Help! My Glofish keep dying. :(

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desreyes1

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
4
I’m going to try to provide as much information as possible, so please bare with me.

On March 26th I bought a Aqueon Neoglow Aquarium Kit Hexagon. It is an 8 gal. tank, I realized afterwards that the fish have to be in a tank of 10 gal. or more. My mom told me that we had to let the filter run for 72 hours before putting the fish in, we ended up asking the manager at the pet store if we were able to put the fish in right after we set up the tank and we said it would be okay.

We bought 6 glofish because I thought it’d be a good number. Sadly, that’s too many glofish for a 8 gal. tank. But, I ALSO realized afterwards that glofish need to be in groups of 6 or more. When we got home, we placed the bag in the tank and waited 20 minutes before releasing the glofish into the tank.

They were fine for the first few days but I noticed that the pink one wasn’t looking too good. It was very bloated,the next day, it died and so did the blue one. I was now down to 4 fish. When these two glofish died, my orange one started to look bloated too and it’s eyes were bulging. The orange one ended up dying too. And I was down to 3 fish.

I now had a purple fish, a neon green fish, and a tiger barb. I was very paranoid and I kept checking on them, the three of them were playing and I finally calmed down and walked away. A few minutes later I came back to check on them and the tiger barb was dead on one of the artificial plants.

I ended up trying again and getting 4 more fish. (Not all at once.) I got a red glofish, a yellow glofish, a blue glofish, and a tiger barb. I now had 6 again, and they were all doing great for at least a month.

Yesterday, at 4 PM, I did the regular routine with my mom and we cleaned the tank. We usually leave the fish in the tank while cleaning because the process of chasing them to put them somewhere separate would stress them out even more. We vacuumed the pebbles, added a new bag of pebbles, added a snail figurine decoration, and switched out some of the water with new water. They were very happy and healthy. They had normal behavior, they were eating normally, and they were completely fine.

I fell asleep at 5 PM by accident, and when I woke up at 4 AM I checked on them and three of them died. One was on the bottom of the tank sideways, one was one a plant, and the other floating upside down at the top. We took out the bodies because of contamination.

I was really frustrated and heartbroken. I didn’t know what to do, my mom suggested that we should leave them alone and see what happens. I stood up until 7 AM watching them and I finally went to school, when I came back at 3 PM my mom told me the red tiger barb had died. Now I’m left with the red glofish and the purple glofish. I genuinely don’t know where I went wrong.

There’s so many mistakes that I made, but I don’t think that those little things could’ve killed so many fish at once. I really need some advice or someone to help me because at this point I’m going to have a breakdown and I’m obviously not suited for taking care of fish. I wanted my own pets, and I didn’t think they would be hard to keep alive but even the slightest mistakes I made have killed them.

At least 10 fish have died and I feel so bad. they’re living, breathing, beings too and I don’t want to keep killing them even if it is by accident. Should I just give up on fish?? I feel so bad.


- I feed my fish once breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (8 AM, 3 PM, 8-10 PM.)
- We clean the tank at the beginning and the end of every month.

My fish used to greet me happily and wait for me to feed them or give them attention. Now the remaining two hide from me, I know fish can’t experience emotions but I feel like they’re really holding a grudge or they hate me now and it’s so depressing. They used to love me and now it’s like they’re scared of me, hell, I would be too. I feel like I killed all of their friends.

Pictures





Levels

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
 
Your water parameters are confusing as you are clearly not cycled but those numbers don't show anything. That many fish and that excessive feeding will be producing ammonia. If you arent cycled you would expect to see ammonia and/or nitrite, if you are cycled, even if not completely, you would expect to see nitrate.

Did you do the water test immediately after a big water change? If so you are just testing tapwater which won't say much about whats happening in the tank.

Are you sure you are doing the tests correctly? Got to really shake the heck out of bottle #2 on the nitrate test.

You are right. Glofish are typically tetras, danios and barbs and as such need a bigger tank, 10 gallons minimum 15 preferably. I would either get a bigger tank for glofish or reconsider what you want to keep and get something more suitable.

They also come in different varieties. Picking 1 type is a good idea so they can feel comfortable living with others of their species.

Glofish are also notoriously not a hardy fish. They are very inbred and genetically modified and tend to die very easily.

You are also feeding way too much. Once a day as much as they eat in 2 minutes. While cycling half that. As much as they eat daily in 1 minute or as much they eat in 2 minutes every 2 days.

What do you do when cleaning the tank? Excessive cleaning can kill off all the beneficial bacteria responsible for your cycle and you start over again.

You need to cycle the tank. Test daily. Your target should be keeping ammonia + nitrite combined below 0.5ppm. If they get to for instance 0.25ppm ammonia and 0.25ppm nitrite change 25% of the water. When you are consistently seeing no ammonia or nitrite and your nitrate is steadily rising then you are cycled for your current bioload and can add a few more fish. Rinse and repeat until fully stocked.

Ammonia is a slow killer, so it could be your water parameters are fine now, but its the ammonia they lived in a few weeks ago that will kill them.
 
All good advice there.

Check out the article link in my signature and it will give you lots of information about fish keeping.

Generally rinsing off the new items is a good idea.

Get the tank cycled info in the article below.

After the tank is cycled or when you have seen it is stable and not having ammonia, nitrite or nitrate spikes would be a good time for considering more fish.

A regular Betta might be good for the 8G tank. Glow Bettas look sickly every time I see them. Personally I wouldn't get one.

In case that might be a suitable idea for you... Generally a Betta can live in a tank with friends, not Bettas though. Male Betta different personalities and some just do not work out to be in a mixed tank.

Look for one which seems healthy / alert but when you place them next to another male at the store, see if you can find one which doesn't care too much, maybe a flare or few and then settles down some. The highly aggressive fish seem active, but less suitable for a mixed tank as they may be more inclined to want to bully the other fish.

Although you may feel sorry for a sad looking one, just get a really healthy looking one.

It sounds like you are very caring and want the best for your fish. As fish keepers, we all have some failures. You can't control the fish you buy at the store - breeding/ genetics and what amount of stress they have gone through before you get them, and if they could be ill.

As mentioned, the Glofish often seem to not be the strongest fish.

Since you have a couple fish, you need som info on "fish-in" (the tank) cycling,

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/i-just-learned-about-cycling-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now/

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/fishin-cycling-step-dark-side/


When the fish arrive at your fish tank, it may be best to acclimate them to your new water. You can float them in the fish store bag for a little while in the tank, then start getting them used to the new water they will be in.

I use a container (an inexpensive plastic pitcher, just for fish / water/ tank use). Add the fish into the container. Then add a scoop of tank water 2-4 oz. at a time depending on how much water you already have in there, to the new fish container. Add the water every 5-10 min.

When the container gets fullish, remove 2/3rds of the water and continue as before till the water is above half to 2/3 full. Then I scoop them out and place into the new tank.

Fish store employees are not always trained enough or have enough actual fish keeping experience, maybe they are small animal or reptile experienced and love and know lots about those type animals but now have to give advice for fish keeping. Just double and triple check all you can.

The groups of fish which are Glofish are Tiger Barbs, Danios, and Albino Blackskirt Tetras, all which do prefer to be in groups, but also there is some consideration to how many males and females there are. 1 male for every 1-3 females 1:2 is a good ratio usually.

(side note: the sharks please do not get unless you will have a 55-75G minimum tank size)

Do not beat yourself up about the fish keeping so far. There is a lot to know, but after knowing the basics, it is like magically easier. Not perfect, since their are diseases, and errors one can make. It sounds like you care a lot, and will take good care of them.
 
It seems you're a good, gentle-hearted person. I keep glofish as well! When one of them died (I keep 10 of them) I was so heartbroken I weeped the whole night and felt sad for three days. Aiken Drum, Autumnsky and DrWho42 spoke about overfeeding them, inexpert fish cycling and ammonia spikes which are all beginner mistakes, and it's OK to fault in fish keeping, since they were the first pets you took care of.

You have a kind heart and I can see that you care a lot about your fish, a quality most fish-keepers don't have as they see their fish as just a decoration. Next time, the fish you are looking forward to keep will be so fortunate they will greet you every time you enter the room and live with you with their fullest potential. I know it.

Most times, it's not your fault. Glofish are very delicate and the guy that was selling them to me said that many of them wouldn't survive (how cruel!) but generally if a fish dies at day 4 or 5, they were sick before you purchased them. I also can't imagine how Petsco would have managed to keep them alive under such poor conditions.
 
A good recommendation for hardy fish to keep next time would be neon tetras. They're as beautiful as Glofish and are really resistant to temperature fluctuations and ammonia spikes.

Wish you the best of luck!
 
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