heavenly said:
I had a place called the Fish Bowl Pet Express check my water and they said everything was fine, my fish aren't stressed out of anything. They said my tank isn't overcrowed by any means, but not to ad more fish to it until they are no longer ill.
Your temps are perfect, ,though a heater set to prevent drops below 75 would be good..it can be on the "to do" list.
Your cycle will restart after the milk incident. you really NEED to buy your own test kit!
Okay..I wont even say in words what I think of a place that reatails animals with the name "express" My sig says it all. A retail store is trying to sell you equipment, meds adn fish. And all but the most trusted
lfs guys advisements are to be taken with salt.
If it is a chain, then you have a former burger king employee now advising you as your fish expert
(okay-harsh. Some retail fish dept people actually care and are experienced. But they are rare).
Even a petsmart fish bag mentions the inch of fish per gallon rule...
And it is a loose rule that is only meant to prevent overstuffing. And applied to the small 3' and under fish commonly kept when the rule first came in use. It can't cover exceptions like aggressive fish, or heavy water users and mess makers.Or fish over 5". And even a stick has a reading. It does not have "nothing" "fine" "okay" "not good " and "100% fatal" printed on it!
AS for fish you kept maybe as a kid..were they any of THESE now the same kind? There are far more fish available at cheap prices to a regular consumer than the wild caughts I was familiar with when I helped my grandfather with his fish.
Lake cichlids were only avalable through hobbiests and magazines..not STORES. They were the great new thing. Most
FW fish in stores 20 or so years ago were mollys, ,guppies, platies, goldies and angels. 10 years ago added more of the cories, loaches and cichlids other than oscars to mainstream. Now even sensitive and specialty species are made available in chains like petco. But notice no cards on the tanks with scientific name and stats for adult size and water needs? This is not by accident. Who will buy a fish they KNOW grows to 24 inches long and requires a 75 gallon tank? Who will buy a fish they KNOW can NOT be in a community of other fish? but they will buy that cute red fish and the beautiful electric blue one.
Remember that the people here online are not here to make any money..only to help prevent a person from making the same tragic mistakes that nearly all of us made with our first fish. We are here to prevent fish death and promote proper care and happy owners with gorgeous fish.
Many experienced people keep somewhat overstocked tanks for temporary periods or purposely with measures like extra water changes and better filtration. But that requires a firm understanding of the water nitrogen cycle and having the ability to test on suspicious days.
For my christmas gift, my 8 year old was sold 5 neon tetras for a 5 quart mini-tank. No heater. When they became ill and died she came for more on warranty. Water was tested with them and they were FINE. At the their horrible death, the test kits I bought on suggestion of members here showed an ammonia level of 8 ppm and a Nitrite of 3 mg /l. She was told to float them and dump the bag. So the 50% change every 3rd day couldn't help. Worst about it was that I knew better had I been paying attention instead of "not looking at my gift". They also had neon tetra disease. And who did this? the fish dept. manager, whom she now gives a hard time forever after now by loudly proclaiming fish factoids in front of customers. Because she says, "he is a low guy to cheat a kid and make them cry over dead fish!"
I have problems trusting your
lfs....
Problem one; Dip sticks are highly inaccurate.
Problem two; if you are new, how do you know what the signs of stress in each different species you have is? Did you research them? But if you did, how could you not notice their water requirements and adult sizes?
Problem three: not only is the pet guy ready to sell you more fish in a mere 10 gallon, but he didn't mention
QT. So you are to nurse your fish, beat an illness, and then introduce more illness with new fish?
Tsk!
Once again I strongly say..Get a test kit
of your own!
you want the numbers yourself and the accuracy of a proper test. Any reading other than Zero is a bad reading.
I don't know what is wrong with my fish. All tetras I have had developed spots and died within a 48 hour period. Some lost all fins, yes I said all. My live bearing fish have no signs on them but are constantly scratching, but i have yet to loose one ( besides for babies). Please help me. I don't know what to do.
Thank you so very much. I am not sure if I could have gotten through this ordeal without the wonderful people here. I love yall 
