Casualty count: 2 and counting

[SilverPleco]

My Tank:

10 Gallon glass
Whisper 10 power filter
78 degrees

Alive:
1 blue electric cichlid
1 yellow electric chiclid
3 blood fin tetras
1 decorative male guppy
1 unknown barb (sick)

Casualties:
1 angel fish
1 pictus catfish

WHAT DO I DO!!! im gonna try too post a pic soon!

 

[MissMeow]

I am sure that others here will be able to give you a more detailed description, I will tell you the basics.
First off, I'd say you have way too many fish in that tank. More than likely, the water quality is poor because of a combination of overstocking and not understanding the cycling process. You should read the sticky on the top of this forum. Second, everyone will want to know what your water parameters are (ammonia, nitirite, and nitrate), so after you read the sticky you'll know what that means and you can find those out. They are the most likely culprit. To help your fish out right now, you should begin doing massive daily water changes, maybe 50-75%, which should be pretty easy in a tank that size. Also, I am pretty new to this hobby myself, but I am not sure about the mix of fish you have. Cichlids are pretty agressive I think and are usually kept in cichlid-only tanks, but I am not familiar with the blue and yellow ones you mentioned, so maybe I am wrong. Anyway, HTH.

 

[Richer]

How old is this tank? Did you cycle it before you put fish in it? If you don't know what a cycle is, then you most likely didn't cycle your tank.

First off, you have far too much fish in your tank. Of the fish you have in your list, only the following will work in your tank:

3 blood fin tetras
1 decorative male guppy
1 unknown barb

Blue/yellow electric cichlids will not do well in a 10 gallon tank, nor will angle fish, or pictus catfish. I would suggest at least a 55 gallon tank for all of those fish that you currently have or had.

If you just setup your tank recently, grab yourself a couple of test kits. The basic ones you'll need are ammonia and niTRITE, niTRATE is optional. Test your ammonia levels, and you will most likely see that they are completely off the scales. Your nitrite levels will probably be detectable as well... if they aren't already pretty high. This is not good. A healthy tank will have zero ammonia and zero nitrite, because it has established a good population of nitrifying bacteria which helps consume ammonia and nitrites in a tank, and creates nitrates as a by-product. Nitrates are taken care of by weekly 30-40% water changes.

If you do have detectable levels of ammonia and/or nitrite, your goal is to reduce these levels to as low as possible levels... at least under 0.5ppm. Do this through water changes.... I would suggest at least 50% everyday. As long as the water going into the tank is dechlorinated, and at the same approximate temperature as the tank itself, your fish will thank you for the new water. Keep these water changes up until you detect no more ammonia and nitrite in your tank. This can take up to a few weeks to accomplish. After ammonia and nitrite levels have been consistantly reading zero for a few days, you can stop those water changes, and start doing 30-40% water changes once a week. For a 10 gallon tank, daily 50% water changes shouldn't be too difficult.

Until you can tell us your ammonia and nitrite levels, its difficult to pin down exactly why your fish died. However, for now, the best thing you can do is do a 50% water change, and return those blue and yellow electric cichlids back to the petstore.

HTH
-Richer