1st fish death, 1st water change, please help!

Yes, they will go to 0 automatically - eventually. In the meantime, you need to keep them as close to 0 yourself by doing water changes.

To help them get to the automatic part quicker, if you can find somebody who already has an established tank (that you trust, i.e. no diseases in their tank), they could give you a bit of their filter media to put in your filter.
 
ok. i did a water change today about 20%. when should i do the next one? are all my fish probably goona die? 1 gourami left, 2 red rainbows and 2 barbs. results after water change: ph-6.8,7 amonia 0-0.1 and nitrites about 0.5. if i understand correctly, fish normally die in the beginning but u need them in there to create the cycle and once the cycle is done fish should be ok in the tank, right?
 
Holly9937 said:
ph is fine, but ammonia and nitrites are toxic to fish and most likely the cause of the deaths.
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Yeah, ammonia and nitrites are toxic. But, if you take a look at his levels, he's only at 0-.1ppm ammonia and .3-.5ppm nitrites after only doing a 25% water change . Even before the water change that's not enough to kill a fish. Most kits warn that levels of .25 ppm ammonia and 1.6ppm nitrites can be toxic over extended periods of time. I doubt that his levels were lethal enough to kill his fish.

I'd be more concerned about the choice of fish species. What kind of barbs do you have? Tiger barbs? Those guys are not so hot when mixed in with timid species. What kind of gouramis did you get and how big were they? Were they both males? Some gouramis will fight with each other. Combine that with some stress from the barbs and you could easily lose one or both. Some more details about what fish you have would be great. Like I've said, your levels don't really seem to indicate a lethal problem, at least to me. I'm no expert but, from what I've read, you seem ok. Not ideal but ok. Also, how are you conditioning your fish to the new tank? Are you just dumping them in or are you allowing them to sit in the bag, in the tank for at least 30 min? Are you adding small amounts of tank water to the bag water during this time? Do you run the lights at a standard interval of time or do you just turn them on and off throughout the day?

Stress is a complicated thing and has many causes. Your tank levels could be perfect and you could still lose a new fish due to stress. That's another reason to add plants. Fish like to hide in them. A stressed fish can take refuge in the plants and chill out for a little bit while it adjusts to the new surroundings.

Anyway, keep watching your levels and don't add anymore fish until ammonia is at 0, nitrites are at 0 and nitrates are low (some people differ on what "low" means for nitrates. Look at what your test kit says. Mine says 110ppm is lethal and you should keep them below 40ppm).
 
thanks, my fish are 2 yellow gouramis maybe 2 inch not sure about sexe. the smallest one died. my barbs are dennisoni barbs. so when do you think i should do next water change?
 
That depends on what your levels are. I usually do a 25-30% water change when the levels initially reach .25ppm ammonia. After that, I check the levels daily for a few days and see what happens. As your beneficial bacteria colony grows, it will consume the ammonia quicker until, eventually, it constantly eats it. You should also check your nitrites and nitrates. As you progress through the cycle, you'll see nitrites go up and then nitrates. Don't let your nitrites get above 1.6 ppm. Keep you nitrates below 40ppm. That's it. Just check your levels and change when your numbers tell you that you need a change.

Also, denisoni barbs.......Puntius denisoni.......I coudn't find any solid info on these guys. From what I've been able to find, they are either aggressive or peaceful and get relatively large or stay a reasonable size.........yeah. Apparently there are 2 varieties and the smaller one is the one that is available for sale? Anybody know anything about this fish? Sbundy, how do they interact with the other fish? Do they chase them? Do they nip fins? Is your remaining Gourami always hiding or acting like he's staying out of their way? If so, those guys could be majorly stressing them.
 
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Are you using tap water for the aquarium, and if so, are you treating it for chlorine and chloramines (using something like Amquel, Aqua-Safe or Prime)?

Like Ghostshrimp says, I think you're problem might be with something else. I'm trying to remember what my test kit says is a "safe" level of nitrites, but I'm not totally convinced that yours are too bad at this point. Do your test kits have instructions?

You might have a species compatibility problem or an acclimation problem that's stressing out the fish. How did you add the fish to the tank? If you're not treating the tap water, chloramines may be causing trouble for the fish.
 
i use tap water but i add aqua plus. i left the fish sit in bag for about 20 minutes before having them enter tank. the fish that died was perfectly fine for a full week before he died.
 
the other possiblitly is that you just got a sick fish. it happens. or, it could have not been getting enough food. maybe it was getting out-competed? you would know better since you can actually observe what goes on the tank.
 
The best way to acclimate a fish to a new tank is drip acclimation. Get some airline tubing and an airline valve, place the fish bag in a container below your aquarium and use the airline to set up a siphon, and adjust the valve to just get a drip. When the bag is full, net the fish and add to the aquarium. Never pour the store water into your aquarium. If you don't have an airline valve (I find the good ones are hard to find locally - I had to mail order some), you can just scoop out some aquarium water and add it to the bag a little at a time.

But like Ghostshrimp said, it may just have been a sick fish.
 
i smoke cigarettes, can that affect my water?
 
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