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 :)

**ameliaaahx** · 09-07-2012, 01:47 AM

Oh dear, this is bad.

No worries -- a lot of beginners fall into the trap of listening to people at fish stores, who only want to make money and usually know nothing about fish at all.

As soon as you have all those fish rehomed, we can work towards fixing this and having a healthy, cylced aquarium stocked with compatible fish. :)

**k&tNZ** · 09-07-2012, 01:52 AM

if i was to bag them up now, would they be alright like that for a few hours until my mate finishes work?

**C-Dub** · 09-07-2012, 01:54 AM

Two different types of bacteria are needed, ammonia eating and nitrIte eating. Sounds like with 30 fish you gained the ammonia eating bacteria quickly, here's the hard part, you may be in the NitrIte spike Phase of your cycle. This could be where more fish will perish. It's a good idea to re home most of these fish as they really are suffering. Research what u have and leave the hardiest fish in your tank cross your fingers and research a in fish cycle, your water may get cloudy soon or may have already, this is normal during the nitrIte spike. Hope this helps explaining things. Any more questions please ask