what am i doing wrong?

[cjrom1022]

I’ve been having really bad luck with my fish lately. it started in the summer when i went away and my fish got ick. then one guppy became lethargic and got a bent spine. since then all my fish became lethargic, got bent spines, and died. i had 7 neon tetras and 3 guppies in one 20gal tank, and a beta in another 10gal tank. i’m left with one neon that will die soon, and one guppy that seemed to be doing well until today. when i woke up he was at the surface with his tail facing down. about a month ago i bleached the entire tank with the guppies and tetras because i wasn’t sure what else to do. the 10gal that the beta was in has nothing now because i still have to bleach it. is there any reason why everything just keeps dying? i want to get more fish but at this point i know everything is just going to die again. i’m very frustrated and i’m thinking about quitting the hobby because i’ve seen no success in months.

 

[Delapool]

The start of summer can find bacterial problems start and I remember without much fondness, two summers of hell. Tanks were fine in winter, blah in summer.

One is find a really good shop. If you got cases of ich and bacterial infection from a shop, shift shops imo.

Don’t let tank temps spike with heat waves (gradual increase is ok). Keep tanks clean. Keep substrate clean or go no substrate. Have a test kit.

Buy a short fin betta. Much easier to avoid fin rot. Congrats on the tank size by the way - that’s a great size. Try adding a low light plant like java fern which will use nitrates, etc.

Careful water changes to not shock fish. For the betta, I found it easier to put him in a container and then could do whatever to tank.

Neons I gave up on. Shift sick fish to a spare bucket hospital tank straight away. They will just infect other fish and small fish are harder to treat.

The good news is that as tanks mature, they should get more bullet proof.

 

[NonExistant]

Don’t give up ! I had horrible results with gravel and fake plants , my water quality was just terrible all the time but then I decided to go with actual live plants and go with some real plant substrate . Live Plants,snails, powerhead to circulate the water , 50% water changes a week , fertilizers , CO2 and nothing will ever die in your tank. I had the blue substrate on February 2017 and I changed the substrate to planted substrate around June 2017. My 20 gallon looks awesome ! I felt like giving up but then I gave the hobby another try and I don’t regret it at all