Brand new aquarists

**k&tNZ** · 09-07-2012, 01:12 AM

Hi everyone, we are new to the hobby of fish keeping.

Just got ourselves a 90L tank last week, and we kinda just jumped into it without researching or anything, our local pet store were not very helpful, i think they just wanted to make as many sales as possible. So we ended up with over 30 fish. So, over the last week we have lost about 30% of our little fishy friends, and I am starting to get a bit worried about it all. I had a bit of a read of the E-Book provided by this site, and i believe i did not cycle our tank properly. So I have just gotten myself a ammonia test kit, but no ammonia levels were detected??? so I am kinda stumped on how our fish are dying???

**Cory Catfish** · 09-07-2012, 01:16 AM

If it was a strip test kit it was probably not accurate or you might have had nitrites which are also deadly. What is your stock. By reading the post I can just tell that this tank is probably going to be overstocked.

Also, make sure you are keeping up with water changes and are not overfeeding.

**k&tNZ** · 09-07-2012, 01:27 AM

Its a Nutrafin test kit, with a little test tube and some stuff in a dropper. we also have been using NUTRAFIN cycle biological aquarium supplement and also NUTRAFIN aqua plus tap water conditioner. Also it is a freshwater tropical tank. The fish that we have left are:

2x female kribensis
3x Neons
2x Tiger Barbs
1x red tail shark
1x yellow molly
11x swordtails

we have the temp set at 24 degrees celcius.

I really wish i had read more into it before just putting fish in and hoping for the best, rookie mistakes i guess.

**k&tNZ** · 09-07-2012, 01:28 AM

ill repost all this in the appropriate thread also :)

**Cory Catfish** · 09-07-2012, 01:32 AM

Woah, the neons, barbs all need to be in schools. I would either rehome everything so you don't lose any more fish, then cycle, or rehome the neons, barbs, DEFINITELY the rts (they need a bigger tank), the molly probably too, well, just about everything except the swordtails. After the fishless cycle I think 11 swordtails just about does it for 20G (90L).

If you make frequent water changes and water tests during the cycle, your fish have a 80% chance of surviving. I'm not sure with NF, always used API so I will leave that up with another member.

**k&tNZ** · 09-07-2012, 01:36 AM

we had 6 neons to start with, but lost a few. Hopefully a friend can house our fish so ican start this tank the proper way. thank you for the advice :)