 10% using a siphon hose, and rinsed the filter with the old tank water. I then set up the tank with the heater. In the first 24 hours of introducing the heater, the temp spiked to 81; after reducing the heat it got to a low of 74. I have been successful in keeping it between 75 and 77 for the past few days.
During this time, I found that my guppy had become lethargic, floating near the top and hiding behind the filter. He was eating regularly so I wasn’t sure what was wrong. A few days later I found that his color had become quite dull, his tail fin was deteriorating and he had white spots on his body. After doing a bit of research, I came to the conclusion that he had acquired Ich. So I rushed to the chain store and purchased parasite medication, a water testing kit and water conditioner in case the toxins needed to be lowered. I had just learned the concept of cycling the tank and of the importance of water testing – neither of which was ever done.
I tested the water and found the pH was about 7.2, the ammonia was between 0 and .25, the nitrIte was about 2 and the nitrAte was about 5. I didn’t add anything to the water to lower the nitrIte level because the instructions said that it wasn’t abnormal for the level to get as high as 5 during the first 4 to 6 weeks of a new tank – it’s currently week 3.
I then removed the carbon filter and added a ½ teaspoon of the medication [per the directions on the bottle] to the tank. Before going to bed I checked the guppy and he was still hanging around the top. I was afraid he may infect the others so I filled a small bowl with tank water and removed the guppy – he became a bit more active in seclusion so I felt a better about his recovery. Unfortunately, at 7:30 this morning I was informed by my husband that Guppy had perished [one day before the expiration of the warranty – is it bad to be happy that I’ll at least get my money back?].
I’ve been reading quite a bit on a number of websites and I’m afraid that I have harmed the fish because the water hadn’t been cycled in the beginning. The gills of the platty and the tetra are red and I don’t know if the amount of redness is normal or too much. There’s an asymmetrical white patch on the sword tail starting at his chin and ending at the fins on his belly [don’t know the technical name]. The water has an odor – like a mildew smell. I don’t know if I’m feeding them too much or too little, there doesn’t appear to be much lying on the bottom of the tank. Since I bought them at a chain store have I doomed my self from the beginning? Did adding the heater kill the guppy? Am I now contributing to the suffering of these remaining fish? Is it time to purchase a good fish keeping book?
Thanks for your advice/comments.
.
