New tank - my fish all died :(

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Mercedes3681

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
13
Location
Wisconsin
I have a 10g tank that I spent 6 wks going through a fishless cycle. Last Sunday everything was perfect: ammo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5.

I bought 6 neon tetras from Walmart on Monday. Tuesday morning 2 were dead but I kind of expected that considering they were Walmart fish (the next nearest fish store is 35 miles away and I can't swing the shipping fees ordering online right now).

Last night (Tuesday) another one died, then this morning I woke up to the last three dead!! I retested the water and the values were exactly the same, ammo 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 5. What could have happened?

Temp is at 78, pH is at 8.3. The pH has always bugged me but I've been told that it's fine as long as it doesn't fluctuate and it doesn't. From the tap pH is 7.4 and 24 hrs later it's 8.3 and steady.

I have a 5-15 Aqua tech filter and I use the liquid API test kit.

I'm wondering if maybe the pH change from the store water to my water is what did it? I spent 3 hrs adjusting them to the tank water before actually adding them to my tank.

Any thoughts? I'm scared to get more fish, I seem to have the worst luck with all of this :(
 
Hi firstly do not give up! Neons are not the hardiest of fishes,so another type maybe a better choice - I believe Danios,WCMM, and platies are good first fish? Now back to your lose - how did the fish die? Was it sudden? Gasping at the surface? Did they lose colour or go off there food? Also I noted you haven't done an ammonia test?
 
Hi firstly do not give up! Neons are not the hardiest of fishes,so another type maybe a better choice - I believe Danios,WCMM, and platies are good first fish? Now back to your lose - how did the fish die? Was it sudden? Gasping at the surface? Did they lose colour or go off there food? Also I noted you haven't done an ammonia test?

What are WCMM?

The ones I saw just before they died were sort of staying still down at the bottom, one sort of seemed to be gasping a bit. A couple were still swimming around a bit before they died but they looked drunk, getting thrown around by the filter and getting stuck in the plants. They definitely lost their color, I don't know about food. I feed them a bit on Monday night and they ate fine, then on Tuesday night the two healthy ones that were left ate fine as the third was already looking a bit sick and didn't eat much.

NO ammonia, not since I cycled the tank and not now. I've been testing it.
 
What are WCMM?

The ones I saw just before they died were sort of staying still down at the bottom, one sort of seemed to be gasping a bit. A couple were still swimming around a bit before they died but they looked drunk, getting thrown around by the filter and getting stuck in the plants. They definitely lost their color, I don't know about food. I feed them a bit on Monday night and they ate fine, then on Tuesday night the two healthy ones that were left ate fine as the third was already looking a bit sick and didn't eat much.

NO ammonia, not since I cycled the tank and not now. I've been testing it.

Wcmm are White cloud mountain minnows.
 
If I were you I would get a better filter and definitely add an airstone.
 
I would chalk it up to poor quality fish. If your water tests are correct I would say try a different species of fish and give it another shot. I used that same filter for years on a tank overstocked with platies with no troubles and I still use that filter on my 10 gallon betta tank. Don't get discouraged, sometimes it just happens.
 
So you cycled with ammonia, right? Your values are ok so it wasn't toxins. How did you acclimate them? Had you done any recent water changes to the tank prior to adding the fish? Did you add dechlorinator?

I'd do a full water change with dechlorinator before adding more fish. Also neons, although small, are active and should be in a 20 gal minimum. Here are some options for a 10 gal:

--a betta (lots of personality and easy to care for) OR
--a shoal of NANO fish, like ember tetra, chili rasbora or celestial pearl danio. These aren't often easily found though OR
--2-3 platy OR
--3-4 guppies OR
--two dwarf puffers OR
--3 african dwarf frogs
 
ITemp is at 78, pH is at 8.3. The pH has always bugged me but I've been told that it's fine as long as it doesn't fluctuate and it doesn't. From the tap pH is 7.4 and 24 hrs later it's 8.3 and steady.

I'm wondering if maybe the pH change from the store water to my water is what did it? I spent 3 hrs adjusting them to the tank water before actually adding them to my tank.

Any thoughts? I'm scared to get more fish, I seem to have the worst luck with all of this :(

That is rather odd that your tap ph is 7.4 and the tank is 8.3. Did you test the tap water after letting it sit with an aerator in it and let the water gass off for 24 hours then retest it? That will give you the correct ph reading for your tap water.

Also what type of substrate do you have? Do you have an sea shells or rocks in the tank? Reason I'm asking is often times if rocks/substrate has calcium in them they can raise the tanks Ph/Gh/Kh.
 
So you cycled with ammonia, right? Your values are ok so it wasn't toxins. How did you acclimate them? Had you done any recent water changes to the tank prior to adding the fish? Did you add dechlorinator?

I'd do a full water change with dechlorinator before adding more fish. Also neons, although small, are active and should be in a 20 gal minimum. Here are some options for a 10 gal:

--a betta (lots of personality and easy to care for) OR
--a shoal of NANO fish, like ember tetra, chili rasbora or celestial pearl danio. These aren't often easily found though OR
--2-3 platy OR
--3-4 guppies OR
--two dwarf puffers OR
--3 african dwarf frogs

Yes I cycled with pure ammonia.

I acclimated the fish by letting them float in the bag from the store in my tank and I added a 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of my tank water to their bag every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours.

The day before I got the fish I did a few 75% water changes to get the nitrates down. I got them down to 5-10 ppm before I added the fish.

I always use Prime with any new water.

I've always loved bettas but are there any other fish one can be with? Maybe a few bottom-dwellers?
 
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That is rather odd that your tap ph is 7.4 and the tank is 8.3. Did you test the tap water after letting it sit with an aerator in it and let the water gass off for 24 hours then retest it? That will give you the correct ph reading for your tap water.

Also what type of substrate do you have? Do you have an sea shells or rocks in the tank? Reason I'm asking is often times if rocks/substrate has calcium in them they can raise the tanks Ph/Gh/Kh.

I don't have an aerator, 7.4 is straight from the tap and 8.3 is after a day in the tank.

The substrate I have is just the regular pea gravel fish tank substrate from Walmart.

Right now I'm just adding 1 ppm of ammonia a day to keep the bacteria alive until I can get this figured out! :ermm:
 
PH sometimes changes from what it is out of the tap once it degasses. YOu can leave a glass of water out for 24 hours (stir it occasionally) and then test PH again; this is your true PH and what your tank's PH should be. That being said, a PH of 8.4 is fine, most fish will adapt to it as long as it's stable.

Your acclimation process is good and everything else checks out. I'm guessing it was bad stock. Do you have any other options for buying fish aside from that store?

Bettas are hit and miss when it comes to tank mates. Some tolerate them, others won't. In a 10 gal space is pretty limited though. You might try some dwarf or pygmy corys which are the only corys that (debatably) could go in a 10 gal but they aren't easy to find. Bettas are very fun though and easy to care for. I have one in a 10 gal with a snail (I had to sneak the snail in lol) and he loves his home. Bettas interact with you more than most tropical fish do too and they have great personalities. Mine allows me to pet him and he takes pellets out of my finger. :)
 
I too feel like you got some poor stock. The thing with many fish is consider how many times they have been shipped and held in different places with different water even before the get shipped to the retail store. Then held again, sold, and they have to go through the acclimation process once again in the home aquarium. By the time they get into people's tanks either the very strong stock makes it or the weaker ones just holding on finally succumb to the stress of it all. Unfortunely this happens.
 
I really don't have any other options around here besides Walmart. The next closest pet store is 40 minutes away and I don't think their stock would be any better. I wanted to get fish from live aquaria or some other online place but the shipping is astronomical! Seems like that will be my best bet though. Thanks so much for all of your help!
 
You could try ordering online. Walmart is definitely not a place to buy fish from. You could try Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums . I order fish and plants from there all the time and they haven't failed me yet. Shipping is expensive but it's worth it. They have a great selection and the fish are good quality. And it'd probably end up cheaper long-term because of the amount of bad quality fish Walmart will sell you that you'll have to keep replacing.

I think the tetras were just a bad lot.
 
I have noticed that if the fish are not used to a higher ph even the hardy ones don't do so well, so if they are in a ph of 6. When you pick them up they are going to a huge jump even with 7. Since you can't buy online I'd test the lps water and try to get as close to that ph as you can. When I had molly and platy they were very hardy to the ph change but it is still a shocker for them so I would typically put some of my water a little at a time in their bag and let them sit. And if it helps the fish can stay in the bag way longer than some would think but if you get concerned about it just slip in an air stone. My tap is a very high ph 8. So I always have some buckets of water setting and fish ready to lower the ph. It lowers a little each day.
 
My lfs warned me that neons are problematic and that I would need to special order and they would hold the neons for ten days to be sure they didn't crash

I still opted for AZ Aquatics and got 15 neons on their way right now!
 
My lfs warned me that neons are problematic and that I would need to special order and they would hold the neons for ten days to be sure they didn't crash

I still opted for AZ Aquatics and got 15 neons on their way right now!

I hope all works out for you.
 
Look on Aqua Bid, and Gunpowder Aquatics, they have nice fish, and shipping is reasonable. Hope you have good luck with your next batch of fish! What do you think you'll get?
 
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