Basic question

N

newtosnails

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Jun 13, 2006
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Okay, first off to introduce myself - I am not into this huge like everyone here seems to be. I've been checking out all the newbie links and posts on here though, and am very impressed with everyone. This is a great site, so I really hope you don't mind me posting my humble questions.

I have a very teeny tank, and only one fish and one snail. Basically it's something I'm doing for my kids. I have previously mantained for a few years a bigger tank (it was only 10 or 15 gal tank), and I do love fish. So anyway, right now all we have is a guppy and a mystery snail. So far they are doing well, but we are only a week into it.

My question is, our fish seem to keep dying! Our tank does have an air pump, and I keep a thermometer in it and the temp is always within the "okay" range. We are careful not to overfeed, and the last fish met his demise become of parasites - we do know that. I already treated the tank before adding the new fish, so we hope that's gone. We have no idea why the first snail died, but he certainly did.

I really don't want this fish to die, or this snail. Any ideas, or sites to visit, with details on just starting (and keeping up) a little tank? We have no plans of moving to a large tank, so we're not trying to start small and move up. I like fish, and want my daughters to have a couple of pets. This is fish #4 and snail #2, please help me so there are no more fatalities! :sad:

Thank you so much!
 
How big is the tank? "teeny" is not a good description. If you don't know gallonage post the dimensions. Have you invested in a test kit and what are the water parameters?

I highly suspect amonia poisoing due to an improper set up. You will have to upgrade to a heated and filtered tank, if you want to suport aquatic life.

BTW, did you see daveedka's aticle on cycling a tank?

I'll let others point out the many other flaws of your setup and why and what you should have done differently.
 
Everything that dork said .... and... Are you just filling this up with tap water and putting the snail and fish in? Are you using a water conditioner? Straight tap water will kill your fish and snails pretty fast. The tank needs a heater and filter also. By teeny do you mean a 1 gallon?Snails eat algae, vegetables/greens, and fish food. Maybe its starving to death too. Honestly... Not to nit pick, but... well from what I get out of your post, nothing has been done correctly.
 
You guys can't go around telling people that tapwater is killing their fish unless you know what type of water they're on. I don't add anything to my water but I have a well. This person might also be on a well. But if they are on city/county water then you'd be correct. But before jumping to conclusions and confusing people you need to find the correct answers.

I have seen on other sites where when you have a problem you fill out a fact sheet. If this site and the other spin offs that came from here would do that it would help immensley with info.



Back to the question.

Most likely untreated tapwater, but definetly lack of filtration.
 
Did you treat the tank with any kind of medication? Tanks treated with copper based medications are very snail unfriendly. The coppers would kill them.

I think your losses may be due to ammonia/nitrite poisoning from improper cycling or stress/disease.

Sorry you are having such a rough time. Let us know the amount of water your tank holds and we could perhaps help you solve your problems. They are perfect pets and there is a way to keep fish in little tanks. I also feel it is a good way to teach our children how to care for and respect animals.

Kudo's to you for asking for help. Don't let negativity bring ya down. It will all work out. We just need a little more info to help you. Have you ever tested your water or had your local fish/pet store test it for you? The kits are expensive but almost any pet store will test your water for free. If you get your test, ask them to write down the results so you can post them.

Good luck. Try doing water changes to help keep the fish going. As stated above, if you are on a city water system treat with something to take care of chlorine and chlorimides. While the little tank finishes cycling you may want to do daily 50% water changes to keep them alive and your ammonia and nitrates down.

I hope you get this worked out.
 
mykidsmylife said:
Did you treat the tank with any kind of medication? Tanks treated with copper based medications are very snail unfriendly. The coppers would kill them.
Click to expand...
Actually residual copper, and it's very residual as it bonds on the molecular level with pretty much everything, will kill anything in the tank. Not just the snails.

Can only imagine an acrylic or plastic tank that was treated with copper. Probably have to throw it away.

Roan
 
He doesn't need filtration if there is only a snail and guppy. Weekly water changes will work fine for that situation (depending on size, they may need to be more frequent). He is probably just cycling his tank and doesn't know what to do. I also doubt that copper has anything to do with it, his pipes (if they are copper) are most likely hard copper that has a light anodization on it. He has kept a tank before as he stated so I bet he treated his water just fine. I would suggest reading the articles stated above and buying nitrate, nitrite and ammonia test kits.
 
how often were you doing water changes? In what I would call a "teeny" tank with no filter I would be doing water changes every other day.

the dechlorinator question is a good one, but without knowing if you are on municipal water or a well we can't say if that is the problem or not. If you're on municipal water and NOT dechlorinating that may have something to do with it.

what exactly is the "OK" range for temperature? do you have a thermometer in the tank? different fish require different water temperature, so "OK" for a goldfish is very different from "OK" for a discus (to use a couple extreme examples). If you're keeping a fish that likes 78 degree water, and your tank temperature is 69 degrees, that may have something to do with it. guppies are pretty flexible teperature-wise, but depending on what you'd had in there before temperature might have had something to do with it.

please check out the articles the others have suggested on cycling and tank set up. they will help ytou understand exactly what goes on in a tank from the minute you fill it with water, to when you put fish into it and beyond.

the last thing is that for help with any specific problem, we need a lot more information than you provided in your original post. water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, temp.) are standard information that can point out where a problem is, as well as the size of the tank and any recent changes you've made to the tank such as adding new fish, major tank cleanings, adding plants and stuff like that.

Good luck with the new guppy. Hopefully he doesn't join his predecessors and if we can help him do that we'll all be happier and you'll have learned a lot by the time all is said and done (trust me. I have learned a TON since I came here).
 
First off, thank you all for your responses! :)

I do believe it is only a one gallon tank. I have been switching out about half the water every week. I have been using sodium free spring water (in the one gallon jugs, you can buy them at the grocery store), for the past 2 changes. Previously I was using city tap water that I treated with the new tap water treatments they have out there. I didn't like using that stuff though, because it seemed to make the water fizzy. It left this bubbly stuff on top of the water, like someone added soap or something. Obviously, I know better than to use soap on anything that comes in contact with the inside of that tank - so that wasn't an option as far as explanation. Although even with the spring water there is still just a little bit of this (after a full change).

I previously had only tried plain old goldfish, and I think we had one plecostomous (sp?). Which also promptly died. They usually lived about a week before meeting there demise.

We never have had the water tested, so unfortunatly I don't have any specs for you guys on that front. As far as temp, I just checked it and it is at 72. Is this okay for a guppy and a snail?


The treatment I used for the parasites was called "QuICK Cure", and says the active ingredients are Formalin and Malachite Green. I used this to completely treat the tank after the fish died, the snail was still in there. I didn't know if the snail could get it or not, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I waited then about a week, changed out about 2/3s of the water and then let it sit for a couple of days and added the new guppy and new snail (as the other snail died during the week before the water change).


I was wondering about feeding the snail. Because after the last goldfish got protoazoan parasites, he was alone in the tank for about a week (as refrenced above) and then appeared to have died. We gave him a few days, just to be sure. And he was definetely gone. I admit my own stupidity here, so please don't tear me apart, but I bought the snail not knowing a thing about them. I had no idea what they ate or anything, just that my daughter desperately wanted one. I have learned my lesson, and am learning all that I can about them now.

Both the guppy and the snail appear to be healthy right now. I just don't want to wait for them to get sick. So I will definetly check out all the recommended material, and take anybody's advice on how to keep these little buggers healthy. I do want to be a good fish and snail owner. I've just never maintained a tank this small before, so I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the problems and getting things going. Thanks for your patience and all of your advice!
 
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