Need Advice for a 7-Gal System

T

tigerstripes

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Oct 4, 2005
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Hello all, I'm new, both to this forum and aquaria in general. I'd appreciate some advice on where I may be going wrong with my tank.

Last spring I got a seven-gallon bow-front tank with filter and light, and a green cory cat. Over the summer, I added two cherry barbs, two dawn neon betas and a ghost shrimp. Mr. Cherry Barb I died after a few weeks -- he wouldn't eat, and his tummy went concave. About two weeks ago, my cory cat died - my fave fish 8^( - I believe because I stirred up the water the day before picking snails and rearranging plants.

Now Mr. Cherry Barb II isn't eating, and though one of the neon's mouth constantly agitates I can't seem to catch that fish eating either.

I also had a furcata rainbow fish, but she didn't last long. I've since been told they are delicate.

I have about ten pounds of gravel in the bottom of the tank, with about five assorted plants and a piece of bog-wood. And way too many rams-horn snails. I don't have a heater yet, but a floating thermometer show the temperature to be consistently 80, even at night.

I take tank water into my local aquarium shop every other week or so to be tested and usually am told that the water's okay, occasionally the PH is low. To be honest, I don't quite know what that means, and noone at the store responds to my questions of how to rectify this.

I feel like it's possible I don't do water changes frequently enough. The plants aren't exactly thriving; I had some mass crypt-melt once, and a sword-plant's leaves were skeletonized over a long weekend I was away, I can't tell if that was the snails or some bacteria in the water. Also, I saw a small pin-worm on a leaf a few weeks back - it was notable because when it took a turn while crawling, it would bend its body at a sharp right angle in the middle. I think it was a nematode, but am not certain.

If I'm doing anything grossly negligent here, I' like to know. I enjoy my tank, but it's tough when they die (my lil cory cat - he took half the day, and I knew he was going), and I find myself worrying over those non-eating fish!

It's silly, but maybe I'm not cut out to have fish? Any advice will be genuinely welcome!
 
how often do you do water cahnges, and how much do you change?
do you use a dechlorinator with every addition of water?
how do you clean your filter? how often?
either you should pick up your own test kits for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph, or be sure to get the ACTUAL numbers from your LFS (local fish store). too often they just say it's okay without informing you of what the numbers are and what those numbers actually mean. half the time, they don't even know anyway. and honestly. . . they make part of their money from selling fish, if they say everything is okay, and then your fish die, well it's not their fault, is it? so them you buy more fish from them. $$
i'm sorry about your losses. :(
 
eh, i'll double post. . . .

don't feel bad about the plants. a lot of people think that you can just throw them in there and they'll grow, but honestly they are a completely different thing and take a lot of knowledge to properly take care of. you have to worry about Co2 levels, and trace minerals, and proper wattage for your lighting.

the fact that your ph changes might be a problem. again, you should get your own kit and try to find out your normal range, and see when/if the ph changes, and how much it drops. a low ph wouldn't matter if it were stable, but a changing one can cause problems. stability is more important then the actual level for almost all fish.
 
Hello, welcome to the hobby!
I second getting your own kit, aquapharm has one that tests a range of things, important to know if you are....CYCLED! Is your tank cycled? The kit may seem procey, but you will use it a bit in the beginning and mine has lasted a year and is still going strong.

Also pH is better at a constant. It is how acidic or basic your water is...7.0 is neutral. anything lower (6.8, 6.6 and lower) is acidic. Anything higher is basic (7.2, 7.4 etc). Every time it changes, the effect is exponential on the fish. So going from 7.0 to 7.4 isn't just changing .4 it is changing 100 times... did I do that math right? Here is my info on chem.
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

cories like schools, and will not do well without them...a school is at least 6. I have 4 they do well, so you can play with numbers a little. You might want to look into fish that appreciate a small space like you have. Though their bodies are small, fish like to move around, and so can grown quite a bit larger than in the store.

low light plants will do ok without all the co2 and gh/kh stuff. I have had my plants for a year now, and they are fine by my standards. If you only have a few plants and they are low light, you should be ok. www.plantgeek.net has a listing of plants that are low light and also how hard they are to care for. Make sure to remove rotting stuff, a small tank will collect toxic ammonia very quickly.

Once you get a test kit and know the water's parameters and what your fish are swimming in, you will probably have more success. Then you can see what changes need to be made. You'll have more control of the tank. Good luck!

Oh and abotu the heater...if your ambient room temp maintains an appropriate tank temp, you don't need a heater...if it drops low at any point of the year, you just use the heater when necessary.
 
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Wow! Thank you both for the informative replies!

wataugachicken, I change the water once a month and usually do a 40% water change. I siphon the gravel at that time, too. The filter bags I replace every two months, but the last one was very black (imagine my guilt), so I hope to step that up to every six weeks. It's a 'Bio-Bag', with the carbon inside the little polyester bag and the plastic insert and clip on top to hold it all together. I do use the De-Chlor with every water change -- it comes in that little green bottle.

I still think Mr. Cherry Barb II isn't going to make it, he just isn't eating and looks a little thinner every day. I gotta say, sometimes I think the smartest animal in the tank is that shrimp -- he never fails to find food!

I sure loved that little cory cat; I started with two, but I know the tank wouldn't accomodate four or more. I saw some 'dwarf' cories the other day, maybe three of those would do? Or maybe I should go for some other bottom feeder that isn't so social?

When I bought my first fish, I did research on the web and bought the cories and barbs because they were reputed to be good 'first-time' fish. Mrs. Cherry Barb seems fat and happy, though she picks a lot on Mr. CBII these days (he hides behind the water intake tube, sometimes I can almost hear him thinking: 'Don't tell her I'm hiding back here!') The barbs and neons have always spent a good bit of time schooling with their reflections in the side of the tank (yaargh, more guilt!)

FisheyLisa, thanks very much for the explanation on the pH; and I will take your and wataugachicken's advice and go get a testing kit. (I will probably be back with more questions after that.) Hopefully trying to absorb all this science won't make my head explode!
 
If you replace all the filter media each time, you may be recycling the tank each time which is really hard on the fish. I don't know what kind of filter you have, but if you can just buy some sponge and cut it to fit the holding area of the filter, you almost never have to replace it, just rinse it in old tank water when you do a water change.

Since the tank is so small, you really should try to bump up your water changes to about 25% a week, rinsing your filter media each change in the old water. Toxins can build up in a small tank like that pretty quickly. Also, that size really limits the fish you can have happily. Not sure if I followed, what all do you have in there now? A few dwarf corys would be a great choice, they don't get nearly as large as the normal ones do, and should do pretty well in your tank. Until you get test kits and we figure out if there are water issues though, I would hold off on anymore fish for the time being!!
 
for the filter - the sponge is a great idea, but in case you can't find one you can use your same insert for several months until it starts to fall apart. unless you are trying to remove chemicals, the carbon really doesn't do anything, and doesn't work after a couple weeks anyway. instead of throwing it away, and in addition to rinsing it out in old water, i use an old toothbrush to scrub off any accumulated gunk or algae. just make sure not to forget which one is yours and which is for fish! when you have to get a new one, take the old one apart and cut it in half, then leave that in with the new one for a week or so. that will allow more bacteria to transfer over and colonize the new cartridge and minimize any spikes from the drop in 'cooties'.

yes. i like to call the bacteria cooties.
 
Oh no, I definitely won't be buying any more fish until they stop dying. It's so sad. I have the five left now -- two tetras, two barbs and the shrimp. And like I've said, I don't think Mr. Cherry Barb II is much longer for this world.

I got a low-cost test kit, with strips, supposed to test five-in-one. I suppose it goes without saying that I should scoop the aquarium water into a jar, and then stick the test strip in that. (It certainly goes without saying on the bottle's instructions!) And then I will have to record the results, yes?

Using a sponge as a filter sounds very interesting, but what kind of sponge do you use? I know modern household sponges (brandname 'Cello') often have some sort of soap or anti-bacterial solution in them. Could I use one of those big hand sponges that are used to wash cars, just cut down to fit?

Again, thanks very much for the good advice.
 
you can get big fish-safe sponges from a LFS, then just cut them to fit. you're right, too many other sponges either have soap or other chemicals in them (it worries me when i get a new one and even before i start to wash anything it's already foamy) or they are impregnated with anti-bacterial substances.

congrats on getting a test kit. when that one runs out of strips, you may be better off getting some of the individual liquid ones though, they seem to be a good amount more precise, and are cheaper in the long run because they contain a lot more uses per package. i guess i'm cheap, if i know my tank is cycled, i'd hate to waste a whole strip just to check PH. plus those strips generally have ph, nitrite, nitrate, gh, and kh, but nothing for ammonia, which is one of the more important tests that need to be done.
 
Hi all, it's me again. Well, I lost one of my tetras over the weekend. Strangely, the fish died the morning after I did a 40% water change and vacuumed the tank bottom. It wasn't a real surprise, that tetra was the one that had looked like it was hyperventilating for some weeks now, and the poor thing had gotten very thin, with that concave belly they get.

The real surprise is that Mr. Cherry Barb II is hanging in there, he has put on weight and is eating again. I really thought he was a goner.

I am testing my water, everything seems at a good level, except that the pH is always at zero. Could it be due to that piece of bogwood I have in there?

It's so discouraging to have fish die, especially when I have so few. Do I need to toughen up over this, or should I just keep the three fish and one shrimp I have and give up the hobby when they go? I ask because back when I was in the aquarium store, and the (very nice) store guy told me furcata rainbow fish were delicate, he said offhand, 'I took home 50 of them last week and only half of them survived' -- and he's the *aquarium store guy*. I just wonder, is that the nature of aquarium fish, to be so fragile?

I'm endeavoring to take everyone's advice and really appreciate your help and consideration.
 
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