I take my family to the pet store to purchase some fish for our 130 gallon tank, i ask the manager questions, "hey, with these frogs, can i place them in my new tank?" or with these oscars, "can i place them in our tank when i get home", he says "yeah, why woudldnt you be able to." i tell him it's a hand me down tank and we just washed and cleaned it with vinegar and baking soda so it's been cyling with plants for about 2 days, we get home put the oscars in the tank and they die no later than 5 minutes...
So yesterday..*new btw* :)
- Thread starter melston87
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Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
While I can definitely understand your frustrations, I can see the shop keepers point as well (ignoring the rudeness)
If you had asked questions I would bet he would have been more than willing to explain those things to you. But going out of your way to explain the basics of fish keeping to everyone would be frustrating to the shop keeper and it would also irritate the hell out of people that are experienced aquarists.
Should he have asked about your experience level? Yes. Can I blame him for not asking? Not really.
Furthermore, theres a lot of stuff that's missing before your tank is ready for fish.
First: cycling - "cycling with plants" is not an effective method of cycling a tank unless it's done in a very specific manner. I would suggest that you take a look at fishless cycling. After that is done it will be a safe environment for fish.
Second : Testing - you really need a liquid test kit. The api master freshwater kit is great and affordable. You need to be able to test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Third: acclimating - the Oscars not being acclimated properly is the reason they died. First you float the bag in the water for about 15 minutes. After that you add around a cup of tank water to the bag. Do that every 5 to 10 minutes and empty some of the water out of the bag when it gets full. This will prevent ph shock to the things you are adding to the tank.
If you had asked questions I would bet he would have been more than willing to explain those things to you. But going out of your way to explain the basics of fish keeping to everyone would be frustrating to the shop keeper and it would also irritate the hell out of people that are experienced aquarists.
Should he have asked about your experience level? Yes. Can I blame him for not asking? Not really.
Furthermore, theres a lot of stuff that's missing before your tank is ready for fish.
First: cycling - "cycling with plants" is not an effective method of cycling a tank unless it's done in a very specific manner. I would suggest that you take a look at fishless cycling. After that is done it will be a safe environment for fish.
Second : Testing - you really need a liquid test kit. The api master freshwater kit is great and affordable. You need to be able to test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Third: acclimating - the Oscars not being acclimated properly is the reason they died. First you float the bag in the water for about 15 minutes. After that you add around a cup of tank water to the bag. Do that every 5 to 10 minutes and empty some of the water out of the bag when it gets full. This will prevent ph shock to the things you are adding to the tank.
TMRC Exotics
Aquarium Advice Addict
Research research then research some more. Generally pet stores should stand behind their products but there's some liability on your part too for not being informed. There is much to learn, my advice is to start with some reading on cycling and the processes of ammonia and nitrites/trates.
Also are you sure the vinegar was all out? Learn your pH and check that next.
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Also are you sure the vinegar was all out? Learn your pH and check that next.
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Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
You can upload the images right to this post if you're using the phone app. If you're on the website there is an album you can upload to in the user cp. Then you can link the images in chat.
attached is a picture of my tank, i added the drops and stress salt as added. i cant tell if its a 25 gallon or 30 gallon? i drained all the water last night because my african clawed frogs both died and got sucked up the filter tube. wow what an experience the last week. ,,, 3 weeks ago i became fascinated about fish....my mollies died to my inexperience of changing tanks
TMRC Exotics
Aquarium Advice Addict
Looks like a 20 high to me.
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serena00
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2015
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- 383
Another tip from me would be some hiding places. Shy stressed out fish with nowhere to hide will die quickly.
TMRC Exotics
Aquarium Advice Addict
Another point worth making is this tank is not suitable for Oscars. Its far to small. Definitely spend some time getting more educated on this hobby. This forum is a great resource.
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Mattyfelts
Aquarium Advice Addict
exactly what i was thinking... id say drain the tank and research for a month or so....
serena00
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2015
- Messages
- 383
In all honestly, not intending to be rude. I think you should start out with something easier than oscars to learn everything about tank keeping.
friscuba
Aquarium Advice Regular
For Oscars to die in 5 minutes there likely was something seriously wrong. I'm not sure we're hearing a coherent version of the whole story.
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
For any fish to die in 5 minutes after being added to a tank it's an obvious sign of shock from being added to new water.
That being said... Oscars notoriously play dead.... are you sure they were really dead?
Example: an oscar I used to have
![url]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F%5Burl%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7coYB0Sh.jpg%5B%2Furl%5D&hash=36e74facd9e1ad4b3ed970fcc6241ed1)
JAnders
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
For any fish to die in 5 minutes after being added to a tank it's an obvious sign of shock from being added to new water.
That being said... Oscars notoriously play dead.... are you sure they were really dead?
Example: an oscar I used to have
![URL]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F%5BURL%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7coYB0Sh.jpg%5B%2FURL%5D&hash=490ad2a9ed24318eaf85d8fa485b676f)
OK, now I want one!
stooker
Aquarium Advice Activist
Melston, welcome to AA, this is a great site with lot of good information and experienced keepers.
Like previous folks have said. Do a lot of research, because you've already made a lot of mistakes in the limited information you provided.
We're here to help, but you need to be willing to learn and accept (i.e. admit) that you went into the hobby blind. You won't be faulted for newbie mistakes, but now that you know you made mistakes, you need to do your part learning the ins and outs of basic fish keeping, to include the nitrogen cycle, cycling a tank, aquarium size requirements, proper water changes and fish compatibility at the very least.
Like previous folks have said. Do a lot of research, because you've already made a lot of mistakes in the limited information you provided.
We're here to help, but you need to be willing to learn and accept (i.e. admit) that you went into the hobby blind. You won't be faulted for newbie mistakes, but now that you know you made mistakes, you need to do your part learning the ins and outs of basic fish keeping, to include the nitrogen cycle, cycling a tank, aquarium size requirements, proper water changes and fish compatibility at the very least.
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