Ignorance murdered my fish...

[Anonymous]

I was bought a small tank and accessories by my fiance as a birthday present a week and a half ago. When I say small I mean small..its a 30L tank.

Thrilled with my gift - I ran out to the local fish shop and bought a heater to allow me to keep small tropicals rather than goldfish.

I got back and setup my tank - then went online to make sure I was doing stuff correctly as most of the in-box instructions were pretty poor!

I was told by the fish shop guy to leave my tank for a week running to allow the tank to settle and to notice any problems early on with any of my gear.

So yesterday afternoon my Fiance went to the fish shop to by some fish. I told the guy what I had (tank size etc) and asked what type and how many should I get - my fiance loved the guppies, and the fish shop guy said we should start off with 4-6....... I queried this as read somewhere that it should be 1-2 fish to not put to heavy a strain on the tank - he was adament that 4 would be fine. So we took 2 blue-neons and 2 red-blondes.

Got em back left them floating in their bank in my tank to aclimatise, 40 mins later slowly let them out in to my tank. Careful not to mix the aquarium water with mine.

This is where things turned ugly.

The fish stayed at the top...literally at the surface - looked odd but couldnt find a page about fish behaviour for an empty tank only ones which are full in which the noobs hide in rocks etc.
So an hour passed - we are panicking now..."what do we do, they really dont look well"..."I dont know what it is, lack of oxygen maybe, or ammonia, thats supposed to start first n the cycle"

The confusion was caused mainly by the fact that the fish instantly didnt like my tank...

and so another hour passed until the fist fish passed.
5 minutes later another.

the remaing two looked ok..though still at the top nly with only an occasional venture down then around the tank before swimming back to the surface.

I went to bed.

I have just got up and the last two fish have died overnight.

I am waiting for town to oen so I can go and buy a water testing kit to find out whats wrong with the tank water.
After extensive reading online it seems this way of cycling is frowned upon (something I didnt know) the newer idea of the fishless cycle appears to be favoured.

I dont know what to do......do I buy more fish as my cycale may have started?

confused by all the info - and rather reluctant to speak the fish shop guy

any help would be appreciated!

dont know if this info will help:
tank - 30l
filter - sits in the tank stuck to the glass (cant remember make etc)
heater -@26c
airstone
gravel
various plastic plants
small rocky cave

[William]

My first thought i to ask wether you slowly added a little of your aquarium water to the bag with fish while it was floating on the surface?

[GCB]

im not sure that is the problem... smell the water in the tank. is it possible there are large ammounts of chlorine in your tank? when i set up my 29 gallon, i followed a the steps i did with my 55 gallon, but i went through about 15 zebra dainios before discovering that is was chlorine. try draining your tank. also did you have all your equipment running while you cycled it? 30liters is about 10 gallons is it not? try some live plants......

[RiverStar]

Oh I thought Jaa meant a thirty gallon long tank. If it is liters, then yes, about ten gallons.

Whether it is a 10g (30 liter) or a 30g (30 long) it will take longer than a week for the tank to complete a fishless cycle. A majority of the time people believe that fishless cycling is better than cycling with the fish. Neither is wrong.

Cycling is pretty much the time period in which the good bacteria develops in the tank. If you had a decor or a filter from another tank then you could speed along your own tank's cycle. Since you probably don't have that you can try adding a few fish flakes each day. Keep testing your water throughout the cycle to find out when it is complete. (BioSpira would be the easiest way but not everyone can obtain it, plus it's sort of expensive..)

People with well water don't need to use water conditioner but some do just to be safe. If Jaa had done enough research to discover cycling then I think he should have read something about water conditioning. Water conditioner removes harmful chlorines, chloramines, and sometimes more.

What William asked is also an important question. I believe if you did not do that when acclimating them to your tank could have caused pH shock (?). I am also doubting the idea that adding live plants will help Jaa with his new tank which isn't even cycled yet....



Just a suggestion if you get guppies again- male guppies are quite prolific and if left with only one female will harass her. Sometimes harassment can stress the female to the point of death. To prevent this try to keep a gender ratio in line; two female (or more if you like) to every male. Males have an anal fin thats appears to have been sharpened to a point (a gonopodium) and females have anal fins that are rounded, more fan-shaped.

Guppies, like swordtails, mollies, and platies, are livebearers- most beloved by Erica. :D :P