Learning About My New Tank/fish

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billyharless

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Be nice to me, I am aquarium/fish newbie and still learning.

I bought a 29 gal tank/stand at Petsmart last week. I set it up with only the advice taken from the teenagaer at Petsmart. I did not know anything about cycling the tank.

I put 6 neon blue tetrasm, 2 black skirt tetras, 2 black mollies, 2 red platties and 2 snails in the tank.

After a couple of days I lost 2 neons but all of the other fish are doing well.

Then yesterday I learned that I should cycle my tank. I was a little worried so I went to a LFS (<-- Im learning the lingo) and got a wealth of knowledge from a man who claims to have raised fish for the past 30 years. He gave me a ph test kit and a ammonia test kit.

My water showed a PH level of 7.0 and zero ammonio. I will keep checking it.

You would think I learned my lesson about Petsmart but I had to take my dead neons back last night (they have a 14 day guarantee). So I took the neons back to trade them in for 2 new neons and I picked up two more black skirt tetras as well.

Guess what? The 2 neons and 2 black skirt tetras did not even make it home (the drive was only about 8 minutes). By the time I got them to the tank they were barely swimming in the plastic bag and almost belly up (all 4 fish). I am taking them back today and asking for my money back.

Feel free to comment and add suggestions to this thread.
 
First of all, I feel for you. You have quite a bit of fish for a (still) cycling aquarium. Water changes are the key here... do them religiously.

Next, you should be seeing ammonia before anything else so I fear the test kits you have are bad, or maybe you just got confused and didn't do it right? I don’t know, but you definitely have ammonia in that aquarium. ;)
 
Originally posted by billyharless
Be nice to me, I am aquarium/fish newbie and still learning.

I bought a 29 gal tank/stand at Petsmart last week. I set it up with only the advice taken from the teenagaer at Petsmart. I did not know anything about cycling the tank.

I put 6 neon blue tetrasm, 2 black skirt tetras, 2 black mollies, 2 red platties and 2 snails in the tank.

After a couple of days I lost 2 neons but all of the other fish are doing well.

Then yesterday I learned that I should cycle my tank. I was a little worried so I went to a LFS (<-- Im learning the lingo) and got a wealth of knowledge from a man who claims to have raised fish for the past 30 years. He gave me a ph test kit and a ammonia test kit.

My water showed a PH level of 7.0 and zero ammonio. I will keep checking it.

You would think I learned my lesson about Petsmart but I had to take my dead neons back last night (they have a 14 day guarantee). So I took the neons back to trade them in for 2 new neons and I picked up two more black skirt tetras as well.

Guess what? The 2 neons and 2 black skirt tetras did not even make it home (the drive was only about 8 minutes). By the time I got them to the tank they were barely swimming in the plastic bag and almost belly up (all 4 fish). I am taking them back today and asking for my money back.

Feel free to comment and add suggestions to this thread.
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I did the test twice. (I used to own a pool) and it showed no ammonia. I am going to do the test daily for a while.
 
Ok, well if it still says no ammonia then you need a new test kit. I'm not familiar with pool kits, but the ones at most pet stores are fairly accurate for what you need. Regardless, I know for a fact you have ammonia because you can't have fish and NOT have ammonia... in a cycling tank, you should see ammonia in rather high amounts.
 
Re: Re: Learning About My New Tank/fish

Originally posted by billyharless


I did the test twice. (I used to own a pool) and it showed no ammonia. I am going to do the test daily for a while.
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I don't doubt you. I am sure you have more experience with this than I do. I find it hard to believe the kit is bad but to give me peace of mind I am going to take a water sample to the petstore this weekend.
 
Ok, but I want you to understand. Its not my opinion it is fact. It's like saying you are alive but have no pulse. Fish produce waste in the form of ammonia, and its is evident in a cycling tank. And I wouldn't bother with the pet store employees. You'd be suprised how many people come to us for help because pet stores give them some funky readings.

If you can, I would buy an ammonia test kit... you should have an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate testers for a cycling tank.
 
AFG is absolutely 100% correct. Your tank should definitely be showing ammonia because of the newness of it and because of the amount of fish.... and because the tank has not gone through the phases it needs to and will not do so in a week, fish or no fish. I'm not sure what's going on with the LFS tanks as to why your brand new fish couldn't last an 8 minute trip but I'm thinking you shouldn't be adding more fish to the tank until things are well on there way. Since you do have fish in there, this is still possible to do.... will you lose any more fish, maybe, but if you keep up with water changes and keep a close watch on those levels in the weeks to come, your losses could be minimal if existent. My suggestion is exactly as AFG says, you need a new test kit.... if you're not showing ammonia in the tank, chances are the kit is either bad or old...... either one is possible......
 
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Originally posted by Dangerdoll
AFG is absolutely 100% correct. Your tank should definitely be showing ammonia because of the newness of it and because of the amount of fish.... and because the tank has not gone through the phases it needs to and will not do so in a week, fish or no fish. I'm not sure what's going on with the LFS tanks as to why your brand new fish couldn't last an 8 minute trip but I'm thinking you shouldn't be adding more fish to the tank until things are well on there way. Since you do have fish in there, this is still possible to do.... will you lose any more fish, maybe, but if you keep up with water changes and keep a close watch on those levels in the weeks to come. My suggestion is exactly as AFG says, perhaps you need a new test kit.... if you're not showing ammonia in the tank, chances are the kit is either bad or old...... either one is possible......
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I agree with both of you. It only makes logical sense that some trace of ammonia should be showing up. It is possible that the test kit is bad. I know I used it correctly.

Adding the fish before cycling was simply a newbie mistake. I didn't even know what cycling was (well of course besides going out on my two wheeler).

I will keep my fingers crossed for the fish I currently have in the tank and will try to follow all the prescribed cycling tactics to keep them alive. This is actually already turning into a fun hobby.

I will keep you all posted as to how it is turning out. I guess my worst case scenerio is I lose about $50 worth of fish.
 
whoops, I edited my post slightly, just to reword things.... hope I didn't confuse anything ;)

anyways, that's great news billy, keep us posted as to how things are progressing. :)
 
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Guess what? The 2 neons and 2 black skirt tetras did not even make it home (the drive was only about 8 minutes). By the time I got them to the tank they were barely swimming in the plastic bag and almost belly up (all 4 fish). I am taking them back today and asking for my money back
Click to expand...

just a little sidenote:

when buying fish look at them really close to see if they are healthy BEFORE you let the LFS guy air it, bag it, and rubberband it.

That way if you see something like a sick fish or nipped fins you can tell him to put a certain one back and get a better one.

When I go look to buy fishes I:

1) notice how clean the tanks are in general and totally skip the ones that are overcrowded or have fishes that are constantly chasing each other/incompatible species.
2) look a bit closer and note all the tanks I'm interested in
3) do another walkabout and check to see and eliminate the tanks that I'm interested in that have a dead fish or obviously sick fish (not swimming correctly, floating, discoloration, deformed with bumps etc...)
4) now with the tanks that I like left over I begin to inspect them just by watching how the fishes react to each other. Note which ones are the brightest in color and "standard" markings. (I never buy dye-injected fish). Note which ones have strong full fins (no nippage or bite marks)
5)Then I wait for a fish that I want to buy to come a bit close to the front of the tank and see how if it reacts to a finger placed on the glass. To me if it fits all the above criteria above and sees my finger and doesnt become overly frightend then I know its alert and could assume that it knows finger means food; indicating its got an appetite. I know it sounds corny but it helps me even if a little bit.

after following these steps I can be confident that the fish I'm taking home should be healthy enough to acclimate and survive a cycled tank at home.

in short, know what you want before you go to the LFS and choose the best fish from the best tank.

example: you want a male swordtail? choose the healthiest one from cleanest tank. Its your right to be picky :) and will save you some headache
 
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