Cocky First Timer Kills Fish.

I vote this guy writes a horror book about keeping fish. He does it so well, lol.

 

Firstly, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Secondly, I'm a noob too so I'm watching this post with interest so I can avoid making the same mistakes - currently cycling 50 gallon tank, my first community tank, I've only owned Bettas and pond fish before.

Thirdly, and most importantly - you need to be a novelist! I love the way you write! We've laughed, felt the excitement, panic and cried with you!
You need to get together with some of the experienced fish keepers on this forum and write a book - it would become a best seller amongst aquarists

I hope your experiences get better - it sounds like you're getting great advice. Can't go wrong with Seachem Prime and Stability for cycling. The experts will give you great direction for medicating the sickly ones. Good Luck! Fingers crossed this story gets a happy ending

 

Another day in the bucket and I have since placed the sickly tetra back into the tank, it's been roughly 72 hours, The spot on his fin has gone away, I have not experienced any more deaths, The internet fish are still quite slow and hanging around the bottom of the tank but I have since most likely quadrupled the amount of oxygen in the water so I 100% expect the ammonia poisoning to remedy itself over the next few weeks while they currently save their energy and not over-exedt themselves, My original tetras could not be any more happy at the moment, enjoying the new attractions to the tank that have made their way into the aquarium, I've even seen them dart through the bubble curtain when they play around.

I did a little bit of pruning on one of my water column feeders, the things must have grown 4x their original size and I tossed out the most sickly looking parts of the plant, I've added a few root tabs mostly near the plants that seem to be struggling, I have also been adding stability last couple of days and hope this thing begins to cycle.

Oh and I almost forgot, the lone SAE seems to be alright aswell, I put a algar wafer in there a day but he never finds it, I hope what he gets off the glass is enough to sustain him, he works alfully hard when he isn't taking a rest on top of the heater plastic.

I should note that my filter sponges hate me messing with plants, about time to rinse them again...

 

A few peaceful days and trying to cheat the system by doing daily (8-10~ gal) gravel cleanings as micro water changes have brought on an early outbreak of Ich to my black skirts, Unsure if it was the stress or something else but my more unfortunate tetras (the internet ones) have been rubbing these spores on various stuff in the tank the majority of the morning; getting some nasty rug burns in the process, my more healthy tetras seem to be getting their first taste of this wrath.

My lone SAE, now named Sherlock seems to be indifferent to anything at all but I have a feeling it's only a matter of time.

I have not taken any action yet as I have no way to treat the Ich right now, but to my understanding a ready supply of "the cure", Which hopefully the best cure will be suggested soon, raising the temps to speed up the invincible stage of the ichand keep on treating for 4 days straight should solve my problems.

Also, since I started using stability, I have seen a gigantic increase in either diatom or brown algae growth on my rocks and tank, good sign I figure, I spotted some snail eggs today too, unless they are SAE eggs, but the zig zag trail and crater like spot in the algae on the back glass is any indication, it's definitely snail eggs, I have stopped dosing Excel, but continuing everything else in minute micro doses as my plants seem to be doing fine, but I believe the waggy leafed one may go ahead and die off considering the blackened leaves, or just the generically wavy leaf look it has me thinking about it all wrong.

So far so good, still trucking it and will get through this ich outbreak, Just need some suggestions if needed.

 

Can anyone ID these eggs?

 

You have certainly had quite a time. I love Stability. I think once your aquarium gets primed and stabilized, you will have fun.

 

Test params today, Ph 7.6, Ammo: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5 !

The ich is gone, I used kordon rapid-cure, I also picked up some cory's yesterday from a far from local source, Tank is sitting at 79f, the cory's are in a QT atm and some don't look so well, one has already kicked the bucket but nothing contagious that I can tell for now, since these were local I acclimated them slowly, and these are going NUTS compared to my sterby (although i've concluded sterby was on his deathbed already). these are emerald green's.

If at any rate the tank is happy and my lone SAE is schooling with my black skirts when he is bored, he has also grown a half inch, one of my tetras has a big fat belly on him, I think he's the alpha, or pregnant with eggs, who knows.

The snails are exploding in my tank but at the same time they don't stick around for long, i'm not sure what is taking care of them. most of the plants are growing well aside from a few, which i've sought help on the other board.

I've also ordered some mopanI driftwood, maybe I can get some of these plants hooked on it.

All in all, I think this thread was a huge overreaction, but maybe someone learned something, other than my tank not cycling, experiencing a terrible online fish buying experience, having an infected tank, I don't think I did much wrong. (well the cycle part yeeeea)

 

Test params today, Ph 7.6, Ammo: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5 !

The ich is gone, I used kordon rapid-cure, I also picked up some cory's yesterday from a far from local source, Tank is sitting at 79f, the cory's are in a QT atm and some don't look so well, one has already kicked the bucket but nothing contagious that I can tell for now, since these were local I acclimated them slowly, and these are going NUTS compared to my sterby (although i've concluded sterby was on his deathbed already). these are emerald green's.

If at any rate the tank is happy and my lone SAE is schooling with my black skirts when he is bored, he has also grown a half inch, one of my tetras has a big fat belly on him, I think he's the alpha, or pregnant with eggs, who knows.

The snails are exploding in my tank but at the same time they don't stick around for long, i'm not sure what is taking care of them. most of the plants are growing well aside from a few, which i've sought help on the other board.

I've also ordered some mopanI driftwood, maybe I can get some of these plants hooked on it.

All in all, I think this thread was a huge overreaction, but maybe someone learned something, other than my tank not cycling, experiencing a terrible online fish buying experience, having an infected tank, I don't think I did much wrong. (well the cycle part yeeeea)

You are doing just fine, I felt the same guilt although no fish have died I felt bad for doing a fish in cycle with no experience. Also idk what temp your QT is but cories prefer colder temps not sure how that would effect behavior but in case any odd behavior is seen it could be that..??

 

You are doing just fine, I felt the same guilt although no fish have died I felt bad for doing a fish in cycle with no experience. Also idk what temp your QT is but cories prefer colder temps not sure how that would effect behavior but in case any odd behavior is seen it could be that..??

the QT is at 77 i'm just bringing the main tank down from the ich treatment slowly, it was at 83, per instuctions of the rapid cure, also, i'm down to 3 cories, but they all look great, the other 2 were hardly swimming since I got the out in the QT, the others are just going up and down, up and down, I read juvies do this in a new environment.

 

So for today.

Black fin Tetras X 10
Emerald green cories X 3 (getting a school of 8-10)
1 SAE (not getting another as I can't find stock and it's gonna get huge already)

What's a good showy mid size fish for this tank? Gourami? Chiclid? Paradise?

Hm

 

So for today.

Black fin Tetras X 10
Emerald green cories X 3 (getting a school of 8-10)
1 SAE (not getting another as I can't find stock and it's gonna get huge already)

What's a good showy mid size fish for this tank? Gourami? Chiclid? Paradise?

Hm

Haven't had one myself yet but I hear honey gouramis are great and right about in your size range. as far as chiclids go maybe a pair of angels or rams?

 

Update.


Snails are getting crazy, but life remains in full swing today, my cories are getting fat and the SAE continues to grow at an insane pace. One of my tetras has already been pregnant and while running around dropping eggs like a mad women the men ate them all. Wood has been added and also replaced the carbon in my filters with extra bio rings and two bags of purigen for each filter, tannins are almost non existant, I have yet to trim my mountain of green glory as i'm calling it, It seems to be doing a great job at filtering the water, however one of my ammy sword-lookin plant is stunted with blackish cracked leaves and doesn't appear to be growing, but I'll let it stay until it rots, all my other plants have bloomed well after the initial melt that had me worried.

Mr.bullied has healed up quite slowly over the last few weeks, he is definitely the runt of the pack and i'm beginning to suspect some sort of fin rot, I got upped the squad to 10 members but he still prefers to stick it alone.

My cories still can't stop swimming up and down the glass.

Assassin snails on the way. X5.

I plan on finishing/rounding this off with a couple/single gourami or chiclid, But mostly worried about the black skirts pestering anything new in the tank.

And then it's picture time.

 

I really enjoyed reading your post, though I'm sorry for your troubles....

 

Update.

Got 3 of em

 

Hey everyone, I know it's a scary title, but this is the sad pickle I have managed to squeeze into right now, I've lurked these forums a little bit but I am an absolute beginner and I am now thinking I should have been a little more prevalent in posting sooner, Anyways, onto my possible emergency situation... (And story thus far...)

About a year ago I stumbled upon some aquascape videos out of the blue on youtube, and had a bit of a binge watch episode for about 3 months (no not a solid 3 months), This turned into a fascination, and soon I caught myself window shopping on the internet over fish tanks, filters, reviews, fish food, fish knowledge, looking at tons of fish, and eventually I started to seriously think about it about 2 months ago.

I almost ordered a little 20 gallon from amazon in the early stages, but I let this urge mature, I wanted bigger, I thought about building my own, looking into prices and things, I started watching dustin's fish tanks, talking about bigger is better, tried finding some acrylic or glass sellers in my area with not much luck, one day I was just driving around a week later and for some reason my brain said "DO IT NOW!", And off I went to a LFS (I considered wal-mart,k-mart, etc. but thought... no.) The nearest LFS being about 2 hours away (I live rural), I expected something grand but I ended up in a possible janky place, The place was pretty dark but I had an urge to fill, and the guy who greeted me was greeted back with a pointed finger at the largest tank they had and said I want that.

It was a 55 gallon, with stand, with a T8 light, and canopy, for $$$. And things might have gone downhill from there, I was giddy, I feel it was at this time I should have loaded it up, took it home, and came onto here for advice, But instead of that I took this old guys advice, Which might be right, maybe wrong, who knows. (you will tell me). We got into some heavy discussion, I let him know I was a noobie and he went around the store pointing things out, explaining this and that (btw after I made 2 trips to haul the aquarium and stand) He stated that those bacteria boosters (bio booster, cycle helpers etc.) were artificial, you would have to keep adding them every time you do a water change, and if you didn't, the tank would crash, fish would die. I had already bought a bottle in preperation to start to cycle my tank (a bottle of fluval cycle booster, 250ml would last 1 week so I was like oh dang), but I was taking this advice on harder than a coffin nail, He explained salt was good for the fish, literally stating what it said on the box (my spidey senses tinged at this point but I was nailed to that coffin lid). Saying all his fish do fine in it. And then he suggested a fish-in cycle, I was perplexed, I hadn't heard about a fish in cycle, He said it's better because it's natural bacteria, you just get a couple hardy fish, and just go with it, so I just hopped on my horse and said heck yeah fish in no time, I said I'd prolly be back another day to get some fish.....

So I get home and set this thing up and just stare at it, it's all naked and bare, I think back on those aquascape videos and I'm thinking piece of cake, I go straight to amazon and order an absolute ton of (censor), 2x fluval c4's extra filters, media, carbon, bio-ring things, extension tubes, foam plasticky covers for the inlets, a powerhead, a 200w fluval heater (with thermo), a couple of nets, (literally) 3 different gravel vacs, prime, aqua plus water conditioner, water test kit (apI master), flourish, stress coat, flourish advance, iron, excel, rocks (I mean man, I bought rocks from the internet)...


I mean you get the idea, I went into this hard...



So i'm sitting at home, have a ton of equipment just strewn around, setting everything up in the tank, I have rocks, no substrate, no fish, no water, So I'm ok... off to the LFS!.

I arrive and the guy has like memory problems, I have to remind him of who I even am but it seems he's all about selling me anything he can, He suggests mollies or some (other forgotten) fish but he's out of them (or they're sick, I don't remember), He points to these guys with black striped on them, Oh yeah, Them Black Skirt Tetra's. I immediately start asking, are they hardy?, are they aggressive? will they cycle? very, no, yes.... I get answers. how many should I get? no more than 1 per 10 gallon, atleast 3... okay 4, is that good, yeah.

cha-ching, my head says "poke, poke" "bruh the substrate, that one thing you didn't order from amazon!" So I look at the guy and i'm like, Oh yeah, uh what substrate do you recommend?, He gets on that sellsman gear again and he's like, Oh pool filter sand, it's great!. I at this point am like no way dude... but he shows me, he shows me that all his tanks have this pool filter sand in it, I am the coffin nail again, Will plants grow in it? Oh yeah they grow just fine in just gravel. you mean like no dirt or that eco stuff? yeah that stuff is a (his favorite thing to say here) "scam to make you buy more".


Okay, a little break, I'm getting a little aggressive about this old guy, Maybe he knows what he is talking about, maybe he doesn't, who knows, I sure as didn't, but I was eating up everything he had to say, this guy either knew what he was talking about somewhat, or was setting me up for a gigantic profit in the long run, all the previous information I had gathered over months of research had basically went down the toilet, I jumped at all the easy methods, better methods, this different form of communication I was not expecting (not having a level head, lack of sleep, long drive, massive work hours [72+wek] all consumed me to believe!.

Anyways... I walk out of there some aquarium salt, pool filter sand, fish food, 4 black skirt tetras, I get it all in the car, I set my A/C to 76 degrees and head home...

And i'm talking to my fish, which I placed in a 5 gallon bucket (not like, out of the bag, and yes they were bagged, but I was very concerned about the amount of air in the bag), I didn't want light to spook them. but every time I stopped or hit a bumb, I made them know. Jesus I felt like a little kid.

I get home and I get to work instantly, I get everything out, buckets, the rocks, the prime, the conditioner, I start churning that pool filter sand like I need it clean enough to make a solar panel out of it man that stuff is dirty, but it gets done, I start hauling 50lbs of pool filter sand to my aquarium and just start laying it in there like i'm trying to cover up a dead body, man I was excited at this point, I didn't take my time, I didn't slope it or anything, I made a sad attempt at making it flat and threw the rocks in there, and some half-pots I had made as caves, and boom, here comes the water, maybe 30 minutes passed, I throw on the filters and after some difficulty trying to locate the button that tells my brain they need to be primed they roar to life...

Here come the tests, PH ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, oh man my tanks perfect!, the temp is 76.5, perfect I think, in go 4 tetras, and I sit back and stare in this big huge looking tank with 4 little black skirts in it... oh no... my brain... plants man.... plants... green! gotta have plants!...

I test the water a few days later, nothing much all 0 still, okay good!
and... A few days after that... 0 still... hmm?
and roughly a week afterwards... ohh .25 ammonia, okay looking good! 25% water change!

The black skirts dart around the void, a mysterious man looms over them...

plants! plants!

I go to my favourite place and I order plants. (the internet)

I get plants, tons of plants, but I have to work, but plants are wet, they will dry out!...

insane planting of 6-8 species of plants @ 2 each or so is conducted within 6~ minutes...


At this point, I have 4 tetras, in this green splotchy tank of massive bunched up plants, for the black skirt behavior/mood up to here (in a empty tank with just a few rocks) two little guys seemed o.k. but the 2 slightly larger ones were about pitch white, after plants, they were all looking good and dark, but my light was giving them trouble....

I read on here, led's are less stressful, less heat, and make a scheldule, So I do this, I stick to this, Buy a fancy fluval led bar.

Fish are grand, got plants, rocks, some half cave pot things, everything works...


I get greedy, I test waters about a week ago all ZERO, I'm thinking, oh man... did it cycle? I do a little research, I search the web, is it my plants? it's my plants? I think it's my plants, my plants are filtering for me, woo hoo!...

I'm cycled? No I am not it's like I know i'm not, But here I am, I'm getting greedy, I'm sketchy wetchy about that LFS at this point, I order fish online. I get 4 more black tetras, 3 silver flying fox (SAE), and 1 beautiful tiny little 5/8" beautiful serbeI cory cat. It's sent next day air, I cross my fingers for that whole (what maybe 24 hours?), Knock knock... Oh man.. The fish!

I slowly cradle that box and bring it to my room, I let it sit for a while (20-30 min) it's warm, it's hot outside [95F] it's been on a truck for 2 hours [a hot truck] I'm a little concerned about opening it, a little worried, I do it slowly, It's wrapped up in a styro-container and what not, I pull the first baggy out, and oh man look its 4 more black fin tetras, I inspect them as they zoom about in the little bag (I did mind the lights being dark at this time), one is a little beat up, swimming kinda sideways, fin looks like it been pulled out of socket or something, but i'm pleasantly surprised, they seem good, but I spot something worrying, the gills are seriously red, like blood red, I think I began to panic at this point, I get a heat gun, measure the bag, about 4-5 off, and I put it in the tank, I go back to the box and pull out the beautiful sterbei, it's a tiny little guy, I kinda smile at this point but then I realize I don't see him moving at all, I concentrate and look fairly close and barely make out him breathing, or whatever he did with his gills, they are blood red, panic sets in yet again, bag goes in the water, and then back to the box, out come the SAE's, wow they are tiny little things, they are darting around like crazy in the bag and seem perfectly fine ( they prolly had red gills too but were tiny), I let all the bags "Acclimate"(in this usage). and I probably made a fatal error using the "Reverse bag, empty into net, drop into tank" method. I just watched a video of extreme ammonia poison possibility right after exposing a bag to oxygen, so I dumped all 8 fish in this manner.


Lets skip a couple days with an iron dose, excel, the works. Let's go to right about when I got home from work today.

Tank params: (Right Now)

Temp : 76.5F
PH: 7.3~7.6
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : [didn't test]
Filter: 2x c4 power fluval (media,carbon,bio ring, spoinge pad)
Aeration?: 600 powerhead
therm: 200W fluval E series
substrate: POOL FILTER SAND?
Plants: quite a bit I think?

Stock: (Before last night/this morning)
8 Black Skirts
3 Silver Flying Fox SAE
1 SterbeI Cory Cat.

Stock: (Now)
8 Black Skirts
2 Filver Flying Fox
0 SterbeI Cat.







This is my first disaster.




I walked in from work, excited to play find the sterbeI game, I turn on the room light, do some things around the house and come back to turn the dI'm main light on, I scoot down to the tank and start looking to find mr. sterbs, I find him almost instantly, I'm excited, he's finally found his cave! But what? What he's on his side? what's he doing? I freak out, I go no, No, Not me?! I grab my gravel vac immediately I poke around that damned pool filter sand near his... body it's not moving, What?! NO!. I promptly accept the fact that well, Mr.Sterbs is probably dead... I give him the alien abduction retrieve, welp, I inspect Mr.sterbs closely, His gills are like, blood freaking red, like they exploded almost, I eye my damned black skirts, No y'all didn't!, No problems for like 3-4 days guys! Why pick on Sterbs!, I eye around and get worried, I do a head count, and I can't find one of the SAE's... He's not far from Sterbs, All little and lifeless... Alien abduction... so small I can't really see anything.




Basically. I'm a noob. A beginner. Inexperienced.

I know you guys might be angry at me, skipping steps, not asking for help, for advice, I'm one cocky dude who thought could do it all alone, But now I'm asking, What's wrong with my tank, Yeah, It's not cycled, I got aggressive since I used plants, Got 0 readings, thought I could go balls out, Well, Guys, Help me out, I'm thinking my black skirts killed them, I'm thinking maybe I had a aroxic gas in that cave thing (sterbs and the SAE died near that cave) I'm thinking that pool filter sand did it, And I'm also thinking, That freaking salt killed both of them!, Maybe the acclimation? Maybe the ammonia in the bags? Heck, maybe I just need an air-stone (old LFS guy said they do nothing), What do you guys think my battle plan is here on out, I've already done myself A gigantic favor and sought better advice on a broader scale (LFS in the rural area is no good).


~SCP

Okay, I read the initial post. , and nothing in between. I'm sure someone told you pool filter sand rocks! It's in 7 of my 10 tanks. I am sorry about your fish. Sounds like ammonia poisoning during shipment. I wish you luck. I'll read through everything if you have further problems.

 

I loved your story, you are not the first and you won't be the last. Best of Luck

 

Update: