Bad new tank experience

[phreeky]

Seems I have had a whole lot of bad luck. Had only a small tank (~26L, 7gal) 2 weeks ago, went and got a bigger tank (~140L, 36gal) and started setting up.

Anyway used some stuff from the old tank (old tank still in use) to get the cycle going (filter material mostly). Left for a few days, thought it'd all be ok (I didn't have a test kit - bad I know), put 4 swords in.

2 days later two are dead, so I throw the other two in the small tank for a day and go get a test kit. Amonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, pH: 7.2. All looks ok to me, only thing I can think of is the tank is quite empty, maybe they're stressed from having nowhere to hide?

So I throw some stuff in (mostly drift wood), and put the other two back in. All going sweet for a week and a half, they look happy and stuff (before they would stick to the sides and swim back and forth real fast, but now were swimming all around and stuff, coming up for a food etc).

Then this morning and wake up, and one of the remaining swords is sitting next to the tank. He has managed to jump a couple of inches out of the tank!

Really disappointed, not to mention I didn't think she could/would jump that high! So I have a lonely male sword remaining.

I'm thinking of getting a few more swords, couple of small clown loaches and something else (not sure what yet). Thoughts? I have limited choice in this town (5 stores with fish, and 1500km to the next biggest city ), so maybe just some tetras.

 

[SlayerBarb]

I'm sorry, I had a Chinese Algae Eater jump out of my 10gal and a friend had a sword and an eel jump out of his 60gal a couple weeks ago. It's an epidemic, i swear. I would recommend a hood for sure. Other than that, no idea why the others would die...

 

[tropicalfish]

mmm that sucks...
While my dad was getting the pond set up, our fish was stored in a fish tank.. my dad accidentally used tap water.. that 10 inch koi jumped out.. and died

 

[supermazz9]

jeez, that's too bad...hope you have better luck re-establishing this tank

what's going on in there? With such a small load, you'd think you were carrying enough bateria to handle it, with your seed stuff alone.

btw, I might rething the clown loach if I were you...I've seen some of them get really big. I don't think a 36 would quite handle one. there's other loaches that I'm sure would be ok...like yo yo's.

 

[Stephen]

If you want to add loaches, I'd suggest going with supermazz9's suggestion. Go for the other smaller loaches. A clown loach will grow way too big for a 36 gallon tank.

 

[neilanh]

The "Left for a few days" comment about the seeded filter from the first tank is worrying me. If that literally means you left it in for a few days, then replaced it, your tank isn't cycled, and you need to be concerned about your water quality. You tested ammonia and nitrite, and got 0s for both? what test kit? Did you test the nitrAtes too?