What is wrong with my fish tank?

Question

I recently established a freshwater tropical fishtank. Initially it contained one african dwarf frog and 5 neon tetras. Four of the tetras dies within one day of establishing the tank. I went back to the pet store and brought a sample of the water which they tested. They said there was nothing wrong with the water. I bought more tetras and some guppies. They were all fine for a few days and were eating and moving about normally. However, the guppies then started dying too! The tetras are completely fine and the frog is doing well. I removed three dead guppies from the tank this morning and am afraid the last remaining one will die soon as well. What is going on here?

FYI: It is a 15 gallon tank. I have a heater and the water temperature has been at about 78 degrees. I used a water conditioner when I established the tank. I have both live and fake plants . I also have two pieces of driftwood and floating plants which help subdue the light (which I keep off most of the time.)

Yeah I don't know.... this really is a mystery to me. I did allow the fish to sit in the bag when I got them to adjust to the water so I don't think that is it. Also, I didn't forget to feed them. i guess it might be the pet store but the replacement fish were from a different store then the fish I initially bought. This is a very sad situation and I feel awful for the fish!!

Answer 1

Well, what jumps right out at me, is that your tank is cycling
I assume that you just set your tank up about last week or so, and then bought the fish

Your tank needs to establish healthy bacteria for your fish to survive, that means, it needs to go through a nitrogen cycle
If you have testers, you should test your water daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, since you have fish in there
You will observe a spike in nitrites and ammonia, and once they go down, you will observe nitrate readings, which are good for your fish

when your tank is done cycling, you should have:
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate below 30
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles.html


Also when buying new fish, you need to acclimate them properly to your pH and not the water temperature
that means, if your pH is as example 7.6 and your LFS pH is 7.1, you need to acclimate them for 1 hour and 15 min, as follows
open the bag and float it for 15 min, then put 1/4 cup of your tank water in there, and repeat that every 15 min
http://fishlesscycling.com/articles/acclimating_you_new_fish.html


if you have fish in your tank when cycling, you will need to do daily partial waterchanges of 10%-25%, to get your fish through this ordeal

Also leave your lights on for 10-12 hours during the day, and turn it off for 12-14 hours at night

And you're by far not overstocked in a 15 gallon tank



Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


Feel free to email me for further help

Answer 2

I notice several mistakes right away. They need 8 to 12 hours of light every day. You had too many fish for a 15 gallon tank. Now that some have died there will be less deadly nitrates.

You need to have the tank for several months before it will be "balanced" properly. Your bio filter needs to get some bio going in it, and the rocks need to build up nitrate killing bateria.

You need an algae eater, a really small plecostamus would be good. Get food for it when it gets bigger than an inch long, and feed it about a third of an algae wafer each morning, increase the amount as the plecostamus gets bigger. Mine are huge, and growing with only a third of a tablet each day. They are over 5 inches long too. If you feed them too much, you will have a lot of floating poop, so it will be pretty easy to tell for them.

The other fish will need to all be either community, or semi-aggressive, or aggressive. Mixing them up is bad usually. The agressive ones kill off anything weaker.

Frogs die VERY easily, and we stopped getting them. Same thing with shrimp.

We keep our water at 82, but most like to keep it a little cooler. We clean a third of the water every Sunday, and half once a month. Be sure to add the appropriate amount of water conditioner to the water that you put into the tank.

Change the charcoal filter when it starts blocking water enough for it to pour over the top of the filter cartridge. You should never clean the bio filter at the same time as you change the charcoal filter. Also, try to clean the tank an hour before changing the charcoal filter. This gets all the floating crap into the old cruddy filter.

Don't bother trying to medicate sick fish, it almost always causes stess, and then all your other fish get sick too. Just let nature take it's course.

Good luck, Tokes

ps- too much food will cause dealy chemicals. I also think you should ditch the driftwood

Answer 3

Do you have an air supply in this tank? All tanks need a source of air in them. Did you fill the tank and let it set 2 days before adding fish? Did you float the bag of fish in your tank or add just dump them straight in?

Let the tank sit empty for a couple of days after cleaning before adding any fish to condition the tank and the water. Then float the bag of your new fish on the water for about 30 minutes so that the water in the bag and the water in the tank are relatively close to the same temp. If you just dump the fish in the difference in water temps can shock their sysytem and some species can not tolerate such a shock.

Answer 4

ok -- i will try my best to make sense of it -- first ignore everyone else -- ok?

there is a lot more to setting up a happy tank then putting in water and fish. its best to add fish slowly. new water has no toxins in it -- so when you take it to the store there isn't anything to test. you need to establish healthy water for fish though -- this takes a while -- its a process called "cycling" in which your tank has to go through the nitrogen cycle to be a healthy environvent for fish.

my biggest starting concern is the fact that its summer and its HOT outside -- especially in your car. you should do things to help buffer this -- like keep your fish in the bag in a cooler or insulated lunch bag. don't cool the fish -- just keep them in there to keep the temperature more even. you can even take it open into the store with you so the inside will be room temperature in the pet shop. they will consider you brilliant. small changes in temperature stress a fish -- putting them in a 120 degree car really stresses a fish.

dead fish make your tank an automatic happy home for bacteria -- not more fish. this is a perfect time to start learning how to do partial water changes. get a gravel vaccuum and go for it. when 20-25% of the water is out you are done. replace the water with fresh conditioned water. this keeps bacteria, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates from building up too. this is something you need to do weekly for healthy fish. right now you want to do it every other day to keep your fish alive until your aquarium is more stable.

in summary -- this week you need to do 20% water changes with gravel vacuums to stablilize what you have left -- if everything dies live and learn. during this week you want to google cycling your fish tank and learn all you can about how to set your tank up right. then start over again the right way.

oh i forgot the light thing -- most fish DON'T need light. plants do though -- you want to adjust your light for plants -- not fish.

Answer 5

Hon, even though your water tested fine at the store, it could contain lots of chemicals that the fish are not used to and subsequently die from. Going from one type of water to another is extremely hard on little fishes.

First, are you floating your fish before putting them in the water? Second, are you acclimating them to your water before putting them in the tank? Third, does your house have a water softener? Softened water is not good for fish, but tests great.

Failing everything else, I would buy water from the store. Not distilled, but the drinking water that is sold in gallons. Then gradually add my own tap water so the fish become acclimated to the minerals and chemicals in the water. It's good you only have a fifteen gallon tank. I had to reestablish 3 55 gallon tanks that way when we moved from the country to the city. That was a BIG pain in the butt.

Another way to acclimate is when you buy your fish, while floating them for 20 minutes, gradually add a little of your tank water into the bag. Then let them sit awhile. Then do it again. Hopefully that will help.

Answer 6

although the pet shop "tested " your water there are a wide range of tests that could be done (of which they may have only tested the common ones PH,nitrites and ammonia)
but there are lots of toxic issues that can't (or aren't ) tested for.
I know someone who located their aquarium in their kitchen and fried alot of foods. this caused an oil slick on the surface of their tank cutting off oxygen from going in . the tests were negative but fish died much like in your case.
A new tank (under a month in operation) often experiences problems like this as the aquarium hasn't 'cycled' and there fore doesn't have any natural balancing agents to help absorb/control the detrimental organic wastes of the fish.
some fish are better at experiencing the rigors of a new fish tank (they are hardier) and others are more sensitive.
stick with just the neons till about a month has passed and get the store to retest your tank (PH ,nitrites and Ammonia)

Answer 7

is the tank cycled, how long has the filter been running on that tank. if you plan to clean the whole tank then i suggest you take out everything and wash them with bleach (1 cup bleach and 9 cups of water). you could do the same for washing the inside of the tank and this will solve many problems, but you must wash everything carefully after bleaching them. heater is also another issue. i have lost many fishes because of not having a heater. good luck

Answer 8

if there was death in the tank then you need to change the water as soon as possible. but make sure the water has sit in proper chemicals for 24 hours first. Also dont use cheap food, dont over feed

Answer 9

when you take the fishes home, make sure you leave them still inside the bag and let it float in the tank's water to make them get use to or adapted to the water temperature before you release them to the tank, if not they will shock when the temp. suddenly changed that could make them die instantly.... that was what i thinking.

Answer 10

Well actually you should keep the light on at all times. Also you can come to this pet store where I work so we can test the water, we do it so we might be able to find the answer and I'm pretty sure it's free. If you want to find me I'm Maggie, I only work on Saturdays mostly this month on the 26th I will be there. Our business hours are Mon.-Fri.-10:00-8:00, Sat.-10:00-7:00, and Sun.-10:00-6:00 So stop by anytime we can surely help you, and f you don't have the time you can E-mail me at [e-mail] or my manager Steve at [e-mail]. So see you or chat with you either way we can surely help you!!! The address is 2980 N. Milwaukee Avenue. You can also go on our website at www.animalkingdominc.com