The lights of the tank should be switched off and the bag containing the new fish should be floated for at least mins to allow the temperature to balance. In this position, you can safely "dip" the bag to allow small amounts of tank water to mix in with the bagged transport water.
When the bag is full or nearly full, you can carefully tip the contents out and allow the fish to swim directly into the tank, or alternatively, remove the bag and gently pour the water and the fish through a net into a small bucket. The fish will catch in the net, while the mixed transport water ends up in the bucket. You can then safely add the fish to the tank.
Ask at your local Maidenhead aquatics about our exclusive Fintro introduction unit for an easy way to provide an automatic "soft" introduction. Fish View Products. Small Animal View Products.
Reptile View Products. Bird View Products. About us Today's Pet has been family owned and operated since with a single location serving Elkridge, Columbia and the surrounding areas from Annapolis to Westminster and have more than 30 years experience in the pet industry. It is intended to help you diagnose and correct the problems that are leading to the death of your fish, whether your tank is new or established. This is a long article, so here is a quick list of topics it will discuss.
You can scroll down to learn more about each. I listed stress a first here. However, just about everything else in this article causes stress for your fish, in one way or another. It is the most common cause of death for aquarium fish, and managing stress is a key part of keeping your fish healthy. But how can you know if your fish are stressed? If you see any of these signs in one or more of your fish it is time to find out why and make a change.
The rest of this article can help you figure that out. Gouramis can be territorial and bully others of their kind. In really bad situations the deaths could occur overnight, but typically they will happen over a few days or a week.
A healthy tank also has a vibrant microscopic bacteria colony. They live all over the tank but are most concentrated in the gravel and filter. These microorganisms help to break down the waste in the tank and keep the water healthy. They have a symbiotic relationship with the fish. Without the fish and their food , the bacteria colony declines. Without the bacteria, the water quickly becomes unsuitable for the fish.
The two must be kept in balance for a healthy tank. In a brand-new tank, there is no microbe colony yet. There are several ways to do this, and you may have received instructions with your new tank. Only once the tank is cycled should fish be added. Adding too many fish at a time can also cause problems as well, even in a properly cycled tank. The microbes need time to grow with the number of fish and other inhabitants in your tank. Therefore, if you intend to have 20 fish in your tank eventually, add four or five a week over several weeks and give the bacteria colony time to keep up.
There are two ways to go about choosing an aquarium. The first is to decide on a tank based on the space you have, and then stock it with appropriate fish. The second is to decide which fish you want, research their requirements, and then get the right size tank for their needs. Unfortunately, what some novice aquarium owners do is a combination of both. They get a tank based on the space they have and then buy inappropriate fish without understanding their needs.
This can lead to big problems in your tank, and the loss of some beautiful fish. This means each gallon of water in your tank can safely house one inch of adult fish. So, for example, if you have a ten-gallon tank, you can have five two-inch fish. This works okay for little fish like neons and guppies, but it is soon clear that, as a rule, it really makes no sense. Would you keep a twenty-inch fish in a twenty-gallon tank? Would you keep one eight-inch and two one-inch fish in a ten-gallon?
Would you keep a pair of fish each over two feet long in a gallon tank? You purchase them as small juveniles, and they grow into monsters. Always do your research before you purchase! Whether you buy a tank first or decide on fish first, either way, it is important to understand the needs of the fish you intend to stock.
This is a problem often seen when bettas are kept in tiny aquariums , but it can happen in any tank. Many species of pleco become require very large aquariums. Some fish are territorial and will chase any other fish in their claimed area. Some fish are aggressive and should only be kept with other fish that can defend themselves. Some fish are fine with other types of fish, but can potentially have issues with others of their own kind. This is why it is so important to research a fish before purchase, so you are sure they are a fit for your tank.
Sometimes it can be hard to know, and it is worth it to take your time. The situation is made worse by pet stores and their employees who sometimes give erroneous advice on care needs and compatibility. I learned this lesson the hard way myself.
Years ago I purchased a pair of juvenile green spotted puffers from a pet store that told me they were freshwater community fish.
In actuality, I found out, they are ferocious little killing machines with complex care requirements. Thankfully I got them out of my pretty community tank before they demolished anyone. The positive of that experience was that I learned a lot about puffers. I re-homed one and got a tank for the other where I kept him alone in a brackish setup.
But it could have been much worse. Kind of, but really it was my own stupid fault. I should have done my homework before buying.
In aquarium care, we sometimes learn tough lessons. One of the reasons I write these articles is to help you avoid doing some of the dumb things I have done! Bad water equals dead fish. Keeping the water healthy for your aquarium inhabitants is one of the most important things you can do to avoid premature death for your fish.
It is smart to have a testing kit so you know where you stand with your waster parameters. These kits typically measure ammonia, nitrates, nitrate, and pH. For a freshwater community tank you want to strive to keep your ammonia and nitrite levels at zero, and your nitrates below 20 ppm.
It is smart to know the pH reading for your water source as well as your tank itself. While there are ways to naturally or chemically alter the pH in your tank, in some cases you are best off dealing with the hand you are dealt. However, all fish can suffer from swings up or down, so it is important to try to keep a steady pH level. Then, you have to figure out why and what to do about it. Getting these two things right goes a long way toward keeping your tank healthy and your water parameters in good shape.
Fragile tropical fish require clean, healthy water to thrive. Feed your fish once per day and as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Choose a quality flake food, or several and alternate them. Also make sure to include sinking pellets for the scavengers, and algae wafers for plecos, otos, and the like.
Go easy on special foods and only offer them sparingly. Some fishkeepers like to include veggies, thawed frozen foods like blood worms, or freeze-dried foods. Overfeeding is one of the biggest problems in fish tanks, especially smaller ones.
I plan to do a WC the day before my surgery next week, and hopefully the water will be ok for about 3 weeks. Fortunately, the tank is close to my front door. If I do 2G and empty the bucket by dragging it to the door, do another 2 G, etc until I reach 10G, I should be ok and able to handle that. Aquaclear, or whoever makes the aquaclear filter and supplies that go with it. Not exact a slouch company! That all sounds positive. I hope it all goes smoothly for you. The advantage of these smaller tanks is that there is less water for you to change.
I hope you recover well! On the biomedia front, aquaclear is one of the brands that has changed their ceramic rings multiple times. Unfortunately, most aquarium manufacturers these days move away from what is best towards what has the most profit margin for them. For instance, Aqueon used to be an amazing brand, making many products in italy. Now their products are some of the worst performing on the market with incredibly poor quality control.
I have a 15G with a divider and a betta on each side. The tank is fairly heavily planted. Substrate has bacteria in it, there is bacteria media in the filter. Plants are showing new growth. My nitrates and nitrites results have been 0 from day 1. The 20G has the same water parameters, same filter, substrate. It was without fish for 5 weeks. Then I added 3 dwarf neon blue gouramis.
A week later I added a pair of guppies. The 2 guppies seem to be doing ok. What I did wrong I realize now, was adding room temperature water to the tank. The tank temperature dropped from a balmy 79 to I have at least 2 issues. Why have there not been any spikes in nitrates and nitrites this whole time? Even with fish in both tanks, they still test 0. How many days before I can consider my guppies safe from the sudden drop in temperature? Thanks for your help. If your nitrates are at zero then something is wrong.
In a healthy cycled tank. Typically, nitrates continue to rise until you perform a water change to help get the levels back down. First, What are you using to test your aquarium? For most people, I recommend the API master test kit, it will last for years and has everything most tanks need. Test strips are not accurate. Next, you want to make sure you read the tests in natural daylight, indoor lighting can cause the colors to be off and give an incorrect result.
This is just as important as nitrite and nitrate. Otherwise If you have a filter media such as zeolite or an additive that removes ammonia or nitrite, then this could be the reason no nitrite or nitrate has been detected. You were so right. Those test strips are worthless.
Add bacteria in a bottle to both tanks? Or add de-ammonia solution, or both? Everybody in both tanks seem to be doing fine this morning. Unfortunately, your tank is uncycled. But the good news is your ammonia levels are low, which is where you want to keep them in order to keep your fish safe. For how to best move forward, I recommend reading this fish-in cycle guide. It will take you through the steps to keeping your fish safe throught the cycling process.
Also, I recommend testing your tap water before you add it to your tank. However, some people do have this amount in their tap water.
If your tap water does measure 5 ppm, this becomes the new baseline for nitrates in your tank, instead of zero. Thanks for all of that. Fortunately, I have a ml bottle of Prime, which I believe will be enough to get me through this with both tanks. I also have a box of droppers marked in increments of. I have reverse osmosis water because of awful tasting well water. I tested the nitrate out of the tap as you suggested and it was 0 ppm.
Also, why do you say this process is hard on the fish? Thank you again. Are you able to call in a neighbor, friend or family while you are recovering? Water changes are the most direct solution if something goes wrong, or if you need to drop the ammonia and nitrite to a point where the seachem prime can once again deal with them. Soft water which RO water is can cause pH to bounce around, which is yet another thing that can stress out fish. I have a guide on that too:.
The process is hard on fish because in an ideal world, we would be on top of things. However, you have caught this while your ammonia is low, so there is a good chance your fish will make it out the other end! While this is uncommon, I have seen it happen enough times to mention it. It goes from 0. Nitrites and nitrates are negative, pH is 6. I am very careful about not over feeding. Is there a different brand that is more accurate?
Thanks for any help you can give. If you are using the API liquid test kit, then it should be perfectly fine. While it IS possible that you have a faulty test, in my opinion it would be very unlikely. I am experienced — decades of keeping reef tanks, planted tanks, all sorts. A couple years ago I established a 3 gallon fish bowl with no filtration, heater, or even an air stone. I set it up in my kitchen and did weekly water changes from my planted discus tank with zero nitrates.
With this success, I set up another bowl, but at my office — too far for water changes from the established tanks. Instead, I use tap water treated with Prime. Everything else is the same.
Yet this fish keep dying. What is your expert view on this? There are a LOT of factors that are come into play here, from the right temperature From aircon causing larger than expected temperature fluctuations to the pipes in the building they could be contaminated.
Thanks for the reply. Following on the assumption that Prime was eliminating oxygen from the water column I added a small air pump with airstone and immediately the fish perked up and have been thriving ever since. They are now eating food as well. Simply put, I think the airstone adds oxygen and water movement that was missing previously and this seems to have changed the bowl for the better.
Thanks for updating me! Today we bought 4 koi fish while we are visiting someone and we live an hour from where our pond is. One of the koi died after about 3 hours in a bucket. Can anyone help me with obout why it died and what caused it?? I need answers we payd alot and could loose all our spended money in a matter of a day. One of my tanks is being overrun with pond snails.
I was trying to keep them under control by netting them out, and one weekend I must have gathered about of them.. I felt it was probably stressing out my fish to keep going in there with a net, so I bought 3 assassin snails. Is there anything I can use to get rid of them? I understand no Planaria nor panacur will eradicate them, but will harm the good snails. Are there any fish that might eat them that get along well with guppies, or is there a medication that will clean up my tank?
An population explosion means that they have an abundance of food. Are you performing regular maintenance? Over feeding could also be the issue since any uneaten food becomes snail food. In a properly maintained tank, assassin snails should be more than effective at keeping the population down. My betta died after having her for one year, my poor little Rihanna was stressed with her new inhabitants, upgraded tank and plants that were not quarantined. After reading this I can definitely see where I went wrong.
Buying guppies and just adding them in there with her, what was I thinking? My family felt so bad for me. I have a new tank coming and am definitely following the cycling rule I was not truly aware of. I just let her sit in the new tank immediately! Oh if only I could go back in time, I have made peace with myself and learned from my mistakes as a beginner.
Thank you for this wonderful helpful guide to help all Aquarium hobbyist out, we truly appreciate it Lan. Im having the same problem i think. Buy a better filter. I love aqua clear. And if ur tank isnt stable I would only and 1.
The bacteria likely will have its work cut out for it with just one goldfish. Hi Ian, I have a 28 litre tank which has been going for about a year. After starting with guppies and losing all but one gradually, I bought 6 neon tetras and all has been well for about 3 months. Last week I bought 3 ember tetras to add to the tank. I also bought a replacement filter cartridge and cleaned and replaced that after adding in the new fish.
Within a day, 2 of the embers had died, so I went back to get another 5 to make the remaining one feel more secure. It was too tall so I trimmed off the top but it made a big mess when I put it is the tank — little bits everywhere! I think the neons were eating it. Around this time the last ember died. The next night I found all but one of my neons were also dead. I checked the water — all the usual readings. I fished out all the dead neons then did a quarter water change and found 2 of the dead embers.
Next day my last neon died, but my guppy seemed okay so I bought 8 more neons to keep him company. This morning my guppy is dead, new neons still swimming. I am worried for my new fish, and if they die, what action to take from there, do I need to empty and clean the tank and start again? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks! I think you need to test your aquarium and read up on the nitrogen cycle as per reason one in the guide above.
Thanks for your reply. I do test my water regularly with a kit I bought from the pet store. All the readings were as normal after the neons died.
Anyway, thanks for replying, I will do another water check in a few days going away for a few days, so my daughter is in charge. Maybe my new neons will survive and all will be okay! Thanks again! Hi Ian, sorry for the late reply, we are away. Our ph was 8. These are the same readings I get every fortnight when I test the water. Well, sometimes nitrate is 0, and sometimes ammonia is clearly 0.
Since my original comment, 5 of my new neons have died, only 3 left. I have just had my daughter test the water again, and she says ph is now still 8.
Not looking good for the future of my tank! Generally speaking, tetra thrive in pH just less than 7. Also, when you add new fish to your tank, do you drip acclimate them? Failing to do so can lead to death weeks or months later. When you say you cycled the tank for a week, did you do it correctly using ammonia and test to ensure that ammonia and nitrite were at zero with elevated nitrates?
I only ask as a week cycle is incredibly short unless you have taken specific measures to speed the cycle up. What does your water test return for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph?
I got my fishtank yesterday. Also in the morning the others were swimming on the top surface of the tank I am not understanding the reason for it. I started losing several guppies almost daily. I had under 0. I added prime and BB daily. I started dosing with maracyn but they kept dying.
Interestingly, I had 10 8-wk old fry in that tank and none of them died. The fry are also still alive and growing. Something about that tank killed them. My question is, can I soak the HOB filter, the sponge filter and heater in a bleach solution?
Or is really hot water enough? Is hydrogen peroxide an option? Can I add plants before the tank is cycled or should I wait until after. Or should I just throw the plants out and get new ones? Could enough junk and dirt build up polluting the water? I lost 15 guppies. I feel so bad for those innocent little guppies. Sorry for the delayed reply, the messaging system on the backend screwed up and everything came through at once today.
A h and hotwater solution is totally fine. Both bleach and h run the risk of discoloring, so be careful here. You can even use hotwater and soap, but if you do, make sure you rinse incredibly thoroughly. Sponge filter is best replaced rather than cleaned. H dip is my preferred option although bleach works well. Also, leaves only and be mindful that some plants need a really low concentration, so dilute if necessary — for example, B.
Japonica will melt in all but really low concentrations. Plants can absolutely be added before a tank is cycled. If I was in your shoes, I would try and save the plants. A h2o2 dip should be fine. If the 3d background is the only thing different, then it is certainly possible that is the cause. Depending on the quality, it could also be leeching chemicals in the past there have been some dodgy chinese backgrounds going around but that is just a theory.
Hang in there, I know it sucks starting again but look on the bright side — this is an opportunity to set up a tank in a new style that you might have not otherwise had the opportunity to do.
Thanks for the support, Ian. I soaked the roots in the bleach solution. And I can move the tank as well. I have noticed the 3D background is changing colors in some areas. I bought this from Universal Rocks in Texas. My pregnant red albino was in one tank about to have babies.
This was around Christmas. After a day or so, that baby was gone, I put the female back in the main tank. I unplugged the heater and filter. I got him out, slowly acclimated him to the fry tank adding fry tank water to a cup he was in with his tank water, leaving him in the cup for about 30 minutes until both waters were the same temperature. How he survived with no filter, heat, food, WC for about 2 months is beyond me.
Strange…the stuff you work at fails, the stuff you do nothing with succeeds….. I know this has been a horrible experience but there are lots of positives here, especially discovering the baby in the filter — I have my fingers crossed that he pulls through. They need to be stirred every so often.
A quick tip for using a gravel cleaner here — tape a chopstick to the side of the tube so it protrudes out the end. This way the chopstick stirs up the sand and any poop and other stuff floats up towards the vac. Hi Ian! I stumbled on your blog and have learned a great deal from it. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with a noobie like me. We started out with a gold fish for my three year old son and things went great for a while. The water never clouded up like it has for our new tank more on that in a minute.
Regrettably we lost both fish soon after. I think that was probably because they were in a 5 gallon tank which was too small for two fish. Once again we got the tank up and running, excited to add new fish. Unfortunately I made the newbie mistake of only letting the filter run for 24 hours before adding the new fish. They lasted for a while but after a month or so, they started dying off. While the poor fish were stressed out of their minds, we started having issues with cloudy water.
Water Clearer would help but after we stopped using it, the foggy water would come back. Then we tried adding a Plecko and some plants. Well the poor Plecko died and we found his bones being picked at by our GloShark. All the decayed tissues and plants of course exacerbated an already skewed ecosystem. Well this made the water Green Aquarium water that looks like pea soup. I went to the pet store today and they gave me Algaefix but after readying your blog about Green Aquarium water, I ordered a UV sanitizer light and will wait for that attempt before I start adding chemicals.
I can attest that this is correct. The strips made it seem like only the KH was a little low. However, the test tubes showed a very different story. The ammonia levels are too high as well… around 0. I will say that at least the Nitrite and Nitrate levels are good… Nitrites at 0 ppm and Nitrates at ppm give or take. I am concerned about the pH and the ammonia. I added the new filter a month ago Feb. We have cut back on how much they are fed. I think I mentioned but am not sure… we have two GloTetras in a 10 gallon tank.
Is there anything I can do to get the pH under control? However, I tried letting it go for two weeks to see if that would help with the cloudy water. I also use Tetra WaterClarifier when changing the water. Firstly, welcome to the hobby. I know this seems like a whole lot to take in but trust me, it definitely gets easier. I think the problems have come from the zig-zag approach you have taken — ideally you want the strips first so you know exactly what is happening with your tank.
The first thing you should do is test your tap water. Pour a glass, add some dechlorinator and leave it to sit for and hour. This will determine the quality of water you are dealing with.
For instance, cichlids prefer hard water. This will get your ammonia levels down. On the seachem stability vs quickstart, these are products that supposedly contain live bacteria. If so, it can kickstart algae growth and stress out your fish. One of those plug-in timers will allow you to schedule the lights. Fish need their darkness too! Hi, I love your blog. So my question is I had an Oranda and pearlscale in 55 gallon for 6 months and seemed to be thriving. I also had a betta in 10gallon.
I also have a 20 gallon with glo tetras that are doing great. So I purchased 3 more fancy goldfish online that was shipped. When they arrived I made the mistake of not quarantine them. A few days later I noticed ich on the fish.
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