W
waynephinney
Guest
Wow... that last thread went crazy.
To simplify things, I saw two options, each of which make sense to me as someone who has never done this before. I'm trying things one way, and then if it doesn't work, I'll restart and try things the way I should have in the first place before I got in over my head. But anyways, to get back to things.
My fish seem to have been doing better yesterday and today. When I first got them, I lost three, but I think the pleco was due to stress since it was less than a day. The other ones are the tetras with the little red dot over their eyes. Those two died a few days back. At that same time, the other two didnt' look so good. They were hardly moving and looked ready to croak. Yesterday they were very active and very playful a look a lot better. Also, the white cloudiness started to clear up yesterday, and it's looking a fair deal better today.
I'm going to keep watching the tank closely and keeping an eye on my fish to make sure I don't see anything that looks bad in their behavioral patterns. They are all very active now and seem to be doing well.
No worries. I'm not going to starve them forever. Tomorrow I'm going to start feeding them, but substantially less than I fed them before since that clearly is a major problem I had in the beginning. Nobody told me that overfeeding increased the ammonia in the tank, so I figured it wouldn't hurt them. Oh well... that's how you learn.
Anyhow, for those of you who are interested in seeing how things go, I'll keep updating you. I'm sorry to those of you who think I'm trying to kill my fish, because I'm not. I would do full water changes every day if I felt that it would help significantly over the other options out there, I would do it. I'm no stranger to doing work to take care of my pets. I have four ferrets after all. I'm used to it.
And someone asked if I understood the whole cycle. I think I do at this point. Here's what I have learned about the cycle via these forums.
Fish poo, food, and anything else that can rot in the tank will create ammonia, which is bad. As bacteria grow in the tank, they will convert the ammonia to nitrites which are still not neccesarily a good thing, but it's one step closer to the end. Then the nitrites get converted into less harmful nitrates, which if I understand correctly are much easier to keep in check once this cycle has reached a consistent state.
If I didn't quite learn that right, could someone please correct me, because I do want to make sure I'm understanding this right.
Anyways, I'm going to keep watching the fish and see where things go and I'll keep all of you updated. I'm just hoping this actually works out and I don't lose too many more fish. If it doesn't work out, then I'll start the tank fresh, give it time to cycle, and then add fish a handful at a time like I should have been informed to do in the first place.
Thanks again for all the help you guys have given me!
PS- If I don't take your advice, please don't take it personally. It's not that I'm not hearing what you're saying. I just see several options and when it feels like a 50/50 chance is what's presented to me, I pick what method I like best, because it seems like there's an equal chance of success.
I can't wait to see what happens.
To simplify things, I saw two options, each of which make sense to me as someone who has never done this before. I'm trying things one way, and then if it doesn't work, I'll restart and try things the way I should have in the first place before I got in over my head. But anyways, to get back to things.
My fish seem to have been doing better yesterday and today. When I first got them, I lost three, but I think the pleco was due to stress since it was less than a day. The other ones are the tetras with the little red dot over their eyes. Those two died a few days back. At that same time, the other two didnt' look so good. They were hardly moving and looked ready to croak. Yesterday they were very active and very playful a look a lot better. Also, the white cloudiness started to clear up yesterday, and it's looking a fair deal better today.
I'm going to keep watching the tank closely and keeping an eye on my fish to make sure I don't see anything that looks bad in their behavioral patterns. They are all very active now and seem to be doing well.
No worries. I'm not going to starve them forever. Tomorrow I'm going to start feeding them, but substantially less than I fed them before since that clearly is a major problem I had in the beginning. Nobody told me that overfeeding increased the ammonia in the tank, so I figured it wouldn't hurt them. Oh well... that's how you learn.
Anyhow, for those of you who are interested in seeing how things go, I'll keep updating you. I'm sorry to those of you who think I'm trying to kill my fish, because I'm not. I would do full water changes every day if I felt that it would help significantly over the other options out there, I would do it. I'm no stranger to doing work to take care of my pets. I have four ferrets after all. I'm used to it.
And someone asked if I understood the whole cycle. I think I do at this point. Here's what I have learned about the cycle via these forums.
Fish poo, food, and anything else that can rot in the tank will create ammonia, which is bad. As bacteria grow in the tank, they will convert the ammonia to nitrites which are still not neccesarily a good thing, but it's one step closer to the end. Then the nitrites get converted into less harmful nitrates, which if I understand correctly are much easier to keep in check once this cycle has reached a consistent state.
If I didn't quite learn that right, could someone please correct me, because I do want to make sure I'm understanding this right.
Anyways, I'm going to keep watching the fish and see where things go and I'll keep all of you updated. I'm just hoping this actually works out and I don't lose too many more fish. If it doesn't work out, then I'll start the tank fresh, give it time to cycle, and then add fish a handful at a time like I should have been informed to do in the first place.
Thanks again for all the help you guys have given me!
PS- If I don't take your advice, please don't take it personally. It's not that I'm not hearing what you're saying. I just see several options and when it feels like a 50/50 chance is what's presented to me, I pick what method I like best, because it seems like there's an equal chance of success.
I can't wait to see what happens.