I work in the disability sector and a nice lady has built us a beautiful tank for our clients and they all love it. She did everything all I have done is picked the fish and put them in, it's been set up for about 3-4 months now. We have live plants and up until last night we had four guppies and 6 platies and one pleco.
I came in this morning to two dead guppies and one dead platy. I have been testing the water as directed every few days. I added two of the guppies on Monday but yesterday I noticed that one of the platys had given birth so I think the tank was just overloaded. I don't have a spare tank to remove the fry to, but I think the stress and the increase in ammonia has caused the adults to die.
I just want to check the advise that the pet shop was correct as I don't want to loose any more fish.
They told me there was nothing I could do now and that the ammonia and nitrates were now fine and a spike can happen and because we have a good set up it will quickly break down. They have given me a different "good bacteria" stuff called quick start, which I assume is the same as the stuff we used in the beginning for a few weeks before adding fish. They have told me to add this every water change and to do a 1/3 water change every 2-3 days to help cycle the water, which I thought was weird since the ammonia and nitrites were fine. They said they have a nursery tank to put my little baby platys in but I have to wait until they are a little bit bigger. I know some of them are already being eaten so I don't know how many I have left.
Sorry for the long post but as I work with people with disabilities it's quite upsetting to loose so many in such a short space of time.
Any advise would be appreciated. Is it worth going out and getting a small tank to use as a nursery for the fry? There's definitely at least 10 that I can find in the tank. And do I need to do more frequent water changes?
I came in this morning to two dead guppies and one dead platy. I have been testing the water as directed every few days. I added two of the guppies on Monday but yesterday I noticed that one of the platys had given birth so I think the tank was just overloaded. I don't have a spare tank to remove the fry to, but I think the stress and the increase in ammonia has caused the adults to die.
I just want to check the advise that the pet shop was correct as I don't want to loose any more fish.
They told me there was nothing I could do now and that the ammonia and nitrates were now fine and a spike can happen and because we have a good set up it will quickly break down. They have given me a different "good bacteria" stuff called quick start, which I assume is the same as the stuff we used in the beginning for a few weeks before adding fish. They have told me to add this every water change and to do a 1/3 water change every 2-3 days to help cycle the water, which I thought was weird since the ammonia and nitrites were fine. They said they have a nursery tank to put my little baby platys in but I have to wait until they are a little bit bigger. I know some of them are already being eaten so I don't know how many I have left.
Sorry for the long post but as I work with people with disabilities it's quite upsetting to loose so many in such a short space of time.
Any advise would be appreciated. Is it worth going out and getting a small tank to use as a nursery for the fry? There's definitely at least 10 that I can find in the tank. And do I need to do more frequent water changes?
