New Tank - First blunder - any advice?

B

Bobdolemite

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Mar 30, 2005
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New Tank - First blunder -(Updated)

Just got water tested today and it was ready for firsh. So here goes what I put in:

4 - red swordtails (not sure of the name, but very bright red, eyes red too)

3 - head and tail light

4 - Stained glass tetras

4 - rosy tetras

and 1 very confused blue (crawfish, shrimp, lobster... who knows)

the 5 gal tank will soon be the exclusive domain of the blue guy as I fear he may be a crawfish...


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Hey there, recently got a 5.5 gal tank... found out that wasnt going to be enough so went out today and got a good deal on a 20 gal with everything included.

Well as stupidity would have it we washed the rocks and filled the tank, let it acclimate to an appropriate temp and threw in the first fish that needed a transfer, the pleco. Well it didnt go so well, as I should have known. Didnt treat the water it was str8 from the tap. The pleco died in a little bit less than three hours.

kind of sucks as I havent killed a fish in like twelve years, but its done and now I want to make sure that I dont kill my other fish/shrimp.

I treated the water with what came with the tank, first some water conditioner (two teasponn per 10 gal) and something thats supposed to help build up the tanks bio systems (same as previous) the tank has been sitting for about an hour now, nothing in it. Should I first plant the bottom of the tank and let the ecosystem settle?

The pleco wasnt all that important in the scheme of things as I have been told now that he needed a 50 gal tank in order to be happy, so hes gone to a better place it seems in the long run. But the shrimp especially are important, dont want to risk anything with them. Anything else I should do before introducing any other living thing to the tank?
 
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Ahh, where to start?

You may get bombarded with help and maybe some critisism, but don't take any of it personally. We're all just trying to help.

There is a permanent thread on the top of the Freshwater Newbie forum entitled "Cycle" It contains valuable info on how the waste your fish create is processed from toxic to benign.

After that, you'll want to read AMAP about how much fish you can stock, and what kinds of fish are compatible, and about water changes and other tank maintenance issues.

The shrimp should be Ok in the meanwhile.

But, we're glad you came here to get good info. Welcome aboard!
 
Thx for the non flame approach, thought that would be what I might get hehe. Neways, I read through the faq's and got allot of good info. Ill have to post pics when everything gets up and running
 
Thanks Emg :) BTW, I nominated your avatar as best on AC in the 'Favourite Avatar' thread in GCC.

Bob- good to hear. Look forward to seeing those pics. When they come, could you post them to this thread so that I might find them and relate them to you?
 
I remember doing that once. Forgot to treat the water in a water change, woke up the next moring to find a fishy graveyard.

You aren't alone in that "what was I thinking!?" mistake.
 
seems like an easy mistake to make during the excitement of setting up a new tank... sad anyway... but a pleco needs an established tank anyway, i guess clorine poisining is better than dieing of starvation, id move some of the rocks/ gunk to the new tank from the old one to speed up its establishment, you know about cycleing right? dont put favorite fish in an uncycled tank, put some feeder guppies or cheep tetras in to cycle first, and be patient
 
went to a few diff stores in long beach today, planted up the tank and bought some lamp eye tetras to speed along the process. Moved the rocks from the old tank into the new one, plus per advice from the guy at the store I put in the water that the fish came in, along with the plants.

I will let it cycle for a couple weeks now before we add ne thing else, now to host the pics hehe.

Oh and on a side not I think that the so called shrimp that I got from the petco werent shrimp at all (as some people on here speculated) saw a similar variety at the shop and was told they grow to 5"... and that they are a variety of crawfish =/ so I guess the five gal might remain their domain until I get some answers.
 
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