clownfish lady

Hi, all

well we had 3 fish die one of the red eye's and two of the black neon's so we now have 5 fish in our 5 gal tank plus all the molly babies but they are going to the petshop its said to have those die but what can you do right. not much. hoping to get a bigger tank now that we are hooked on having fish.

Gunnie

You've got way too many fish for a 5 gallon tank. They probably died of ammonia poisoning. Any deal you can work out with the pet shop would be very beneficial to the fish. If you can trade them all in for credit right now, that would be ideal. If you can do that, please cycle the tank first if it's not already cycled. If you don't know what cycling is, please click on the link in my signature, and you will get some good information you will need to know for a healthy tank. Once your tank is cycled, you will probably only be able to put a betta in there with maybe 3 pygmy cories or some ghost shrimp. A 5 gallon is very limited on what fish can do well in that size.

clownfish lady

yeah no we can't take them back they had ich we put meds in there and no the tank is not cycled yet we tested the water and they all came back fine but the ammonia was 4.0 we do water changes once a week we are getting rid of the babies as soon as we get a net i keep forgeting to get one. i want to keep the mollies and swoard tail if i can and get rid of the other red eye and black neon would that work? and the next time the tanks go on sale we are going to up grade. to a 10 or 20 gal. and use this 5 gal for some else.

Gunnie

4.0 on ammonia is past toxic. You will have to up your water changes to at least once a day if you want your fish to survive. You can get a 10 gallon tank at walmart (just the tank) for $8.99. You can also get a cheap sponge filter for your 10 gallon for under $10.00, but you will have to also purchase an air pump to make it work. You can probably treat the ich without medication by raising the temperature in the tank. Butterfly is more experienced with this method and I will alert her to this thread.

Butterfly

Yep Gunnies correct, raise the emp at lease to 82F, for 14 days and do daily 50% water changes. the ammonia is at a toxic level and the water changes will help that. There is also less oxygen in water that warm so thats another reason to do the water changes.
let us know how things go.
Carol

Isabella

I agree with Gunnie and Butterfly - please listen to them, you won't regret that. Sadly, your tank is very overstocked, and this is why your fish have died. I hope you'll have more luck with a larger tank. Good luck. And you can still save your remaining fish by frequent water changes.

clownfish lady

So you are saying do a water change once a day wont that make the fish stesse out? we also got a Gravel Vac hope that will help going to do a water change tomorrow with that Vac and going to get rid of some of the fish and keep our mollies and the swoard-tail that will be 3 of them that would be okand i am looking at a aqutic gardens 22 cube tank that would be big enough for what 5-6 fish right? and i will keep you all up to date. thanks so much for your help.

p.s. anyone know anything about this 22 cube?