Death Toll: 10! Births: 6! ???

Minki1 · 07-15-2006, 08:33 AM

We justed a new tank (20) last week--ran it for 36 hours--Had water tested it was fine so we stocked it with the following: 1 angle, 1redtail shark, 5 neon tetra, 2 mickey mouse. Daily--we find fish dead! It's so frustrating. Around the 3rd day--we went back to Petco. and they talked us in to replacing some of the fish with 1 black molly, 1 white molly and 2 dalmation mollies...(and 1 guppie that my 5 year old wanted). WELL as of today---we lost all but the 1shark, 1black molly, 2 dalmations! And today we woke up to a tank with 6 black molly babies!!! We've taken the water to get tested 4 times--they keep saying it is fine......I bought some stripes to test and the nitrate and nitrite is slightly elevated...but only in the caution area. HOW can I get this tank stable!? Yesterday we put in EasyBalance and AquaSafe (again we did this when we first put the water in the tank) We are killing these poor fish! What can I do? Water change? Help!

Jay · 07-15-2006, 08:40 AM

Sorry for your troubles...

See the cycling attachment in the "Cycling and Water Change" thread above.

Jay

Fish Head · 07-17-2006, 06:02 AM

Could the deaths be due to a too sudden change in bioload? - filter/bacteria not established enough to handle the number of fish you introduced in one go.

Jay · 07-17-2006, 07:08 AM

IMHO fish dieing that quickly is usually an osmolality problem ( I do not have time this AM to explain that)

Minki's tank is not cycled (I don't care what the local fish store people say about the water) after only a week and he will continue to loose fish until it is. I would look there first to solve the problem.

Jay