Help with dying fish

[Emaan]

Hello, I have just set up 2 tanks in my home. One is a 10g and the other is a 2.5g. I am having fish die in both of my tanks. My 2.5 had 3 neons and 2 ghost shrimp. I set the tank up on Saturday and did not purchase the fish until Tuesday. Now I am down to 1 neon and 2 ghost shrimp. I can not tell why the 2 neons died. In my 10g I set it up the same night that I bought the fish, It was a spur of the moment purchase. I put in 3 platys, 2 mollies and 1 snail. 2 of my platy's have died and I have fry in the bottom of my tank. I don't know what to do. Can any one help me?

 

[Emaan]

I forgot to mention that I did put a conditioner in the water in both of my tanks to clean the water of any chemicals. I am just worried that I am going to lose all of my fish. I don't know which fish had the fry, because the one that I thought was pregnant died. I have had the tank set up before with goldfish and have not had any fish in it for almost 1 year. I do not have any plants in the tank and instead of gravel my husband and I put shells and colored glass rocks in the bottom. I have an undergravel filter (without the charcoal) and a whisper filter. I also have an air curtain across the back of the tank. All of this is in the 10g. I can not get the fry out of this tank because they are hiding at the very bottom under the undergravel filter and in the shells. I don't know how many there actually are, I have only been able to see 3 or 4 at a time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[johnnyxxl]

please don't take this wrong but your fish may have died due to either chems that were in the tanks if they were not washed. I would also suspect that the tanks being so new have none of the things aging the tank or what many call cycling where you get a good bacteria bed that eats the "wastes" from the fish. You may want to read on the first few posts that are stickies in this area the Newbie forum. Good luck.
john

 

[Richer]

Looks like your tank hasn't cycled yet. If you buy an ammonia tester, you will most likely find that those levels are probably nearly off the charts.

Conventional freshwater systems depend on the nitrogen cycle to keep ammonia and nitrite levels down to non-toxic levels (zero). Any detectable levels of ammonia and/or nitrite is bad for your fish... these can at the least, shortern the life span of your fish, or at the worst, outright kill your fish. Putting fish in an uncycled tank can also lead to disease outbreaks. It is not very fun.
This is basically how a cycle works:
1.) Fish and decaying food produce ammonia
2.) Certain nitrifying bacteria use ammonia as food and convert it to nitrite
3.) As a result nitrites start raising in concentration
4.) Certain nitrifying bacteria (different than the ammonia consuming ones) use the nitrite as food and convert it to nitrates.
5.) Nitrates start raising in concentration
Nitrates are not as toxic to fish as ammonia or nitrites in lower concentrations. Keeping nitrate levels under 40ppm is recommended. Nothing other than plants and algae consume nitrates, so a few people add plants to their tanks. This however, is not needed. A 30-40% water change weekly will take care of nitrates.

Since you already have fish in your tank, the goal here is to keep ammonia and nitrite levels as low as possible. Get yourself ammonia and nitrite testers. You want to keep your ammonia and nitrite levels as low as you can via water changes... try keeping both levels under 0.5, lower if you can. Daily 50% water changes should suffice, but do larger ones if you want to. Since your tanks are not very large, it shouldn't be too hard. Remember to use dechlorinated water, and make sure the water going into the tank is the same temperature as that of your tank water. As long as you keep that in mind, you can literally do nearly 100% water changes, and your fish will be fine. While you do the water change, vacuum the gravel well, and try to remove as much debri as possible. During your cycle, you will notice ammonia levels will be harder to keep under control... this will last for a couple of weeks. After that, ammonia levels will continuously get lower and lower... at this point, switch, and start measuring your nitrite levels. You'll find that, like ammonia before, these levels will be a bit harder to keep under control After a few more weeks, these levels will also begin to drop. As soon as both ammonia and nitrite levels reach zero consistantly over the course of a week or so, you know that your tank has cycled.... at this point, you can start doing 30-40% water changes once a week, rather than 50% water changes everyday.
Feeding lightly should also help you a bit, feed every other day, and just enough so that your fish can finish the food in about a minute.

Its not easy... and it will require some work, but if you keep at it the rewards of keeping healthy fish will be great.

HTH
-Richer

 

[Emaan]

Thanks

Thank you both for replying to my question. I will continue to work with my tanks, hoping to get them cycled so that my fish don't keep dying. So far I Have 2 mollies, 1 platy and the snail left in my 10g tank (along with the fry in the bottom) and I have 1 neon and 2 ghost shrimp in the 2.5g tank. I am hoping t keep them alive so that I can have prosperous and beautiful tanks.

Emaan

 

[Emaan]

Thank you--An Update

I want to thank you for your help. Here is an update on my tanks. I now have 1 molly , 1 platy, 1 snail and the fry in my 10g tank and 1 neon and 2 ghost shrimp in my 2 1/2g tank. I think i have this problem fixed now.

Emaan

 

[brookelyn]

I agree completely with what both johnnyxxl and Richer have said. The tanks need to cycle first. I'd not add anymore fish until this is done. Believe me, your fish will be much happier once the ammonia, and nitrite are down, and the environment is stable.

 

[tomm10]

Good points by all. I might also add that putting shells in the bottom of your tank could alter the water chemistry. It has the potential to raise the KH and pH of the water. It might not be a big deal but I would want to test the water for KH and pH.

Tom

 

[Emaan]

I think all is well in my tanks now, my snail has decided to have babies. I'm kind of worried about how many there actually are, I have only seen 2 but they are very little and I don't know how many more there might be. I moved one of them to my 2 1/2g tank. My neon died yesterday, but I have no idea why or where it went after it died, I have the clear squashed marbles in the bottom of that tank and there is no sign of the dead neon, I'm thinking that the ghost shrimp ate it. Other than that, everything is doing fine now. Thanks for the help.

Emaan