With, Or Without Fish!

[GRJ]

Hi all. I just wanted to say that i am cycling my tank with fish and although they have only been in there one week, i lost 1 platy and 1 zebra danio. I had two zebra danios, one died yesterday and the other one seemed very lifeless and depressed. He just stayed just below the surface and wouldnt do very much. After doing a 20% water change today, he seemed to perk up a little bit and has ventured to the mid to lower part of the tank, albeit very slowly. He didnt eat at feeding time this morning but he looks a lot better and i hope he pulls through as i know how hard it is for them during cycling. I hope he will eat a bit of something later. I hope people read this and realise that if you cycle with fish, its not pretty and you will get losses, which are very unpleasant. I for one would do fishless cycling in future as i dont like seeing fish go through this. Out of 5 fish, i have 3 left that seem to be doing ok, the platies are very active, the female had fry before she died and i have seen around 8 fry!!!. I will just keep up doing a 10-15% water change daily to help them and finish the cycle. I hope this willhelp some other newbies decide on which way to cycle. This forum has been an invaluable tool for me and its good to know i have somewhere to go for advice. Thanks to you all.GRJ

 

[doresy]

It's not too late to return the fish to the LFS or a friend and start your own fishless cycle.

No pain - no gain does not apply in this hobby anymore

 

[Colonel Mustard]

if you have a friend in the hobby ask if he can house the fish for a while then give them back.

 

[treelo]

aye, i found out this way, a few fish will die during a fishless cycle, and while you will get a fair bit of grief for it, its easy to get a tank and get a bit too excited and buy fish too soon

ill be starting another tank up in a few weeks, and will be solely just putting common snails in until im happy with the conditions before i put more fish into a new tank

its easy in hindsight, lessons learnt i guess