Unexpected death of my tetras

sid014

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Yesterday one of my tetra died and today another died.

I have a 10 gallon tank with live plants(amazon sword, java fern and a plant that resembles cryptocotyne a littlebit) and driftwood. There are 5 pond snail's in it as well.

Two days before I got 5 cardinal tetras and 2 guppies for my tank. The tank was new so for the first week I didn't have any fish and was cycling the tank with flakes and bacteria in a bottle. But yesterday one of my tetras died and today another died.

What was earlier a school of 5 now has reached 3. I am reached shocked to see my fish dead and am really concerned about the health of my other fishes.

Plz suggest some advice and suggestions to help me take care of my tetras.

PS: after getting my fishes I changed the water the next day. Before the water change the ammonia was 0.5 ppm and it's still 0.5 ppm after change.
 
Any chance of a picture of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen in the water.
 
Yea i took it out and placed it on my hand and it looked like this.
 

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I also think that my other tetras are scared as well as they started with 5 and have come down to 3. Although the guppies seem to be be doing fine. The guppies are taking the feed, actively swimming across the tank and eating algae out of my driftwood as well.
The tank temp is 29 C and I am currently trying to keep the lights off.

PS could I death be due to very high intensity light that I have in my tank. I know that tetras like brackish water and survive in it best. But i have clear water with high intensity lighting. They seem to get stressed a lot.
 
Tetras come from black water not brackish water. Brackish means has some salt in. Black water is water that has lots of tannins in. Tannins are the brown staining in water caused by rotting plant leaves and sunken tree branches. A cup of tea has tannins in from the tea leaves.

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The temperature is a bit high for neon tetras. I would reduce it to 24-26C.

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If you don't have any live plants or floating plants in the tank, then leave the lights off for a week and just have the curtains open or the room light on. Then if they have settled down after a week, you can turn the tank light on, but follow the directions below for tank lights.

Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

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If you don't have any floating plants then you should get some. Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is the best floating plant, but even plastic plants floating on the surface will provide some shade from the light. Again tho, even with floating plants, turn the lights on after you have opened the curtains or turned the room lights on (as described above).

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If you can provide picture of the fish in the tank it might help.
 
how should i reduce the temperature, as the ambient temperature outside is 31 C. when i change the water i tend to add some bottled water from the fridge ( a litre or two only) to decrease the temps.

any other methods you have , plz share with me.
and any help is appreciated.
 
i am attaching the pictures of the tank as you asked
 

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Something is wrong with the image and it doesn't show a bigger picture.

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You can try turning tank lights off and opening the tank covers up. Make sure the aquarium heater is turned off at the power point.
If there are computers, televisions or other electrical appliances in the room, turn them off. Leave the filter running on the tank.
Put a fan in the room and have it blowing air over the front of the tank.

In extreme situations (water temp goes above 32C), you can freeze bottles of water and put a frozen bottle in the tank. When it has nearly defrosted, you replace it with another frozen bottle of water. The bottles that have been in the tank and defrosted can be put back in the freezer and re-used when frozen again.

Increasing aeration/ surface turbulence will help keep the oxygen levels high.
 
now im gonna buy a computer fan and attach it to a battery to make a chiller for my aquarium. thnx for the help and what should i do about my tetras.

should i buy more as a school of 3 is not recommended or should i let them settle in the tank.
i want to replenish my tetras to a safe number of atleast 6 or 7.
any help is appreciated.
i am attaching links to these files
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rubLJs9RZxxCt8UR2WpK5m7kgr0HZf7E/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dNV0Bhe1jIoIwuuo-dZFm8e1uS-CiVJD/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VJDM9-dXtzqQnRaXenR4PQOWwhIoMvUw/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyTPeUTJvs7WmDg6I37lVtVX_2V1N9NS/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/118pNNLva3_JFT-CZ87rqS8fJNbQ69iHi/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wn1_QxOtN81DPno7Cl-BM7D1EBMarE5B/view?usp=sharing
 
Get a picture for the back of the tank to help the fish feel more secure. You can buy them from any pet shop or use coloured card or even a plastic rubbish bin liner. Try to get something dark so it gives the fish a sense of security. The picture goes on the outside of the tank.

Add some floating plants to the tank to reduce the light.

Gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change. If you don't have a gravel clean, get a basic model like the one in the following link.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

Do regular water changes and monitor the fish over the next few weeks.

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It looks like you have 3 cardinal tetras and 1 neon tetra left in the tank. Cardinal tetras have the red line running the full length of the body, whereas the neons have the red line going about half way along the body and a white belly. Cardinals will tolerate warmer water than neons but they both like a dimly lit tank or a tank with lots of floating plants and a dark base and background.
The following link is one of your pics and the fish on the bottom right looks like a neon tetra, and the 3 others look like cardinal tetras. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyTPeUTJvs7WmDg6I37lVtVX_2V1N9NS/view

I can't make out much else from the pictures but the fish don't appear to have any diseases. However, I would wait a couple of weeks before adding any new fish. If you add more now and there is something wrong with the water or the current fish, you could lose all the new fish too. Wait until there have been no fish deaths for at least 2 weeks before getting more fish.
 
Thnx now I know that there is one neon and two cardinals left as one cardinal died as mentioned above.
As for the new fish i was only concerned that the tetras don't feel stressed because of a small school.
To control ammonia I am feeding them only once a day and only a little. And they are lovingly nibbling on the algae on the driftwood. I am also adding bacteria in a bottle everyday to increase the bacteria colony.

I am thinking of getting 5 cardinals in two weeks if all goes okay. And i am also gonna add java moss on the driftwood and frogbit on the top.
As i observed none of the fishes showed signs of ammonia poisoning and looked fine as you stated above.
Thnx for the help.
 
Get a picture for the back of the tank to help the fish feel more secure. You can buy them from any pet shop or use coloured card or even a plastic rubbish bin liner. Try to get something dark so it gives the fish a sense of security. The picture goes on the outside of the tank.

Add some floating plants to the tank to reduce the light.

Gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change. If you don't have a gravel clean, get a basic model like the one in the following link.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

Do regular water changes and monitor the fish over the next few weeks.

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It looks like you have 3 cardinal tetras and 1 neon tetra left in the tank. Cardinal tetras have the red line running the full length of the body, whereas the neons have the red line going about half way along the body and a white belly. Cardinals will tolerate warmer water than neons but they both like a dimly lit tank or a tank with lots of floating plants and a dark base and background.
The following link is one of your pics and the fish on the bottom right looks like a neon tetra, and the 3 others look like cardinal tetras. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyTPeUTJvs7WmDg6I37lVtVX_2V1N9NS/view

I can't make out much else from the pictures but the fish don't appear to have any diseases. However, I would wait a couple of weeks before adding any new fish. If you add more now and there is something wrong with the water or the current fish, you could lose all the new fish too. Wait until there have been no fish deaths for at least 2 weeks before getting more fish.
I agree with Colin_T, you may also want to try a marimo moss ball or two. They seem to be great at absorbing ammonia and other chemicals in the water and my neon tetras seem to like them. Yesterday I watch a neon pushing a small moss ball a couple of inches. Keep the lighting low and have plenty of places for them to hide. I read that cardinal and neon will shoaling together but you may want to research that. Good luck
 
First step - test your water. This is new tank and a week is not long enough for the tank to cycle out.

Test for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite.

With nearly 20 years of fishkeeping experience, neon tetras have been the only fish that I haven't had luck with. I've had massive loss of all neons on two separate occasions after adding large schools. Water was perfect on paper and all other fish thrived for time to come.

I would not recommend adding fish until the water has been tested and is shown to be suitable for fish.
If this is a new tank and you have fish loss, there is an extremely high chance that the tank is not cycled yet.
 

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