Learning How Much I Need to Learn. :/

[Guffy]

"Get guppies! They're easy! You just dump them in." I was told. And stupidly I believed it. A google search for the question of how much to feed them lead me on a long journey of "OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO KILL MY FISH". (I knew to use water conditioner to remove chlorine, that I needed a filter and a heater. And... That I needed to feed them.. And not much else. Because. You know. I took the advice of someone that I later found out feels it's perfectly acceptable to just buy new guppies every month or two. *cringe*

I've had them for a week now and no dead fish yet. I now know about cycling the tank. I have filter media from an established tank that is in the filter. I have live plants which apparently like to consume ammonia. I'm doing daily water tests and so far the ammonia is at zero. I dosed the aquarium with stress coat.

I also found out that apparently the pet store sold me a guppy with fin rot, which has improved in the past few days when I was trying to find out what it was. I'm trying to find out if I should dose the aquarium with antibiotics or not if the fin rot seems to be getting better? (All three of my fish are seeming better. When I first got them they were having a seriously hard time swimming in the current of the filter- now they play in it and explore the tank.

I'm seriously annoyed with myself for just taking the advice of this "fish person" without looking into things myself. My excuse is that my sister had an aquarium when she was growing up and did the same thing- swapped out fish whenever they died. I had no idea fish had a longer life expectancy.

Anyway.. I'm looking forward to learning everything I should have learned BEFORE I bought fish. :/

*edited:

I have a 10-long (I'm told it's called)
3 fancy male guppies
5 ghost shrimp
Aqueon Quietflow10
Small airstone w/ a pump
Small heater (keeps tank at 75)
Gravel at the bottom
Lilies, java fern and some tall grass-like plant that were grown in the tank before it had fish. (The tank was growing plants for a few months before we got fish.)

 

[redsea]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Dragonwolf]

Welcome to the forum. I'm new here too.

The stress coat is probably what is improving the fin rot. If they are getting better then I don't think you need to worry about medicating with anything else. But I'm fairly new to the whole aquarium hobby myself, so I could be wrong. I've just done a LOT of research.

 

[Matt68005]

Guppies are not a easy fish at all, despite what people say. Years of inbreeding and lots of generations (they live about 1-1.5 years ) means that in the 50 years we have been inbreeding them, they've probably had 100 generations of fish. Livebearers in particular are sensitive to fin rot, which is not that serious on a male if theres no white fuzzy stuff on the fins or body. You can try melafix/primafix to help his tail heal. If the females start to come down with it, its a sign of a serious disease called Flexibar Columnaris. The best thing to do is keep the water clean. Antibiotics work sometimes, but they must be a Gram negative antibiotic, or a combo of them. Furan-2, Maracyn-2, and Erythomicyn will work sometimes. If you have a lot of fish the best treatment for this disease is to lower water temp, do a big water change, use an antibiotic as directed, and use medicated food only 2x a day small amounts. This is what I have personally found to be the best way to combat this disease. But im not trying to freak you out, Females are more suppetible to this disease, males seem to pull through unless its a bad case.

 

[Ian086]

"Get guppies! They're easy! You just dump them in." I was told. And stupidly I believed it. A google search for the question of how much to feed them lead me on a long journey of "OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO KILL MY FISH". (I knew to use water conditioner to remove chlorine, that I needed a filter and a heater. And... That I needed to feed them.. And not much else. Because. You know. I took the advice of someone that I later found out feels it's perfectly acceptable to just buy new guppies every month or two. *cringe*

I've had them for a week now and no dead fish yet. I now know about cycling the tank. I have filter media from an established tank that is in the filter. I have live plants which apparently like to consume ammonia. I'm doing daily water tests and so far the ammonia is at zero. I dosed the aquarium with stress coat.

I also found out that apparently the pet store sold me a guppy with fin rot, which has improved in the past few days when I was trying to find out what it was. I'm trying to find out if I should dose the aquarium with antibiotics or not if the fin rot seems to be getting better? (All three of my fish are seeming better. When I first got them they were having a seriously hard time swimming in the current of the filter- now they play in it and explore the tank.

I'm seriously annoyed with myself for just taking the advice of this "fish person" without looking into things myself. My excuse is that my sister had an aquarium when she was growing up and did the same thing- swapped out fish whenever they died. I had no idea fish had a longer life expectancy.

Anyway.. I'm looking forward to learning everything I should have learned BEFORE I bought fish. :/

*edited:

I have a 10-long (I'm told it's called)
3 fancy male guppies
5 ghost shrimp
Aqueon Quietflow10
Small airstone w/ a pump
Small heater (keeps tank at 75)
Gravel at the bottom
Lilies, java fern and some tall grass-like plant that were grown in the tank before it had fish. (The tank was growing plants for a few months before we got fish.)

Hey, don't beat yourself up. You made a very common but an understandable mistake!!. You would imagine you can trust what the 'fish person' tells you but unfortunately that is not always the case. I don't like bashing lfs because we can't/shouldn't do that. There are many, many good, knowledgeable staff who work in these stores and i think they get a raw deal. I'm not suggesting you are doing this but you are rightly pointing out a problem that new people to this great hobby have. I would suggest you try and find a local independent store, if possible. I find these so much easier and better to work with. The staff also usually share the passion that we have for our fish and it is in their best interests to 'help' as they need our trade when trying to compete with the 'big boys'. I have a great relationship with my lfs, he is very knowledgeable and will not just sell any fish to anyone. He asks for info for their tank and then recommends what they can purchase. When i first set-up, before i found this forum, he refused to sell me fish before i cycled correctly or sell me non-compatible fish etc etc. It really pays to get to know the staff. He even calls over for a cup of tea on his way home and drops me in treats(samples) or delivers fish. I live in a small town, 5 mins from the store!!!. I know this is not possible in a large town or city but you can still build a good relationship with them...
The best thing is that you realize that we, the customer, also have to educate ourselves on what we are putting into our aquariums. That is one of the joys of this hobby, gaining knowledge and learning from mistakes.
It is good news that you didn't lose any fish. A good tip that someone gave me is, if your at the store and need info on anything Aquatic, just google it or use the mobile app for this forum. It pays to do your homework before going and avoid the impulse buy at the store(especially fish!!).
Joining this forum is the best thing i have done, after buying my tank of course..haha.
You sound like you are on your way to having a happy, healthy Aquarium. You will get great help from people on this forum and there are many very experienced, knowledgeable and helpful people on here who are always more than willing to help out anyone, especially new comers....
Never be afraid to post a question, even if you think it might be silly, as other people might be wondering the same but don't post, so you might not be the only one getting help. That's what this forum is all about, helping and sharing our passion...
Best of Luck with you new hobby(obsession!!), hope everthing works out well with your new tank..... Ian

 

[Convict2161]

Welcome to the family

 

[54seaweed]

welcome to AA
this is a good forum to learn
don't be afraid to ask questions
everyone here will try to help you as much as they can

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Welcome to AA! We hope you enjoy

 

[Guffy]

Thanks for the welcomes and the information!

Tomorrow I am celebrating one week of "I haven't killed anything yet". Ammonia is starting to show up on my tests (Ammonia test kit. The little thing with a test tube and the 8 drops from bottles one and 8 drops from bottle two). I know that no ammonia is good and did a 25% water change yesterday. Am going to test again and do another 25% change today. (yesterday the level had spiked to 1ppm overnight. Today it is down to .25 and I will be doing another water change starting in an hour.)

The fin rot on my blue guppy has almost cleared up, the guppies are swimming much better and my filter is now running full speed. (When I first got them they hated even slow flow from the filter and kept trying to jump out of the aquarium. Now they play in the current and then go to the quieter parts of the aquarium) I was able to turn the small airstone on as well and they spend a lot of time swimming up and down in the bubbles. The shrimp like to ride the bubbles to the top and try to steal food from the fish. I'm starting to become fond of these guys.

 

[Regz8000]

Hey and welcome!

Many aquatics shops do this as they don't care for the fish and don't know anything they have little to no knowledge usually so the best thing todo is find a fish shop you trust and that care for their fish because they will last much longer and they deserve customers unlike many. Just don't buy any more fish, make sure you care for the ones you have and if you have / get a test kit ( wouldn't get the strips) and just keep an eye on everything and make sure you don't have any mini cycles

 

[Guffy]

Yep, no more fish until I make sure I can keep these guys alive and until the tank is fully cycled.

Got the ammonia test kit already. (test tube, drops from two bottles, shake, compare shade of yellow-to-green) I just need to get the other test kits as well (currently have the "5 in 1 strips".)

Gotta find me a good local fish store in NJ. I do not want to go back to a MegaPetStore again.

 

[Regz8000]

Glad to hear that, luckily the fish shop near me are the best in my whole area and are so helpful and I been going there for the best part of 13 years and I'm the longest running marine member and they are the most helpful people other than aa and sometimes they 'miscount' the fish so I get an extra one. Lol but I'm glad to hear your fish are doing well and really a nice api test kit is all you need, I have the master but prefer the cheaper one

 

[Guffy]

I just wanted to thank everyone and let everyone know that aside from one ghost shrimp casualty (I think it was dying already when I got it because it was less clear than the other shrimp) my aquarium seems to have cycled (ammonia has been at zero for nearly a week now and nitrates are present.) I'm still keeping on top of the testing.

The fish and shrimp are doing awesome, the fin rot is completely gone, the shrimp have become crystal clear (they were looking sort of muddy when I first got them) and I can see which shrimp are male vs female because now that they're transparent I can see the red bands that supposedly mean "male".

A healthy aquarium is awesome!

 

[Pearly]

Wow! Your story sounds a lot like mine! I just joined in few days ago and have limited time for reading all the posts and articles on this site, but so far have found tons of great information on how to get my new hobby started. Mine was by default (entire story in my intro) but I'm finding this fascinating and lots of fun, and don't mind the work and some expense that goes with it. I can already tell that you will be very successful with your tank. Take care