Lost another one :(

[Viperboy]

I guess even though my tank was cycled perfectly and my water parameters are perfect it still wasnt enough to keep these cardinals alive. This is my second one to die in 2 days .... all the other fish seemed sad this morn and didnt really wanna eat much. Are these fish just too delicate right now ? i did not know this .... what can i do? .... they still dont like to eat much.

Ray

 

[CompMage]

Well first you can start by posting your water specs. If things are perfect you have readings then... And low eatting is a sign of high stress commonally ammonia. How quickly did you stock this tank after cycling it, how big is it, how many fish. planted, unplanted?

 

[lovemybarbs]

Sorry about your fish.

 

[SCFatz]

Dude..sometimes they just check out.It blows.I know.

Its the transition from tank to tank or net to net or the car ride or whatever that pushes weak (or slightly sickened) fish the wrong way imo.

You have done your part.Your tank is gonna be fine. I have no doubt about that...for a noob you might care more then me.lol....and I care way to much.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

i just had to put down my 2 year old mollie yesterday, not exactly sure what went wrong. She just stopped eating, looking like she couldn't keep her tail up, finally i started noticing her fins disappearing, i think her tank mates were nipping at her. I felt terrible, and responsible to keep her from suffering. At that point it would have been selfish to try and recoupe her as she looked miserable. I am very sad

 

[rich311k]

Dont beat yourself up over this. Your parameters looked great from your thread yesterday. Cardinals can be sensative fish and sometimes you just get a bad batch, Just keep doing what you are doing. I put 6 rummy noses in QT last week only one is still alive sometimes it is just bad stock.

 

[tropicfishman]

sometimes adding to many fish at one time can stress fish out pretty bad, sometimes the runts won't make it through the stress, I'm sorry about your loss though, we had to lay one of cats down the other day after owning her for 11 years, somebody shot the poor lil 7 pound tabby with a high powered pellt gun in the ribs, stupid neighbors

 

[lovemybarbs]

:censor:

 

[Andyvette]

I'm sorry about your loss though, we had to lay one of cats down the other day after owning her for 11 years, somebody shot the poor lil 7 pound tabby with a high powered pellt gun in the ribs, stupid neighbors

Sorry to hear about your loss tropic, but I am a huge advocate of keeping your cats indoors for those reasons exactly. Not to mention the health benefits and longer quality/quantity of life the cat has. Some people do it maliciously.... and some people don't like cat urine on the wheels of their cars, and hit the cat in just the right (actually wrong) spot......

And Viper... don't worry about it. Just let your tank settle, and keep everything alive for a few weeks..... no rush. Don't try to "replace" the fish.... just let everything calm down. Adding new fish stresses out the old fish also.... so no changes. If water params are perfect, dont do water changes for a week or 2 (although test the params). Even though clipping a plant, or wiping the inside glass seems like an easy task for us.... think about it as a fish... it is a HUGE ordeal..... something 10x your size moving around So keep stress to a minimum and hopefully the rest of them come out of it. Keep your head up Viper... remember... no new fish for the next couple weeks!

 

[Viperboy]

Yea i already figured i would wait till at least the end of May when im done with school till i can add some more fish. My water tests are 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and 10-15 Nitrate which is what i think it should be at since my tank is planted some. Yea i guess i do care a lil too much about them at this point but that is just because i guess they are the first fish i have ever had. The tank is 29gal and now i have 3 cardinal tetras 4 zebras 1 clown pleco 1 dwarf blue gourami and 3 cory cats. I added the zebras first then waited about 3 days and put in the gourami and pleco then a little later i added the tetras and cories.

I was thinking about it today and could it have been the new light i just put on yesterday that killed the one today? ... i am just gonna let the tank settle i think for at least a week and not do a PWC till at least another week since i did one yesterday which may be another cause for the death of the one today.

Im just so frustrated because i read this site for months before i started my tank and i feel so knowledgable now in this subject and i was positive my tank cycled real good which it has and i just dont understand why im losing fish. I guess some things just happen but im already thinking about this 10gal i wanna set up in my bedroom ..... i been bouncing around the idea on the forum about a crayfish and some figure 8 puffers but there is speculation that one or the other will die ..... but im looking into it further and doing more research

thanks for all your help and support so far guys

Ray

 

[Menagerie]

Im just so frustrated because i read this site for months before i started my tank and i feel so knowledgable now in this subject and i was positive my tank cycled real good which it has and i just dont understand why im losing fish.

Even the most experienced lose fish for no apparent reason. Sometimes you get weakened fish and there's nothing that can be done, but watch them die off one by one. Unfortunately, this is another lesson along the way to becoming an experienced aquariumist.

 

[severum mama]

Your light didn't kill your fish, nor did your pwc yesterday. Your tank is still kinda new, so maybe if your cardinals don't make it you should consider a more hardy species of tetra, and then try again with cardinals in the future. Glowlights and green fire tetras (and lots of others), for example, are very colorful and seem much tougher than cardinals. I'm by no means a beginner and I can't keep cardinals alive either, so don't beat yourself up. Trust me, you're doing way better now than I was when I started my first tank. For future reference, it will probably help to stock slower, with a week or preferably two in between adding fish. Good luck.

 

[DeFeKt]

Even the most experienced lose fish for no apparent reason. Sometimes you get weakened fish and there's nothing that can be done, but watch them die off one by one. Unfortunately, this is another lesson along the way to becoming an experienced aquariumist.

thats very well said imo.
I wouldn't exactly call myself greatly experienced but there is always mysterious or unavoidable deaths. No matter how much time and effort you put into the hobby/disease some things are inevitable.

One thing i do find fascinating in my situation is that I have dimidiochromis compressiceps (predator "malawi eye-biter") in with various dwarf mbuna and a few odd haps, and the most predatory they have been is amongst themselves.I've found eyeless and finless dimi's on the bottom whereas have never lost anything else to such a cause and there is no aggression directed from mbuna to predator.

don't beat yourself up about it mate, it happens..
I haven't followed your tank setup but how big is it? have you considered cichlids? imo they are hardier and have far more character.

Matty

 

[Viperboy]

I have been told that i have the perfect water for cichlids since it is so hard and the ph is higher. But alas my tank is only 29gal right now and it is my first one and i wanted to start with a community tank and not with a harder cichlid tank .... i am looking to maybe one day add some bolivian rams to my tank ... and down the line i would like to maybe set up a 55 with cichlids but i need to focus on this tank right now.

Ray

 

[severum mama]

Your water could prove problematic for keeping the more delicate species of tetras, as they generally fare better in soft water with a lower pH. You could try adding peat to your filter to bring that pH down (slowly), or else try again with a less touchy species of tetra. Even though they are SA fish, Bolivian rams are hardy enough IME to tolerate a lot of different conditions. Just be sure to acclimate slowly.

Sounds like you have great water for a 55 gal African cichlid tank, but SA/CA cichlids prefer a low to neutral pH. Keep that in mind if you happen to score that next tank, although many people have success keeping SA/CAs in harder water. A lot of those species are really pretty tough.

 

[Thebluyak]

dont feel to bad, one of my blood fin tetras got stuck agaisnt my filter and died..that was really hard. So i replaced him with an angel fish : )

 

[Viperboy]

Are neon tetras just as fragile as cardinals or whats some more colorful tetras that might fair better in my tank?
TIA

Ray

 

[SCFatz]

Yea i guess i do care a lil too much about them at this point

lol...don't get me wrong Ray,"too much" can't happen.

You care a lot and thats a good thing.

Things just work out funny sometimes...I bought 4 ottos and they all looked great when I went to bed.In the AM one was dead.I thought "well..thats the first" and expected the worst for the rest.The other 3 are still doing great though...weeks ago now.

And I got a cory ten days ago that was netted into the glass hard...pinched by the net frame and the tank wall at the LFS.....and I knew who was suspect to die,but I liked his chances better in my tank then theirs so I got him.

For two days I waited for him to give up the ghost...and he acted like he was going too...but now he's doing great .

I guess I'm saying,what you don't expect will happen dispite your best efforts...and what you expect to be bad may not be for the very same reason.

keep up the good work.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Serpae tetras are fairly hardy as well. They are cool looking.

 

[Viperboy]

Droping like flys

Well another one is down today ... i guess i can exspect to lose all my cardinals since i only have 2 left. I hate not being about to control this and i have no idea what is really wrong. Also my neon blue gourami is not looking right today. Thats all for now im off to sulk.

Ray