Has anyone else ever felt like just giving up?

[sarah5775]

I have only had my fish tank for four months, but I am losing heart. My newest pregnant female molly just died. I've already lost two previous pregnant ones.
I think the culprit for this fish death was a rise in temperature. I went over my Grandma's yesterday with my parents. I didn't want to leave, with my beautiful dalmation molly so close to giving birth. I decided to leave just for the day. Naturally, I turned off the air conditioner.
When I got home, my place was an oven- there was a heat wave, and the temperature in the tank was almost 86 degrees. My molly was dead, and my other fish didn't look so good. I usually keep the tank around 81. I quickly turned down the heater and turned on the air conditioner.
Does this mean I can never leave my house again? I was gone only about 24 hours. I am so upset by this fish loss, I just want to return all of my fish and take up gardening. Maybe its my fault because the tank is overcrowded. The guy at the fish store says its fine, but people here have told me I need another tank. I suppose I should count myself lucky that I've only lost four fish since I started (the three mollies and a gourami) but I just dont' like all this heartache. I still have:

One male and two female mollies
four lemon tetras
three red tetras
three black tetras
three neon tetras
Two platys
One opaline gourami
A pleco
and a chinese algae eater

in a 29 gallon tank. I was going to get another tank to move some of the fish to.
To top it off, my betta, in his new 5 gallon tank, isnt' eating. I think he hates the moving water - he can't seem to 'catch' the flakes whizzing by his head.

This is just too depressing.....

 

[Lonewolfblue]

As for leaving the house, you can leave the house. You will just need to leave your air conditioner on if the temps are warm outside. The death was probably due to the heat rising too fast and too quickly. And it may have only read 86 when you got home, but could have very well been hotter earlier. Sorry to hear about the losses. Just don't give up too easily, we all go through losses.

 

[DepotFish]

I wouldn't even use a heater. Even my goldfish tanks stays in the 70's right now and I really wish it would go down. Why is there a filter in the betta tank, why not take the filter out? Is he alone? You could do a box filter in by him to keep the tank cycled and also to reduce water agitation.

 

[maxwell1295]

I went away a few weeks ago (3 days) and lost 2 Kuhlis to hight heat. My tanks were all pegged at 90F when I walked in the door and those were the only 2 fish I lost.

For the Betta, you can always shut the filter off at feeding time, so he has a chance to eat, until he gets used to it. By Betta actually loved swimming in the current, although I have my Cascade 80 turned down pretty low for him.

As far as giving up is concerned, the only fish I've given up on are German Blue Rams.....that is until I move and get my hands on some homebreds. Those imported, mass-bred, hormone-injected fish don't seem to last very long...

 

[JeffreyL]

Don't give up, Sarah. Sometimes it seems like a tank, especially a newish one is just cursed. I have a 30 gal that I was begining to think I was going to have to strip down and start over. I too lost mollies, and if it weren't for my little 'ironmen', the cories, I would have. Now there are neon tetras and black neons doing wonderfully there. And otos. The successes (usually) far outweigh the disapointments!!

 

[no_fin_nipping]

As someone who raised mollies, I can tell you they like 80-82°. 86° probably does no harm. My first guess is poor water quality. Do you do weekly or bi-weekly changes? Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate kill fish, especially in warmer weather.
You've got a lot of fish in a 29 gallon tank. With more information, I can probably help you. Presently I have eight neon tetra and six red eye tetras in a 20 gallon tank. They are all over 2 years old. They have a lifespan of 5-6 years (livebearers like mollies more like 2-3 years). The last fatality I had was over a year ago. I attribute that to 10% weekly water changes June-September and 20% water changes bi-weekly the rest of the year, with a gravel vaccum. It is rare for a well taken care of fish to not live their average lifespan, generally it is poor water quality, which is very easy to fix.
My guess is after 10 weeks of having so many fish in an uncycled tank, that while it may be cycled now, (it wasn't then) and the stress was very hard on the fish.

 

[SkullJug]

As someone who raised mollies, I can tell you they like 80-82°. 86° probably does no harm. My first guess is poor water quality. Do you do weekly or bi-weekly changes? Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate kill fish, especially in warmer weather.

While the might be able to put up with constant 86(I'm not sure if they can or not), a rapid rise in temperature would certainly hurt them. Going from an airconditioned room temperature to 86 is a very fast change in temperature.

However I do agree that there could also be water quality issues though.

 

[sarah5775]

Alright. Here's the history of the tank, and thanks a lot for your answers and encouragement. It means a lot to me.

When I got the 29 gallon tank, I let the filter run for a few days without putting anything in. Then I added bio-spira and got two black tetras. They were relatively small in a big tank, and I thought that would be ok to cycle it. I never bought a water tester kit. I didn't have an extra 30 dollars to spend after buying the tank/stand/gravel etc. For the first two weeks I changed the water (about 30% change) twice a week. Then I added the four lemon tetras and two platys. A few weeks later, I added two opaline gouramis and two mollies, one male, one pregnant female. Shortly afterwards, the pregant molly died. The rest of the fish were doing well (I was doing a pwc a week removing about 20%) I added a molly. She was pregnant when I got her. Then the week after that I added the neons, the pleco, and three guppies. The guppies lasted a day. The neons and pleco did fine. I lost another molly. Then, last week, I lost one of the gouramis. I added the other two mollies, the chinese algae eater, and three red tetras last week. Today, the temperature rose dramatically and the pregnant molly died, leaving two female and one male molly. Plus the other fish. Yesterday, I got another black tetra. The guy at the fish store said that my tank was not overstocked and I had room to put in 'quite a few' more fish since 'they're all real small.'

BTW, I just looked at thermometer on the bettas tank and its off the scale- the thermometer goes up to 86 degrees. The heater is off. What shall I do? I have the air on and I don't know what the temperature will be overnight, but it could get quite cool. My poor betta has been subject to wide temperature drops- 90 during the day to 60 at night. That's why I moved him and got him a heater anyway. To prevent the wide swings- but a heater might do more harm than good at this point......help.


I forgot, I change about four gallons of the water every week. Not sure what % that is.

 

[An t-iasg]

Don't give up, Sarah. We have all had to deal with unexpected fish deaths and it's very sad, but like JeffreyL said, the successes usually outweigh the disappointments. So hang in there!

As for the betta, don't worry too much that he's not eating. When you get a new betta, they usually don't eat for a few days either. I know your betta isn't new, but with the tank change, he is in a new home, and he needs to get used to it before he feels comfortable. He will eat soon. Just give him whatever he ate before, and maybe throw some more of a favorite treat in, like bloodworms, to get him to eat.

If you think the filter is too strong in the betta tank, you can adjust it. Do you have a sponge filter, run by an airpump? I think that's what you said you got in your other thread. Go back to the lfs and ask for a gang valve. This little piece of equipment attaches to the airline between the airpump and the sponge filter. You can adjust the gang valve to slow down the bubble rate, and current, from the sponge filter. Ask them to show you how - basically you allow the unused ports to "bleed off" the excess air. I have a picture of my airpump and gang valve in my gallery.

 

[plecoperson]

You can get a test kit for $12.99 at Big Al's online if on sale, and $2 more if not. PetsMart's is much cheaper online too. Many PetsMarts will match their online prices if you take a printout to the store. It's amazing how much cheaper their online prices are. Meanwhile, you can take a water sample to the LFS to have tested to get an idea.

I think you should change more like 10 gallons at a water change. I do 40% weekly water changes on mine and the fish seem to love it.

Don't quit! Maybe bring back some of the fish to the store to lighten the load; the Chinese algae eater, the gourami and possibly the pleco, depending on what kind you have, will probably get to big for your tank and it would be better to have 6 of one kind of tetra. Increase the amount of water you change, be sure to start testing the water, and keep the room temperature comfortable. And that LFS did you wrong with their advice. Great that you've come here for help.

 

[hc8719]

sarah i wouldnt even reccomend having the water heater on 81 degrees, its to hot, and most fish are suppose to have water temps at 78 degrees, besides keeping the water hot like that will accelerate fish ageing, (so they have much shorter lives)

 

[Tostada]

PetSmart will match their online prices if you just print out the page and take it in. They have a good test kit for $13.49.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...1153120861086&itemNo=5&In=Fish&N=2030068&Ne=2


Looks like pleco already mentioned this.

You've spent so much already on equipment and fish... It's just not reasonable to keep on not having any idea what your water parameters are. Besides, any help people can give you is just a guess if you haven't tested your water.

 

[Creamhorses]

You have not mentioned salt.........did you [do you] add salt with water changes? Mollys like salt. I found Mollys seem to come alive with health and vitality when put in brackish water. You don't need to go that far, but FW is not ideal for Mollies....especially for breeding stock. This may have contributed to her problem along with the heat.

HTH

CH

 

[sarah5775]

Will get that test kit. As for the mollies, I did add aquarium salt- a little less than it said to add on the package- out of worry for my other fish.

Current temperature- 84. Way too high. I have the heater off and the air conditioner on. I will leave it on all day. The fish seem listless, and several are skimming the top of the tank like they do when I feed them. I don't know what that's about, but I don't think its an encouraging sign. I thought of putting some cooler water in, but that might lower the temperature too quickly. Last night it was 86 degrees in the bettas tank. He seems to be doing fine though. Now its a little lower. I wish I didn't have to go to work today and could just sit at home and moniter my temperatures. N.J. is in the grip of a terrible heat wave.

Again, thanks for all the advice.

 

[joannde]

Sarah, higher temperature water holds less oxygen, so you might want to put in an airstone if you don't have one, that could be why they're at the top.
Don't worry too much - many people (including myself) have had the temp up to 88 degrees for weeks to treat ick. You certainly can't control the weather You also did the right thing by leaving the AC on.

 

[sarah5775]

Forgive me, but....what is an airstone?

 

[joannde]

its a bubbler device - it attaches via a length of tube to an air pump. If you don't have one just lower the water (or raise the internal filter) to get more agitation at the top of the tank. The water moving on the top adds oxygen to the water

 

[imrandome1]

I have often felt like giving up, really at least 5 times BUT when you do set it up and its going your way, your fish are healthy and you sit and look at your tank/fish you get a great feeling, think about what you have done and achieved and how happy your fish are and its all down to you, thats why i have not given up, its worth it in the long run, the 5 or so days when nothing is going wrong, no illness etc are sooooooo nice its worth it lol, Keep in it, dont give up take care!!!!!!!!

 

[JustOneMore20]

You can do water changes with cooler water. That's what I did when my room was on our main floor. My tank got really hot in the summer. All you need is one of those thermometers with a suction cup. They are like $2 at the LFS or Walmart. I would just try to get the water around 3 degrees cooler. You can do that every day, changing a few gallons (when its not time for a big water change and cleaning). I think changing a few gallons and replacing with slightly cooler water every day could help.

Or if you can't do that, I'd definitely get an airpump and airstone for more aeration. That way the fish will be able to tolerate the high temps better.

Don't give up! I've been through some bad times with my tanks as well and thought about giving up, but I have always been rewarded.

I too think you are overstocked. I'd see about returning the pleco, chinese algae eater, and the opaline. The pleco will probably outgrow the tank. I'm guessing its just a common plec. The CAE will also outgrow the tank and will get aggressive with age, so I wouldn't keep it with your community fish. The opaline may get aggressive. Mine is. It will also get around 4-5 inches, which isn't too large for the tank size, but would give the other fish some room.

 

[bosk1]

Sarah, I'll give some quick input. It looks like you may have had two separate problems, best I can guess: (1) a tank that may not have cycled properly; (2) your temperature problems.

Regarding the cycle, if this was an issue, you are most likely past this now given the amount of time your tank has been running, but I'll mention it for future reference. First of all, Biospira is a wonderful product, but it will not work if it is not stored properly or if the user does not follow the instructions. I don't know if there was a problem with the Biospira or not, but without a test kit, there is no way of knowing whether it worked. But even if it did, your tank may not have been able to develop an adequate biological filter for your fish because of how they were stocked. You stocked very lightly in the beginning. The beneficial bacteria in your tank that process those harmful nitrogen-based compounds need food (ammonia and nitrites) to live and to do what they do. A mature tank maintains a balance between fish and beneficial bacteria. By adding so few fish in the beginning, even if the Biospira successfully established your bacteria colony, a good many of the bacteria may have starved and died because there were not enough fish producing waste to sustain them. When you add large groups of fish, it is common for ammonia and nitrites to spike because there are insufficient bacteria. Again, the only way to know for sure is to test your water. It's great that you are getting a test kit soon. The AP liquid test kit is highly favored around here, and for good reason. Avoid test strips if at all possible as they are quite often inaccurate, and can be more expensive. If you need more info on the nitrogen cycle, read the article in the articles section (or ask away--there are lots of knowledgeable people here). Oh, and make sure you are adding a good water conditioner (I favor Prime, but there are lots of good ones out there). Chlorine and chloramines are just as lethal to your bacteria as to your fish.

As to the temperature, you have gotten a lot of feedback in that department, so I think you are okay. I would also recommend doing small water changes and adding cooler water to bring the temp down gradually. Just don't bring it down too fast and you should be fine.

Hang in there!