What are we doing wrong?

[ranicrab]

I was hoping that doing the fishless cycle would avoid fish dying (at least right away) -this is so sad. We had 6 White Cloud Mountain minnows and 1died yesterday, though it didn't look good in the bag. Now another is missing and had been looking fine - we checked under the rocks, in the filter, plants, etc but no sign. Here are the tank stats:

20 gal tall planted tank
12 pond snails
4 White Cloud Mountain minnows
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate was 5ppm yesterday but is now 10-20 so we can do a water change (we got bag water in the tank by mistake - could that cause a problem?) - seems like it went up really fast.

Should we get rid of the pond snails? Some came with the new fish and weren't supposed to end up in the tank..

Also, we haven't changed anything in our filter (aqua clear 20) since we were fishless until yesterday.

 

[MICEY]

everything sounds good , the water change would help
what is the temp and ph of the water
white clouds are not tropical and like cool water
It is not unusual to lose a few of these tiny fish in a new tank
how long where they in the bag and how warm was it on the trip home with them
I prefer zebra dinios for the first fish in a new tank , but I don't do fishless and rarely lose a fish in cycling the secrate is using the right fish and lots of water changes and adding a few fish a week
guppies are an other great fish for cycling there cheap and tough
most small fish live for only around 1 year if you what a fish that lives a long time you need a larger fish like a cichlid , but you would need a bigger tank except for some of the dwarf cichlids
cichlids can live 10 years or more and are tough after the fry stage

 

[MICEY]

the snails will qujicky eat any dead fish which is a good thing

 

[MICEY]

thje snails will quickly eat any dead fish which is a good thing

 

[Masha]

Adding new fish is always stressful for the fish. Especially if the tranfer from their old water in their bag, to the new tank water, is a little abrupt. It's possible that the stress from the transfer pushed one or two of them over the edge

But hopefully things will be fine from now on. Keep a close eye, don't feed them too much, and keep the lights off if you think they look stressed.

 

[ranicrab]

Thanks all. The temp is 72 F - should it be cooler? The 4 left look happy this morning - I am feeding once a day. Wish me luck!

 

[Masha]

I googled a bit, and there's all kinds of different advice about the best temperature for white cloud mountain minnows. But all of them are around 72 degrees, some a bit cooler. So it should be fine.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Do a 50% water change make sure the water is the same temp as the tank water. 72 F is fine for those fish, thats the max though. Never do a fish in cycle, its harmful to the fish, why hurt something if you dont have to. Did you know you were doing cold water, if so be sure to only get cold water fish. Goodluck!

 

[philipraposo198]

How did you acclimate them?

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[ranicrab]

I floated the bag unopened in the water for 15 min, then added 1/2 cup tank water every 4 min until full. Then removed 1/2 the water and did it again. The second time the rolled up part of the bag started unrolling and some of the bag water ended up in the tank with some of the fish - for the rest I used a net. Please tell me if I did anything wrong - I will feel bad, but want to make sure I do it the right way next time (after we wait a little we want to get a couple more minnows and some emerald eye rasboras).

 

[ranicrab]

Oh, and we did want cool water - it is just hot here and I think in the summer we can't go much lower. Are emerald eyes ok in cooler water? So many fish in the books have a range and actual experience would be good to know....