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Welcome!
We have 2 guppy survivors in a 25 litre tank so I suspect our tank right now will look a little underwhelming! But we really hope to add to the school. We will be using a quarantine tank to make sure the new comers are fit and ready to join the main tank. I don't know if that is the usual procedure but after our trial by fishy fire we are being cautious. I had no idea there was so much death and devastation involved in fish keeping
Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum and, since you've been reading, what've you learned so far?
We certainly made a school girl error going for the maximum number of fish into a new tank, and I now realise we only had 20% of the information we actually needed. I wish someone at the shop had said, just take 2, establish the tank and then come back for more. One daughter (10 years) has found the death levels too hard to handle and has taken a step back from these beautiful new pets. Every morning in that first week I would wake up to her screaming 'Elvis is dead' or whatever the poor victim was that day. But my 12 year old and I are absolutely hooked. She wants to be a vet and in retrospect this is a very good hobby for getting her used to the fragility of life. Plus everyones' chemistry has come on leaps and bounds! But it is certainly not the relaxing pursuit I imagined at the startWelcome to the forum and, since you've been reading, what've you learned so far?
Losing fish early on in the hobby is all-too common, because, as you've said yourself, we initially don't know how much is involved and, usually, the people selling us that first tank and those first fish, don't tell us what we need to know.
For example, have you picked up the info on cycling your tank, or on measuring exactly what is in your water, (what we refer to as the 'water parameters')?
Don't lose heart. Once you know what you're doing and you've settled into it, then deaths will be very few and far between and your biggest problem will be where to put that next tank.
, well not yet anyway! Thanks for the warm welcome.too too true.
We tried to run before we could walk. It is obvious looking back. Start with 2. Get your tank just right, then think about adding more. Our 2 survivors have been with us for a month so starting to feel confident . . . !
Normally, you would set the tank up, usually with plants, add some bacteria and then let in run for a few weeks before you added any fish. As it is, the waste from your surviving fish should be creating toxic ammonia, which one sort of bacteria will be turning into toxic Nitrite, and then another sort will turn into Nitrate. As you said, chemistry becomes quite interesting.
From an impatient kid's point of view, it's all about learning patience and taking responsibility for the welfare of living creatures.
