Hello! New Here With 28-26 Gallon, A Few Fish Dying

The December FOTM Contest Poll is open!
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆

CherryBerry

Mostly New Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2014
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Location
US
Hello I'm starting a 28 gallon tank, mainly just for a couple of bullfrog tadpoles.  My stepdad had one in his attic and he gave it to me, it's a little bit old but it's definitely nice.  I have had it for about a week, and I've added some pea gravel from Lowe's (which I carefully washed off but didn't seem to get ALL the debris off it).  I've also added in about 4 wysteria plants.  After filling it with water and letting it sit for about 5 days, I wanted to get a small fish or 2 to start up the nitrogen cycle and to test the water.  So I got a feeder goldfish and added him to the tank, but he died after about a day.  That's okay, I don't really like goldfish either and he was 10 cents. 
 
A couple days later, I decided to try 2 rosy red minnows.  I added them to the tank and they swam around for a day.  The next day I added in an Amazon Sword plant and hornwort, just to experiment with different types of plants.  The hornwort made a huge mess and I removed 90% of it, it needs to be thrown away haha.  
 
Anyways, later that night I go to check on my fish and one of them is dead , stuck to the filter intake.  I'm wondering if the other rosy red minnow will die as well.
 
I'm not sure why these fish keep dying, I haven't fed them at all yet but I've only had them for about a day each.  I know that fish die in newly built aquariums, and it's best to let them sit for about a month.  Perhaps I added these fish in way too quickly, what do you guys think?
 
Hmm...where to start...?
 
Even before we begin talking about the nitrogen cycle and ammonia etc, you haven't mentioned anything about a water treatment to rid the tap water of chlorine/chloromines. You absolutely must have a water treatment (unless you use well water) otherwise you'll not get far keeping any sort of fish.
 
Did you add any treatments???
 
The next step is to read up, thoroughly, on cycling a tank to make it ready to house fish. Please follow Cambo's advice and read that link!
 
Until you've done those things, please don't add ANY other fish to your tank.
 
On a personal note; to a fish lover, your now late goldfish was worth a lot more than 10 cents....
 
I would return the last rosy red minnow and do a fishless cycle following the link Cambo put up.
You'll want ammonia (can be found at Ace Hardware) and a liquid test kit. API is a popular brand for this which you can find at most LFS or order online.
 
I agree with FM. :(
 
I'm sorry I didn't know that I had to mention everything.  I have a filter for a 30 gallon tank, I also have treated the water to remove chlorine, etc from the tank.  I only added the 1-2 little goldfish/minnows to start up the nitrogen cycle very slowly.  I don't have any method for adding ammonia to the water other than putting a little bit of fish food in the water or adding a small fish, which is what I chose to do.  I wanted to keep this tank empty for at least a month, besides for maybe 1 or 2 little fish, to slowly build up the healthy bacteria.  I also added some bacteria droplets into the water.  I'm not sure if they do much, but they're advertised as a bacteria supplement, so maybe they will help, maybe not 0,o .
 
I also appreciate the little fish, I didn't want them to die, but that's why I started on a couple of cheap feeder fish, to test the waters.  That's also why I am posting here.  
 
The good thing though is my other rosy red minnow is alive and healthy, I'll see if he survives or not.  I'll also go out and get some test kits to monitor the water sometime today, I'll try to post some results.
 
If you insist upon doing a fish-in cycle (absolutely not recommended, and like I said you can get ammonia at Ace Hardware....) then you'll want to read THIS and THIS.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top