Why are my fish dying?

Question

I have a new aquarium 55 gal. and treated it the way I was told to by the pet store. At first my fish did fine and 2 weeks later I bought more fish. Now a week later nearly all of them are dead.
Why?

Answer 1

very simple, because your tank is and was not cycled

The reason they die is due to ammonia

A tank goes through cycling where the nitrite is converted to nitrate

And if your tank is not cycled and you add fish, you add a big load of ammonia to it

Test your water nitrite and ammonia are suppose to be at "0" if the tank is cycled, and you should have nitrate readings up to 20ppm

If your ammonia is not at "0", you will need to do a partial waterchange of 50% with a gravel siphon right a way, if you have still nitrite readings as well and not nitrate readings, your tank is not cycled, and you will need to do 10% partial waterchanges every day until it's cycled to give your fish a change to survive


http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/what_is_fishless_cycling.html
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/how_to_do_a_fishless_cycle.html
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/how_to_do_a_fishless_cycle.html


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


Feel free to email me for any other questions

Answer 2

fish have to be living in bacteria the only fish i know that can live in clean water are bettas. AND you should'nt just dump the fish in the water ater you buy it, you should let it sit in the tank a while until they're the same temperature. Belive it or not but fish can pnemunia if the water is too cold, so do that and if there are a ripped fins a fish could've gotten an infection and have passed it on. So try some maroxy or something. Hope it helps [:

Answer 3

stocking to fast, your tank cant really fully cycle in 2 weeks, so by adding more that can upset the balance of your water parameters.

There is another possiblity, Adding new fish without quarintining them first, is risky, as you can very easily bring in a new illness.

So those are two possible reasons why your fish are dieing.

I would water change, and add some cycle, stress coat, and aquarium salt.

Restart if you will.

You should have a spare 10 gallon for quaritine. It is just a good fishkeeping thing you should do. Espically if you are going to be working with a 55 gallon that will be established. As one fish can crash your tank and cause you to lose money and the tank.

Answer 4

Don't listen to pet stores. Do your own research before hand :) Here's a link to read through, basically what happened is your tank is going through the cycle process. All tanks go through this, takes about 4-8 weeks to complete:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/startupcycle/Step_5_The_Cycle.htm

The first article explains the cycle process. The second article explains most likely why your fish died-ammonia poisoning.

Answer 5

i know a lot of fish cant be with other fishes so u need to make shur to ask the pet people if its okay.also do u filter the tank and put what purifier in the water when u put or change half of the water oh ya u need heater for ur fishes and also make shur the water doesn't get to cold or too hot.or if u over feed ur fishes they will die.

Answer 6

Get all the ph reading and such. But a test kit from your pet store and test the water. The water may need to be heated. What type of aquarium is it? Fresh water, salt??

Answer 7

maybe you brought a fish that was sick and infected the others
may be you need some water purifier tablet
maybe a bigger filter now you have more fish
good luck with your next lot

Answer 8

Make sure your filter is working properly, also check the temperature and make sure it's Okay.

Answer 9

generally fish like to eat. yu know, for surviving?

Answer 10

did u forget to feed dem?