My Fish Did Not Survive

[mollies]

I have just set up My fish Take 90 L its got a pump and the temp is set to 27 degrees. after letting it run for 3 wks I introduced 4 mollies; they looked all happy and setteled the first day but within 48 hours all of them died. i had got the water tested for nitrates before getting the fish.. cant understand why this happened, I had also planted some fresh water plants the same day. Can someone please suggest what it could be?

 

[Corleone]

I have just set up My fish Take 90 L its got a pump and the temp is set to 27 degrees. after letting it run for 3 wks I introduced 4 mollies; they looked all happy and setteled the first day but within 48 hours all of them died. i had got the water tested for nitrates before getting the fish.. cant understand why this happened, I had also planted some fresh water plants the same day. Can someone please suggest what it could be?

What happened is the tank isn't cycled. Running the tank for any period of time does nothing (It can remove some fine particulate that might stir up out of the gravel, but rinsing the gravel will prevent that). Once the fish were added, the cycle started, ammonia levels rose, and the fish died of gill damage.

Nitrates aren't what you need to have tested. Nitrates are largely harmless and controlled by water changes, and in an uncycled tank they won't be produced. Fish produce ammonia waste, which damages gills and is highly toxic. The first step of the cycle converts this to nitrIte, which is less deadly, but suffocates fish. Only when the cycle is nearing completion will nitrates appear. When the cycle is finished, ammonia and nitrite will be effectively 0 at all times. Any amount above 0 is bad, anything about 0.25 ppm is cause for immediate worry, and anything above 0.5 ppm is cause for panic.


Have a look at this thread, first off:
http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...ready-Got-Fish/

If all the fish died and you haven't replaced them, a fishless cycle is better than new fish at this point. Much less stress for you and far less risk of killing your fish, and you can increase stocking more quickly afterwards than you can by cycling with fish:
http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

Edit: Forgot to mention the standard: Don't beat yourself up over the mistake. A lot of us got, nearly got, bad starts thanks to bad pet store advice, and are entirely sympathetic to the problem. It makes sense to trust pet stores for pet related advice, but just remember what they say about trusting mechanics. When it comes down to it, they're just car salesmen on a smaller scale.

 

[LauraFrog]

^ Agreed. When I started I tried to stock an 18 litre tank with nine platies and a bristlenose. It's a miracle that none of them died.

Also, did you treat the water with anything? Corleone is absolutely right about the cycle but I would have thought four mollies in a 90 litre tank would not have produced enough ammonia to kill themselves in 48 hours. Chlorine could have done it but they would have shown distress as soon as they were put in the tank and you say they settled. How did they behave before they died? Were they gasping at the surface of the tank?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, mollies, you have had an all-too-common Local Fish Store (LFS) experience. But you are one of the rare ones who has stumbled on this web forum on the hobby and so you have a great opportunity to learn how it is really done and get a much better start. If you begin reading some of the links posted above and start up a thread in the "New to the Hobby" section, you should find that the members will guide you through a much better start-off - its much more fun having all the interactions with people and being able to ask questions in your own words about all the odd things that are really the areas of concern for beginners.

Good luck and welcome to the forums,
~~waterdrop~~

 

[mollies]

^ Agreed. When I started I tried to stock an 18 litre tank with nine platies and a bristlenose. It's a miracle that none of them died.

Also, did you treat the water with anything? Corleone is absolutely right about the cycle but I would have thought four mollies in a 90 litre tank would not have produced enough ammonia to kill themselves in 48 hours. Chlorine could have done it but they would have shown distress as soon as they were put in the tank and you say they settled. How did they behave before they died? Were they gasping at the surface of the tank?

Thanks for your reply, The night before they died all of them were swimming happily. The next morning when I woke up I of them was not moving at all and the other two were sitting at the bottom of the tank barely breathing. I could'nt understand what had happened. The tank was treated for chlorine.