Went to the local pet store and picked up a small tank, gravel, water treatment, food, heater and food. When I got home (too late), I realized I did everything wrong. I went back and purchased a 5 gallon tank. I treated the water (tap water)and did the whole water temp acclimation (set heater and water was 76-78) with the fish. The fish lasted about 6 hours before he died.
The next day I went to another store and spoke to a few employees and told them my story. They said "you are doing everything right" so we chalked that one up as a sick fish. I bought a few more things (decorations and fake plants), I exchanged the heater for a better one and another fish. He looked very healthy at home but that only lasted a few hours. Soon he was very lethargic and staying on top. When I got home today, he was dead and so where 4 apple snails I bought yesterday.
I tested the water with some of those strips and everything looks fine (are they not accurate?).
Water was at 78 degrees... Not sure what to do!
I refuse to buy another fish until this is figured out and my daughters are heartbroken. Please help.
I agree with OFL. Something funky is lurking in your water and it's either coming from something in your tank, or from the water source itself. Where do you get your water? You should test your water before and after you condition it to see if it's high in ammonia or anything which your conditioner may or may not mask, or neutralize, or whatever. Maybe it's got some hard metals in it.
Does your tank have a hood? If not, were any aerosols sprayed near, or over the tank that could have found their way in?
Lastly, I'm going to assume you washed things before you placed them in the tank - including the gravel. If so, did you wash with soap? That's a no no, right there, because it leaves harmful residue on anything it touches. Hot water only. EDIT - well you've ruled this out, thankfully!
Otherwise, I really don't know. It sounds like you've been doing everything properly.
EDIT - I'd also like to mention that no, the strips aren't usually too accurate. I'm not sure how the pet stores test customer's water, but they might be able to give a more accurate reading. And for free, usually. If you're going to invest in water testing supplies, I'd go with a liquid testing kit such as the API master kit. They're much more reliable.
well the testing strips are very inaccurate and will basically lie to you. other than that i have no other idea and my advice it just to test the water for pneumonia nitrite nitrate levels at your local pet store...maybe he will do the test for no charge or may be he will ask for a very little amount of pay.
Anything on your hand like lotion, soap, perfume etc.....
All items in the tank aquarium items....nothing from around the house or yard
Gravel rinsed well..sometimes this can get contaminated at the shop
Any funny or odd smells
Nothing accidentally fell in the tank
No chemicals close by
You may want to tear the tank down and clean well with vinegar......
Hmm, that's the same kind of test strips that I use. Although I have doubts as to their accuracy. If I were you I'd probably get the liquid tests, although they are expensive it seems like it would be a good investment.
Cycling is basically breeding beneficial bacteria that will consume the ammonia your fish produce, making the parameters of the tank generally more stable and reducing how often you need to do water changes. Small tanks usually won't hold a cycle but your 5 gallon will be fine. You will, however, need a filter if you don't have one.
Cycling is not a requirement as long as you do very frequent water changes but it is highly recommended. Here is a helpful link that explains cycling more in depth than I can, and tells you how to cycle your tank.
If maybe there is absolutley nothing that was in the water before the first fish, you couldve very well bought a sick fish. Then adding the 2nd and the snails into the same water he couldnt contracted water the other fish had. Maybe?!
If maybe there is absolutley nothing that was in the water before the first fish, you couldve very well bought a sick fish. Then adding the 2nd and the snails into the same water he couldve contracted whatever the other fish had. Maybe?!
Mitsufishi makes a good point. Did you clean the tank after the first fish passed before adding the new ones?
Its very possible that there may be something in your water that is bad for the fish that isn't even tested on those strips. Do you have down water or well water?
I would wash the whole tank, decorations everything with a bleach solution (9 parts water 1 part bleach) then rinse with HOT water. The wash again with vinegar, rinse again with HOT water and then let air dry for a couple days.
Then try again, I would try maybe using some RO water or something, or find another source of water besides wherever you get your water from and see if it makes a difference!
I have ammonia in my tap water too. However, my tank is perfectly cycled and so before the 24 hours is up, all ammonia levels have been brought down to 0ppm and I have nothing to worry about. You, on the other hand (if you decide not to cycle for whatever reason) may either have to 1) do daily water changes using Prime or any conditioner that neutralizes ammonia, or 2) get another source of water that is ammonia-less.
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