Aquagirl12

Hey guys;

About a month ago i purchased 8 glofish danios and 4 pea puffers. They were in two seperate tanks, a 5 gal for the puffs, and a 15 for the danios.
Slowely all of my fish died, all the puffs were gone within 2 1/2 weeks and I lost 2 danios in the past 48 hours.

I have one danio left. My mom was in the town that the pet store is in and she had the water tested...they found nothing wrong with it except for high pH, which I already knew from my tests at home.

They said to leave the water alone and not to do any water changes or treat it at all for a few weeks. Should I do this?! I think my last fish will die from amonia if I listen to this advice....Also any ideas as to what could have gone wrong are appreciated.

Oh and also I wated to add that i did cycle the tank before I started with tetra safe start, and letting the tank sit for a few weeks with the filter running before adding fish.

Lucy

I'm sorry you lost your fish.

When you add TSS you're supposed to add the fish right away. If you didn't, the bacteria in TSS would have died off without a source of ammonia.

Do you know your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

I don't know that much about puffers, but I believe 4 is too many for a 5g tank.
Here's some info about them:
General Guide to Puffer Care

In a cycled tank, it's usually a good idea to do weekly water changes. This gives you a chance to vacuum out any fish waste and left over food as well as keep the nitrates down. Fresh water also contain nutrients that are healthy for your fish and replenish the oxygen.

agabr123

did they tell you why you should do that?? i definitely wouldn't listen to that advice... can you post your readings? what kind of test kit are you using? if you didn't add fish when you added the tetra safe start, then there wasn't a source of ammonia for the bacteria to feed on, so your tank probably didn't cycle and that could be why you're losing your fish.

EDIT: lol,

Aquagirl12

Thanks for the response.

Sorry I should of been clearer; I had the filter running in the tank for a few weeks, then I purchased to TSS and the fish and added them at the same time.

As for the puffers they are dwarf puffers aka pea puffers. They only grow to 1/2 in each max. So each puff had 1 1/4 gal each and following the inch per gallon rule they only needed 1/2 gal each, but they are aggressive so I gave them more space for that reason. You must be thinking of green spotted puffers perhaps? In that case It would definately be overstocked.

From what I have read on here and in many fish books a weekly water change is recommended which is why I fould this advice to be odd. I wasn't there to hear the LFS employees reasoning for this advice and my mom didnt remember his/her exact words. She just said to "leave it and they would test it again in a few weeks." My mom also thinks that I "mess around with it too much and should leave it alone" When I do my weekely cleanings. My younger brother had a tank and she ran it and only cleaned it once a month and hardly ever did water changes; what's odd is that his fish lived a long time under these conditions. So maybe she has some point?


As for my readings: I used strips as I can not find liquid tests around here.

Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Amonia: 0.5
chlorine: 0
Ph: 8.4 (I used some pm decrease after the fish died but it went back up)
alkalinity: 300
hardness:0

agabr123

it looks like you're in a mini cycle for some reason or have started your cycle over since you have an ammonia reading. i would do daily 50% water changes with either prime or stress coat +, even .5 PPM ammonia is toxic to your fish.

serissime

Maintenance is definitely important. Micromanagement isn't really a good thing once your tank is done cycling, but that's no reason to NOT keep your tank in good shape, especially during cycling or a mini-cycle. Water changes are good, especially as a first step when a problem surfaces. Also, I wouldn't use any pH adjusters. Alex gave good advice about the other aspects of your post.

Aquagirl12

^If i dont adjust the ph isnt it bad for them though? Is there a safer way to adjust it and hopefully maintain a lower pm?

And I just wated to say thet the last danio died today.
BUT...
When I came home my mom had gotten me 2 mollies and 1 platy which are hardy fish so hopefully they will get the tanks in better shape before I buy more 10 dollar glo fish.

MeGustaUnaPez926

In regards to the puffers (sorry you lost them) Because they are so agressive, it is not recomended to keep more than one per five gallons. You'll find that a lot of factors contribute to the stocking of the tank, rather than just adult size. Some fish have a much higher bioload than others (plecos, goldfish) and some much less (kuhli loaches, neon tetras). Others are so agressive they need larger tanks to be able to claim territories (oscars, puffers) and some just plain like a lot of swimming room, so they do better in big tanks (zebra danios).
If you do decide to get another dwarf puffer (which, by the way get to one inch ) I would only recomend one in your 5 gallon tank.
Good luck!

MaddieLynn

You can have 3 dwarf puffers in a 10 gallon if you decide you want more than that, though.

Aquagirl12

Thank you; I never had any aggression issues in the few weeks I had them thankfully. I've been told that if they grown up together they may get along so maybe thets the reason? As for size if they only grow up to an inch why could I only have one of them? they are so tiny you can stand 3 feet away from the tank and not see them.. :P