Cycle just finished, added fish and they died?

[splitbux]

my 10g tank just finished cycling 2-3 days ago the ammonia and nitrites fell to zero after about 2 months of waiting. I had 3 small guppys in there about 2 weeks ago and they are happy and fine especially since the cycling has been finished. After my cycling finished i did a 30% water change and went to store and bought 3 platys i floated them in bag while adding some tank water slowly then introduced them to the tank(2 males 1 female). Next morning i found the female dead and stuck to filter. Couple hours later one of the males was swimming into the current of the filter and then getting blown all over and running into things and then i found him stuck to the filter dead. the other male has been sitting at top left rear corner of tank and still sits there to this day. API test results are 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites PH is around a 7.0 and nitrates are around 10-20 ppm(color on my kit hard to tell). Maybe the platys were just so stressed from going into a new tank? or maybe the pet store i went to sells bad fish hmm... i have no clue why this would happen. My filter isnt even strong filter its the cheapo walmart 10g kit filter. Why did this happen??? someone told me maybe the platys need more oxygen in the water? should i buy a air stone and pump??? are platys slow swimmers that need a sponge covering on the end of filter so they dont get sucked into it?? another thing i just put some driftwood in that ive been soaking for about a month while testing ph of soak water the wood didnt affect it so i added it. the driftwood shouldnt cause my fish to die should it ??

 

[callisto9]

What's your water temp? Where did you get the fish? I had really bad luck with some guppies from PetSmart. Sometimes, I think you just get sick fish.

 

[splitbux]

i dont have a heater. i live in florida but i keep my house at 72f and the tank(living room) stays at 76 constant no matter what. i got the fish from petland. 2 fish died basically overnight i dont get why also why would my last living platy stay in top corner? is he just not used to his environment yet?

 

[callisto9]

Based on everything you said, I'm leaning towards the place selling less-than-healthy fish. It sounds like you did everything right.

 

[splitbux]

yea i guess so. how are neon tetras with guppys? can i add like 5-6 neon tetras and be fine.

 

[callisto9]

yea i guess so. how are neon tetras with guppys? can i add like 5-6 neon tetras and be fine.

I believe so. Tetras are schooling fish, so yes, 5-6 should be OK.

 

[cwmont13]

I'm leaning towards the fact that the fish just were not healthy when you bought them. I had the same thing happen with some of the Zebras that I bought at a local Petsmart.

I did drip acclimation on them and the last few that I bought I dripped for a lot longer time about an hour. One other thing I started doing is checking the PH of the store water in the bag before I drip and if it's not close to my tank PH I drip slower and for a longer time. I think that has helped because I haven't had any problems since.

 

[librarygirl]

It's probably bad stock if they died that quickly. How long did you add water to the bag before putting them into the tank? If that was done too quickly that could be an issue as well.

Also 3 guppies is almost fully stocked for a 10 gal; adding platys would have pushed it too much as they're pretty messy fish and 10 gal isn't a lot of space. Plus if the guppies and/or platy start to breed you'll be massively overstocked pretty fast. Neons are small fish but are active and need more swim room than a 10 gal can provide them (same with most danios and tetras).

If you want to add something else you could probably do a school of 6 NANO fish (ember tetra, chili rasbora or celestial pearl danio) but sometimes they can be hard to find. You could add a snail.....it's something else to look at and wouldn't affect your bioload too much. Nerite snails are good since they can't breed in freshwater.

 

[splitbux]

maybe i didnt introduce them properly. its my understanding ( i read somewhere) that you put the bag of fish into your tank and let them float for 15mins while adding some of your tank water every 5 mins. Then transfer the fish without adding the stores water. Question is How much of my water should i put in? i use this 5ml dropper syringe about 10 times each 5 min interval shoudl i just drop about 8 oz of my tank water in the bag more or less? whats a decent amount? am i putting to little? should i wait longer than 15 mins before adding the fish to my tank?

 

[Botanica]

At least with Petsmart if you get bad fish...their return policy is easy and long. I'm sorry your fish died...it's hard when your first starting because you think it must have been something you did wrong. Platies should always be 2-3 female to 1 male...or the males chase the female to death...just an fyi in case you get more Platies...not what I think happened here.

 

[cwmont13]

maybe i didnt introduce them properly. its my understanding ( i read somewhere) that you put the bag of fish into your tank and let them float for 15mins while adding some of your tank water every 5 mins. Then transfer the fish without adding the stores water. Question is How much of my water should i put in? i use this 5ml dropper syringe about 10 times each 5 min interval shoudl i just drop about 8 oz of my tank water in the bag more or less? whats a decent amount? am i putting to little? should i wait longer than 15 mins before adding the fish to my tank?

This is the method I use to drip and so far it works good and not hard to set up.

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/97