Sort Of A Beginner At Tropical Fish My 1St Post!

blackghostknife · Jun 29, 2011

HI All

I just started my first tropical fish tank, it’s a 100liter tank, it’s now been running for 4 days without any fish in, now i must choose fish, any suggestions? does anyone know of really good tropical fish store in Centurion, South-Africa? :fish:

micko · Jun 29, 2011

Ok, I'm assuming by your statement " it’s now been running for 4 days without any fish in, now i must choose fish" that you haven't done a fishless cycle?
Please read up on the fishless cycle as whatever fish you choose could die if you don't do this.
There is another way to cycle, a fish in cycle but I would suggest against it. Its harder.
All you need to know is in the beginners resource centre.

Here's a link to the beginners resource centre.
http

/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

colleen0309 · Jun 29, 2011

Welcome!

By coming here, I assume you want to do this right. Do your research! Have patience. As stated above, you can do a fishless or fish in cycle, but you have to cycle. Just letting the filter run for a few days does not cycle your tank. Doing a fishless cycle is best because you are not endangering any fish. A fish in cycle requires ALOT of water changes and you may still cause the death of the fish you have just bought. If you can get your hands on some mature filter media it will speed up the process. Again, good morning and welcome.

mellow yellow · Jun 29, 2011

welcome to the forum, i'm a newbie too and have had lots of great advice already, its a great place to learn how to do things properly.

its alot to take in so my advice to a fellow newbie would be to read, read and read until you go crazy :hyper:

and.......

do it right and do it once :good:

blackghostknife · Jun 30, 2011

mellow yellow said:
welcome to the forum, i'm a newbie too and have had lots of great advice already, its a great place to learn how to do things properly.

its alot to take in so my advice to a fellow newbie would be to read, read and read until you go crazy and.......

do it right and do it once

Thank you all for the great advise, but it has not started well, :grr:

i bought my first 10 fish yesterday, Neon’s and Guppies! this morning 2 died! What!?! i checked everything, PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, ect. 100%, etc.

Help!!!!

Thank you all for the great advise, but it has not started well, :grr:

i bought my first 10 fish yesterday, Neon’s and Guppies! this morning 2 died! What!?! i checked everything, PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, ect. 100%, etc.

Help!!!!

Athena · Jun 30, 2011

Hi - I'm guessing you didn't see the above posts before you went ahead and bought those fish eh? Oh dear...and 10 fish all in one go is too many to add to a tank that you are doing a fish-in cycle in.

Hope you don't lose any more of them but don't be too surprised if you do.

The only thing you can do now is very regular water changes, regular testing of your water with a liquid test kit...and after about 6 weeks or so your filter should have cycled and water readings stabilised. In the meantime, please don't add any more fish.

Once your tank is fully cycled, if you intend on adding any further fish it's always best to add just a few at a time and then wait a couple of weeks before adding more.

If you add a large batch of fish (even small ones) all at the same time, your filter bacteria won't handle the sudden surge of increased ammonia and that's when your water readings will show up an ammonia spike - and that can be lethal to your fish.

At the moment, you have fish in a tank where the filter is not established - the good bacteria have not had a chance to build up in the filter to a level high enough to cope with the amount of fish waste being produced.

Regards, Athena

blackghostknife · Jun 30, 2011

Hi Athena

I did read the above, and checked everything before I put the fish in, but I guess I was just too hasty, and needed to wait. I guess we all have to start somewhere?

thank you for the reply!

Regards

Athena · Jun 30, 2011

Yes, for sure - but hopefully with all the good advice being given on here we learn the correct and best ways of doing things in this hobby.

How are the fish today? Have you done a water change? If not, I would definitely recommend that you do one of at least 50%, then check the water stats tomorrow and if any signs of ammonia or nitrite, do another water change. It's going to be a lot of hard work I'm afraid, keeping those stat levels at zero, whilst your filter is cycling.

Is it a liquid testing kit that you have or strips?

Regards, Athena

blackghostknife · Jul 1, 2011

Hi Athena

Fish are fine today, no more casualties, I did a water change, checked all levels, all good! I use the Liquid testing kit, is it may be possible the 2 fish that died was sick in the pet shop I bought it from? Because the other fish look all happy and fine?

Blubble37 · Jul 1, 2011

could be that. liquid tests are great as you get the results quicker than tablets.

Check levels EVERY DAY and if ammonia gets to above 0 do a water change.

If you dont have time to do a w/c though, they should be fine until it rises to about 0.25ppm, any more than that and they will become stressed and DIE!

blackghostknife · Jul 4, 2011

Hi

Update on tank and fish, all is going well! fish are happy, and there colors look like they becoming brighter, I think is a good thing.

Thank you all for the help.

Regards
:thumbs: