I need help with my fish tank please?

Question

Ok my friend & I sort of had a spir of the moment fish shopping trip yesterday & I bought 4 Koi Fish && a few little ones . They are all in the same tank & I still havent set up my air pump & filter . I have had the tank for a while & I dont think we have the directions & my friend told me that if I dont put in a filter / pump soon all my fish will die & I dont want that . Can someone please help me on putting this thing together - there are so many tubes & stuff . Its confusing :[

Answer 1

somewhere on the pump it should say what brand it is. Locate this brand name and then search the internet for the company. They should have your pump listed on there and there may even be instructions or at least a 1-800 number to call. They should be able to help you figure it out.

Answer 2

First of all give me the number of the petstore that sold you fish and aquarium at the same time. Seriously- I want the number.

You need to bring your Koi back to the petstore right now. Thise are pond fish they grow over a foot long and live forever. Like 40 years. If you keep them you will kill them. It is like keeping a dolphin in a pool in your backyard. It will kill it.

Koi are also part of the carp family- they should be kept in cool water. The "little ones" you bought are tropical (warm water) fish. How do I know? Very few fish are cold water fish. Little ones are not, they are probably danios or tetras.

The air pump you simply attach the tubing too long with an airstone. Plug it in and place the sirstone in your tank. You should get bubbles.

The filter will be more difficult. You will need to attach the extension to the actual body of the filter. There should be a filter pad that goes into - I just had a horrible thought- you probably have an undergravel filter. Those things are archaic. You really need to get rid of those Koi. This is what it should look like. you attach the tubes to the air pump.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3588&Bc=1&N=2004+113423

You REALLY need to do some research. This was extremely irresponsible and the fish are the ones that are going to pay for your actions. Check this
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=92&js_enabled=0

Answer 3

Whether the fish will die depends upon the surface ares of the tank open to the air. If the fish are small and only a few they will survive as I have kept small fish in a tank for months without a filter, however you will need to change the water from time to time if you continue like this. Most filters have a pipe from the pump, outside the takn, to the filter, inside the tank, connect the pipe to both and put the filter into the tank and plug in and that is it.

Answer 4

your fish will die if you dont filter the water. many dont think of fish urinating. depending on what your set up is. if you have under gravel then the tubes coming from pump go into the pipes coming up from the undergravel system. DO not add more than one fishat a time.. if it is a small tank 10-20 gallons the faster your tank will go bad. go to fish store, or if you have a friend with a tank get a handfull of their gravel to get a good start on needed bacteria. with our air you will get anerobic bacteria started and that will take over. many clean the tank too often. with undrgravel let it go for a year. when cleaning out gravel gently rinse it bout no cleaners of any kind... i have commited fishacide many times before i realized what i was doing wrong

Answer 5

I got a small tank at Christmas and It's taken me 6 monthes just to figure out how to keep the water crystal clear so theres hope for you yet if your fish are still alive if not keep trying. depends what type of filtration system you have. Mines an Aqua one that sticks to side of tank with a filter sponge inside and outlet pipe that comes out the top that keeps the water oxiginated. My advice would be to go back to where you got from the tank from and ask for set instructions or contact the makers of the tank /filtration system . Did your equipment come in a box , look on there there may be contact details. I am a regular visitor to my local aquarian shop who are always happy to give free advice. Good luck.

Answer 6

Wow, you're in trouble as you should have had that tank set up for at least a week before you even thought about going out to buy fish. You see, the tank has to "cure" before you want to put live fish in it. Anyways, as for putting together your filter, it really depends on what type it is. Is it an undergravel filter? Is it one that just hangs over the side of your tank? But yeah, I don't know when you wrote this question but I'll go ahead and send my condolensces now. Sorry about the fish. Live and learn. Ask lots of questions to your pet store owner. They can teach you alot. And if you're too shy to do that, then at least just look at their tank setups so you have some idea of what a proper tank should look like. Good luck.

Answer 7

Thank you so much Lynn!!!! I was reading all these answes getting so irritated that no one (till I got to your post of course) pointed out that koi shouldn't be in a tank!!!

Unless you're packing at least a 300g tank right now, and planning on getting a bigger one (considering I don't think they have one close to the 300g!), you do not have the room requirement for those poor babies.

Take your koi back to the store and get credit.

What size tank do you have these "few" little ones in? What are they?

Why also, did you think it was ok to buy fish without researching first? Or setting up a tank and let it cycle? Would you go out and buy a dog without making sure you could take care of it?

Answer 8

yeah you're going to need to find some way to oxygenate the water or they will die.

there should be a little power-brick sized unit that plugs into the wall. this should be the pump. there will be a little nozzle on the other end such that if you plug it in and turn it on, you will feel air coming out. attach a tube/hose to that nozzle.

what you will do next depends on how many "bubblers" you will have. if you have only one, then attach the "bubbler" (should look like a piece of pumice with another nozzle at the end) to the other end of the hose and stick it down into the water. air bubbles should rise from the bubbler. success!

if you have two bubblers, then you will need to find the joint that looks like a little "T". Attach the base of the T into the hose coming from the pump, and then attach hoses to each of the branches of the T. Put bubblers on the end of both of those hoses and stick them down into the water.

That is really all there should be to it.

As for the filter, I'm not sure.

Answer 9

Koi do need a specific temperature. You can keep them, but not in the same tank as your tropicals. Not only that, even the tropicals probably will not make it. You see your tank needs to cycle. As you feed your fish, food remnants and feces will drop to the gravel. This will cause your nitrate levels to go through the roof. High nitrate levels will kill your fish. Bacteria needs to grow in your tank. You need to have enough bacteria to handle the fish that are in your tank. This bacteria 'eats' the remnants, thus keeping a balanced cycle in your tank. You can buy a bottle of Cycle for your next batch of fish. Also, you want to start your next set of fish with ones that are hardy and will be able to survive the nitrate changes. Gouramis are great. Ask you local fish store, but not the one that sold you these fish.

Answer 10

Well you definitely need to get it set up pretty quick or the waste from the fish will build up in the water and kill them.
Check out this site and it will help!
http://www.firsttankguide.net/filters.php
That is the link to the page about filters.
Good luck with it.
As an alternative, you can put your fish back in bags and ask the pet store to 'hold' them for you. I bet if you ask nice they'll do it until you get your tank set up. :)