New Fish!

[Cameron]

I have good and bad news.

First the good news i have new fish, i got 3 fancy guppies, 7 neon tetras, and an algae fish. The first day they were fine, they each ate at least one flake apeice, but the next day the one fancy guppy died. I was alright about it but the next day another one died and was stuck on the suction thing for the filter. And all of my neons have some of their caudal fin gone, i dont know if its fin rot or if their getting their fin snipped by my serpae tetras. i'm not sure about it though.

[RobbieG]

What are your water parameters - tank size etc.

How long did you acclimate them?

That is a large number of fish for a lot of tanks

[Cameron]

How long did you acclimate them?
WHAT?

its a 29 gallon tank its newly established(cycled).
I was afraid that was too many fish at once but the lady said it should be fine though.

I tested the nitrates hardness pH and all that, but ammonia a few days ago, it was fine. the ammonia had been at a little under .5 ppm. I had 4 serpae tetras to cycle it, they look fine as of now

[Bill M.]

Hey man.....Serpaes are known fin nippers. Unless thery are in a large enough tank or a large enough school. When I was quarantining my serpaes in my 10g, they nipped the hell out of my neons and guppy who live in the 10g. Acclimating is also an important part of the fish process. If there was variations in pH or water temp, and you just dumped the fish in, they could suffer from pH shock. Good luck.....

P.S. I wrote this from my new sidekick 3, so I can be on AC all the time, even at school....heh....:19:

[RobbieG]

How long did you acclimate them?
WHAT?

its a 29 gallon tank its newly established(cycled).
I was afraid that was too many fish at once but the lady said it should be fine though.

I tested the nitrates hardness pH and all that, but ammonia a few days ago, it was fine. the ammonia had been at a little under .5 ppm. I had 4 serpae tetras to cycle it, they look fine as of now

I would expect to see zero ammonia in a cycled tank.


When you cycle a tank with fish it can handle the amount of fish you cycled it with. You need to add additional fish slowly in order to give the bacteria colonies you developed while cycling time to grow larger to handle the increased amounts of toxins. Adding a large number of fish at one time to a tank will usually overwhelm the existing bacteria causing a minicycle. You will need to watch your parameters carefully for a while.

Acclimating the fish is typically done by adding tank water a little at a time to the bag they came in to let the fish adjust to the PH & temperature etc. of the tank it is going into. Rapid changes in PH or temperature can quite easily kill a fish.

Are the edges of the damaged fins on your neons ragged or neat?

[Lady Hobbs]

Even tho your tank was cycled(??) new fish have to be added slowly so you don't throw off the bioload. You cycled with 4 small fish so therefore have a small bioload established.

However, you also stated you showed ammonia just a few days ago. If you are still showing ammonia, then that tank has not finished cycling. You need 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates. Also, if you did cycle, you needed to do a large water change when it was finished to reduce the high nitrates that you have after a cycle.

Test kits are very, very important or you don't know what your water parms are.

To acclimate fish means how did you add them to your tank? Did you just pour them in or did you give them a chance to get used to your temps, pH, etc.

I would bet a dollar to a dime that your tank had high ammonia, high nitrites or high nitrates. Doing a large water change now may help. AND CLEAN NOTHING or you will set your tank back to day one.

[Cameron]

i let the fish get used to the temp for about 15-20 mins. well i broke the glass on my ammonia test kit so i have to find something else to measure with, the fins aren't very neat so i guess thats the serpaes, right. i will do a 30% water change tomarrow. when i do should i take 30% out then put it in, or take one bucket out and replace water, one at a time.

Thanks for help guys

[RobbieG]

Its most likely the serpaes - but keep an eye out for any white on the edges

[Zerileous]

when you do the water change, take out all 30% of the water, then refill. It is critical to make sure that the water is conditioned and at a similar temperature (+/- 1 degree) to the tank water before adding it.

Edit, you need to do this daily until your ammonia and nitrites are down again (assuming they have spiked due to the added fish load). Unfortunately, this means that the bacteria colonies will take longer to expand but this will help ensure that the levels do not become too toxic.

[Cameron]

should i measure the temp by feel or just let it sit and warm/cool down?

Thanks again!

[RobbieG]

I get mine as close as I can by feel and add it slowly. I keep an eye on my thermometeter and make sure it doesn't change.

For 30% on a 29 I'd add about half the water - wait 5 minutes - check the temp and add the rest

Most people probably would just add the water - the difference in temperature would have to be pretty significant for 3 gallons to alter the temp of the rest but I'm just that way.

[Cameron]

30% of 30 gallons is about 10 gallons,right.

[cocoa_pleco]

30% of 30 gallons is about 10 gallons,right.


meh, yeah, about 13g

[RobbieG]

Yeah - 3 gallons is how much I can add at a time - after that I have to wait for the filter to cough up some more - don't know how I thought you would know that!