I'm Afraid These Fish Won't Survive...

[Ale_xis]

I'm new to this forum, and in general with fish so I really need some help. I consider this an emergency since I'm so afraid they will die
Long story short, I brought home 6 fish (there are I think 14 total, friend has others) in a gallon coffee container from school. However, I will be receiving the other fish which are currently in a bucket, so I'll have all of them tonight. There are 3 minnows (caught from pond, would like to release), algae eater, tetras (?) and a few others... they are all generally very small. Our teacher does not take care of them at all, and we were leaving for a 10 day break, so I knew they'd die if no one cared for them. (he refused to buy an automatic feeder or long term feeder and no one else did so...).
Anyways, I filled up 3/4 of the container with their water for the tank from school. The tank had a filter and heater, but I wasn't able to bring those home. I brought home a UVB light and some fish food though. Yesterday, I changed about 40% of their water with bottled water since I have no filter. I'm going to pick up a water conditioner today and use that when I do water changed. But here's the problem I'm having...
I may have to end up keeping all of these fish since we have another break in December, and I'd just have to take them home again. We don't go back until the 5th, where I will ask my teacher to let me keep them. I have a 10 gallon outside that I can house them in but with no filter, I'm afraid they will die because the tank is not cycled and has no bacteria? I mean, I wanted to put a little of the old water and new conditioned water in there and let them stay in something more comfortable until I can either bring them back to school, or get their filter and heater and put it in my tank. I'm afraid by moving them though, they will go into shock or get sick because there is no good bacteria, or filter. I really can't afford to buy anything besides the conditioner right now, so I really just need to keep them alive until the 5th, where they'll either go back to their old tank, or will get set up in my new tank. So here are a few major questions:
- How much water change do I do for about 14 fish in a 10 gallon?
- How much water do I add to the 10 gallon in order to not stress them out? How much old/new water do I need to put in?
- If I do end up keeping these guys, and manage to get the old filter and heater, do I need to take them out of the tank (if I put them there) and let it cycle? Or will it be ready since the bacteria is coming from the old tank?
- And last... say I don't move them into the 10 gallon. Half of the fish are in the 1 gallon coffee container, and the others are in a large bucket. Will the survive just in those, until I can get something working for them?


any extra help is really needed... Again, I'm new to this and this was a last minute thing. I didn't want to see them die from neglect... so I need all the help I can get to keep these guys alive.

 

[phoenixgsd]

ok, what a pickle you've put yourself in, although the fish would probably been fine for 10 days. Do you have a proper tank to put them in at all, a coffee conatiner isnt the best thing, you need to get them out of there, have a read of the link in my signature it will explain how to cycle with fish, a tank with no filter is asking for disaster, the ammonia will build up in the water on a daily basis, there is no good bacteria in water, its all in the filter so as long as the filter currently at your school dosnt come into contact with water that is not dechlorinated or dries out the bacteria should survive, are you bringing all equipment from the school home? how long will they be without the basics?

 

[Ale_xis]

Yes, everything is at school. I have a 10 gallon I will try moving them to today. They will be without a filter or heater for 8 more days...
The reason I didn't want to leave them is because the school tank is VERY dirty. There's algae everywhere, it stinks, and overall it's in awful condition. The teacher received it from someone who didn't want it anymore, and he doesn't look after it either. Plus, some idiot dumped a ton of food into the tank Friday (as in like a handful.... food was everywhere) so I knew the tank would get extremely dirty. I was afraid they'd die from sickness.

Also, I'm trying to get a hold of one of my friends who may still have her filter from her fish. If I'm able to get this, would that work properly in the new tank? There may still be bacteria in the filter from hers, so could that possibly work? Again, I'd buy a filter but I don't have the money

 

[KCB]

The filter will be fine but until it has built up enough bacteria you'll have to do large daily water changes (with dechlorinator) so they don't suffer ammonia poisoning. Also, if they are tropical fish they may need to be kept at a warm temperature, is there any chance you can borrow the heater from school?

 

[Ale_xis]

No, the school is closed for the entire week, the rooms can't be accessed I have them on the floor in my room which is the warmest in the house. The water is about 74 degrees. Right now I have about 30% of the 10 gallon filled with tap water which will be treated with conditioner. Do you recommend maybe putting like 20% of the water they're currently in in there too? I'm only filling up half the tank to make water changes easier.... Or should I just put them in brand new dechlorinated water? I think that would send them into shock though...
I'm hoping to move them in the next couple of hours, once i receive the other fish.

 

[KCB]

There's a chance the fish will be shocked by the clean water if they've been in a poorly maintained tank for a while. This is called Old Tank syndrome. You should still change ~20% of the water per day.

Don't add anymore of the old tank water, just change what they are in now but slowly increase the amount of water the tank has until eventually it becomes full. This could help dilute the ammonia in the tank.

 

[Ale_xis]

Okay so, I'm guessing the water from the bigger bucket will fill up 40% more of the tank. Are you saying to pour the old water into the tank, and just doing water changes with new treated water while slowly increasing the amount, rather than pouring them into the new tank with 30% new water and 30-40% of their old?

 

[Ale_xis]

Ok here's what I did. I haven't gotten the other fish yet, maybe tomorrow. I filled up 30% of the tank with new conditioned water. Then I took out about 3 cup fulls of the old water and replaced it with 3 cups of new, so they could get used to it. Let them sit there for a couple of hours, then started moving them. I had to catch them by hand... lol. Anyways, what I did was I took about half of the old water, and poured it into the tank. Then caught the fish, and let them sit in a cup with half old half new water for 5 minutes, then set them inside. They seem a lot happier... They're swimming around the cage and kind of ramming into the sides, but I think that's just because they've been crammed into that small container. I'll use the same method with the other fish if these guys do well.

Here's some pics. I have a little bit of gravel that I washed really well, and I'll add more tomorrow. I'll also do a 20% water change, and slowly add more and more water each day. Hopefully I can get this stable until I'm able to get my hands on a filter.
How did I do so far? Hopefully good enough.

And can someone tell me what kind of algae eater this is? Hopefully it's not the one that gets huge...

 

[Baccus]

That last picture is not an algea eater, its a false julii corydoras catfish, and it will be very lonely, all corydoras are social and like having a group of friends.

. Could you maybe put some well washed sand at the other end of the tank away from the gravel for the cory? They are prone to damaging their barbles/ whiskers on gravel, and on sand you will see a very happy cory snuffling through the sand looking for food and tidbits.
As long as you keep gradually increasing the new water to the fish they should survive the change without problems. The main thing to watch out for will be different tempratures and ensuring that you dont get ammonia spikes when you add the other fish.

 

[Ale_xis]

Oh wow... I had no idea! Poor little guy... He's been breathing very fast so I'm scared he's extremely stressed. He's actually my favorite one in the tank too. I went ahead and added a small little log/driftwood I had. Soaked it in extremely hot water first. Hopefully he likes it... Tomorrow, I will take them out again temporary, and add some sand to the bottom. Hopefully I can find a stand to place the tank on as well. Lets just hope they pull through the night, and can survive until Monday.
I really appreciate all the help from everyone. I did have... another question. Say I manage to keep these guys alive until I go back on the 5th. If I bring home the filter, how long can it be out of water before the bacteria dies off? And when I start cycling the tank, should I remove all the fish into the buckets again? I'll also be adding a heater and air pump that's in the old tank so I wasn't sure if the temperature change would freak them out. I have no other tank to house them in, so I just wanted to set everything up and let it run its cycle with the fish in, but I heard that was inhumane. I don't really know what would be best though.
Last... the school tank has a major algae problem. The decorations and fake plants are covered in it. If I bring those home, should I wash them off well, or leave it and just place it in the tank?

Thanks, and sorry for all the spam. I just feel really bad for these guys... They haven't been looked after properly so I'm just trying to do my best

 

[Baccus]

We can tell that your doing your best for the fish and that is a good thing.
If the filter from the school has to travel a long way you could put the media from inside the filter in a sealed container with a some tank water and put a small battery operated air pump in the water so that the bacteria in the media will still have water movement and survive the trip to your house.
If you are going to keep the filter/ media from the existing tank then you wont need to cycle it, it should already have an established colony of bacteria. If you are starting off with a totally new filter then it will need to be cycled but I would cycle the filter with the fish in their tank so that there is less stress on them being moved in and out of buckets. Also being in temporay buckets while waiting for a filter to cycle you would still have to be doing daily water changes. If you are able to run the schools filter in conjunction with a new filter then you can "seed" the new filter with the existing colony.
You could try cleaning off the worst of the algea from the decorations, bad algea is usually a sign of too much nutrients and or light, personally if possible I would get a bit of cheap aquatic plant (elodea springs to mind) and put that in the tank with the fish. The real plant will use excess nutirents thus starving the algea, while helping add oxygen and improve overall water quality. The fish will also feel safe with some plants to hide in.

 

[Ale_xis]

I live only 10 minutes from the school - is that too long? If I do take everything, I was just going to put everything in a bucket and just instantly put it all in the new tank when I got home. By then, the tank should be full with water so I could instantly start up heating the tank and using the filter. The temperature change hopefully won't send them into shock since it will slowly be changing, not instantly. My plan now is to change the substrate to sand, and slowly keep adding water. Then Monday, (if my teacher is cooperative) I'll take the decorations, maybe some gravel, and the equipment home. Hopefully I can just quickly install the heater and thermometers so I can instantly start up the filter. I'll buy a water test kit as well and keep an eye on the levels once I get there. I'll definitely add in some plants, once I get all of this chaos dealt with. They just got to pull through for 7 more days.
My greatest fear is that my teacher/class will have a fit about me taking the fish. It was technically given TO the class, so I'm afraid people will be like "oh they aren't yours, bring them back" even though no one even cares for them. Guess I'll just talk to my teacher privately, say I have an aquarium in the making that can happily house them. I've been wanting an aquarium for years anyways so now's my chance!

 

[MrsM]

If your worried about taking them back, as i would be.......LIE, and say theyve died....then you can keep them and hopefully you can give then a longer happier life.....good luck and well done for trying
EDIT....did you steal the fish from school?

 

[betta fish]

Firstly Well done for caring for the fishes well being but slightly worried that you have chosen to take the fish without permission

or have I got that wrong? it does sound like the fish were not being taken care of appropriately but the school had them in a tank with a heater and a filter and they had survived thus far, you now have them but are struggling to provide the appropriate care, it would have been far better had you addressed your concerns with the teacher and asked if you could take the tank home with all the equipment so they could be cared for whilst the school had a break or if the teacher refuses just clean out the tank and feed the fish well before you went, they should be ok for 10 days, holiday food blocks are another option that provide food instead of an expensive automatic feeder.
I hope you don't get into too much trouble over this as your heart is in the right place, good luck with them.

 

[Ale_xis]

The teacher pretty much said if one of us didn't buy either a vacation feeder or automatic feeder, or take them home, then he wouldn't care if they died. I pretty much hinted on days before I would take them home, but a girl said she would buy one of those vacation feeders but didn't.. I was going to actually leave them there until this girl littered the entire tank with food. So no, technically I didn't steal them, our teacher even told me he didn't care if I did or that if they starved. He said he wouldn't be taking them over summer either which is why im trying to take then now or they'll die then. Sad how humans treat animals sometimes