Help! My glofish are dying and I can’t figure out why. :(

[Desreyes1]

I’m going to try to provide as much information as possible, so please bare with me.

On March 26th I bought a Aqueon Neoglow Aquarium Kit Hexagon. It is an 8 gal. tank, I realized afterwards that the fish have to be in a tank of 10 gal. or more. My mom told me that we had to let the filter run for 72 hours before putting the fish in, we ended up asking the manager at the pet store if we were able to put the fish in right after we set up the tank and we said it would be okay.

We bought 6 glofish because I thought it’d be a good number. Sadly, that’s too many glofish for a 8 gal. tank. But, I ALSO realized afterwards that glofish need to be in groups of 6 or more. When we got home, we placed the bag in the tank and waited 20 minutes before releasing the glofish into the tank.

They were fine for the first few days but I noticed that the pink one wasn’t looking too good. It was very bloated,the next day, it died and so did the blue one. I was now down to 4 fish. When these two glofish died, my orange one started to look bloated too and it’s eyes were bulging. The orange one ended up dying too. And I was down to 3 fish.

I now had a purple fish, a neon green fish, and a tiger barb. I was very paranoid and I kept checking on them, the three of them were playing and I finally calmed down and walked away. A few minutes later I came back to check on them and the tiger barb was dead on one of the artificial plants.

I ended up trying again and getting 4 more fish. (Not all at once.) I got a red glofish, a yellow glofish, a blue glofish, and a tiger barb. I now had 6 again, and they were all doing great for at least a month.

Yesterday, at 4 PM, I did the regular routine with my mom and we cleaned the tank. We usually leave the fish in the tank while cleaning because the process of chasing them to put them somewhere separate would stress them out even more. We vacuumed the pebbles, added a new bag of pebbles, added a snail figurine decoration, and switched out some of the water with new water. They were very happy and healthy. They had normal behavior, they were eating normally, and they were completely fine.

I fell asleep at 5 PM by accident, and when I woke up at 4 AM I checked on them and three of them died. One was on the bottom of the tank sideways, one was one a plant, and the other floating upside down at the top. We took out the bodies because of contamination.

I was really frustrated and heartbroken. I didn’t know what to do, my mom suggested that we should leave them alone and see what happens. I stood up until 7 AM watching them and I finally went to school, when I came back at 3 PM my mom told me the red tiger barb had died. Now I’m left with the red glofish and the purple glofish. I genuinely don’t know where I went wrong.

There’s so many mistakes that I made, but I don’t think that those little things could’ve killed so many fish at once. I really need some advice or someone to help me because at this point I’m going to have a breakdown and I’m obviously not suited for taking care of fish. I wanted my own pets, and I didn’t think they would be hard to keep alive but even the slightest mistakes I made have killed them.

At least 10 fish have died and I feel so bad. they’re living, breathing, beings too and I don’t want to keep killing them even if it is by accident. Should I just give up on fish?? I feel so bad.


- I feed my fish once breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (8 AM, 3 PM, 8-10 PM.)
- We clean the tank at the beginning and the end of every month.

My fish used to greet me happily and wait for me to feed them or give them attention. Now the remaining two hide from me, I know fish can’t experience emotions but I feel like they’re really holding a grudge or they hate me now and it’s so depressing. They used to love me and now it’s like they’re scared of me, hell, I would be too. I feel like I killed all of their friends.

Pictures

Levels

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm

 

[Sgooosh]

I’m going to try to provide as much information as possible, so please bare with me.

On March 26th I bought a Aqueon Neoglow Aquarium Kit Hexagon. It is an 8 gal. tank, I realized afterwards that the fish have to be in a tank of 10 gal. or more. My mom told me that we had to let the filter run for 72 hours before putting the fish in, we ended up asking the manager at the pet store if we were able to put the fish in right after we set up the tank and we said it would be okay.

We bought 6 glofish because I thought it’d be a good number. Sadly, that’s too many glofish for a 8 gal. tank. But, I ALSO realized afterwards that glofish need to be in groups of 6 or more. When we got home, we placed the bag in the tank and waited 20 minutes before releasing the glofish into the tank.

They were fine for the first few days but I noticed that the pink one wasn’t looking too good. It was very bloated,the next day, it died and so did the blue one. I was now down to 4 fish. When these two glofish died, my orange one started to look bloated too and it’s eyes were bulging. The orange one ended up dying too. And I was down to 3 fish.

I now had a purple fish, a neon green fish, and a tiger barb. I was very paranoid and I kept checking on them, the three of them were playing and I finally calmed down and walked away. A few minutes later I came back to check on them and the tiger barb was dead on one of the artificial plants.

I ended up trying again and getting 4 more fish. (Not all at once.) I got a red glofish, a yellow glofish, a blue glofish, and a tiger barb. I now had 6 again, and they were all doing great for at least a month.

Yesterday, at 4 PM, I did the regular routine with my mom and we cleaned the tank. We usually leave the fish in the tank while cleaning because the process of chasing them to put them somewhere separate would stress them out even more. We vacuumed the pebbles, added a new bag of pebbles, added a snail figurine decoration, and switched out some of the water with new water. They were very happy and healthy. They had normal behavior, they were eating normally, and they were completely fine.

I fell asleep at 5 PM by accident, and when I woke up at 4 AM I checked on them and three of them died. One was on the bottom of the tank sideways, one was one a plant, and the other floating upside down at the top. We took out the bodies because of contamination.

I was really frustrated and heartbroken. I didn’t know what to do, my mom suggested that we should leave them alone and see what happens. I stood up until 7 AM watching them and I finally went to school, when I came back at 3 PM my mom told me the red tiger barb had died. Now I’m left with the red glofish and the purple glofish. I genuinely don’t know where I went wrong.

There’s so many mistakes that I made, but I don’t think that those little things could’ve killed so many fish at once. I really need some advice or someone to help me because at this point I’m going to have a breakdown and I’m obviously not suited for taking care of fish. I wanted my own pets, and I didn’t think they would be hard to keep alive but even the slightest mistakes I made have killed them.

At least 10 fish have died and I feel so bad. they’re living, breathing, beings too and I don’t want to keep killing them even if it is by accident. Should I just give up on fish?? I feel so bad.


- I feed my fish once breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (8 AM, 3 PM, 8-10 PM.)
- We clean the tank at the beginning and the end of every month.

My fish used to greet me happily and wait for me to feed them or give them attention. Now the remaining two hide from me, I know fish can’t experience emotions but I feel like they’re really holding a grudge or they hate me now and it’s so depressing. They used to love me and now it’s like they’re scared of me, hell, I would be too. I feel like I killed all of their friends.

Pictures

View attachment 136109
View attachment 136110

Levels

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm

the ammonia is high, and 72h is farr to short for cycling
do you have any other tanks with the same ph?
move the fish if so, and wait a month
if no, try and return the fish and buy a new one, or fish in cycle.
fish in cycle is very risky and requires many changes...
any old filter media? it helps shorten it to like maybe only 2 weeks!
i dunno about fish in cycles, maybe someone more experienced could come along

 

[cfitzscott]

First of all, don't be so hard on yourself. When I started having fish as pets, a little over a year ago, I and my adult daughter made every mistake in the book, and we killed a lot of fish. The thing that helped us the most was to find a local fish store, not a big pet supply chain. The employees at the fish store really helped us and taught us so much. I am no expert. I can only tell you the things I had to do to stop killing my fish. BTW I just made a big mistake yesterday and killed two fish by putting too much algaefix into the tank. So I am humbled once again and sorry that my once thriving tank is sad due to my ignorance.
I learned to feed my fish only as much as they consume in 5 seconds, and to only feed them every other day. Overfeeding creates water imbalances and toxic tank. it can increase all the bad stuff in the water and kill the fish.
I learned to use multiple filters including ammonia filters and nitrogen reducing filters.
I learned to clean my tank and replace 30% of the water once a month, and two weeks later to replace my filters once a month. I learned to NOT clean tank and replace water and replace filters at the same time.
I learned about a few different fish diseases and to keep the meds on hand in case of illness.
I learned when the ammonia or nitrates were too high, to change the water 50%, test the water the next day and if it was too high, to change the water again 50% the next day. This process is to be repeated until the water levels are OK.
I learned that algae, though ugly, is not harmful to the fish and to turn the lights off in the tank to deter algae growth.
Unfortunately I recently learned that Algaefix is harmful to the fish even though I only put in a tad too much.
My novice take on your situation is to change the water using the above listed process until your water condition is safe, purchase and use an ammonia filter ( put it right in with your regular filter, and seriously reduce feeding. Also find a local fish store that you can rely on for advice.

 

[Circus]

I would do water changes until you read 0 on ammonia. Your tank is uncycled, so make sure to test every day and do a water change and vacuumthe gravel really well. Don't forget to use water conditioner when adding tap water.
If you are not going to get a larger tank the tetra will eventually need, I would see if the store would take them back, or rehome them. A betta would do well in this size tank. Don't add any fish until the tank is fully cycled.

If you do rehome the fish, then you can add fishfood every day to cycled the tank. If you are keeping the fish, only feed a small pinch of food every other day while the tank is cycling. It sounds as if you are overfeeding them right now.

This and this should help.

 

[itiwhetu]

Freshwater fish need. Lots of plants, natural light. Clean water. I don't want to sound mean but they are fish and need to live in a natural environment. Not in an artificial tank that offers them nothing.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Everyone has to start somewhere like we all do but it makes me so mad that money comes before welfare of animals, you should have been given decent advice on the nitrogen cycle, how to cycle your tank and how to maintain it. Your fish are dying from ammonia poisoning.

I'm a nutshell then, any water that goes into the tank needs to be dechlorinated as the chemicals in it are toxic to fish. The filter needs to grow 2 types of bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrite. Fish produce ammonia in their waste, the beneficial bacteria will convert it to nitrite and the second lot of beneficial bacteria then converts the nitrite to nitrate which is less harmful to fish which is when your tank is fully cycled. We wouldn't recommend adding fish until then but seeing as you've already got them we can help you through the cycling process.

Firstly you need to test the water everyday and make 1 large water change everyday until the test reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Your ammonia will be high then it will start to lower as the nitrite reading starts to peak, then that will lower as the nitrates increase. At that point there should be no more ammonia or nitrite. Your tank will now be cycled and all you'll need to do is a water change once a week (I like to do 50%) to keep nitrates low and add some live plants. Hope this makes sense!

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Oh and forgot to add, leave your filter alone while it's cycling! When you want to clean it, use tank water and not clean tap water because like I mentioned the chemicals in it will kill the beneficial bacteria and you'd have to start all over again

 

[Sgooosh]

I learned to clean my tank and replace 30% of the water once a month, and two weeks later to replace my filters once a month. I learned to NOT clean tank and replace water and replace filters at the same time.

hi! your other points are really good! but washing filters in 2 months is what i do, because the filter has some bacteria that helps the new water get in.
30% in a few weeks is good tho