Hello New To Forum And To Fish!

[z-dame]

just like to say hi to everyone i am new to fish and found this forum extremely helpful.

i have had my tank fluval 125 for 3 weeks i added 3 platys (white with orange tails) and 6 neon tetras to start cycling my tank. my 2nd neon tetra has died today, ammonia is 0 but nitrite is high. fish show no sign of disease and lfs said to run it like this without water change for 4 weeks. so is it normal that i will lose some tetras while cycling?

thank you in advance for all your help and for all the excellent advice on the forums!

 

[james morrisontoxic2]

hi and welcome to the forum

 

[hensonc4098]

When your tank is new, the filter has no good bacteria in it. The good bacteria are what convert ammonia (very dangerous to fish) into nitrite (still very toxic, even in low levels) and then into nitrate, which is less dangerous to fish and is controlled by regular water changes. (sorry if you already know all this )
What you try and do if possible is cycle the tank without fish, adding either liquid ammonia or a few flakes of fish food every day as a source of ammonia instead of fish poo. Lfs are notorious for telling people just to put a few fish in and it'll be fine. This is called fish-in cycling which is less desirable, but necessery for people who have been ill advised by their lfs. I'm not too sure on what to do in the case of having to fish-in cycle, but I know that there is a pinned topic somewhere about it.
Regarding the neons, neons are quite sensitive to any fluctuations in water parameters, or parameters that aren't almost perfect (ie. nitrite and ammonia = 0) This could be why you've had a couple of them dying on you. That's why people normally recommend that you don't keep fish like neons for about 5-6 months after tank set-up as by this time, the tank should have been running for long enough for the water stats to be quite stable.
I hope that this helps you but if you post in tropical disscusion about this then you will probably get more replies
Claire

 

[z-dame]

thank you the lfs did tell me that neons were hardy but obviously not! i think ill take them back until my tank is cycled thanks

 

[hensonc4098]

Good plan

As I said, lfs are like that - they sell you fish which won't do well so that you'll come back to buy more when they die. It's kinda sick but hey, it's how they make their money

I'm not the most knowledgable of people but there's people on here that know everything there is to know so don't be scared to ask away!

Claire