My first OT thread: Tropical Aquarium Question

[MulLa]

Hi

Well maybe not the best place to ask such a question but worth a try I guess.

I recently, well only yesterday went out and bought myself a small tropical aquarium around 10 Litres.

Followed excatly how the sales dude told me to set it up. Filter (with good water flow for aeration), water conditioner (correct poportions), water heater (at 25C) plus 5 small fishes.

My problem is 3 of them just died the next day and 2 of them looks sick and they are just not eating anything. It was food that the sales guy recommended to me.

Are there anything that I might be missing? Should I go to another store and ask there for advice? The thing is I don't have any "ornaments" like "castles", "rocks", vegetations. Are they necessary for the fish to play and hide in? Is that why they decided to leave this world?

Any advice would be appreciated. Feeling very sad as I've spend quite a bit of effort putting everything.


Thanks in advance

 

[FrustratedUser]

Your first thread $ucks.



Just kiiding.
There are some aquarium fans here so I hope you get an answer.

 

[notfred]

10 liters (or about 2.5 gallons) is an EXTREMELY small tank. Too small for 5 fish unless maybe they were guppies. Ornaments are not neccesary. My guesses are (I haven't had an aquarium in several years, so I might be a bit rusty, but I was able to keep most of my fish alive) that 1) the water in your tank is not suitable for fish. or 2) You did not acclimate the fish to the new tank properly.

Just because you added "water conditioner" to the tank does not mean the water quality was correct. Did you test it for chlorine or anything else before putting fish in it? Generally, you will want to leave a tank set up for a week or two before adding fish. This gives the tank time to grow bacteria in it (fish in the wild do not live in a sterile environment. A certain amount of bacteria are neccesary to keep a tank running), it allows the water temperature to stabilize (if you put 10 degree water in the tank, turned on the heater, and threw in the fish, the fish would likely die of shock. The water should be at a stable 25 degrees BEFORE adding the fish), and it gives you ample time to check thecondition of the water.

Also, when adding fish, you should let the bag float in the new tank for half an hour in order for the temperatuires to equalize to avoid shocking the fish. after that, slowly add water from the tank to the bag, so that the fish has time to acclimate to the water conditions of his new environment. This should take another half an hour or so.

Also, 2.5 gallons is REALLY small. I had a 10 gallon with a single 6 inch fish in it, and the tank was too small for that fish. The general rule is 1 gallon of water per inch of fish. (a 5 gallon tank should be big enough for 5 1" fish, or 1 5" fish) but it varies dependant on temperature, filtration, species of fish, etc.

 

[littleprince]

AW SJDFLKSDJFLSJIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FRUFDSIOFJVL!!

Ok... Dont EVER Go back to that store you bought the stuff from...
Crooked no nothing store.

Your remaining fish will likely die within the next two weeks.

You MUST first go through a chemical cycle, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates etc...
What kinda fish did you get by the way?
IMO 10 liters is not a great starter site.

check out www.aquariacentral.com to learn more about fish in general.
I have a site with some pics of my tanks, never have time to update it though. www.myfishes.com

If your remaining fish die, I suggest you clean out your tank, because chances are the store you bought from was no gd, and theres probaly some diseases in your tank now.
Refill the tank, add the tap water conditioner back, turn on your heater and filters, put a piece of frozen shrimp in from the super market and let it rot in there for 2-4 weeks, while you read at aquariacentral.com
Make sure you read in the forums there. Theres a lot to learn, and you can be very rewarded.

 

[MulLa]

Hi all

Thanks for all the input / advice will check out some websites and see if I can get more info.

Well the fish that I got was "Harlequin Rasbora" similar size to the "guppies" I believe.

Guess I just didn't "acclimate" the fisk properly like Tyler had said. Letting the bag float in the water for half and hour? Would that be a bit too long? Won't the bag run out of Oxygen considering I take 15min just to drive home??

Thanks Littleprince for the links.

FrustratedUser: Hmm... what can I say :beer:

 

[IGBT]

...always wanted to do an aquarium with plastic fish..bubbles..colored rock..low maintance..looks good all the time..

 

[Jzero]

Guess I just didn't "acclimate" the fisk properly like Tyler had said. Letting the bag float in the water for half and hour? Would that be a bit too long? Won't the bag run out of Oxygen considering I take 15min just to drive home??

NO! Read the rest of their posts! You are doing this entirely 100% wrong - the tank is too small for 2 harlequins, let alone 5! The fish died b/c the bacteria cycle is not started in the tank. You CANNOT just dump water in a bucket and throw fish in and expect them to be able to survive. It does not work that way.

Yes, you should have acclimated them, and no, 45 minutes in the bag will be fine for them, but that is probably not the cause, especially with hardy fish like harlequins.

Put the aquarium away for a couple of weeks and do some reading as recommended by littleprince and once you've got a better feel for how this all works, start again.

 

[lsman]

I remember visit store selling very nice and beautiful, but high maintance and costly (special lighting and CO2) tanks of all water plant. They are more breath-taking than a tropical aquarium with fish i ever seem.

 

[dmcowen674]

Good advice here.

I've never added anything to the water such as "Conditioner" etc. The main thing is when setting up new tank let the water sit with the pump going for about a week before adding fish. And when you add the fish, have then float in the bag as mentioned to equalize the tempature.

I set up a tank in our house here in Georgia in 1996 for the first time since I lived in New York in the 80's and still have those fish now. Bought 15, 2 died when we moved in May 2000.

Edit: Yep, 2 weeks is probably about right for "Salt" water to set up and stabilize before habital for fish.

 

[amnesiac]

Wow, that aquarium store is really screwed up.

When I set up my saltwater tank my store insisted that I let the tank stabilize for two weeks before adding any fish.

 

[MulLa]

Thanks again all.

Well 2 of them are still alive although barely. Been reading up on cycling and all that so right now I'm just doing frequent but small water changes as suggested by many sites on fishy cycling and keep food to a minimal.

Jzero: Probably tank size is the main problem but in many fish store they're really packed so I just thought it would be alright. Maybe they just wanted to make business by overstocking their tanks. I'll probably only keep 3 of them once I finish my reading.

dmcowen674: Did you actually cycle the water or just let the pump run for 2 weeks?

Yes next time I think I should go and find a different store to get advice from. Or maybe just come here. Didn't really expect this much response from a computer forum :Q

 

[her209]

You are suffering from NTS (New Tank Syndrome)

Be patient