cubsfan85
Aquarium Advice Regular
Is there a black-thumb equivalent for keeping fish? That's what I feel like.
I set up my tank in February and have lost a number of fish in that time. I can write off a few, dying immediately after they came home as being sick from the store. But, my main problem is fish that live 3-4 months or longer, and randomly die with no signs of disease or stress.
My parameters are always good. I do a 30% water change and vacuum the gravel weekly. Tank is never overstocked (couldn't keep that many alive to overstock it anyway )
For the past month or two I've been down to one Dalmation Molly. Decided not to go get any more fish for a while, and just let him be by himself. I was going to wait and find a LFS to buy from instead of going to Petsmart like I usually do, hoping maybe the fish would be healthier and I'd have better luck. But, at this point, I don't think I can assume it's just that I'm getting unhealthy fish from Petsmart... plenty of other people keep their fish alive for a reasonable lifespan.
What spurred this post is that last night the Dalmation Molly died. BF told me he saw him swimming kind of wobbly Tuesday night, so I was looking him over and couldn't see anything wrong. It looked like *maybe* his little bottom fin could be clamped a bit. So, I threw in some Tetra Lifeguard tabs I had to see if that helped. Last night, dead.
Now for the important question. Now, I have an empty tank. BF thinks I should clean out the whole tank and start fresh. I hate to start from scratch, but is it a good idea? Could something bad have been lurking in my tank all this time? I am thinking of all that good bacteria I have on my decor and little ceramic rings and cringe to think of letting them just go to waste.
I set up my tank in February and have lost a number of fish in that time. I can write off a few, dying immediately after they came home as being sick from the store. But, my main problem is fish that live 3-4 months or longer, and randomly die with no signs of disease or stress.
My parameters are always good. I do a 30% water change and vacuum the gravel weekly. Tank is never overstocked (couldn't keep that many alive to overstock it anyway )
For the past month or two I've been down to one Dalmation Molly. Decided not to go get any more fish for a while, and just let him be by himself. I was going to wait and find a LFS to buy from instead of going to Petsmart like I usually do, hoping maybe the fish would be healthier and I'd have better luck. But, at this point, I don't think I can assume it's just that I'm getting unhealthy fish from Petsmart... plenty of other people keep their fish alive for a reasonable lifespan.
What spurred this post is that last night the Dalmation Molly died. BF told me he saw him swimming kind of wobbly Tuesday night, so I was looking him over and couldn't see anything wrong. It looked like *maybe* his little bottom fin could be clamped a bit. So, I threw in some Tetra Lifeguard tabs I had to see if that helped. Last night, dead.
Now for the important question. Now, I have an empty tank. BF thinks I should clean out the whole tank and start fresh. I hate to start from scratch, but is it a good idea? Could something bad have been lurking in my tank all this time? I am thinking of all that good bacteria I have on my decor and little ceramic rings and cringe to think of letting them just go to waste.