New tank, didn't know...not 1 and done!

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dalfa96

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 20, 2021
Messages
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so i wanted to start a tank and thought i could just add water and fish and done so i bought a 10 gallon kit and i set it up and added let it filter for a day then i added 8 serpae tetra and 3 cory so the tank is now a week old and i found out about the cycle 4 days ago and so i added quick start now 4 of the serpae have died and they dont look too healthy and the cory are doing fine i always test the water everyday i have five plants in the tank is there anything i can do to save the fish i dont want them to die i feel bad
 
so i wanted to start a tank and thought i could just add water and fish and done so i bought a 10 gallon kit and i set it up and added let it filter for a day then i added 8 serpae tetra and 3 cory so the tank is now a week old and i found out about the cycle 4 days ago and so i added quick start now 4 of the serpae have died and they dont look too healthy and the cory are doing fine i always test the water everyday i have five plants in the tank is there anything i can do to save the fish i dont want them to die i feel bad

Did you dechlorinate the water before adding the fish? Also that seems like a lot of fish for a 10 gallon. I would suggest getting a test kit to check the quality of the water. I recommend the API freshwater master test kit. You can buy it at most pet stores or order it on amazon. It is possible that you had a huge ammonia spike from adding so many fish into a small, unestablished tank. If your ammonia or nitrites are above normal (honestly above 0.25 ppm) than you need to start doing water changes until they get under control. Ammonia and nitrites are deadly to fish. You could also use seachem prime to help detoxify the ammonia and nitrites for like 24 hrs, but it is not a replacement for water changes. Also, do you have a heater and an air stone?
 
i already have the test kit and i have everything a heater and a 10 gallon filter and i have an air stone water is always at 80 i test the water daily morning and night until today i started changing the water 50% when the ammonia gets to or over .50 then re test
 
i already have the test kit and i have everything a heater and a 10 gallon filter and i have an air stone water is always at 80 i test the water daily morning and night until today i started changing the water 50% when the ammonia gets to or over .50 then re test

Hmm I'm wondering if maybe the fish you bought had something. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary on the dead serpaes? I had an issue with some tetras I bought a few months ago. The store that sold them to me sold me fish with mouthrot. Hopefully someone else can offer some other advice.
 
is there anything else i can do to keep them from dying besides the water changes and to get the cycle going faster i feel bad just jumping into this and now the fish are dying and suffering i only have 3 serpae left and the three corys i got i want to make sure they live
 
actually i bought some from petsmart and when i got them and got home i noticed they had popeye and they were very pale in the tanks they had them in but me not knowing anything i thought it was normal.
 
actually i bought some from petsmart and when i got them and got home i noticed they had popeye and they were very pale in the tanks they had them in but me not knowing anything i thought it was normal.

I do find it odd that the serpaes are dying off quickly but not the cories. I don't want to give bad information on treatment for something I can't diagnose. If it is possible that the serpaes are sick, you should probably separate them from the cories so they don't get sick also. You could go back to petsmart and bring the dead fish. They can give you a refund and they could also show you where and possibly what to treat them with. Popeye can be caused by a number of things including injury. Do they have any white spots on their fins or white fungus around there gills, mouth etc. or do their fins look damages and torn?
 
Your priority should be to get your tank cycled. You could diagnose the problem and treat them and maybe save them, but then you would still have an uncycled tank and be back to square 1. The best treatment for ammonia poisoning is to get the water safe, which you have done.

I would also consider the type of fish you want to keep. Serpaes need a bigger tank than 10g, possibly the corys too, although you havent said what kind of cory.

Also, might have been better to start your own thread regarding your own issues rather than taking the OPs thread off track.
 
Agreed. The parameters are ok now, but may not have been a few days ago. Adding that many fish at once likely overloaded the tank and caused a significant amount of stress and even possible ammonia poisoning. I had a 10 gallon years ago and put, at a max, 5 tetras and a snail. Even then, it seemed a little cramped. The ones that I still have are now in a 75 gallon. If the rest of the fish survive, I would upgrade the tank to something larger, or return the fish and find something for your current sized tank. This will also give you time to work on cycling the tank without putting any additional fish in danger. I do agree though, you should start a new thread of your own instead of posting on this one. It has taken away the focus of OP's issue. Plus, you are likely to get more responses from creating a new post on your specific issue. Maybe someone else can offer additional help. Hope everything works out.
 
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