Is Disaster Going To Strike?

[b0668099]

So my friend tells me she has a tropical tank in her shed, i say oh why dont you keep fish they are awesome, she says if you want it you can take it. I go ahead and take it.

She gives me the instruction to clean the tank and treat the water and leave it for 24 hours before putting fish in. so i do this.

i put a bunch of neons and some danios in with a plec. then i read on the internet that i should have left my tank for at least 3 weeks and should only have introduced a few fish at a time. They have been in the tank all day now an seem to be fine. (apart from the penguin tetra seem to like to fight eachother)

The question basically is. Are all my new family members going to die?

my tank is about 80-100 ltrs at a guess.

 

[b0668099]

i guess by the lack of replies you all think i should have done my research before i got myself in the mess. fair comment.


well update, woke up this morning they have all been in there about 20 hours now, and everyone is still alive and swimming around, apart from the plec who really loves the filter.

if there is going to be some death, how long will it be and how can i avoid it?

cmon people these fish should not suffer for the sins of their father!

 

[rgzcampbell]

I'll presume you've got a filter and heater going in the tank. If you want to keep them alive you'll need to do daily water changes (20-40%) with water that has been dechlorinated using tapsafe or something equivalent.

Go buy yourslef a liquid test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and read the sticky on cycling your tank.

 

[b0668099]

I'll presume you've got a filter and heater going in the tank. If you want to keep them alive you'll need to do daily water changes (20-40%) with water that has been dechlorinated using tapsafe or something equivalent.

Go buy yourslef a liquid test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and read the sticky on cycling your tank.

yes i got everything they said i needed at local pets at home, apart from the test kit, i will go get one this afternoon, what is the best way to do a water change? bucket and a pipe? wont the water that i put back in the tank be much colder and bring the overall temperature down and shock the fish? if so how do i heat this water?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, what you've found yourself in is called a 'fish-in cycle' sadly the fact that things are fine now doesn't necessarily mean they will stay fine, often new tanks in this situation are OK for a few days then it all goes tits up!

However disaster is easily averted, this is something we come across everyday so we're well equipeed to help you dealw ith it.

if you read the link in my sig 'whats cycling' then this will explain it all to you and what to do now. there's also a link called 'weekly maintenance' which has a description of how to carry out a water change.

 

[b0668099]

hi there, what you've found yourself in is called a 'fish-in cycle' sadly the fact that things are fine now doesn't necessarily mean they will stay fine, often new tanks in this situation are OK for a few days then it all goes tits up!

However disaster is easily averted, this is something we come across everyday so we're well equipeed to help you dealw ith it.

if you read the link in my sig 'whats cycling' then this will explain it all to you and what to do now. there's also a link called 'weekly maintenance' which has a description of how to carry out a water change.

you are a saint!

thankyou.

 

[stonedcamel]

hello...

i was in the same situation as you are in now.... got my tank and knew to set up and leave it and add fish so i did. then i discovered this website but my tank has been going well

 

[Miah002]

Make sure you go 20 percent water changes everyday.

 

[stonedcamel]

i do 10% water change every weekend.... but.... i have just asked a question about cleaning in the maintenance thread, something im not sure about.

but as for tank.... i havent had any problems and no loss of life due to environment as such, just my cray!

 

[b0668099]

i do 10% water change every weekend.... but.... i have just asked a question about cleaning in the maintenance thread, something im not sure about.

but as for tank.... i havent had any problems and no loss of life due to environment as such, just my cray!

well i went to my local pet shop (not a superstore) and a very nice worker advised me not to buy the expensive water testing stuff and just bring in a sample tomorrow morning, and he said their marine specialist (in a small petstore???) would test it for me and tell me what i need. From what he told me i had accidently bought all the hardest fish on the planet (he referred to my zebra danios as nuke proof) and he expects them all to survive.

I have had no loss of life as yet, and will be performing a water change subject to the water test tomorrow.

on a side note, i have two penguin tetras, one of them it appears is a bully, it constantly chases the other one nipping at its fins, it even has been chasing the one of the danios around (at least twice its bulk). Awesome to watch at first but i do feel sorry for the other fish. a terror penguin, sounds like a b movie!

 

[Davo86]

well i went to my local pet shop (not a superstore) and a very nice worker advised me not to buy the expensive water testing stuff and just bring in a sample tomorrow morning, and he said their marine specialist (in a small petstore???) would test it for me and tell me what i need. From what he told me i had accidently bought all the hardest fish on the planet (he referred to my zebra danios as nuke proof) and he expects them all to survive.

I have had no loss of life as yet, and will be performing a water change subject to the water test tomorrow.

on a side note, i have two penguin tetras, one of them it appears is a bully, it constantly chases the other one nipping at its fins, it even has been chasing the one of the danios around (at least twice its bulk). Awesome to watch at first but i do feel sorry for the other fish. a terror penguin, sounds like a b movie!

ask the employee to write down the water stats for you, make sure you get ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph,

Basicly atm there will be very little bacteria in your tank and a lot of waste being produced by each fish, as these levels start to rise you will need to do % water changes to keep the water stats at a safe level, if they rise and no water change is done you will notice fatalities (which is why it is better to have your own test kit to test daily which will be required for the first few weeks)

and whilst the danios may be "nuke proof" (well one of the hardier species) neons certainly aren't and will be the first ones to suffer if/when things start to turn for the worst,

As for the penguin tetras, all shoaling fish should be kept in good sized groups so that any aggression is split amongst them, in small numbers relatively peaceful shoaling fish will act aggressive. That is of course provided that this aggression isn't being caused by poor water conditions, which have a funny way of making fish act in an unnatural way

 

[b0668099]

well i have read all of miss wiggles many articles, all of which are full of awesome info, and went out and stole a filter sponge (sorry i dont know the real name) from a friend who has had their tank going for years. this is something i read in one of miss wiggles articles. Now i have renewed hope that my fish will all survive. I only have 11 small fish (all smaller than an inch apart from my plec who is about 3'') so its looking pretty barren in there, awesome - but barren. Just wondering how long my tank will take to cycle with a good chunk of old sponge in my filter?..........so i can add some more fish

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad you got some mature media, the timescales are very hard to predict. you really should get your own testing kit, you'll need to test every day at this stage and going to the pet shop to do this isn't very practical. they're also liable to try to sell you things to fix your problems when all you need to do is water changes.

if you look on ebay you can normally find teh api fresh water master test kit for about 15/20 quid so it's not that pricey and has everything you need.

you need to test the water every day now, hopefully you'll only have ammonia/nitrite for a few days and then the levels will drop to 0 and you can go back to weekly water cahnges, but for now, until you can test the water eveyr day yourself you need to do at least a 205 water change every day if not more.

 

[b0668099]

glad you got some mature media, the timescales are very hard to predict. you really should get your own testing kit, you'll need to test every day at this stage and going to the pet shop to do this isn't very practical. they're also liable to try to sell you things to fix your problems when all you need to do is water changes.

if you look on ebay you can normally find teh api fresh water master test kit for about 15/20 quid so it's not that pricey and has everything you need.

you need to test the water every day now, hopefully you'll only have ammonia/nitrite for a few days and then the levels will drop to 0 and you can go back to weekly water cahnges, but for now, until you can test the water eveyr day yourself you need to do at least a 205 water change every day if not more.

ok so i went to my local pet store, and the bloke is awesome, aparently i am very lucky as the tank is showing normal ph levels. He says that once my other levels hit zero (amonia = 0.5?) he recons by next week, that i could think about putting another fish in.

In other news, i bought a plant off him, got it home, put the plant in the tank (looks pretty cool) i am just about to put the plastic bag in the bin, when i think i see something move in the bottom. a loach. (not sure what kind, are juvenile clown loaches brown when young? if not i guess it is a yoyo loach, but i am no expert), anyway it must have been out of water for 25 mins, i threw him in the tank asap, he was a bit worse for ware for a while but seems ok now..... Now i have a problem, i have a fish that i didnt pay for. should i take it back to the store? i thought about just giving them the £2.50 or whatever it cost. Or i could just pretend it never happened, and feel guilty everytime i see the little critter.

is there anything i should know about yoyos/baby clowns?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yay bonus fish!

what i'd suggest you do is look up the species and get an exact ID for him, if he's gonna get too large for your tank then call teh fish shop, explain to them and return him. if he's not gonna get too big then just keep quiet....... it happens quite a lot so the store won't really mind, likely they won't even notice tbh.

you want your levels to hold steady at 0,0 for ammonia and nitrite for at least a week before you add any more fish.