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Original poster

One of my fish died last night .. is this the beginning of the end

30 replies

Twiglett · 08/06/2007 10:01

all the others seem quite happy .. its been 11 days since they were put in the (uncycled) tank .. I've been changing 10% of water most days (although not for the last 2 days) .. and 50% of water every couple of days

I did change the filter day before yesterday ..was that a mistake?

OP posts:
Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 10:02

that should be 50% water every 5 days or so

OP posts:
mumfor1standfinaltime · 08/06/2007 10:04

I wouldn't change the water that often. You haven't said what sort of fish though. We have coldwater fish and change water (10%) about once a week.
We had a goldfish die a few months ago, he was huge and about 7 years old, the others are still ok!

NoodleStroodle · 08/06/2007 10:05

I think you are changing your water too much.

We change 50% water every fortnight and rinse filter in the old water.

soapbox · 08/06/2007 10:06

Snap - one of ours snuffed it too!

DS wants to do a burial ceremony when he gets back from school - what joy!

You can get a water testing kit which we use now and again to test that the water is okay.

Gingerbear · 08/06/2007 10:08

what type of fish?
How many?
How big is the tank (in litres)?
Have you measured the pH/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels? You need to test and make sure the ammonia and nitrite levels are nice and low.

I think you need to leave the filter to build up the bacteria, also, always use tank water when changing the filter - never tap water as the chlorine kills off the good bugs.

try searching on www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc for lots of good advice.

A squeeze of mucky sponge from an established tank would help your filter bacteria colony to build up quicker. Do you know anyone nearby with a fish tank? or even persuade the pet shop to part with some gunk?

NoodleStroodle · 08/06/2007 10:09

Burial? Waste disposal surely....

Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 10:17

see the problem was we put them in an uncycled tank to begin with so after internet searching were told the water changing trick

I think I fecked up with the filter changing (it looked black . .but that's good isn't it?)

twas a guppy that died .. with a lovely black tail

don't know anyone with a fish tank

need to get the fishy testing thing

OP posts:
Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 10:17

oh and pet shop was an hour away .. must find local one

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Gingerbear · 08/06/2007 10:23

guppies are not very tough fish to cycle a tank unfortunately
Go to pets at home and for about £17 you can get an API Test kit that does all the tests you need - seems a lot of dosh, but mine has lasted over 18 months and still lots of tests left (I test once a week now my tank is established.)

How many fish in your tank? you might have a problem with ammonia build up if there are too many.

Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 10:24

10 make that 9 guppies
5 minnows
1 sucky-fish

OP posts:
Gingerbear · 08/06/2007 10:24

black filter is good - bacteria building up. I gently squeeze out my filter every fortnight.

Gingerbear · 08/06/2007 10:26

How big is the tank?

I think you might have too many. Minnows are good - they are tough fish, but I think you may lose some guppies - can you take them back to the pet shop and say the tank is no where near ready for all the fish that you were sold. (this makes me cross, the pet shops should know about cycling tanks, and that guppies are not good fish for new tanks)

pointydog · 08/06/2007 10:43

uh-oh

The curse of the loach.

Nearly all fish threads end this way. Don't take it to heart.

wannaBe · 08/06/2007 11:00

firstly, the water changing is fine for an uncycled tank. Dh has recently aquired a fish tank (photo anyone? ) and he has done tons and tons of reading up on it, visiting geeky fishkeeping forums and reading practical fishkeeping plus several other internet sites and books on the subject before even getting the tank.

it is recommended that you change between 10-20% of the water for the first few weeks of an uncycled tank. EVERY DAY THAT IS, AND APPROX 50% ONCE A WEEK. The reason for this is that there isn't any bacteria in your tank to deal with the amonia levels caused by the fish waste, so you get rid of the amonia levels by changing the water.
Once you've had the tank a week or so you should test the water for amonia and this will give an indication as to whether the bacteria is forming. The bacteria forms on the filter, the rocks, the plants, the gravel, not in the water, so by changing the water you're not removing essential bacteria, only removing unwanted waste.

Once the amonia levels and nitrite levels are at 0, you have the right bacteria in place and need to change the water less often.

Fish die dometimes. we lost two of our guppies in the first week but have had the tank for about 7 weeks now and apart from a problem when we lost a load of our tetras things are going fine now.

hth.

Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 12:13

clutches wannabe to marmitey breast for saying the right thing

OP posts:
Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 12:14

I would really like you to take that photo by the way

OP posts:
wannaBe · 08/06/2007 13:44

photo is on my mobile! now what do I do with it now?

Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 13:45

snort

I dunno .. could start a thread asking for techy help I suppose

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wannaBe · 08/06/2007 13:48

are rest of the fish ok? have you changed any water today?

do you think guppy had been dead long before you discovered it - if so you might want to change extra water as nitrate level will be high - when our two guppies died we think they'd been in the tank a couple of days (mith that fish always float to the top when they die) and the nitrate level was sky high so dh had to change about 50% of the water, which takes ages as the tank holds 240 litres.

Original poster
Twiglett · 08/06/2007 13:49

rest of fish seem ok

have been changing water about 3 hours after I fed them - should I do it beforehand?

think the fish could only have been dead a matter of hours

OP posts:
wannaBe · 08/06/2007 13:51

no that's fine, you should only be feeding them as much food as they can eat in 5 minutes - if there's any left then you are overfeeding them. We actually witnessed one of our tetras die - it was horrid and all the other pish gathered round it and harrassed it till dh got it in the net where it could die in peace.

lailasmum · 08/06/2007 13:53

I change about 10-20% of my tank every one to two weeks. My fish are happy bunnies and growing like mad. There are only three of them though in a huge tank so they don't, get that messy. I change the filter at the same time as changing water and soak the new filter pad thingys in the old water.

LieselVentouse · 08/06/2007 14:20

I just have two big ones in quite a big tank so we dont feed them much and we dont have to change the water that often as a result. Not sure about having more than that

Nbg · 08/06/2007 14:21

Oh no!
I was hoping this wasnt your thread

twinsetandpearls · 08/06/2007 14:24

WE only change ours every 2 weeks and we have guppies that are fine, infact they seem to be blissfully happy as they are breeding like - well like guppies I suppose.

I lost all of my coldwater fish after buying a diseaed fish as well as loosing two gouramis after being told it would be fine with guppies but they killed them both.