Hi all,
First of all I am a complete newbie to fish keeping. End of December (08) I decided to to start a small aquarium in my room just for a small hobby. I already had a small glass tank which was bought many years ago (about 12-15 litres).
I went to the pet store to get some fishies, but I was told I should buy a filter and heater and let it run for about a week before I actually put fish in the tank, which I did. I set up the filter and tank and let it run for about 2 weeks, but in between I had to stop the filter and heater as we were doing some maintenance in my room.
So 2 days ago I went out and bought some Neon Tetra's (asked for 8 but I ended up being given 13 for the same price) and some gravel and a small seaweed plant.
Got home, washed the gravel in a bowl to clean it, then put it slowly in the tank, the plant following. After I let the fish (still in the see through bag) float on the tank water for one hour, adding the tank water to the bag every ten minutes or so, until a hour later i let them all out into the tank (following instructions the pet store guy said!). They seemed a bit nervous, a bit panicked, and huddling around each other, but I thought they would settle after a while to their new home, which they appeared to have been doing some time later. Heater was maintaining the water at around 79F temperature (28C).
The next morning I find 3 floating on their bellies and 4 more under the filter intake also with the same deal. So had 6 more Neons left. Throughout the rest of the day 2 also eventually (seemed to have lost their energy) and were just floating there being carried around by the filter and eventually hit the top of the tank on its belly. Now I have four more left, this morning but 1 already appears to be sick just looking weak letting the filter current carry it, not swimming much etc, the other 3 seem OK for now.
My filter is running at quarter speed as to have a strong current in my small tank, water appears clean (I did add De-chlorination to it), I even changed 1/3 of the water (added the De-chlorination to it as well) yesterday. I gave them some tropical fish flakes to eat (which were just floating on top of the tank until i pushed it down to sink within the tank so the fish can reach it) but I'm not sure if any of them actually ate anything of it. I also bought a PH testing kit yesterday, result was a PH of 8.0 which I was told is OK for tropical fish.
So as you can see I'm really at a end on why my fish are doing belly ups. Any help or advice on what could be the problem?
First of all I am a complete newbie to fish keeping. End of December (08) I decided to to start a small aquarium in my room just for a small hobby. I already had a small glass tank which was bought many years ago (about 12-15 litres).
I went to the pet store to get some fishies, but I was told I should buy a filter and heater and let it run for about a week before I actually put fish in the tank, which I did. I set up the filter and tank and let it run for about 2 weeks, but in between I had to stop the filter and heater as we were doing some maintenance in my room.
So 2 days ago I went out and bought some Neon Tetra's (asked for 8 but I ended up being given 13 for the same price) and some gravel and a small seaweed plant.
Got home, washed the gravel in a bowl to clean it, then put it slowly in the tank, the plant following. After I let the fish (still in the see through bag) float on the tank water for one hour, adding the tank water to the bag every ten minutes or so, until a hour later i let them all out into the tank (following instructions the pet store guy said!). They seemed a bit nervous, a bit panicked, and huddling around each other, but I thought they would settle after a while to their new home, which they appeared to have been doing some time later. Heater was maintaining the water at around 79F temperature (28C).
The next morning I find 3 floating on their bellies and 4 more under the filter intake also with the same deal. So had 6 more Neons left. Throughout the rest of the day 2 also eventually (seemed to have lost their energy) and were just floating there being carried around by the filter and eventually hit the top of the tank on its belly. Now I have four more left, this morning but 1 already appears to be sick just looking weak letting the filter current carry it, not swimming much etc, the other 3 seem OK for now.
My filter is running at quarter speed as to have a strong current in my small tank, water appears clean (I did add De-chlorination to it), I even changed 1/3 of the water (added the De-chlorination to it as well) yesterday. I gave them some tropical fish flakes to eat (which were just floating on top of the tank until i pushed it down to sink within the tank so the fish can reach it) but I'm not sure if any of them actually ate anything of it. I also bought a PH testing kit yesterday, result was a PH of 8.0 which I was told is OK for tropical fish.
So as you can see I'm really at a end on why my fish are doing belly ups. Any help or advice on what could be the problem?
