I Started Way To Fast (with Way To Many Fish..)

[Electricity]

So, i recently got a 20 gallon fish tank from my fiance for out anniversary. Knowing nothing about fish keeping, i turned to a coworker who claimed she knew a bunch about fish. I also relied on a petsmart worker for advice. Well, after adding gravel and declorinator to my tank, i waited 24 hours to begin adding fish. we tested the levels, twice, to make sure everything was up to par. The initial readings where Water temp, 79* F, PH 7.5, amonia .20 (i was told under .25 was normal), nitrite 0, nitrate 10-15 (can't quite tell, its lighter then the lowest reading, which is 20, but not at 0).Well, i was told by both people that it was ok to start with about 10 fish and add a few more every day, so I went out and got my fish, and have been adding every few days. That was about a week ago. My amonia levels have been creeping up slowly, from .7 a few days ago to nearly 3.0 today!As of now these are the fish I have in my tank. I have lost a few, this is whats alive as of this posting1 Lyretail Molly, 1 blind cave tetra, 2 silver tipped tetras, 4 neon tetras, 2 hi-fin tetras, 1 silvertipped shark, 1 plecus?, 1 upside down catfish, 1 black african knife, 2 blue gouramis, 1 red sword tail, 3 sunfire tetras, 1 irridecent shark, 1 needle fish, 1 bala shark and 2 Peacock spiny eels.I love my fish! I had no idea that getting so many, so quickly was a bad thing, and I'm really upset that i was given bad advice. I've already asked about taking some of the fish back, but its a no go, and in all honesty, i'd like to keep as many as possible. So far, i've lost 2 neon tetras, a rainbow shark (he was a little guy, and seemed kinda sickly when i got him, i felt bad for him ), a frog, a sunfire tetra, and 1, posibly 2 ghost shrimp (can't find the other one, he may very well be ghosting it up somewhere).anyways, as of this posting, (i'm litteraly testing now) my readings are-temp 81F, 4.0 amonia (oh no!), Nitrate, 0-20, the strip is not quite as pink as the 20 ppm marking. Nitrite, 0. hardness, Soft 75 ppm. total alkalinity, 80 ppm. ph, right around 7.2I treated the water over the last few days with Top Fin Amonia Remover, although from what I have read, that may have been pointless.I also overfed the crap out of my fish, there was noticable food residue on my plants and in my gravel. after *finaly* finding this forum I performed a 25% water change today, and will continue doing so daily until my levels get better. I do have a gravel vac, but I can only seem to do a fairly small area with it before I've removed the required amount of water. I do have a (rather dirty) 10 gallon tank that I could begin setting up as early as tommorow, if it will help. I really want to make my fish better (the remaining fish seem fine, its just my high amonia, and the fact that I added them all at once..).Please help me! I think should not feed me fish for a few days because of the excessive extra food in the tank, and the high amonia levels.Tell me what i can do to fixk my stupid newbie blunder. I love my fish and I don't wat any more to die. How do I save them?!-EThanks so much in advance for the help!I do plan on getting additional tanks sometime in the future. I just passed up on a *free* 500 galon tank a few weeks ago, because i wanted to start smaller.Now that I know about fishless cycling, i plan on doing that to ALL my tanks in the future. I just wish I had known about it sooner

 

[t.ropical_m.istx3]

Well, I don't know too much about tropicals, as my fish-crazy friend pretty much picked out my tank for me but I do know that

1.) That's wayyyyy too many as you pointed out.
2.) I believe some of those fish will get too big for a twenty gallon, not sure, but I think so.


Try going back to Petsmart and explaining the situation, maybe then they'll take some back. It'd be the best bet for you and your fish - even though you love them and want to keep them, they'd be happier and it would keep more from dying off.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Be sure to do plenty of water changes, twice daily would be good probably. Also see if you can return some of your fish to the petstore, if not try putting an ad in the newspaper or somewhere and try to sell them off.

Also if you can afford to consider buying some extra tanks, or even just a MUCH bigger tank. Not sure of your location, but check yard sales or ebay for secondhand tanks and supplies, second hand works just as well as newly purchased!!

Also I suggest lowering your temperature to around 76F degrees, this will allow the fish to not be to stressed as warmer temperatures cause the fish to breather quicker.

Take a look at investing in a liquid test kit also as test strips have been found to be inaccurate sometimes.

Best of Luck! Hopefully you can succeed with this!!!

 

[afishdude]

i would suggest taking all those fish back to petsmart and reading up on fishkeeping and starting from scratch. most of those fish you mentioned will get over a foot in length.

 

[Electricity]

Be sure to do plenty of water changes, twice daily would be good probably. Also see if you can return some of your fish to the petstore, if not try putting an ad in the newspaper or somewhere and try to sell them off.

Also if you can afford to consider buying some extra tanks, or even just a MUCH bigger tank. Not sure of your location, but check yard sales or ebay for secondhand tanks and supplies, second hand works just as well as newly purchased!!

Also I suggest lowering your temperature to around 76F degrees, this will allow the fish to not be to stressed as warmer temperatures cause the fish to breather quicker.

Take a look at investing in a liquid test kit also as test strips have been found to be inaccurate sometimes.

Best of Luck! Hopefully you can succeed with this!!!

Thank you. I feel really bad that I put my poor fish in this situation. I got WAY to over zelous.. I'll lower my temperature right now, and I'll do another water change tonight after class, and continue doing twice daily changes.
And I do plan on getting a few more tanks, I guess I'll have to step up that process. I'll also get a liquid test kit. I saw one, but the nice sales lady.. said the strips work just fine. heh

i would suggest taking all those fish back to petsmart and reading up on fishkeeping and starting from scratch. most of those fish you mentioned will get over a foot in length.

I tried taking them back, but they said they wouldn't take them, they did suggest trying to give them away, or sell them. Which as sad as it makes me, I'm going to try and do.
Yea, the more I read about them, the more I realize I've got some HUGE fish on hand. I did get all really small ones, as I want to watch them grow, but after reading how big they'll get, i think I'm in WAY over my head.
I'm going to get right on getting more tankage.
Thanks for the advice so far guys, I'll keep up in this thread, to update how things go.

 

[Zeoth]

Oh um...ah...where to start? Ok, first off, these fish you absolutly HAVE( And I mean under no cirmustances) have to get rid of:

blind cave tetra,silvertipped shark, plecus,black african knife( this thing would litarlily eat all your fish-no contest), irridecent shark,bala shark.

Some how some way, you have to get rid of those fish. They are not for begainners and require special attenstion. Now pick from the remaining fish maximum (I reccomend- don't know about anybody else) 17 fish. I made a list for you:

2 blue gouramis,- not sure about the gouramis as I have heard that they get quite big?
3 red sword tail,- I'am assuming it's a platy or a livebearer of some kind, boost thier numbers up to 3-4
3 sunfire tetras

In addition get 6 carndinal tetras. Also get 2-3inches of substrate(gravel or sand), and I reccomend that you add some live plants as they really help you in the long run. Some good ones are:

Amazon sword
Hygrophila species
Javafern

*I apologize , thats all that I know of, try out the Planted section here. They have a really detailed list of some good plants.*

BUT BEFORE YOU DO THESE THINGS, WAIT OR OTHER PEOPLE TO REPLY INSTEAD OF ME. *I might have missed some important information or something that would have been a valuble asset to your tank.*

Welcom to Tropical fish forums!

oh and one more thing.....












HOW COULD YOU PASS UP THE OPPERTUNITY TO GET A FREEEEE 500 GALLON TANK. I ONLY DREAM OF THAT DAY. MAN I wish that happended to me.

 

[Sofia]

First off welcome!!
Secondly you've come to the right place for advice there are loads of very knowledgable people on this forum that have helped me and others no end.

I have had experience with Blue Gouramis. I had to recently give mine to my lfs (local fish shop) because he was killing my new fish. A very hard desicion for me as he had loads of personality and was a joy to watch (until he started his killing campaign)

If you have 2 male Gouramis they will in most certainty fight with eachother, these type of fish are territorial and semi-aggresive so will fight with eachother and any other species that look like them.
Do you know how old they are? I know of others who have raised two males together in a tank your size without much trouble.

On the other hand if you have a male and a female then I suggest getting another female (when the time comes) because that male will harrass that girl till the cows come home and another female will spread around the harrasment.

I think that blue gouramis will be fine in your size of tank, if they are both make maybe keep just one they do fine by themselves

Good luck with your tank, sounds to me like you are taking the right steps to level out your parameters.

Maybe you could find an independant fish shop local to you that will take the fish that you need to get rid of, they will most probably also be a better source of healthy fish etc if petsmart is anything like the british 'petsathome'

 

[arvlyn]

What type of kit are you testing your water with? A lot of times, ammonia removing chemicals will screw up the results of certain test kits, showing ammonia when there isn't any.

I'm almost positive you do have high ammonia though, with all those fish in an uncycled tank, all the leftover food, etc., it may just not be as high as your test kit is showing.

I'd recommend twice daily 25% water changes to start.

Rehoming some of the fish to different, bigger tanks would be the best bet, but then you'd have to cycle those new tanks too or you'd have the same sorts of problems. I use Stree-Zyme to help cycle my tanks, but I think I'm the only one that uses it and likes it on this forum. There's also Bio-Spira that gets better reviews here.

It's best to try to remove as much of the leftover food as you can manually.

 

[Electricity]

What type of kit are you testing your water with? A lot of times, ammonia removing chemicals will screw up the results of certain test kits, showing ammonia when there isn't any.

I'm almost positive you do have high ammonia though, with all those fish in an uncycled tank, all the leftover food, etc., it may just not be as high as your test kit is showing.

I'd recommend twice daily 25% water changes to start.

Rehoming some of the fish to different, bigger tanks would be the best bet, but then you'd have to cycle those new tanks too or you'd have the same sorts of problems. I use Stree-Zyme to help cycle my tanks, but I think I'm the only one that uses it and likes it on this forum. There's also Bio-Spira that gets better reviews here.

It's best to try to remove as much of the leftover food as you can manually.

I will continue to do 25% twice daily changes. I do actualy use stress-zyme, I'm glad someone else likes it.

I plan on picking upa 50-100 gallon tank in the next few days, but it will take a bit to prep it.
If i got one atleast 50 gallon, do you guys think I'd be set?

Thanks for the welcome by the way guys, i really appreciate it! I've been doing tons of of reading since I found this great site. Thanks so much guys!

 

[Spooky76]

Hiya - its not really the capacity that matters as much as the length of the tank. any tank over 1-2ft high is a waste, as most fish wont go that high, its the length they need more than anything (Although some fish prefer height). If your going to keep sharks, plecs etc a 4ft tank is the minimum I would recommend.

Certainly a 100G would be better for the fish yes.

You can have any size you like, and there are fish to suit any size tank you buy. If you post what fish you want...we could tell you a rough size you would need, or say what size you want and we can tell you what fish can go in it.

Your on the right lines though already.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

You might also want to get rid of the needlefish as it will eat your neons, swordtails, and the sunfire tetras. These fish also have special needs.

But great job, you are definitely heading on the right track. And don't beat yourself up about this, we all make mistakes like this as beginners. I still make some here and there, like putting non dechlorinated water into a tank and not realizing this until the fish started dying. I had to cycle the tank all over again, but luckily, I had access to some bio-spira, which works great. This reduces cycling to a less than 2 day ordeal. If and when you set up your new tank, I would highly recommend this product to cycle the tank.