Newbie need help with our 5 gallon tank

[charmingmrsm]

I have a 5 gallon new tank and have had the water checked at petsmart... everything seems to be fine but Tuesday night I bought 3 guppies and each died about 12 hours apart... we have a filter system in the 5 gallon tank...

Could the water filter system be "sucking" the water to hard and making it hard for the fish to swim and they died of exhaustion?

any suggestion on fish?

 

[lilme]

a betta or shrimp only choises for a 5 gall

 

[bettaowner]

What sort of filter do you have?


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[charmingmrsm]

What sort of filter do you have?


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it is what came in the starter kit...

Top Fin 5.5 Gal Aquarium Starter Kit | Aquariums | PetSmart

 

[emerald76]

Did you cycle it?


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[charmingmrsm]

We let it run for over 24 hours before we got the water tasted and put any fish in it....

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[treemanone2003]

We let it run for over 24 hours before we got the water tasted and put any fish in it....

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What happened was the tank didn't cycle. You're not the first one this has happened to so here's a link with some helpful advice to get you going.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ou-get-started-with-your-aquarium-154837.html


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[jim532]

There's a lot of posts on here that will get into the details, but your aquarium needs to be a fully functioning biological environment before you put the fish in.
The test they did at Petsmart probably didn't check for chlorine or chloramine. They probably tested PH, amonia, nitrite and nitrate. When the amonia, nitrite and nitrate all showed within the normal acceptable limits it's because the water was new and had not completed the biological cycle.

I'd say you probably didn't do anything wrong. You probably followed directions from somebody at a pet store that fed you some misinformation.

There are plenty of people here that will get you going in the right direction, don't be afraid to ask questions here.

 

[ppo8820]

You will want to test the water yourself. Sadly, the staff at petsmart and petco are not usually very knowledgable when it comes to properly keeping a tank. Also, when you buy fish from them, you risk disease and buying already sick fish.

In a good fish store, the tanks are all kept on individual filters. The fish are all energetic, healthy appearing, and move to top of tank if you pretend to feed them. Its a very real possibility you bought sick guppies who were dying before you brought them home.

Is your tank cycled? If you dont know what that means, you will want to look up cycling a fish tank on here or google. I see you said 24 hours. That is traditional pet store advice and its not at all correct. You have good water because it was right out of the sink. Its not ready for fish though and anything you add will die unless you learn to cycle your tank.

With a 5 gallon, I suggest getting a betta and maybe some shrimp or snails. Thats what I have in my 5 and thats about all you can have in those small tanks.