I started a fish tank several months ago. It is a 16gallon tank, and I've had it evaluated by several proffesionals who all say that my filter, aeration, etc. are just what they should be. I had a pretty bad ammonia spike, but that's under control now. and my fish just keep dying.
2 of them did the thing where they lay in the gravel gasping and swimming sideways.
1 died looking perfectly healthy, and then an hour later, plastered to the filter intake.
1 was nothing but a skeleton when I found him, so I think he may have been murdered.
1 disappeared entirely. No idea what happened to him.
1 got really skinny before he died.
It's like it's never the same thing killing them? I don't understand what's going on. Can anybody help? I've lost rosy barbs, gouramis, algae eaters, and ornamental crabs, and they've been from 3 separate stores.
Answers:
If this is your worst problem, you are very lucky!
Consider the place you are buying the fish from.stay away from pet stores, wal-mart, etc These fish are often sick and always die Find a store that specializes in just fish.they are always more knowledgable and will often test your water for free
fish are notoriously hard to keep alive.
the trick is to not over feed them
even a teeny bit of weed can be over feeding.
they'll eat and eat til they die.
fish dont ever feel full.
so, maybe get a simple goldfish, and feed it a teeny bit once every two days. i think it'll live.
gimme 10 points? please?
wow! ^^ srry I couldnt help laughing when I red this! to be honest, Its real hard for me to say why your fish died in different ways. Its probabaly something real obvious and simple that you cant see right away.
Or your got some nasty luck with fish! donald duck luck!
your just unlucky..that is odd
try again
watch the temp
I killed all but one of my fish. I didn't see the need for the big tank for one fish so I flushed him too.
I've a little betta or siamese fighting fish. They are really beautiful. Put them in those tanks about 8 inches long--I don't know how much water they hold, but it's about a quart. Change it every day. You don't need to top the tank with water. Feed them about twice a day with regular small fish food. They last awhile for me. But as they are freshwater, you need the solution that neutralizes the chlorine and other stuff. They can't stand it.
I think you are just unlucky!- sorry:(
but seriously.do you change the water weekly-remove and replace 1/4 of the water once a week-keeps the nitrates in check which are deadly, and be careful not to overfeed. They don't know when to quite eating (like some people!), and too much in the water will actually "pollute"it.
Good luck!
i think you might be overcrowding the tank
Dump the tank out . Get rid of the gravel.
Wash the tank with a 1/2 cup of chlorine in a gallon of water. No soap.
Empty the tank and let it air dry for a week.
Wash the filter housing in another chlorine solution and anything else that will go back into the take (except the fish) . let the stuff air dry. Then rinse every thing and assemble.
make sure the pump is not leaking oil /lubricant too.
Wash the new gravel until it has clear water. Place in tank
Fill the aguarium with water that has been out for a week not directly from the tap. The pet store has additives to help prepare the water.
Start with 1 fish.
Place the fish and the bag it came in into the tank.
Leave it for an hour. the fish will acclimate to the tank water.
Don't feed for a few hours and don't feed too much. You can always give more, Too much will go to the bottom otherwise.
That contanimates the take and steals O2 from the water.
Same with the fish waste. Has to be clean or you have a fish toilet. Not fun to watch .
I suggest you get a book on aquariums. then you can set up your tank a bit better. there are basic rules you must follow all the time, especially the smaller the tank. then i suggest you start with low costing fish at first. once you've seen that the fish are living more, then you can get better fishees. also talk to other friends of yours who like fish tanks, so they could give you ideas. in no time at all you will have graduated from fish tanks 101. and yes, sometimes you will see lots of floating carcasses, fish crimes, cruel endings, and unsolved fishy disappearances, but that's all part of the underwater soap opera.
Figure out what you want to feed them and give them half that amount. Feed them on Friday morning, change 20% of the water in the afternoon, and then feed them nothing until Monday. Fish that are always hungry thrive better.
A
One thing, make sure you only put the same type of social fish together. All tropical, all community, all chiclids,etc. you can't put aggressive fish with semi or non aggressive fish.
keep the temp at 76-80.
only feed every other day or so. fish can survive with out eating for days %26 it helps to keep the tank cleaner, less ammonia.
do water changes regularly.(drain the tank about 1/2 way %26 refill with water %26 put some drops in the remove chlorine %26 ammonia.
if all else fails talk to someone at a fish store, like petco or petsmart---- don't go to wal-mart, those people no very little usually.
good luck.
Try silver dollar fish, small
tinfoil barbs,
black tetras
spotted catfish-small
these are what i have.
good luck
did the stores check ya water? do u know what their ph is? u need to take 2 baggies of water for testing. 1 from the tank and 1 from the tap water.. sometimes when u add or change water , if u have chloramines(ammonia and chlorine) ya water conditioner needs to be 2-5 times what it said..so u maybe adding a spike ,but by the time u test it, levels are fine.. i always test my new water for ammonia before adding it..most all water conditioners can take chlorine out right now but not the ammonia..so that spike can weaken the fish and kill them ,while strong fish can make it through . the pet store should test for ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates..if this was a used tank u need to do the bleach thing..
that's weird, I find it hard to kill fish except for a time when i put some rocks the size of tennis balls in the aquarium and hey must have released something toxic into the water.
get rid of your gravel and buy some new stuff(not from the same pet store)
Get a plant gro bulb on your tank and plant a couple of plants in there.(often they will bring some good bacteria and funky algaes that will settle your water down. Let the plants grow for a week or two.
buy 3 cheap fish that you could handle losing e.g. white cloud, danios, platies etc not goldfish(they are crap)
see how the fish go, if they die, go to your local creek and collect some water, weed or driftwood maybe even a few wild fish. This will give your tank what it needs to get going.
Leave it for
In most cases, alway's assume the fish come to you with lots of cooties, parasites and bacterias are often the cause and it sounds like the fish you got had them. Test your own water, drop kits, the strips are questionable and not accurate.
Are you useing a good ammonia binder and dechlor? Tap water will either have chlorine or chloranines and that must be treated. There may be other variables needing looked at.
02, do you have a air pump and bubble bar or stone going, a filter alone isn't going to carry everything as needed and the warmer the water, the less 02!
Starting a tank can be a nightmare, the cycle is hard on fish and you, takes around 6-8 weeks, and Nitrite is just as bad as ammonia, but the tank needs to be salted through that phase and nitrite can cause brown blood disease which effect the gills.
So when you go for the fish, if a shop has a lot of sick and or dead fish in tank, leave it.. Take your time, inspect the fish well and there tanks, do this several times and pick a nice store that is alway's clean on your visits in both tanks and fish. Then take a two prong attack, assume they have cooties, Prazi pro, salt brought up to 0.3% and a round of medicated food (medi gold, medi koi, romet B) will cover most parasites, internal worms and bacterias. Research your fish types also, while some fish are compatible others may not be and some of the differences may come in in types or dosages of medications used or not used.
Knowledge is power and it isn't alway's found in the local LFS either. Going armed and with knowledge will get you past the lfs ninny advice and past the snake oil tonics. Taking the right steps can be the difference in life %26 death!
u seem to be very unlucky u need to get help with that tank
Water quality issue, possibly nitrite poisoning, especially if your ammonia spike occurred within the last few weeks.
Ammonia spikes are followed by nitrite spikes (which can be lethal). Test your water and verify your ammonia and nitrite are undetectable (any detectable level is harmful to fish..these should always be zero) and check for the presence of nitrAte (this is what the nitrite is converted to by bacteria; nitrate under 40ppm is what you want to have).
it could be a number of things. there could be a parasite in the tank, it may be that the wrong types of fish are together, it could be that they are being fed the wrong kinds of food. Laying on the bottom gasping is a sign of fighting most of the time. you cold add a air stone to see it it is an oxygen problem. Try starting with a single fish or 2 then add to it, it may be shock.
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