I think my fish is dying

[Viperfish]

I got a minibow 5 from goodwill and my fish with a red head and red tail and white belly is at the top of the tank for air as i changed the water today and the cartriage is all green and its only been 4 days what could be happening? Its seems like its amonia and nitrate im not sure so please help :scry:

[HeatherB]

Well, lets see...first off what kind of fish do you have in there? A minibow 5 is very small and really should only be used for a betta or shimps or something. If you do have a betta fish, they come up for air. That is how the breathe. That being said, your tank is cycling.

Cycling is the process your tank goes thru as it builds up enough bacteria to support fish. Some people do cycling with no fish, some do it with fish. When you filled your tank up did you add a water conditioner? Water conditioner takes the harmful stuff out of your tap water like chlorine. You can find lots of different kinds at any Petstore, or even walmart. You just add it when you put new water in your tank.

Since you are cycling this tank, you need to do daily waterchanges (and big ones too- remove at least 50% of the water) until your tank is cycled. If not your fish may die. Test kits are how you check your water for the presence of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

Let me see if I can find the e-book...http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/ebook.html go ahead and read it, you will find much information in there!

[Lady Hobbs]

A goldfish can not survive in a tank of that size. If you used the filter media that come with the tank, it probably sat around and got moldy. Did you get the filter with the tank?

[Viperfish]

No it did not.