constant problum

[nighthawk17]

ok i have a 29 gallon tank and each time i buy fish i lose a few this time i bought 2 fancy tailed guppies and 6 neon tetras from an awsome fish store the guppies cost alot there so i went to walmart and got 5 more guppies witch i proly shouldnt have done couse i already lost 2 of the guppies from walmart and its only been 2 days i lost the first one right after i put it in the tank it was looking preaty bad in the bag to start out with and the other one was a female that got a big stomac on it then i couldnt find it so i moved some stuff around and it was under one of the rocks in the tank


and another thing how do you tell if you have male or female neon tetras



i have a 29 gallon tank with 2 glass fish 6 neon tetras and 6 fancy tailed guppys its also got a few plants in it not sure what though

 

[FishLuvr]

hi, first of all, how long have you had this tank setup? what are your stats? (ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates) , What is your method of aclimating your fish to your tank?

Second of all, Walmart is notorious for horrid conditions that thier fish are kept in. Also, there staff are notorious for not being to knowledgable when it comes to aquaria.

 

[Smalltank3]

When I bought a female platy from Walmart, I was acclimating the platy then all of a sudden all these white clumps are all inside the bag. Shows what Walmart cares about the para. and the fish they sell.....

 

[noncentric]

hi, first of all, how long have you had this tank setup? what are your stats? (ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates) , What is your method of aclimating your fish to your tank?

Yep, these are the first things we'll need to know before being able to offer good advice. Mainly, we need to know if your tank has already been "cycled". Check out this post if you're not familiar with the term: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31669

Good luck!

 

[nighthawk17]

forgot to mention that sorry i have had the tank set up for almost 7 months all the nitrates and nitrits and amonia were gone the last time that i check and what i did was i had gold fish in the tank for a while and when i put the new fish in i took the goldfish out i let the bags sit in the water for almost and hour then let water into the bag and let it sit for 20 mins then i finally put the fish in

 

[jumpfreak26]

Since goldfish are cold water fish, you probably didnt have a heater, did you ever get one? This may be your problem, becuase you had cold water fish and now you have tropical fish in cold water conditions.

 

[JAWS69]

You went to walmart to buy fish, thats whats wrong.*thumbsdow

 

[tubbs24]

You went to walmart to buy fish, thats whats wrong.*thumbsdow

well, not necessarily true though, my bro bought 4 platies from walmart, and im still surprised how 3 of them are still living!

 

[nighthawk17]

ya there fish are pitiful but thats why i got some from the lfs and some from walmart....... and yes i have a heater in the tank i try to keep it at about 75 couse even with the goldfish i still had 1 guppy and 2 glass fish in the tank

 

[rohnds]

The problem isn't buying the fish from Wal Mart. The problem is in your tank. You stated that, nitrates and nitrits and amonia were gone, If you tank is truly cycled you should see some amount of nitrites. The fact that you have no nitrites might indicate that your tank isn't fully cycled.

Next you wrote, i bought 2 fancy tailed guppies and 6 neon. You shouldn’t buy that many fishes at once. Rule of thumb is to buy about 3 or 4 fishes at a time. Introduce them, give the nitrifying bacteria to grow according to the increase in the bio load and then you should be ready to add more fishes. If you add to many fishes all at once, the NH3 spike alone would kill them.

Rohn

 

[pp01862]

I wished my local wal-mart would stop selling fish. They do not care for them AT ALL. Dirty tanks, dead fish, and bettas in an inch of water. I complained repeatedly, even to corporate, to no avail. I stopped shopping there completely because of this. Should alert PETA about them.

 

[nighthawk17]

i had gold fish in the tank to start out with to get the tank set for when i added more fish so that there wouldnt be a bio load i actually added less fish than what i had taken out

 

[noncentric]

The problem isn't buying the fish from Wal Mart. The problem is in your tank. You stated that, nitrates and nitrits and amonia were gone, If you tank is truly cycled you should see some amount of nitrites. The fact that you have no nitrites might indicate that your tank isn't fully cycled.

Uhm...I think you meant that there should be some nitrAtes - not nitrItes. A fully cycled tank should have ammonia = 0, nitrItes = 0, nitrAtes = 5+.

Nighthawk - are you using the test-tube type of test kits? If you're using the paperstrip dip tests, then you may not be getting accurate test results.

Next you wrote, i bought 2 fancy tailed guppies and 6 neon. You shouldn’t buy that many fishes at once. Rule of thumb is to buy about 3 or 4 fishes at a time. Introduce them, give the nitrifying bacteria to grow according to the increase in the bio load and then you should be ready to add more fishes. If you add to many fishes all at once, the NH3 spike alone would kill them. Rohn

I believe that any 'rule of thumb' depends on the size of the tank and the size of the filtration system. For example, adding 8 fish to a 29 gallon tank is different than adding 8 fish to a 75 gallon tank.

Nighthawk - your acclimation method sounds okay, but you could probably change it to: float bag for 20 minutes (this is just to even out temperatures), add some water from tank to bag and wait 10-15 minutes, then repeat this 2-3 times. When you're done acclimating, then try to net the fish from the bag (or pour the bag into the net over a bucket) and put the fish in the tank without adding any of the water from the store. You want to avoid adding any 'germs' from the store into your tank.

You might want to increase the temp of your 'now-tropical' tank to 78.

You might want to make sure that the plants you have are really aquatic plants. Some pet stores sell plants that really aren't meant to be underwater and will rot (mondo grass is an example).

Good luck!