chaimonique
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello All
I bought my daughter a 1gallon tank for her 8th birthday as I just wanted her to get acclimated to taking care of fish. The guy at the fish store told us we could have up to 4 fish in the tank. I cycled the tank and bought two goldfish the next day. I haven't had an aquarium in over 10 years so after floating the bag for an hour I dumped the bag...that didn't go over so well as we lost one the next morning. My daughter cried her head off so I promised her we would get some more fish after school. I took her to the store and she loved the neons. I informed the fish guy that we had a gold fish in a 1 gallon tank at home and he convinced us that we could put them together. I brought them home, floated the bag for an hour (as they instructed). I then netted them into the water. They were swimming around great at first, even the goldfish seemed delighted to see them as he wasn't swimming much before. The next day one of the neons began swimming in circles, upside down floating to the bottom and just acting really crazy. I found out after googling that he was not well. None of them would eat and I couldn't figure out what to do. I wasn't convinced that they had ick but wanted to try something to help them. I did discover that I had very hard water and the pH was too high. I also thought that maybe the 1 gallon tank was a bad idea so we bought a 10 gallon tank. I bought some pH decrease and some salt. By the time we got back from the pet store with the supplies the crazy neon was dead and shoved under the rocks with the goldfish hovering over the body. I called CSI and I am waiting for them to investigate the scene. I left them in the tank because I didn't want them to ruin the new tank and the next morning the goldfish was dead. I removed both the neon and the goldfish and put them in a cup leaving the other neon alone in the tank. I treated the water with pH decrease and some salt lml at a time and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per day. I think that may have worked because the neon is slowly coming back to life. He is swimming a little and eating a little. I keep testing the water but it just won't come down the way I want it to. I am still treating it. The new 10 gal tank on the other hand has great perimeters and is ready to go. Temp is 74, 0 Nitrate, soft water, 80 alkalinity, and roughly 7.2 pH. Since the Neon is doing better I was wondering if I should transfer him to the new safer tank. I would also like to begin introducing new fish as well. I was wondering if this would be a good idea and would also like to know what fish should we put in with our neon. I was told we could have up to 10 so I wanted to introduce more neon since he is a schooling fish and maybe a bottom feeder, algae eater, and some fish that would swim high. Please help us out..we don't want to send any more bodies to the morgue.
I bought my daughter a 1gallon tank for her 8th birthday as I just wanted her to get acclimated to taking care of fish. The guy at the fish store told us we could have up to 4 fish in the tank. I cycled the tank and bought two goldfish the next day. I haven't had an aquarium in over 10 years so after floating the bag for an hour I dumped the bag...that didn't go over so well as we lost one the next morning. My daughter cried her head off so I promised her we would get some more fish after school. I took her to the store and she loved the neons. I informed the fish guy that we had a gold fish in a 1 gallon tank at home and he convinced us that we could put them together. I brought them home, floated the bag for an hour (as they instructed). I then netted them into the water. They were swimming around great at first, even the goldfish seemed delighted to see them as he wasn't swimming much before. The next day one of the neons began swimming in circles, upside down floating to the bottom and just acting really crazy. I found out after googling that he was not well. None of them would eat and I couldn't figure out what to do. I wasn't convinced that they had ick but wanted to try something to help them. I did discover that I had very hard water and the pH was too high. I also thought that maybe the 1 gallon tank was a bad idea so we bought a 10 gallon tank. I bought some pH decrease and some salt. By the time we got back from the pet store with the supplies the crazy neon was dead and shoved under the rocks with the goldfish hovering over the body. I called CSI and I am waiting for them to investigate the scene. I left them in the tank because I didn't want them to ruin the new tank and the next morning the goldfish was dead. I removed both the neon and the goldfish and put them in a cup leaving the other neon alone in the tank. I treated the water with pH decrease and some salt lml at a time and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per day. I think that may have worked because the neon is slowly coming back to life. He is swimming a little and eating a little. I keep testing the water but it just won't come down the way I want it to. I am still treating it. The new 10 gal tank on the other hand has great perimeters and is ready to go. Temp is 74, 0 Nitrate, soft water, 80 alkalinity, and roughly 7.2 pH. Since the Neon is doing better I was wondering if I should transfer him to the new safer tank. I would also like to begin introducing new fish as well. I was wondering if this would be a good idea and would also like to know what fish should we put in with our neon. I was told we could have up to 10 so I wanted to introduce more neon since he is a schooling fish and maybe a bottom feeder, algae eater, and some fish that would swim high. Please help us out..we don't want to send any more bodies to the morgue.
have you heard of cycling? you need to learn about cycling your new tank, this link should help 
