Death toll 2

[cain8885]

Ok so a few weeks ago i picked up a used 40 gallon tank. Got it all set up, new filter media, set the water in it, dechlored the water, and let it go for a day. As per advice here i went to the lfs to get some cycling fishies. They sold me a red sword, something else that was red, and two marble platties. The sword died early on after a few days. The others seemed to be doing well, the platties are gettin along fine. Yet today as i get back from school, i find mr orange dead on the bottom of the tank. He died almost two weeks since they were introduced into the tank, probably like a week and a half.

The platties are still swimmin about and seem to be doin fine.
I changed out some of the water today. I havent been doing many water changes. I was told somewhere that you shouldnt be messin with the water to omuch as you want it to start to cycle itself? Perhaps this was wrong.

Am i doing anything obviously wrong? I dont have a test kit, so im gonna head to the fish store manana to have the water checked.

any advice? or just ride it out.

brian

 

[viboy]

Your ammonia levels probably started getting too high and that is what killed your fish.

The water change is good but you should at least pick up an ammonia test kit. They are cheaper than replacing your fish. Just keep doing water changes to keep the ammonia in check and you should be fine.

 

[cain8885]

Oh

thanks for the response, but i just realized another question. Since my tank is setting itself up, and i lost two fish, should i replace these two fish? Or simply let the cycle continue withonly two.

thanks
brian

 

[RioXingu]

If possible, get some filter media from an established disease-free tank at the LFS.
This will jump-start the nitrogen cycle in your tank.
The water testing of your aquarium will probably indicate "cycling in progress".
In that case, continue water changes to keep the fish alive, and hope for the best.
It seems now you have only 2 fish in your aquarium? Even at the end of your cycling period, perhaps 5 weeks from adding the first fish, your tank really will only be able to support those 2 fish.
Only add a couple of fish at a time, once you know your tank has cycled.
How will you know your tank has cycled?
Water test will indicated zero levels of both ammonia and nitrite, and slowly increasing levels of nitrate.
I hope this helps--there are also stickied threads on the cycling process, I have just given the Reader's Digest version.

Bill in WI

 

[Neo Sithlord]

Water changes are definately needed to keep the fish alive. Remember in a fully cycled tank ammonia and Nitrite will read 0 all the time. Lowering the ammonts of both while cycling won't affect the cycle at all since while cycling the differnt bactiria colonies aren't large enough to support the fish you have. Hence you get an excess ammount of both and removing some of it won't hurt the bactiria any. The main thing you need to keep alive though is the fish. So keeping the water safe for them is what you need to watch. The bactiria will have more then enough to feed on so long as there are detectable levels of ammonia and nitrites but the higher those two get the worse it is for the fish.
-Neo Sithlord