Please help- I'm doing something wrong

[sarah5775]

Ok. I set up my first tropical fish tank eight months ago. I started out with four gold barbs, three platies, and three black longfin tetras. I increased to 5 of the tetras, three mollies, and four ottos, and six neons.

Well, I have lost the following fish in the past eight months: three of the ottos, two of the mollies, two of the neons, and two of the platies (I replaced one neon and both of the platys)

This seems like an awful lot of fish to lose. Also, I have had only one birth from my livebearers (3 fry and some dead ones) and no other pregnancies to term- and no fish getting pregnant in the past four months, either. I have only one female molly and two female platys left and one male. (the other female died last week) No platy births.

I am obviously doing something wrong. Please help me determine what it is.

Here is the information about my setup: I cycled the tank with biosphera when I first got it. I feed flake food twice a day, only as much as the fish will eat, giving one little pinch at a time, usually three pinches in total. Temperature in the tank is at 81-82 degrees. I change 20 percent of the water every Saturday. I also vacuum the gravel with my python once a month. I have a box filter which came with the tank kit. Every now and then I take it down and clean the algae from the insides. I do this in de-chlorinated water because I know regular tap water will kill beneficial bacteria. There are clumps of java moss and one large snail (don't know what kind) as well as a colony of little snails that came in on the plants (maybe 25 that I can see, but there may be more hiding in the java moss)

I recently bought some freeze dried bloodworms, are they good for the kind of fish I have? I thought some variety in the diet might help. Should I soak the bloodworms in tank water first, and how often should I feed them?

How often do I have to change the filter bag? I have only done it once. The guy at the pet store said he does his every six months or so. Is that often enough?

I feel really bad that my fish aren't doing better, and I hope I can get some advice here.

I bought an ammonia test bottle the other day. When do I need to test and should I be testing for anything else?

I feel terrible- I've been hanging around these forums long enough that I should know what I'm doing by now, but apparently I don't.

 

[Jchillin]

Don't feel bad, you are obviously concerned or you would not come here to ask what is wrong.

Just from reading the information you posted, your first order of business is to get not only an ammonia test, but a nitrate, ph and nitrite test kit. Knowing the status of your water quality is paramount to keeping healthy fish.

Your maintenance regimen could use a little tweaking in terms of the frequency of gravel vacs. There is no harm in gravel vac'ing each time you change the water. It helps to get rid of a lot of decomposing foods from the gravel bed.

 

[toddnbecka]

Actually, you'd be best to get a master FW test kit and check all your water parameters. The pH, Kh, Gh, as well as the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels. Another consideration is tank volume and filter capacity (how many times/hour is the tank volume circulated?) Oh, and what size tank is it?
As for the fish, mollies and platies prefer hard, alkaline water, while barbs and tetras prefer softer water and a neutral/acidic pH. Oto's are notorious for being delicate fish, so are neons. Some folks seem to have no problems with them, but more often they are posted regarding difficulties/unexplained deaths.
Don't feel too bad. I doubt there's anyone who set up their first tank, had everything just right, and sailed along smoothly ever since.
I know I've learned the hard way to research all the variables before stocking any critter, and there's no guarantee you're getting good, healthy fish to begin with.

 

[BillD]

First thing I would do is lower the temp to aroud 76 to78 F. I agree with the otos being difficult. The neons tend to do better at lower temps. Platies do well even at 68F. My personal experience has been that lower temps equal fewer problems. I keep my livebearers around 68 to 72F, as the tanks are not heated. So, basically, I would opt for the low end of the preferred range of a particular species. The problem with that is, that there is conflicting info on what the correct temp range is.

 

[Zagz]

I agree that you need to get some test kits. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes a FW master kit that is quite inexpensive. Your problems may be from the water parameters as mentioned. 78F is a good temp for that tank. Also what size of tank do you have? What are the total inhabitants of the tank?