Novice Fish Owner need help 😣

[GoonerFisher]

I need of real help here. This started off with my mum buying my son 4 guppies and in a small tank.

I have since got some 4 smaller fish. I did introduce some smaller shrimps but they died within 2 weeks a month or two ago and some got trapped in the filter and died. I feed the fish 2 times a day but i feel the guppies go crazy when i feed them and the smaller fish don't get a luck in or feed off scraps. The smaller fish never go up for the flakes so i don't know if its a mixture of over feeding so the smaller fish at least get something?

I have since got a bigger tank 2 weeks ago and put 16 shrimps in there and they're doing fine but when i feed them pellets twice a day i put about 7 or 8 pellets per feed is that too much? The shrimp don't run for the food so it just drops to the bottom. I am getting a bit of algae in some places and i was thinking about putting some snails in the big tank to try and clean deal with some of the algae.

Eventually i want to put the guppies and small fish in the big tank but as you can see from the strips something just isn't right. I know my water is very hard where i live. Every week I try and clean the gravel and suck up all the poop and clean the algae off the tank glass but how do you clean it off the ornaments without physically taking them out and disturbing the fish etc? I have since changed my filters today with the spunge filter to stop the shrimp from being sucked up or them being scared of the flow. They seem great in the tank and stay on the rocks and live plants.

I want to add some snails who can deal with some of the algae in places i can't get to, Nerite snails lay too many eggs, what about rabbits nails or bristlenose pleco fish?

Where am i going wrong here? I don't want anymore deaths. Any help much appreciated.



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[Fishkeeper123]

I need of real help here. This started off with my mum buying my son 4 guppies and in a small tank.

I have since got some 4 smaller fish. I did introduce some smaller shrimps but they died within 2 weeks a month or two ago and some got trapped in the filter and died. I feed the fish 2 times a day but i feel the guppies go crazy when i feed them and the smaller fish don't get a luck in or feed off scraps. The smaller fish never go up for the flakes so i don't know if its a mixture of over feeding so the smaller fish at least get something?

I have since got a bigger tank 2 weeks ago and put 16 shrimps in there and they're doing fine but when i feed them pellets twice a day i put about 7 or 8 pellets per feed is that too much? The shrimp don't run for the food so it just drops to the bottom. I am getting a bit of algae in some places and i was thinking about putting some snails in the big tank to try and clean deal with some of the algae.

Eventually i want to put the guppies and small fish in the big tank but as you can see from the strips something just isn't right. I know my water is very hard where i live. Every week I try and clean the gravel and suck up all the poop and clean the algae off the tank glass but how do you clean it off the ornaments without physically taking them out and disturbing the fish etc? I have since changed my filters today with the spunge filter to stop the shrimp from being sucked up or them being scared of the flow. They seem great in the tank and stay on the rocks and live plants.

I want to add some snails who can deal with some of the algae in places i can't get to, Nerite snails lay too many eggs, what about rabbits nails or bristlenose pleco fish?

Where am i going wrong here? I don't want anymore deaths. Any help much appreciated.



Recently
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You have hard water so shrimp will struggle as well as the neon tetras. You don’t have guppies, you have platies which I think are nicer. You also have nitrite so your tank is not fully cycled. Do you have any ammonia test strips. You will need to water changes regularly(every few days for now) and monitor parameters daily. Fish in cycle is fine to do as it’s the only way I’ve done it, however you may struggle with the neon tetras and shrimp which are less hardy. What sizes are the tanks? Snails and Bristlenose plecos can be in your water parameters once you have no nitrite or ammonia as long as for the pleco you have a large enough tank. Which tank had the results you sent? I would keep everyone in the smaller tank for now as it’s probably closer to being fully cycled.

 

[seangee]

Agree with what @Fishkeeper123 says about your parameters.
You may be over feeding. The usual advice is that a the stomach of a fish is about the same size as its eye. When you only have a few fish its quite difficult not to overfeed - especially if the fish are suggesting they are starving
Fish are opportunistic feeders in the wild. Since they are cold blooded they do not require energy to regulate their body temperature. I always prefer to err on the side of underfeeding rather than overfeeding. Typically I feed my fish once a day - but only 5 days a week.
Until your nitrite test stays white I would only feed sparingly every other day.
Have you tested your tap water using the strips? The nitrate reading may suggest that you need to do more water changes. Reducing feeding would help with this as would adding live plants.

 

[Colin_T]

Probably ammonia poisoning caused by too much food in a newly set up aquarium and a filter that doesn't have enough beneficial bacteria to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels at 0ppm.

It normally takes around 4-6 weeks to cycle an aquarium filter. Cycling a filter is where you let beneficial filter bacteria grow to levels high enough to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm. You have a low nitrite reading, which means the filter isn't cycled yet.

Anything that breaks down in water (fish food, fish waste, dead fish, rotting plants, etc) produce ammonia. This is highly toxic to all aquatic organisms if the pH of the water is above 7.0. The higher the pH, the more toxic the ammonia becomes. Your pH is around 7.8 and that will cause any ammonia to become quite toxic to fish and shrimp.

The easiest thing to do is reduce feeding to once a day and do a 75% water change every day until the ammonia and nitrite levels are on 0ppm. You don't have an ammonia test on the paper strips so you would need to buy a separate ammonia test kit. However, I wouldn't bother at this stage unless you really want to. I would just go off the nitrite reading and do big water changes every day for a week or two.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Once the filter has established (finished cycling) you can feed the fish more often but most only need feeding once a day.

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The long poop on the platy is nothing to worry about. If the fish eats a lot they do a lot of poop. Sometimes it's long.

If you ever notice their poop is white and stringy that is an issue and you need to start a thread about that as soon as you notice it.

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What sort of filter is in the tank?

Don't clean the filter for the first 8 weeks of its life because you can get rid of the beneficial bacteria growing in it.

If you have a sponge in the filter, clean it once a month (after it has finished cycling) in a bucket of tank water. Squeeze the sponge out in the bucket of tank water until it stops releasing brown gunk, then put the sponge back in the filter and get it back into the tank. tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn/ garden outside and refill the tank with dechlorinated water.

Filter cases can be washed under tap water.

 

[GoonerFisher]

You hard water so shrimp will struggle as well as the neon tetras. You don’t have guppies, you have platies which I think are nicer. You also have nitrite so your tank is not fully cycled. Do you have any ammonia test strips. You will need to water changes regularly(every few days for now) and monitor parameters daily. Fish in cycle is fine to do as it’s the only way I’ve done it, however you may struggle with the neon tetras and shrimp which are less hardy. What sizes are the tanks? Snails and Bristlenose plecos can be in your water parameters once you have no nitrite or ammonia as long as for the pleco you have a large enough tank. Which tank had the results you sent? I would keep everyone in the smaller tank for now as it’s probably closer to being fully cycled.

Oh so i don't even have guppies well thanks for letting us know. I have some Ammonia strips and Ammonia remover that's coming tomorrow so hopefully that clears it up. The tanks are 25L and 62L. The seller on Facebook said the bristlenose plecos only grow up to 3 to 4 on inches. The results were from the big tank but both tanks have very similar tests.

For algae would you go for bristlenose pleco or the snails?

 

[GoonerFisher]

Agree with what @Fishkeeper123 says about your parameters.
You may be over feeding. The usual advice is that a the stomach of a fish is about the same size as its eye. When you only have a few fish its quite difficult not to overfeed - especially if the fish are suggesting they are starving
Fish are opportunistic feeders in the wild. Since they are cold blooded they do not require energy to regulate their body temperature. I always prefer to err on the side of underfeeding rather than overfeeding. Typically I feed my fish once a day - but only 5 days a week.
Until your nitrite test stays white I would only feed sparingly every other day.
Have you tested your tap water using the strips? The nitrate reading may suggest that you need to do more water changes. Reducing feeding would help with this as would adding live plants.

I think it is probably over feeding causing the fish to poo more and contaminating the tank. I have some ammonia strips and ammonia remover coming tomorrow. I will definitely try feeding every other day for now and see how it goes. Tomorrow i will test my tap water to see what it shows on the strip. How do you bring the hard water down?

 

[Fishkeeper123]

Oh so i don't even have guppies well thanks for letting us know. I have some Ammonia strips and Ammonia remover that's coming tomorrow so hopefully that clears it up. The tanks are 25L and 62L. The seller on Facebook said the bristlenose plecos only grow up to 3 to 4 on inches. The results were from the big tank but both tanks have very similar tests.

For algae would you go for bristlenose pleco or the snails?

Bristlenose plecos get too big for your tank. Snails are an option. Long term no fish can live in the 25l as it’s small other than bettad and shrimp. If your waters hard you are just going to have to go with it, it’s extremely hard to change and not worth it.

 

[seangee]

• Don't buy fish or snails to deal with algae. It won't work and will only make your other problems worse.
• Also don't buy any treatments. Fish shops will try to sell you these because thats how they make money. The Accuclear you pictured is in this category - it doesn't help your fish so stop using it.
• The advice given by those that have posted is good so follow it. There is a lot more advice we could have given but it makes sense to deal with the most urgent problems first and right now thats about saving the lives of your fish.
• We can deal with algae later but in the meantime if your lights are not on a timer get a timer for them and have them come on for only 8 hours a day. If this makes enough difference it will take 2-3 weeks to show. Removing algae is your job but don't do it until your other issues have gone.
• In time you can have a tank without algae. Also removing uneaten food is your job, no fish or snails can help with this. Feeding less will also help reduce algae.

 

[Naughts]

You hard water so shrimp will struggle

I'm not sure about this - can you explain? I agree that the cardinal tetra will prefer much softer water long term.

OP - Sean is quite right that the ammonia/nitrite is the priority but as an aside, do you know what species your shrimp are? Many people have neocaridina (cherry) or amano but I can't see what you have. Also, can you check your water hardness (GH) on your water providers website? Your test result is between 100 and 250 but a more specific number would be of benefit.

 

[Fishkeeper123]

I'm not sure about this - can you explain? I agree that the cardinal tetra will prefer much softer water long term.

OP - Sean is quite right that the ammonia/nitrite is the priority but as an aside, do you know what species your shrimp are? Many people have neocaridina (cherry) or amano but I can't see what you have. Also, can you check your water hardness (GH) on your water providers website? Your test result is between 100 and 250 but a more specific number would be of benefit.

From what I’ve heard shrimp need soft water to breed, sorryif i was wrong about that.

 

[seangee]

From what I’ve heard shrimp need soft water to breed, sorryif i was wrong about that.

Most do but neocaridina are not overly fussy. However they are very senstitive to ammonia, nitrite, and even nitrate - so should never be added to an immature tank as they will almost certainly die.

 

[EmmaS]

You are 100% over feeding. Also I have the same tank i think and Certainly the same pump as you and my water is 100% crystal clear. No need for chemicals. Cloudy water is probably over feeding and or possibly a bacteria bloom. You have nitrite in your reading so follow Colins advice.
Shrimps don't need feeding much providing your tank is established.
Go and pick a nice dandelion leaf and boil it for 3-4 minutes and then drop it in your shrimp tank. I put mine on a skewer for easy removal and remove it before the lights go off.
As for my fish they have one day a week I don't feed them at all.

 

[GoonerFisher]

Hi guys i have used the Ammonia remover twice in 5 hours and here are the results i did 2 tests and also tested my tap water. I. Came home last night and my last 2 neon tetras didn't make it sadly gathering by the first test they didn't stand a chance.


I have attached a image of the shrimp i have, could someone please tell me which ones i have?

I am thinking about getting some large Amano shrimp to tackle the algae when the tank has settled down. I also haven't fed any of the shrimps or Platies today and will begin to feed every other day.

 

[Colin_T]

Don't add any new fish, shrimp or snails until the ammonia and nitrite levels have been on 0ppm for at least a month and no fish or shrimp have died for at least one month.

The tank with ammonia should get a 75-80% water change every day until the level is 0ppm.

 

[elephantnose3334]

On the tank stocking, I think the 25L aquarium is too small for platies and tetras (in which you kept before they died). For most tetras, you would need a minimum 15 gallon long (60L) aquarium and over; and for platies, a 20 gallon long (80L) is preferable since they are livebearers.

Bristlenose plecos get too big for your tank. Snails are an option. Long term no fish can live in the 25l as it’s small other than bettad and shrimp. If your waters hard you are just going to have to go with it, it’s extremely hard to change and not worth it.

@Fishkeeper123 is correct on this. Either small snails or shrimp for the 25L, but I've heard that sized tank is the absolute minimum for a single male or female betta. However, for the fish to be happier, he or she would need to be kept in a 10 gallon (40L) long aquarium because it's more spacious for the fish to swim. Other than that, the 25L would also be used as a temporary hospital tank for smaller fish.

AqAdvisor is a good stocking calculator if you plan on getting fish again:

https://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php?AqLengthUnit=cm&AqVolUnit=L&FormSubmit=DisplayInLitres&