Dead Fish at bottom of tank!!?

Question

I bought my son some fish for his 5 years old birthday...Two swordtail fish in a one gallon size Aquarium.
Both fish seemed to be doing well..until..
this morning.... I woke up and noticed one of the fishes, the baby one, had died and was floating at the bottom of the tank.
I did not have the proper materials to get him out and I also noticed we had been grossly overfeeding them..
Help!!!
I know I need a siphon..but I had to run out the door to work after I saw it and now I am at work thinking the other fish is now going to pass due to the first firsh passing..
If I go home after work and use a siphon to remove the dead fish and clean the water will it be too late?

Answer 1

I would only add to what others said by saying it is quite possible to keep a wider variety of fish in a 1 gallon aquarium, but it is a very touchy proposition best left to experienced aquarium keepers. 2-3 white clouds or neon tetras would be good for your sons tank in my opinion.

MM

Answer 2

A siphon might be overkill in a one gallon aquarium. Get a small net to remove the dead fish, and when you get home, do an 80% water change, that should drastically drop the bacteria and ammonia levels as a result of over feeding. Two swordtails is to much for a tank of that size, so yes the other one will likely die.

In a one gallon aquarium, you can only really put the same fish you would keep in bowls.

Option one:
UP TO, 1 Betta fish, and 2-3 ghost shrimp
Option Two:
UP TO, 1 white cloud minnow, and a snail
Option Three:
UP TO, 2 African Dwarf Frogs, and either the shrimp or a snail

anything else will likely outgrow that tank or need more swimming space, the common misconception is that fish will stunt to your tank. This is true in a way, but in reality fish are always growing in some way or another, and a fish that is too big will just grow until the stresses of that tank get to be too much, and then they die. I.E. an Oscar can be kept in a ten gallon tank, but a fish that could live upwards of ten years will likely not make it out of its first year.

The Betta fish is a labrynth breather so it will breathe from the surface ratehr than the water so that it can live in highly polluted, or stagnant water. This is also true for the white cloud. The snails and shrimp are detritus feeders and eat the over fed food. The frogs are very interesting, they are fully aquatic and can live a long time if kept properly.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Well, for starters, a one gallon tank isn't really big enough to keep any fish. You could maybe have a shrimp in there. Swordtails can grow to be 4 or 5 inches long and this is just too big for even one to be in your aquarium. Plus, they need heated water...and most one-gallon aquariums don't have a heater.

Ammonia poisining is likely what killed your fish...new tanks need to "cycle" which means that the water levels need time to even out. First you get a spike in ammonia (which is toxic to fish), then a spike in nitrites (which is toxic to fish) and finally both of these levels return to 0 and your nitrates (which are not toxic to fish at low levels) rise. A healthy aquarium has water levels of ammonia-0, nitrites-0, and nitrates-20 or less. You can either cycle your aquarium with a few hardy fish or do a fishless cycle--adding either an ammonia source without fish, or adding some "good" bacteria in the form of the product bio-spira at the same time you add your fish to the tank. However, in a one-gallon tank it is almost inevitable that the levels will spike too high, killing your fish.

My honest recommendation is to take everything back to the store and come home with a 5 or 10 gallon aquarium kit. Read up on how to properly cycle and stock it and you will have a much better chance at a healthy aquarium.

Answer 4

First off, you can just use a net or a cup to remove the dead fish, you probably won't need a siphon. I don't think that the other fish will die before you get home, unless it was already sick. If your baby fish died of natural causes, it won't make your other fish sick unless it starts decaying and so on. Changing the water is a good idea though. So to answer your question, no I don't believe that it is too late to save your remaining fish. I hope it all goes well with you; I love Swordtails!!

Answer 5

Get a small fish net so you can scoop out the fish. It will also help in that you can scoop out uneaten food if you happen to give them too much. In the future, only give them what they can eat in 30-40 seconds, twice a day. It may be advisable to put the fish food in a cupboard so your son doesn't get the urge to give them a huge feast :)

Now, there are several reasons that your fish died. The first being that you didnt' cycle your tank. In the wild, and in established tanks, there are nitrifying bacteria that break down toxic ammonia from fish waste and excess food into less toxic nitrates. In a brand new tank, these bacteria don't exist, so any fish in the tank will produce ammonia, which, not being broken down by bacteria, will kill or weaken the fish. So, it is vital to cycle your tank. It's a little late now, and anyway, cycling is hard to do in a tank that small - so I suggest that you buy a clean turkey baster and use that to do small daily water changes. You can use it to remove about half the water, along with any uneaten food and poop, and it should keep the water nice and clean for your fish.

The second reason is that your tank is simply too small for swordtail fish. Swordtails can grow to 4" long and the minimum tank size for them would be about 15-20 gallons. A 1 gallon is very small, and your options are limited - I suggest you return the remaining swordtail to the petstore and get a male betta, instead. Or get a bigger tank.

Anyway, the other fish may have died by the time you get home from work - but he may still be alive. It could go either way.

Answer 6

I don't think you need a siphon. Whenever our fish dies, we just use a net and scoop it out. You have been overfeeding the fish so it doesn't really matter when you clean the tank. Because if your fish had died because of some disease then, you should clean the tank right away. If the fish died because of overfeeding, the other fish should be fine unless you fed that fish too much. So I don't think it will be too late.

Answer 7

yeah !!! what zoe said!!! haha i had swordtails and for some reason there kind of easy to die. i think they need a little salt in there water and like zoe said its gotta be cleaned soup to nuts kiddo, do the filter everything. also maybe the fish was already sick...did you look in the tank where you brought it and see any dead fish ??? thats not good ??? bye kiddo

Answer 8

one gallon is a very small tank and you should read this before getting new fish in there.

http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/articles/fishbowls.asp

I hope it helps.

Answer 9

acc,2 me if the fish is fioating at the bottom,its not dead.
and if it is so,u need 2 have a stick tied 2 an old cloth.
i m sure,that will do