Help My Fishes Are Dying

[nikki182]

i brought a fish tank on tues & set it up left it to run & added some fish on thurs evening, fish added were 1 siamese fighter who died last night, 1 glowlight tetra that has just died, 1 black molly who has had babies but is not looking very healthy & neither are most of the babies, 2 xray tetras who look fine & 1 orange molly who commited suicide. i have not tested the water yet until i can get to the shop in the morning.i added some water treatments to lower chlorine, to lower nitrate levels & to help stop algae. is there anything i can do tonight to try & save the fish? please help

 

[Tolak]

Sounds like the tank is cycling, I would suspect tests would show ammonia, which is bad for fish. What size tank, what make & model of filtration?

I would do a 50% water change, don't forget to add dechlorinator. Then read http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

 

[zoekin8yg]

i brought a fish tank on tues & set it up left it to run & added some fish on thurs evening, fish added were 1 siamese fighter who died last night, 1 glowlight tetra that has just died, 1 black molly who has had babies but is not looking very healthy & neither are most of the babies, 2 xray tetras who look fine & 1 orange molly who commited suicide. i have not tested the water yet until i can get to the shop in the morning.i added some water treatments to lower chlorine, to lower nitrate levels & to help stop algae. is there anything i can do tonight to try & save the fish? please help

not really no, they shouldnt have let you buy fish so soon after setting up your tank someone a bit more experienced will probably be able to give some good advice.

 

[chich]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=141944 thats the only real advice i can give you =/ sounds liek you need to cycle your tank

 

[nikki182]

i brought a fish tank on tues & set it up left it to run & added some fish on thurs evening, fish added were 1 siamese fighter who died last night, 1 glowlight tetra that has just died, 1 black molly who has had babies but is not looking very healthy & neither are most of the babies, 2 xray tetras who look fine & 1 orange molly who commited suicide. i have not tested the water yet until i can get to the shop in the morning.i added some water treatments to lower chlorine, to lower nitrate levels & to help stop algae. is there anything i can do tonight to try & save the fish? please help

not really no, they shouldnt have let you buy fish so soon after setting up your tank someone a bit more experienced will probably be able to give some good advice.

well it is 21 uk gallon tank with a fluval 2 plus filtration. i brought it as a full set up & presumed it would all be fine. i bought for my daughters birthday & read the leaflet with the tank which said to let it run for 24hrs before adding fish.

 

[cheeky_chappie]

unfortunately you've bought too many fish at once for your new tank. best thing would be to get back to zero fish, start from scratch then add a small number (2 or 3) of hardy fish to cycle your tank e.g. danios. you can also do a fishless cycle but above way might be best for you, it's the way i started about 18 months ago and i found it pretty straightforward.

 

[zoekin8yg]

24 hours? Your fish, er, do their business in the tank which produces ammonia, this is harmful to the fish and you need to let bacteria accumulate in the filter and gravel to convert it. It takes a while for the bacteria to start growing and working. Unfortunately it sounds like your fish may be posioning themselves as it were

 

[Mr. Convict]

I'm sorry to hear that your fish died.. i know how you must be feeling.. but dont lose hope lol, like they said, it sounds like the cycling.. its possible that the molly and fry will die, but the tetras should survive, leave them alone in the tank for a few days to cycle.. then slowly add more fish...

 

[Tolak]

That leaflet is wrong. Running the tank empty for 24 hours does nothing but increase your electric bill. Cycling a tank is nothing more than cultivating nitrifying bacteria, something that takes anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to happen.

What company puts out that leaflet? You should be starting with 1" of slim bodied fish for every 5 U.S. gallons of water. You also need to keep an eye on ammonia & nitrites during the 2 to 6 week cycling time, and do water changes if they get too high.

 

[nikki182]

so do you think i should leave the rest & see if they die because i added some more stuff to combat the nitrate & my black molly is looking better & the babies are swimming around pretty well. i unfortunatly also added 3 neons yesterday before i realised there were problems, they aren't looking to bad but not too good either!

 

[Tolak]

You are nowhere near having nitrates yet, the best thing for nitrates is water changes. If you keep fish, get used to at least 25% water changes weekly, it's what needs to be done. I change out over 300 gallons weekly with all my tanks, there are plenty of tricks & devices to make this easier than it sounds. Adding stuff to the tank is one of the worst things, fresh water is the best preventive medicine there is. The only thing I add to my water is dechlorinator.

Here's a little chart I stole off another site long ago. It will give you some idea as to how long cycling takes;

 

[polypterus]

so do you think i should leave the rest & see if they die because i added some more stuff to combat the nitrate & my black molly is looking better & the babies are swimming around pretty well. i unfortunatly also added 3 neons yesterday before i realised there were problems, they aren't looking to bad but not too good either!

Nitrate isn't your problem. Nitrate is in fact relatively harmless. There is about a 99.9% chance that you have a lot of ammonia in your tank that is killing your fish. After the ammonia goes down you will get a nitrite (notice the i not a in that word. Nitrate is different) spike which can also kill fish. Once that drops to zero your tank will be cycled. There is no way of getting around cycling your tanks. Well actually there is one way but it takes someone with an existing tank that is willing to give you filter media with bacteria on it. Even then you should start out slow with just a few fish. Barring that the best thing you can do is try to return your fish to the store and use the fish free cycling method described in this forum. Either that or you can cycle the tank with one or two hardy fish.

 

[nikki182]

what do i do with the fish already in the tank if the shop will not take them back?

 

[Tolak]

With the fish you have left you could probably do a traditional cycle with fish, just keep an eye on ammonia & nitrite. You will be doing water changes, perhaps daily at first to keep the ammonia down. If you don't already have them, you will need a couple of buckets, a gravel vac, & a water test kit. The test kits that use liquid are more accurate than the strips.

Like I stated previously, 50% water change, try to match the temperature of the replacement water to that of the tank, close is good, and don't forget the dechlor. Turn off the heater about 10 minutes before draining, they tend to explode when plugged in when not submerged. Don't forget to plug it in afterwards. The water change will bring down the ammonia level.

Don't worry about what you are doing either, I, along with plenty of others, have started where you are. I forgot to unplug a couple of heaters a month ago, they let me know this by starting to smoke. I forgot to plug one in a few months back, I don't know how a tank full of fry made it more than 24 hours with that temperature drop, but they did.

 

[nikki182]

so should i do a 50% water change every day, for how long? how often should i test the water? & should i clean all the gravel & ornaments every time? should i add the dechlor every time too? sorry for all the questions but i really want to help the poor fish.