i took your advise

S

shark shak

Medium Fish
#1
Mar 2, 2006
70
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#1
i got rid of my tinfoil barbs and bought 6 neon tetras,there in my 10 gallon tank.i had petco test my water and they said everything is fiine.but when i got home one of my tetras was dead and was missing his head.:eek: what happened?well didnt kill the tinfoils like somebuddy emailed me about. i actualy gave them to my uncle who has a tank that is 500 gallons,custom made.he loves barbs,neons,and especialy his little zebra donois(i think thats how you spell it).
 

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Seleya

Seleya

Superstar Fish
#2
Nov 22, 2004
1,384
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Cape Cod, MA
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#2
With the mix you have, just about anything could have happened. What were the readings? "Fine" doesn't tell you anything, you need to know the numbers to make educated decisions. Did you get test kits for your own use? Now what do you have and which tank are they in? The tetras weren't the issue so much as the barbs and 'sharks'.
 

balafreak

balafreak

Large Fish
#3
Mar 10, 2006
113
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joliet illinios
#3
(im on my friends screen name typing,this is really me shark shak)the numbers they said where fine for what i was getting ive been doing research and asked as many questions as i could to the petco assistants.they told me thier is nothing else to worry about.yes i did get my own test strips(tubes).now as i said before im sorry for the confusion,but all i have in the ten gallon tank is the last 5 fish that are neon tetras.in my 20 gallon tank i have 6 tiger barbs,2 bala sharks,and 1 irredescent shark.please do not tell me about how the 20 gallon tank is overstocked i know and im taking action.the levels i currently know for the 10 gallon is as follow,
ph-7.9
Lr ammonia-0.0
salinity-1.021
 

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homebunnyj

homebunnyj

Superstar Fish
#4
Jul 13, 2005
1,299
4
0
Western NC
#4
Glad to see you're taking action.
Not sure about the dead tetra. Was there anything other than tetras in the tank with it when it died?
Tests for nitrite and nitrate will be very helpful for you.
Keep on doing research. Learning all about the care requirements of your pets will lead you to make good decisions. Look for websites which have information from people who own fish like yours, don't pay as much attention to websites that sell fish like yours. Some lfs people know their stuff, unfortunately in my experience most don't seem to. We have several exceptions to the rule who post here with us. It's great to find a good, knowledgeable person in a lfs, but as a beginner, you'll have trouble discerning how knowledgeable they are until you have a lot of research and experience under your belt.
If you keep working at it, you can be a very competent fishkeeper and get a lot of enjoyment from it.
 

balafreak

balafreak

Large Fish
#6
Mar 10, 2006
113
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0
joliet illinios
#6
i can check but im pretty sure that was the it was was,maybe i did my math wrong.petco recomended me a test tube water test kit that doesnt have standard units of math and what ever else their is so, i had to convert the reading to standard units.and im not so hot at math.(shark shak forgot to say hes on my name again)
 

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Seleya

Seleya

Superstar Fish
#7
Nov 22, 2004
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Cape Cod, MA
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#7
The test tube kits don't require math, just adding drops as directed then comparing colors to a color strip. You don't test salinity with a test kit, you test it with a hydrometer. You NEED to test for nitrites, nitrates, ammonia and pH would be nice also. I'd get a test kit asap and stop listening to the PetCo folks if that's what they're telling you....
 

S

SeaMonkeyMiner

Large Fish
#8
Jan 27, 2004
250
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38
Nipomo CA
#8
Ammonia of zero means that your tank has cycled enough to convert the Ammonia to nitrite created by your tetras. But the problem is that you dont know the levels of nitrite or nitrate.

Your tetra was missing its head? or was its eyes missing. most of the time i have found that when a fish dies and you dont take it out of the tank. The other fish eat the eyes and stomach out. The only thing is if it was cut clean off then it probably from the filter. Neons are kind of sensitive to nitrate so you need to check that. That could have been what killed your new tetras.
 

tubbs24

tubbs24

Large Fish
#14
Jan 29, 2006
460
2
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34
USA
#14
Etheostoma said:
As for the missing head, I've known chinese algae eaters to savage corpses.
Click to expand...

I second that one, when I went of vacation a few years ago, I came back to 1 fish short, and my chinese algae eater was rummaging through its corpse.:eek:
 

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