iam going to get fishes for my 20 gallon tank?

Question

iam thinking about geting guppies but every time i buy then and let them in my tank the next day they died can someone tell me how to not let them die?

Answer 1

Make sure you are properly conditioning the water to remove chlorine. If not, that is why your fish are dying. Once you can keep a few Guppies alive, then I would work on getting some more challenging fish. Use the Guppies as water testers. Get 3 feeder Guppies, and if they do well in the tank for 3 days, then I would say you could get more fish. Some good 20 gallon fish are Dwarf Gouramis, Yo-yo Loaches, Ram Cichlids, Tetras, Rasboras, and Killifish. Research each fish before you buy it so you know exactly what you need to provide for it. Good luck!

Wow: This is directed at the idiot poster that said to add Knife fish (2 feet long), Oscars (18 inches long), large Catfish (up to 4 feet long), and other absurd fish to a 20 gallon tank. Please don't do that, you will kill every one of those fish. Also, Guppies are not fragile at all.
Nosoop4u

Nosoop4u

Answer 2

Okay ... basic 'fish tank knowledge' coming up. First, you should have your fish tank 'full and settled' for at least a week BEFORE you put your guppies in ... with the 'filter' running, and any 'air bubble' pump too, if you have both. Get NO MORE than six guppies and have them all put into one 'bag' with water in it. Set the whole bag, with the water and air an guppies in it 'on top' (the water with the guppies will 'sink' but the air will keep the bag afloat) and let it 'sit there' for 3 HOURS ... that will slowly bring the water inside the bag to the same temperature of the water outside the bag. If you have a 'heater' running, you should 'double check' to make sure the tank water is in the 'right range' for your guppies. After three hours, open the bag and pull it out from the 'bottom' so the guppies swim out and down. DO NOT FEED THE GUPPIES for the first 24-48 hours. They will NOT 'starve to death' in that short a period of time.
Next ... be sure that you buy 'good quality guppy food' ... you may have the 'wrong kind of food' and that could be 'throwing the tank off' being 'settled' and killing your poor fish. I said to get 6 guppies, because you still may 'lose' one or two ... but you also should have 3-4 that 'make it' ... and if you want to add more guppies, then wait TWO FULL WEEKS before you get any new ones, and put them into a 'fish bowl' for a week before 'rebagging them' and putting them into the tank according to my instructions. This will help you to 'identify' any 'illness' in the new guppies so they can be 'disposed of' and not added to the 'old and settled' tank.

Answer 3

You shouldn't add more than 2-3 fish at a time due to stressing your biological filter. Has you tank gone through its nitrogen cycle yet? If your tank is fairly new, you shouldn't be adding any fish unless they are hardy so they can help cycle your tank and you're willing to have them in there when you introduce new fish. Make sure your fish will get along with other fish and that you're willing to maintain it and do its weekly water change. Also you have to condition your fish to your aquarium's temperature before you just "dump" them in. Leave them in the pet store bag and let it float in your tank for about 25-30 minutes so that way your fish will be acclimated to the aquarium temperature.

Answer 4

properly at the start i'm hoping what ever you get your happy with ....... ok now because i dont stay in austraila i will nonetheless provide you some records yet i'm hoping it applies down there .... with a bit of luck:) A 5 gallon tank is ideal for breeding you will get 2-3 guppies on your 5 gallon consistently a ratio of three to a million ......lady to male or you're able to do the comparable with platies,mollies,swordtail,and get a backside feeder: snail,catfish,algae eater your determination Now as for a buddie for you betta they could be very very very agressive in small tanks if with fish so i reccomend a divider after which you would be able to placed yet another betta on the different area as a results of fact they dont want that lots room!!!!! 5 gallon tanks: 15$ in Nc perhaps around: 20 some thing in austraila Guppies: 2.00$' Platies: 2.00$ Bottoom feeders: uup to 5.00$

Answer 5

let the tank settle down for a few days first add some plants and a cleaning cat fish( the one that suck on the glass), and add minerals too, guppies are very fragile thoough it would be better if you get meat eating fish since they are hardier like oscars nine spotted knife fishes sichilides or big catfishes believe me they have more character than guppies!

Answer 6

what else is in the tank?
How long has the tank been set up?
What are ur water parameters?
Cycled?
Are you floating them? and make sure your doing it correectly


These are questions that you must be able to know in fishkeeping.

The most important thing, is when you have fish that died, you must understand why b4 gettting new ones.


Make sure your water quality is good, and make sure your floating them right.

Answer 7

just to add to the good advice is this you will either have great luck with guppies or no luck with guppies. have you tried another type of fish? that may be the way to go.

Answer 8

Read threw this site, Its about setting up a tank and only add a few fish at a time ; http://www.firsttankguide.net/steps.php

Goodluck

~AS

Answer 9

· The tanks should be set up length ways as this will allow you to fit more tanks in your given space i.e. 10" length x 10" height x 18" depth not 18" length x 10" height x 10" depth

· Keep the tanks bare no plants or gravel, this way they are easier to keep clean and free from disease.

· Use basic filtration air driven corner filters (my preference) or sponge filters with plenty of airflow through them, the water above the filter should look like it is boiling. The current and flow in the tank means that the fish has to develop strong muscles in its body especially in the caudal peduncle this helps the delta varieties hold their tails in a more natural way and not look like the tail is too heavy for the fish, giving a bent disposition to the fishes deportment.

· Use small tanks 5·5 gal for a breeding trio and 8-10 gal tanks for growing on will be fine. As a rule of thumb allow 1inch of fish per 1 gal of tank water, this way your fish should achieve there full potential.

· Find out what your water chemistry is in your tanks. The three most important water parameters for keeping Guppies are ph (the measurement of acidity or alkalinity) GH (soft or hard water) and Temperature. With the amount of additives now available to the hobbyist it is not difficult to create the ideal water conditions for your fish. The ideal conditions for Guppies are ph 7·2 (Guppies range 6·8-7·8) GH 8-12 (Guppies range 4 – 20) temperature range is between 50°f – 85°f with the ideal temperature being for fry 78f, juveniles (4-8 months) 76°f and for adults 74°f

·Lighting
The optimum amount of lighting that your Guppy needs is 12 hours per day, the best type of light is daylight but as we can not guarantee 12 hours per day, we have to use fluorescent lights a 30 – 40 watt bulb will give sufficient light if mounted above your tanks it is not the intensity of the light that matters but the duration, a simple timer wired into your lighting system will ensure that the lights are turned on and off at the right time.

Maintenance
You will develop your own routines for maintenance based on the amount of time that you have available to give to your hobby, but remember that it is better to feed your fish small amounts of food every few hours that one gigantic feed per day. Frozen foods and live foods are digested easier than dry flake foods so can be fed in larger portions but do not overfeed your fish and kill them with kindness. If you overfeed your Guppies the excess food passes through the gut without been properly digested and will foul the tank leading to possible disease and despite the fact that you are overfeeding your fish they will be under nourished as the goodness within the food will not be properly digested.

Stocking Levels
As I have mentioned earlier as a rule of thumb allow 1 inch of mature fish to each gallon of tank water therefore a 10 gal tank would be able to house 10 fish to maturity. Higher stocking levels can be achieved by the more frequent use of water changes, but if you neglect these you will end up with stunted and poor quality fish.

Water Changes
Fish create waste and this waste creates both good and bad bacteria within the fish tank. If this waste is allowed to keep building up eventually the bad bacteria out number the good and the water conditions start to fall apart as does your Guppies fins and health. The way to combat this build up of bad bacteria is to carry out regular water changes at least once a week and if time permits more regular, I change at least 25% of the tank water each week in my own tanks

Feeding
Guppies are omnivores. Always feed your Guppies as wide a range of quality flake foods, live and frozen foods. It is also better to feed little and often. A quality flake food feed 3 times per day is better than a large feed of frozen and live food fed once per day, remember if the fish can not consume all the food you put in the tank in 2 minutes then you are overfeeding them or they are ill.

Try to avoid feeding your fish a diet rich in protein as this can cause constipation in the fish, causing a build up of toxins in the fish’s gut. As with all living animals a varied diet is best leading to healthier animals.

Answer 10

fresh water or fresh water tropical???? Water temp, quality and acidity matter... not putting them into untreated tap water, I hope!!! That'll kill anything!!! Make sure you have used a chemical neutralizer (to cancel chlorine etc) and a carbon filter system (to remove metal elements) as well as a biologic additive such as "Cycle" to add helpful bacteria....