My roommates fish

[LittleMissFish]

Ok so here's the deal, one of my roommates (Rachel) decided that she too wanted to get into the fish keeping hobby, but she wouldn't read my books, wouldn't listen to me about anything, she set up the tank, put the chemicals in, got the right temp, and a day later put like 15 fish in (10Gal tank) and now, like 1 week later, all her fish are dying one by one. She takes it really hard too, is there anything I can do to help her out?


Thanks
~Jill

 

[wotfish?]

im confused here, in another post you said you and your room mates only had a 10 gal tank between you, is this the same one?
i would reccomend you remove all but 2 platys and take them back to the lfs, i did say in the other post you had added too many fish to an uncycled tank.im afraid if you dont remove them then they will most likely die off one by one.

 

[LittleMissFish]

Oh sorry, I should have explained better, we did get a 10 gal between the three of us, but then she decided not to be a part of it with us anymore, so she went out and got her own. lately, shes been acting like she knows all, when I'm the one reading the books and stuff. Anyways, I'm happy to report that our tank is doing great! the ammonia level is really low and we have happy fish

But what about Rachel

 

[cichlidmaster]

Unfortunately, rachel is learning the hard way...as alot of us did in the beginning!!!

Only thing she can do is water changes!!!! 20 % everyday until the toxic levels have come down.

She could try to take the fish back to the shop, but if they see the fish are stressed it's unlikely they will take them back...

Possibly as well she could go to the shop and ask for a few handfuls of gravel or filter material from one of their filters. If she gets the gravel, have her get a nylon bag used for carbon. She will then stick this in her filter which will help colonize her filter quicker. If she can get filter material, have her do the same with this although she won't need to put it in a bag.

I would not suggest using these items from your tank as it is not yet fully cycled and would be of little use.

I'm glad to hear your ammonia levels are low, but you will nedd to start watching for nitrite spikes now!!

Hard way to learn a lesson, especially for the fish!!!! With Christmas just a few days off, why not suprise her with a good book on fishkeeping!!!

Better yet why not register her on the board, IT'S FREE!!!!!

We would love to have her and I'm sure we could help her become a top notch fishkeeper.

CM

 

[Great Lakes]

LMF, she should try a massive water change as the master suggests, but I might try to use a large volume of your water.

 

[cichlidmaster]

IMO/IME a massive water change would stress the fish out even more. If the fish are not used to large water changes this is the result....STRESS!!

by doing 20-30% water changes every day you will not put any further stress on the fish and it will help to dilute the ammonia and/or nitrites without harming any benefical bacteria that may be starting.

CM

 

[Luke]

Let the freakin tank cycle before adding all those darn fish! Thats a newbie for ya.