Glofish hiding

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by libraygirl

Thanks, I have a 4 inch airstone and the filter output provides bubbles, seems like the surface is agitating. I'm seriously considering taking them back tomorrow and going fish less. If I hadn't invested so much money into this already I prob would take them back and put the tank away. I obviously stink at this

Humm... Your ammo looks good and lots of o2 conversion, so there has to be another answer. Let me do some looking and what pops. Fishless is much easier, but don't let the rough start get you down. I was in the same situation years ago and by being forced to figure out what was wrong, I think it made me a better fish keeper today.

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by Mr. Limpet

Humm... Your ammo looks good and lots of o2 conversion, so there has to be another answer. Let me do some looking and what pops. Fishless is much easier, but don't let the rough start get you down. I was in the same situation years ago and by being forced to figure out what was wrong, I think it made me a better fish keeper today.

Thanks but it's too late. 3 out of 4 died last night. Just removed them from the tank and now checking ammo to make sure it isn't too high for the one left. As soon as the store opens at 10 AM she's going back (if she lives that long, still breathing very rapidly although swimming around). I don't want to give up b/c I really want to do this right and be good at this and have fish but right now maybe I give up before there are more casualties down the road. So I'll either go fishless or give up completely. I'll check and see if the hardware store here has ammo. If I can't find it then maybe that's a sign to stop

RIP Fitzgerald (aka "Fitzy")
RIP Dickens
RIP Orwell

(what? I'm a librarian )

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by libraygirl

Thanks but it's too late. 3 out of 4 died last night. Just removed them from the tank and now checking ammo to make sure it isn't too high for the one left. As soon as the store opens at 10 AM she's going back (if she lives that long, still breathing very rapidly although swimming around). I don't want to give up b/c I really want to do this right and be good at this and have fish but right now maybe I give up before there are more casualties down the road. So I'll either go fishless or give up completely. I'll check and see if the hardware store here has ammo. If I can't find it then maybe that's a sign to stop

RIP Fitzgerald (aka "Fitzy")
RIP Dickens
RIP Orwell

(what? I'm a librarian )

Awww, I'm very sorry to hear that . Great names BTW.

I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to say don't give up, there's tons of enjoyment in fish keeping and yes, some heartache too.

I lost my first pair of Moors and it broke my daughters heart (her fish actually) and she cried the morning she found them. So we took a week off, got things with the tank in order and soon had another pairs of Moors. Last night, she watched as fry from that 2nd pair got moved to a tank in her room. That's nearly 5 years after our first lost, so don't give up but take what you've learned and move forward to bigger and better tanks .

[librarygirl]

Thank you, you're very kind. Well PetSmart wouldn't take the fish back so now I have 1 fish that may or may not die in my tank. Argh, going to start a new post b/c I have no idea what to do now. Thank you.

[Mr. Limpet]

Originally Posted by libraygirl

Thank you, you're very kind. Well PetSmart wouldn't take the fish back so now I have 1 fish that may or may not die in my tank. Argh, going to start a new post b/c I have no idea what to do now. Thank you.

Darn that Petsmart, at least Petco has a 30 day return policy.

[siva]

Don't give up. Hey it could be worse. I have fish I paid $50 to have shipped accross the country one week ago in a tank full of ich just hoping I can cure them before they all die. And hey, we've all killed a few fish. Anyone who says they haven't is lying, or is one lucky son of gun

[mommytron]

i'm so sorry to hear about your loss

don't give up, though! it's such a rewarding hobby. and when you finally make it happen, it will all be worth it

a couple Q's... are you sure you were doing the tests accurately? i'm only asking because with such a low level of ammonia the whole time, with several PWC's, it's weird that they were acting that way. from the sounds of it, they died from ammonia poisoning, but with such a low level of ammonia and such hardy fish, it doesn't add up for me

also, what about the temperature? what temp do you keep the tank at? were you temp matching all your water for PWCs? i recently had a tank crash myself (forgot to turn the heater/filters back on after a PWC....there were few survivors....) and it only took a drop from 78* to 72* to do serious damage.

again, i'm sorry for your loss just take this as a learning experience. we all make mistakes and no one usually gets everything right the first time around. just like anything else, this takes practice. we all have faith in you

[Dylan5359]

Originally Posted by siva

Don't give up. Hey it could be worse. I have fish I paid $50 to have shipped accross the country one week ago in a tank full of ich just hoping I can cure them before they all die. And hey, we've all killed a few fish. Anyone who says they haven't is lying, or is one lucky son of gun

Great point Siva.

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by mommytron

i'm so sorry to hear about your loss

don't give up, though! it's such a rewarding hobby. and when you finally make it happen, it will all be worth it

a couple Q's... are you sure you were doing the tests accurately? i'm only asking because with such a low level of ammonia the whole time, with several PWC's, it's weird that they were acting that way. from the sounds of it, they died from ammonia poisoning, but with such a low level of ammonia and such hardy fish, it doesn't add up for me

also, what about the temperature? what temp do you keep the tank at? were you temp matching all your water for PWCs? i recently had a tank crash myself (forgot to turn the heater/filters back on after a PWC....there were few survivors....) and it only took a drop from 78* to 72* to do serious damage.

again, i'm sorry for your loss just take this as a learning experience. we all make mistakes and no one usually gets everything right the first time around. just like anything else, this takes practice. we all have faith in you

Thanks. Well I post pics in this thread (page 2) of my test results and everyone agreed that the levels were good. And other than some ph fluctuations the ammonia levels were never over 0.25.

For temp matching, I usually just use my hand/wrist. If I think it's even a bit off, I'd dump the water in the sink and try again before dumping it into the aquarium. Is it possible there was temp fluctuations in such a large water change? Sure, but I did my best to prevent it.

So it couldn't have been the stress of such a large water change added to the fact that I was moving plants, decor and gravel around to clean, and move etc? Because other than the one Glofish hiding they were fine before that last water change. Right after that they all acted weird, hanging around the top, breathing hard, not really moving much). And I tested water again right after in case I didn't add enough Prime, etc but the results were what the images show on page 2 (I even added a couple of drops of Prime in the tank in case, but no change). I was at a loss as to what to do at that point (they wouldn't eat either) and the next morning 3 out of 4 were dead, the 4th died later the next morning. I still don't know what went wrong, I wish I did so that I don't repeat it again in the future by accident.

Thanks for trying to help solve this. I still miss my fishies

[siva]

They were probably bad stock to begin with. Don't beat yourself up. I bought 6 glo fish just a bit ago and 1 died within a few days. The tank is in perfect condition. They came from petco. Sometimes chain lfs stock just sucks. Also in my freezer, waiting to go back to petco for refunds along with the glo fish, are a julii cory and 4 neon tetras. The cory was dead before I even finished acclimating and added them to the tank. I didn't make any mistakes with these fish...they were just plain old crappy/mishandled stock. Try to find a good mom and pop type store to buy your livestock from if you can.

[librarygirl]

Originally Posted by siva

They were probably bad stock to begin with. Don't beat yourself up. I bought 6 glo fish just a bit ago and 1 died within a few days. The tank is in perfect condition. They came from petco. Sometimes chain lfs stock just sucks. Also in my freezer, waiting to go back to petco for refunds along with the glo fish, are a julii cory and 4 neon tetras. The cory was dead before I even finished acclimating and added them to the tank. I didn't make any mistakes with these fish...they were just plain old crappy/mishandled stock. Try to find a good mom and pop type store to buy your livestock from if you can.

Yes I think I'd like to find a better place. The few times I went back to the same PetSmart I saw one angelfish dead stuck to a plant (they were in no rush to get it out) and some other fish (not sure of the type) all huddled gasping at the surface. How could they see that and not hurry to fix it?

Any tips on how to evaluate a small local lfs? I guess there's no fool proof way to tell whether they're stock is good unless the conditions are so horrible that they're noticeable. I was going to try PetCo, a new one opened up where I live and I went there last week and the tanks seemed well cared for and the employee even new about cycling! But they're selection was rather small. And again I'm not sure if there's a way to tell for sure before buying them (they're reptile area though, the poor things were all sleeping/still/not moving, although maybe that's normal for them).

If people are going to keep and/or sell live things they should take care of them! Sorry.... I'm just so frustrated.

[siva]

I know right! Argh!

You're right on the lfs. The only way I know my mom and pop is great is the fish don't die lol and have never brought me disease.

My petco tanks look good, some of their staff is OK...I've tested their water and it's actually better than my local lfs, however, on stock day in petco versus stock day in my m&p lfs, the fish are noticably more stressed. There is clearly more care taken in the transfer of the fish to my m&p than my petco, and that probably plays a role in the death rate I experience from them. They do stock some things my other store doesn't have, and they will refund for anything that dies within 30 days, as long as you bring in a sample of tank water, so I still buy from there.

[librarygirl]

Thanks. I'll probably go through the phone book this weekend and maybe start visiting a few here and there and see if there are any that stand out as good (again, not sure that I'd know one way or the other unless conditions were horrible), but I'll check out a few and see what I can find. I want to be able to know what I want in the tank and know where to get it by the time the cycle ends. Thank you!

[siva]

No problem..good luck! If you have several to choose from, you are lucky! I'm sure you'll fine one you like