please help

[mm_simb]

I bought 5 tropical fish and put them in a 10 gallon tank. They had a filter, water heater, thermostat, and gravel. My other fish had died and I cleaned everything before putting them in. They lived for about 3 weeks and all died today. They were swimming furiously through the whole tank until they flipped, sunk to the bottom or floated up and died. After the first one died I took them all out and put them in another tank but that didn't help since by 7 all but one died. That one ended up dying at 12 midnight. I don't know what else to do. I don't understand why they died. I use the PH balancer. Can anyone please help me? I want to get more fish but I don't want them to keep dying on me. Thanks.

Claudia

 

[Susielyd]

Hi Claudia,
Were the tanks cycled? If not they most likely died from poor water quality. Have a look in the beginner section at the pinned articles & that might make things clear for you.
hth
Susan

 

[canarsie11]

Also what tropical fish?

 

[WILDER]

If the tank hasn't cycled I would say ammonia poisoning.

 

[isu_guy]

I have seen the effect of a sudden pH spike or drop (I didn't know any better at the time, thought a correct pH was more important than a stable one- I know better now) When this happened in my tank the fish went crazy - darting around frantically.

if your pH was either low or high and your fish were used to it, then you added the balancer it could have caused a sudden change in pH almost instantly. This could have been a problem.

Also buffers do a good job of holding a pH until a certain point then they can crash after a little while if too much OH- or H+ becomes present(from what I hear- correct me someone if I'm wrong)

-one note, without knowing anymore about the situation, i'd agree with the others in that it was most likely ammo posioning. but just offering this as another possibility.

 

[mm_simb]

I'm not sure what type of fish they are. All I know is that they are community tropical fish. 2 of them were black and about 2 inches in length. The other 3 where kind of white and 1 inch in length. I had added water in the tank and put about 2 drops of ph balancer in the water. After that they started dying. They would just go crazy and swim around everywhere and keep jumping out of the water. I think it was the ph.
I didn't cycle the water but I've never done that and everyone I knew who had fish would never do that. I didn't know that had to be done. I'm not sure about getting more fish. I feel bad because they all die and I'm just making them suffer.

 

[Erised]

Hey there,

I think a lot of people have gone through this, don't worry about it too much. People make mistakes, this is how we learn. The time when this will change, is when people start looking for what they did wrong. This is what you have done now

I recommend reading up on how to cycle: How you do it

Also, I'd say its best to find out what fish you'll buy before you go and buy them Do a little research on them to find out how big they get, how big the tank has to be and to make sure they wont hurt eachother.

From now on, you should have a lot more luck in keeping fish. Keep us all updated ... and try not to give up yet. You obviously do care enough and do want what's best

 

[mm_simb]

I'm trying to find a picture of how the fishes looked. I cant seem to find the black ones. They all got along through. They just stayed in different areas and never fought each other. 3 of the fishes looked like the dwarf jellybean convict.

 

[Erised]

I'm afraid I dont know anything about cichlids, sorry. I do however believe that pretty much all cichlids need a bigger tank because they grow quite large and can be quite aggressive when getting older. Do not take this as a fact, because I'm far from certain

I think for now you should concentrate on getting the tank cycled (try to get some already seeded (used) filter material from your local fish shop, it will speed up the cycling process). If this is the type of fish you're into, you might want to read up on topics in the cichlids sections here, and see if anyone there can be any help