I'm helpless.. Don't know what I do wrong with my fish..?

Question

During a month 5 fish died and I still don't know the reason. I haven't put them all together in the(tropical) tank at once.. I added 4-5 fish every 2 weeks and had about 24. I fed them just once the day and heater&filter work well.. what the hell is wrong with the stupid fish..
I watched 2 of them dying in a weird way.. they sank to the ground of the tank upside down and couldn't swim properly.. till they died.

its a 200 liter tank and space for about 50 fish so they told me.. but I never changed the water..is that necessary though I have the filter?? but these fish r all suitable for this tank, I asked be4 I bought them

Answer 1

it appears everyone has done a pretty good discription on what to look for and how to set up your tank the only thing i will add is salt. depending on what kind of fish you have ( fresh or salt water) depends on the kind of salt you need to add. salt for fresh water fish is great for a number of things......ick can be cured using salt and raising the temp in the tank ....salt along with stress coat help with the enviroment of your fish.
good rule to remember is 1" of fish to every gallon of water ( keep in mind your fish will grow so find out how big they can get)
when adding fish to you tank DO NOT JUST PUT THEM IN THE WATER. they will go in shock......you need to let the bag they come in sit in your tank for 15 mins the open the bag and add some of your tank water ( appox 1/4 cup) let that sit 15mins, add again another 1/4 cup and let that sit 15 mins.....after which use you net to scoop out your fish and place them in your tank .... discard the bag of water.....you dont know what diseases the store may have and you dont want to transfer it to your tank..
general antibiotics drops that will help prevent the diseases fish can concur.
when changing the water change only 25% every month and use a clean filter.
the fish water change is good for your plants so use it on them
hope this helps

Answer 2

What type of fish did you have?

24 fish in a 200L (50 gallon) tank is pretty reasonable. That is if they were all small community tropical fish.

Is the tank less than 3 mos. old? If it is then it is probably still cycling. While a tank is cycling you want to be very conservative about what you add. You also want to check your water every couple days. Small water changes, 10%-20% of the water is normally enough to keep your water healthy.

A filter removes large debris from the water. Bacteria take care of some of the chemicals. These two things cannot do all the work though. Partial water changes are necessary to keep your fish healthy.

Answer 3

You answered your own question. When you add fish to an aquarium, add only ONE fish at a time. Carefully monitor the chemical levels using a test kit. Test for pH and ammonia at the very least. After you add a fish, the ammonia level increases, and then eventually returns to normal. Many local pet stores fail to teach this process of "cycling a tank" You need to cycle the tank before adding new fish.

Keep in mind that the amount of fish you can have in your tank depends on the number of gallons of water in your tank. You may offset some imbalance by using a more powerful filter, but the filter can only do so much.

Use an over-the-back filter instead of the cheap sponge filters that use an air pump. The OTB filters move more water and use activated charcoal to help remove impurities. If you have an overloaded tank, you may place a bag of ammonia absorbent in your OTB filter to help remove more ammonia. Adding live plants to your tank helps to regulate the chemicals in the water. Use caution when adding plants, as plants from a warm aquarium added to aquariums with colder water may cause other problems.

Be sure to acclimate all fish and plants before adding them to your tank. Acclimation includes floating the bags to allow the temperature in the bag to equalize to the temperature in the tank. Open the bag and pour part of the water down the drain, but not in your tank! In ten or fifteen minute intervals, pour a few ounces of aquarium water into the bag. Do this over the course of a couple of hours. Then, remove the fish from the bag and place them in the tank. NEVER, EVER, pour the water from the bag into your tank.

Good luck!

Will D
Enterprise AL

50 fish is WAY too much for that size tank unless you run several canister type filters at all times.

Answer 4

Since you never changed your water it is possible that some chemical in your water was out of balance and it caused your fish to die. Also it is very possible that one fish had a disease that spread through the water to your other fish. If you want to start over, wash out that tank with bleach and make sure after you wash out that tank with bleach that you then wash it again about 7 more times to try and get that bleach out of the glass. Let it sit out for a day or two without any water in it. Then smell it to make sure that there is no ordor of bleach. Then add some water to the tank, get it set up and let it run for 48 hours with a filter in it before you put any fish in it. Test the water levels for chemicals, ammonia and all that stuff. If any of it is high, treat the water with the right chemicals.

If all that is fine then go to your pet store and carefully pick out your fish. I sometimes find the ma and pa pet stores to be the best place to get fish because they only take the best (at least the ones here) because they have to compete against the big pet store chains and because of this they usually carry the healthier fish. If you do not have a ma and pa pet store around you, when you go to the chain pet store, watch the fish. See if they are active or not. When they also go to get the one you want, if all the fish come up to the top of the water as if they are expecting to get fed, don't get that fish as chances are they have not been fed in several days and it may be starving. Look to see if there are any white spots on the fish, if the fish looks bloated compared to everyone else, and to see if the fish also has good fins on him that aren't ripped up. If the fish looks and acts good then you probably have a good fish.

Answer 5

This question is common, as are most of the answers. It all sounds confusing, doesn't it?

I'd like you to focus on two of the main issues that have been raised in many of the answers you've already gotten:

1. Cycling your tank. That means developing a culture of beneficial nitrifying bacteria that help to convert toxic ammonia and nitrite to less harmful nitrate. This takes time and it's why people say to add fish slowly and take at least a few months to build up the tank population. Fewer fish is always better.

Note: Do not clean and "sterilize" everything (unless you had a serious disease outbreak). You'd be starting out at square one again.

2. Partial water changes. You should be using a gravel-washer to siphon about 20 - 30% of the water at least once a month. You vacuum the muck out of the gravel as you do this. Replace the water with room temperature water that's been treated with a water conditioner to remove chlorine and ammonia.

And make sure you are getting good advice from a knowledgeable pet and aquarium dealer. It pays to pay a little more and deal with someone who knows what they're talking about.

After all...how much $ have you lost on dead fish so far?

Answer 6

You said you added 4-5 fish every 2 weeks and had about 24. Does that mean you had 24 all at one time??? If so, how big is your tank? For 24 fish it had better be pretty damn HUGE!! It is very important not to overcrowd your tank. You should speak with the fish store where you got them and ask them how many fish you should have for the size tank you have. Also, have them recommend the appropriate chemicals. You need to stay on top of cleaning and be careful about overfeeding. I have goldfish and don't remember too much about tropicals. So I recommend you contact the fish store. But I can pretty much tell you, overcrowding sounds like the problem right now.

Answer 7

Your tank needs time to cycle. Bacteria that grow on the solid surfaces in your tank decompose fish waste and excess food, so that the chemicals they produce won't kill your fish.

To cycle your tank -

1) get yourself a biological filtration starter (it's a liquid that can be found with the fish medicines), some Aqua Safe (removes chlorine from tapwater), and a water testing kit (you need to be able to test your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates).

2) Start with fresh water and a clean tank. Add your aqua safe. Add your bio starter, and add 1 or 2 fish. Feed them appropriately and don't add any more.

3) A week later, test the chemical levels in your tank with your test kit. The kit should tell you what levels are acceptable for each chemical. With a cycling tank, there will first be a spike of ammonia, as the bacteria start growing. When the bacteria start eatin the ammonia, it will go down, and nitrites, a byproduct, will spike. When the second type of bacteria start growing, the nitrites will go down as well, and you'll start seeing nitrates, a byproduct of this action.

4) It'll take about a month or so, but once you see your chemical levels stabilizing from week to week, go ahead and add a few more fish. The increase in waste from the new fish will cause your levels to spike again, but they'll regulate much faster. Wait till they're good, then add a few more, etc...

If you just throw a bunch of fish in, the chemical levels will go too high, and they will kill your fish. Remember that your fish are breathing their own waste. If it's not decomposing properly, it would be like one of us having to live with our own filth.

Chin up, you'll be a great fishkeeper if you don't give up.

Oh, and water changes are NECESSARY. Switching out the water will cut your chemical levels in half, as they're spiking. If your fish start exhibiting signs of stress (unusual swimming patterns, hiding on the bottom with their fins close to them, or rapid color loss) do a water change. Up to 50% at a time is fine. It's best to use a gravel vacuum, so you can suck up the waste that's giving off the chemicals.

Answer 8

Check your ph levels. You can get a kit from pretty much any store that sells fish supplies. My guess is that you're adding too many fish at once.
Are you changing the carbon in their filters regularly?
Did their gills look stiff and closed when they died? Did they have spots?
What I did when I first got fish, was I went to a lot of different sites about fish and learned about ick, (a sickness they get), and various other maladies that they're susceptible to get. There are cheap medicines that you add to their tank according to how many gallons you have in your tank.
Also, you want to change about 25 % of their water at least once a month, and ensure that you are using AquaSafe, (or its equivalent), to make the tap water safe for them.
Stress Coat is another product that helps them when you are introducing them to a tank, or moving them. Squirt a little in their water and it eases transistions.
I also get ammonia bags and set them in their tank. This helps reduce the urine in their water.
Too many fish in a tank will cause too much ammonia, and they'll die. 24 fish sound like a lot even for a big tank unless you're talking about rainbow fish, or that size.
Try reducing the amount of fish, and do the above steps.
Since you've had a lot die recently, you may want to drain your tank and wash and rinse the tank to make it sterile too.

Answer 9

If you had 24 fish, the tank should be large enough to accommodate all of them. If it's not big enough, they'll get stressed and die. Also were the species compatible with each other?

As for the 2 fish that died upside down, that sounds like they had a swim bladder disorder.

Answer 10

Rights stem from the nature of the topic. Animals at the on the spot are not moral brokers (persons) and for this reason do not have rights. homicide is the killing of an innocuous individual. Animals at the on the spot are not persons. So killing them isn't homicide. even if, that doesn't propose we may reason gratuitous soreness, with the aid of the indisputable fact that doesn't be virtuous. yet back, they don't seem moral brokers and do not have the rights which comprise being an ethical agent. in the adventure that they truly were moral brokers with rights, then each and each and every time they kill and reason yet another being to struggle through they should be thrown into reformatory. So, the day a monkey is convicted and sentenced to 5 months in reformatory for shoplifting a banana is the day I admit animals have rights.