What's wrong with my nursery tank?

[Lauren1712]

Hiya!!!

Our tank contains alot of live bearing fish, including balloon mollies, platys, swordtails and guppies.
Although we haven't had our tank very long they seem to be breeding at a fast rate.

Our balloon molly gave birth to 18 fry which we reared in a small net in the main tank. We then decided to buy a nursary tank as the swordtail got pregnant and we didn't think we'd have enough room to rear another net full of fry in the main tank.

The nursary tank was from a small pet shop in our town which came with gravel, small filter and aqua safe goldfish). We did call them and ask if the tetra safe they'd sold to us was ok to use for tropical fish; and it was.

We set up the tank with warm tap water and the aqua safe for goldfish, added a heater we'd brought seperately. We waited for the water to get up to temperature, left it for a few hours to settle, tested the water (which tested ok) and added the fry (by this point they were 4 weeks old).

We went out for the evening, came back and every single one was dead. I was absolutely gutted!!!!

I then tested the water, which indicated that it needed aquasafe due to chlorine levels in the water. I left it for an hour, re-tested and the water was fine. I then put the pregnant balloon molly into the nursery tank (as we were told the babie may have died from the transition from the big tank). The next morning the mother was dead.

I just can't understand what could be wrong as the water tests absolutely fine and the temperature is fine too.

Could anyone give me any suggestions on what could be the problem and how we could manage similar situations in the future?

Thank u xxx

 

[mfdrookie516]

did you rinse everything thoroughly before filling it up? before you add fish to any tank, it needs to be cycled. of course just having them in there for that short amount of time wouldnt cause any issues, after a few days, ammonia would start building up and without closely monitoring it, especially with fry, you would have the same outcome as you do now. One other note, that tetra safe dechlorinator does not work where i live... every privately owned lfs has a big sign up saying not to use it because it does not remove the chlorine or chloramine in the water around here... they also dont sell it. Also, did you acclimate the fish to the new tank?

 

[Lauren1712]

yes we rinsed the gravel before putting it in the tank.
not sure if that's the same here with the aqua safe.... but we've always been told by places we've brought fish from and from friends that have an aquarium to use it.... plus our big tank has been fine- it's just this small one we're having problems setting up.

no we didnt acclimate them..... so maybe that was it. Somebody did tell us it was probably the move that killed them.
However, I did acclimate the pregnant molly that I put in after we'd tried the babies, so not sure why she died??

 

[EscVelocity]

Are you using test strips or a liquid test kit? If you are using the strips, they are usually inaccurate. I would suggest buying a liquid test kit like the API Master Freshwater Kit.
Your tank probably isn't cycled at all. Especially if you had a reading for chlorine more than four hours after setting up your tank. Chlorine will kill your biological filtration.

 

[Lauren1712]

yeah we've always used the test strips..... will get a liquid testing kit then.

Thanks very much for your advice.

Will hopefully have some swordtail babies soon but won't be rushing them into the nursery tank until it's 100% ready!!!

 

[mfdrookie516]

go splurge $20 on an API master fw test kit... it will be your best friend

 

[Lauren1712]

really sorry but not sure what API master kit is..... could you explain???

and not too sure if they tend to sell different brands of aquarium products in different countries!

 

[mfdrookie516]

API_Master_freshwater_test_kit