Fish died while cycling...should I be doing more?

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JPA

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
91
Location
Massachusetts
about a week ago I bought 6 rasboras to help cycle my new 40g tank. They seemed fine, schooling happily, until one of them stopped schooling, stop moving, and then died.

Should I be doing more than sitting back and waiting for the cycle to complete? I would hate to lose all of these fish. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciative.
 
Look closely at the other fish. Get a flashlight if you need to. I bought 7 HR's and now only have 2 left, after treating with Melafix. Their fins seemed to be fusing together and disappearing so I treated them, and the 2 are still doing really well. I didn't find out what was wrong with the other 5 until it was too late.
 
If you have other friends with aquariums, what I would suggest is that you ask for or borrow some filter media to "seed" your filter. That should jumpstart the cycling process and eliminate some of the ammonia. Also, feed sparingly. Also, daily partial water changes of around 10% to 15% should help. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's the best way to make sure the fish live through it.
 
test several times a day for ammonia and nitrite. Anything above .25 requires a water change. Since you decided to cycle with fish, you also decided to test continuously and perform many many water changes.

In the end you'll spend much more money and time by using the 'easy' way with live fish. Do nothing and you'll be doing it the 'fishless cycle' anyway as your fish die and provide the ammonia source with their rotting corpses.
 
If you can get some Seachem's Prime that will help with the ammonia and nitrite too. It binds it and make it less toxic to your fish. You will still get readings though.
I made the mistake of not cycling my tank before getting fish, and I had to do 70% water changes every day for 4 weeks....But the fish lived and he is great now! In a bigger tank though.
 
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