First Casualty In My New Tank

[barlow1984]

I've had my tank up and running for around 8 weeks or so now and I've had my first casualty. I'd certainly class myself as a novice, we had tanks as a kid but this is my first serious go of tropical fish keeping on my own!

Anyway, I got 2 rainbow sharks because with my inexperience I failed to do my research (never again), even though the shop sold them to me as a pair. After these 2 sharks living happily together for a week or so they started to fight quite often and aggressively so I did some research and found that you should not have more than 1 in a tank at all. So I re-homed one of them yesterday to avoid them killing each other. Now less than a day since his 'friend' left, the remaining shark has died. He was looking a little paler than usual but other than that everything is normal, no ammonia in the tank nor nitrite and my other fish seem happy.

I like the fish and I would certainly get another, but I wonder if there is something that I might be doing wrong? I also have an albino shark which is really placid which I also got at the same time.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

[Chad]

The tank is still pretty young so part of the issue might be too many fish too fast. If it were my tank I would let it be for a while with just the fish you have. Give the tank a chance to mature a bit before adding another fish. I also recommend adding fish quite slowly with a couple of weeks at least in between additions. Of course this is a rule of thumb, when adding groups or pairs you can't really do that but you can be aware that more frequent water changes might be needed until things level out.

How big is the tank?

 

[Concaj1]

patience is essential for the 1st 6 months, find a good local fish store and stick to really hardy cheaper fish, platies, mollies etc. regardless of how well you have followed the instructions you will have spikes of nitrates, nitrates ammonia etc. add stock slowly and be cautious of adding chemicals to balance water problems, weekly partial water changes will help massively, as will slightly underfeeding, don't be shy to ask for help and advise here and always do your research before buying fish. understanding your local water parameters, ph levels etc will also help you stock your tanks properly with fish fish that thrive in your local conditions, The secret to sucess is to remember that you are keeping water, keep this right and you are most of the way there.
On the subject of sharks, Albino, red tail, rainbows etc, only keep 1 and if the tank is less than 200lt personally i would avoid them completely, in my experience as they mature they will harass anything remotely similar, other sharks, loaches anything dwelling in the same areas it classes as its own territory

Last but not least enjoy