unsuccessful placement of new fishes...

[chrysler_12]

hey guys! i've been oia on this forum for a while... now i need help again.

my 10g planted used to have 2 albino cories and they've been there for quite a while... maybe more than a year already. last week i decided to add some more in the tank. i put 6 cardinal tetras, 2 bleeding heart tetras, 1 male betta. my problem is, all of these new fishes starts dying one by one...

after adding them, i left to watch a movie... when i came back, 1 of the cardinal tetra is dead already... then the next day another one died... the next day 2 more of them died... 1 of the bleeding heart also died... and today my beautiful betta died as well. right now only 1 cardinal and 1 bleeding heart is alive... + my old cories...

im not sure what went wrong... i just gambled and lost $20... what should i keep in mind next time when i add new fishes in the tank...

 

[Pure]

Don't add so many to such a small tank at one time. If it's been running for so long with only 2 fish, you probably overloaded the biological filtration.

On top of that cardinals take extra efforts in acclimation.

 

[FroggyFox]

I agree...you can't just add a bunch of fish, no matter how long the tank has been set up Not to mention the fish you listed I think are way too many for a 10g tank, whether it can handle the load or not.

Did you test your water parameters when they started dying?

Since you have a cardinal and a bleeding heart left, I'd pick one or the other that you want a school of. Wait until the cardinal and the bleeding heart you have have all been in the tank for at least a couple of weeks and youre showing no ammonia and no nitrite in the tank as well as low nitrates. Then get a couple more of whichever you choose....and that is going to be about all you can fit in that tank. If you really want the betta...I suggest just keeping the tetras (or giving them back to your store because they dont do well alone) and getting the betta. I would not try to keep a betta in that small of a community setting with tetras.

 

[chrysler_12]

oh yeah, i forgot that its bad to add a lot of fish at the same time... u can only do this when u have just cycled a tank... damn! also, when my fishes started dying, i checked the water conditions... they're all good! so i guess it's the biological overload...


having said that, i guess i'll be observing the 2 albino cories, 1 cardinal tetra and 1 bleeding heart tetra remaining... ill wait for 2 weeks i guess... if they're still alive hopefully! imma add a lil more...

the cardinal tetra acclimation was mentioned.... is there a special method of doing this?

 

[Pure]

Just very slowly adding small amounts of water to the bag over the course of an hour or 2. You need to ease them into your water parameters.

Your readings were in the clear, I would imagine because the tank had time to convert the extra ammonia.