More aquarium help - a fishy died

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Morning peeps. Well I got up to feed the fish this morning and one of them was floating upside down at the bottom of the tank.

Since I've only had the little fellas for about 5 days, is there any way of knowing what killed him? The water temperature is 24 degrees, and I have been feeding them a small pinch of food twice a day. I'm watching the remaing 5 now, and 4 seem to be swimming in a group while the other one seems to be hanging back and not playing with the rest as much, could that be a sign that something is up?

Stupid fish.

[yzf750r]

sorry cant help but I though dead fish float! Was it not asleep?


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04 zx10r with mods - 187.4bhp at the wheel! :o

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Yeah, I was surprised that it hadn't floated to the surface either (it was floating about 2 inches off the bottom of the tank), but it was definitely dead.

Poor little fella.

[Sparks!]

It's a new tank, fish won't last long to start with, some will some won't but they normally die on a fresh tank set up thats why you put always put cheap fish in the tank first. I'd imagine your tank is fine mate, might be worth getting a water test kit, but as its a new tank and only 1 dead fish i wouldnt worry as much as if they all died
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Current Toys: 06 Yamaha WR250F | Nissan 350Z GT | Tech 4 Homes

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Cheers matey! I'll keep an eye on them for the next few days. If any more die I'll take a sample of the water to my local aquarium.

My only concern is that I might be feeding them too much. I have been giving them about 8 flakes of Tetrafin, but my boss at work (not the stupid one who's fish always die) says that that is too much for 6 fish and I should only be giving them about 4 little flakes twice a day.

[PsychoHippy]

To be honest it does sound like a case of 'new tank syndrome'. It takes a while for a tank to settle down and all the right bacteria to establish themselves. Did you put dechlorinator in when you set the tank up?
It also sounds like you are feeding them a little bit too much, I'd stick to feeding them once a day as they really don't need very much at all (we feed our 3 tanks every other day at the most).
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I spend all my money on bikes and beer, the rest I simply waste!

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Ta, hopefully it is just the new tank then. I'll cut down on the food as well and hopefully that'll be the only pioneer that dies!

£3 literally down the drain!

Edit :- oh yeah, and I did put in some of that chemical to make tap water safe, and let the tank run for a week and a bit before I put the fishies in.

[stinkwheel]

Aye, sounds to me like you are WAY overfeeding them.

My Dad has a small community tank with maybe ten or twelve fish in. Tetras, danios, a couple of guppies and a red tailed shark.

He feeds them a TINY pinch once a day (five flakes at most).

As a general rule, if any of the flaked food hits the bottom of the tank, you gave too much.

Certainly when first setting up, when you just have a couple of wee fish in I'd probably be giving them one, maybe two flakes once a day. Better to underfeed rather than overfeed them for the first while until the tank biomass gets established. If you didn't feed them for a week, they wouldn't come to any harm.

And yes, it is common to loose a few early on, that's why you start small.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[cagiva gezzer]

Get the water tested, and buy some freeze dried bacteria to boost the bacterial levels.
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[numpty]

don't worry about it mate. The most common thing is either ''new tank syndrome'' or the pure stress of moving the fish from the shop to your house.
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Current bike: CBR600F-Y

[dabigginger]

I just asked my other half for you. She's a fish expert, so I hope this helps! If you need any other info, just PM me.

~~~

The reason why your fish are dying is because your tank is cycling.
Fish pee and poop ammonia, ammonia is toxic to all aquatic life, and in aquarium this ammonia builds up and kills the fish, which is most likely what is killing your fish of at the moment if the tank has not been running with them for long. So how can you get rid of this ammonia?
Well there is this beneficial bacteria that grows in your filters sponge, this good bacteria breaks down ammonia into nitrites and then nitrates. Ammonia is the most toxic and will kill any fish in levels high enough, nitrite is less harmful but still lethal- nitrates are the least toxic and the end of this process and are only harmful in exceptionally high levels. This process of the bacteria converting the ammonia into nitrites into nitrates is called the Nitrogen Cycle.
The bacteria needs a constant source of ammonia and oxygen to survive and it lives on surfaces, fish in the aquatium usually provide the constant ammonia source and the filter provides the oxygen (via flowing water and food/ammonia) and the surfaces for the bacteria to live on.
You need a filter in the tank to deal with ammonia, if you don't have one you will have to do daily 100% water changes on the tank to prevent ammonia levels rising high.

The problem is, is that when you set up a new tank the filter has none of this beneficical bacteria in the tank or the filter, and most people buy a load of fish and just stick them into the tank, causing ammonia levels to rocket and then kill the fish off.
This beneficial bacteria will establish itself in the filter over time, but it usually takes 6months of very careful and light fish stocking in the tank, lots of monitoring of water quality via test kits, and very regular water changes with dechlorinator/water conditioner. Apart from a filter, you will also need to dechlorinate the water with dechlorinator/water conditioner (which removes chlorine and various heavy metals from the water) as tap water contains chlorine which would otherwise kill off your beneficial bacteria.
The whole process of the bacteria establishing itself in the tank is called "cycling".

The save your fish right now you need to work out the gallons or litres of the aquarium (in US or UK gallons), find out the exact type of fish you have and the size they currently are. If you add too many fish to too smaller tank when it is new, the ammonia load from the fish/bioload will be too much for the newly establishing beneficial bacteria to cope with. Some fish are also a lot more fragile than others as well, some fish can survive a little ammonia and nitrites, while others cannot tolerate it at all.
So to start with you must stock your tank very lightly with hardy/tough fish. If you are planning on keeping these fish in the long term you must make sure they will not grow too large for your tank and that you can give them the right environment/habitat they need by researching the fish you want before you buy them.

Secondly (and very importantly), you must but test kits for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates so you can keep an eye on the water quality in your tank, which will be very unstable at the moment. Even though the water may look clear, ammonia and nitrites are invisable and have no smell, so the only way to tell if your water quality is good is to test it.
Ammonia and nitrites should always be kept to 0, while nitrates preferable under 40.

Once you have dechlorinator/water conditioner, you must treat any water that goes into the tank with it. Also, when you clean your filter (usually once every 1-3weeks for most people), you should only clean it out in old tank water from water changes.
In an established tank, a 25-60% water change once a week is good, but if your tank tests for ammonia or nitrites at any time, you should do an imediate 30% water change. Doing water changes is important for preventing things like ph crash in old tanks, lowering fish desease and parasite levels in the tank, and keeping the water generally clean.

Because your tank is new, i would advise getting water quality testing kits imediately- for the time being i would advise doing a 60% water change on the tank.

Are the fish showing any odd symptoms, whether behavioral or physical? Sometimes the stress of unstable water quality problems can lead to desease in fish, as the stress they suffer makes their imune systems less efficient/effective at fighting off deseases and parasites. It is also posible you may have bought sick fish as well at the petshop, who having only been recently infected at not showing dire symptoms at the moment.


This link below had a fantastic forum for all types of fishkeeping, there is a wealth of info and many very knowledgable members there on all types of fishkeeping and doing it successfully with happy and healthy fish ;

https://www.fishforums.net/index.php?act=idx

[DanceLikeAMon...]

^ Wow Thanks very much for that, I guess I'll get myself a water testing kit then!

Cheers.