Starting A Classroom Aquarium!

Awesome, and don't feel bad about questions we love questions! We would much rather you asked questions than tried something and had a bad experience from it, trust me learn from the rest like I did they made a lot of them and can teach you how to avoid some easy ones.

 

So far so good....I think. I bought 3 long fin, skirt tetras that I added to the tank at about 11:30 a.m today. I used the tetra safe start and then put them in within about 15 minutes. I followed the directions above on letting bag float, etc. They seem to be doing ok. Anything I should watch for in these early days that might indicate illness or excessive stress?

Also, I bought two new plants that I want to add. When adding plants (fake) to a tank that already has fish in it do I need to rinse them with water that has been conditioned to kill chlorine or can I just rinse them with regular tap water?

Thanks everyone

 

Rinsing the plants in regular tap water will be fine.

I would say as far as what to look out for with the fish:
Make sure they are eating (hungry fish are healthy fish)
Look them over for ich (they would look like they were sprinkled with salt all over their bodies)
Look for white cottony patches (fungus)
Look for bulging eyes (Pop Eye)

Congrats and good luck!

 

How were they doing when you left school? Were your students there to see the new arrivals? How did it go? Are you having fun yet? LOL so many questions but we want to see you succeed! (speaking of seeing you succeed, when do we get to see pictures?!)

 

I agree if they eat that is a great sign.

Watch for anything that looks abnormal, take pics and post them we will be happy to help you.

 

I will definitely post pictures sometime this week!!

I fed them a little pinch or two a few hours after adding them and they did come right up and eat everything that I dropped in. How often should I feed them in the beginning while the tank is cycling? There is so much information on the internet I'm not sure what is correct. One article I read said not to feed them too much in the beginning while cycling because that will produce more waste that will cause ammonia levels to rise. Should I follow this advice?

Oh, and I've also been reading that when using tetra safe start I shouldn't test levels with my master kit for about 10-14 days. Does this sound about right?

The students were thrilled at their arrival!!! They were all captivated by them and wanted to stop by the tank any chance they could. I even found myself sitting by the tank for a while after the students left. They really are fun to watch.

 

Yay!
yes, that's right about testing.

 

Sounds like everything is going great so far Keep us updated and don't forget pictures!

You and your students have fun with your aquarium!

 

feeding should never be more than they can consume in 3-5 min, some people feed once daily, some twice, some three or more times. Its really up to you, it is good that they are eating as that is the important part.

 

I feed my fish normally twice a day and only as much as they can eat in under two minutes. I also fast them once a week for 24 hours. After the 24 hours is up I feed them frozen food as a treat.

 

Hi. I'm a little worried about one of my tetras. He is swimming slower than he was earlier and was hiding behind some plants. This morning I added water to the tanks since quite a bit of it seems to have evaporated. It was tap water that I'd left sitting out since yesterday and had already added water conidtioner to it. Did I make a mistake adding the water this morning? It was to fill about a half inch that was missing from the top of the tank? Is there anything I can/should do at this point?

 

For those that haven't read the previous posts, I added these fish (long fin skirt tetras) to the tank Monday using tetra safe start.

 

With conditioner you should always treat the entire tank volume when you add water. also I would add the conditioner to the water just before addition to the tank.

I also remember something about prime interfering with the new bacteria so you may have caused some issues to the start of the cycle.

As for the fish acting a little off keep an eye on it, he could just be having a rough patch or could be a lil ill from the store.

 

Tetra's are schooling fish if I recall. The three may be making it a little bit unhappy. While you shouldn't check your levels with your master kit for 10-14 days if your levels are too high it may be killing it. Just do one quick check on your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to help us. If your levels are too high that may be leading to that. Does it still eat? Eating is a big sign. Look it over for any signs of disease. Does it look sick at all? Any obvious signs. Also clamped fins have always been a big sign for me. Are its fins clamped. Best of luck!

 

The readings inside of 10days are always weird with a TSS start. If you oculd take a quick pic of the fish we might be able to help a bit more.

 

I just fed them and the other two ate but he did not. Foolishly I left the master kit on my counter at home because I thought it would be useless for at least another week.

 

He is somewhat listless....moving slow, almost seems a little disoriented. I don't notice any visual differences between him and the other two, at least not to my untrained eye.

 

I added aqeuon water conditioner to the tap water that had been sitting for a day about 2-3 minutes before I then poured the water into the tank.

 

stick a net in the tank and see if he swims away from it or if he would be easily caught. By nature he should run from the net. Sounds like there might be something but then again could just be a stress thing too.

 

Don't give in to the temptation of testing.

It is risky adding water to the tank, since whenusing SafeStart you do not want to add any water conditioner until it finishes cycling. But am on the verge of a similar situation on was thinking about what I was going to do if topping off the tank became necessary, and I came to the conclusion that I would fill a bucket, dechlorinate the water and wait 24 hours before adding it to the tank. So that was a long way of saying I think (hope) your SafeStart bacteria will be okay.

Sometimes fish just don't make it. They go thru a lot of stress from the time they leave the breeder until the time they end up in your tank. Since the other fish are doing fine, I would say there is nothing you've done to cause this, so just stay the course.

Best of luck!

 

I added aqeuon water conditioner to the tap water that had been sitting for a day about 2-3 minutes before I then poured the water into the tank.

You ninja'd me on this one. Hopefully the water conditioner doesn't kill the SafeStart bacteria.

 

Oh no!!! I probably should not have added the water!!! I was just very worried about the water level getting too low for the filter to function. I should've gotten on here and double checked!

 

just relax and remain calm, I took a quick look at the aqueon sight and it says nothing about its water conditioner doing anything other than dechlorinating the water and adding slime coat. I think the cycle will be ok, just maybe too much for the fish thou.

 

Well, the problem may be that according to Tetra, a water conditioner that removes chloramines can kill the bacteria...and I think Aqueon water conditoner removes chloramines.

 

Ugh!!! Yes!!! The bottle I have says it neutralizes chloramines!!!!! Did I just ruin the entire start of my cycle!?!?!?

 

Should I expect the other ones to start to get sick, too? Is there anything I can do at this point?

 

dont over think things, gotta take a wait and see attitude at times. Give it the time but also watch the fish they will tell you what's wrong. We have all made mistakes and all continue to make them on occasion.

 

Hello there. Sorry to read about one of your fish not feeling well.

It's only been two-three days since you added the three fish from the store, right? One step that we always recommend is to quarantine newly purchased fish. Sometimes fishkeepers QT their new fish for one week, two weeks, or even a month.

But in your case, your tank is brand new, so I don't believe we advised a QT period (or at least, I didn't, sorry ). So you may have just gotten a sick fish from the store.

If you can, remove him from the tank and put him in a little QT tanklet of his own. Don't worry about cycling the water in this receptacle; just condition it with your Amquel. Keep it warm and filtered if at all possible. And I would take him home with you, if you can, to keep an eye on him.

Until we know what could be wrong, we can't advise any course of action. But I would remove him from the other two. And observe the other two for any signs.

Keep us posted!

 

HI again. For some reason, I didn't see an entire page of posts before I responded (post #109). So just a comment re: adding water to a cycling tank.

The WORST that can happen if you add water that has been conditioned is that you KILL the cycle.
The WORST that can happen if you add water that has NOT been conditioned is that you KILL the fish.

So if you add water, ALWAYS condition it first! Of course in this case, perhaps adding water wasn't necessary. But if the worse thing that happened is you lost the cycle, that's not a calamity.

Keep us posted.

 

My little one did not make it. I feel so bad. I'm wondering if maybe he was slightly weaker than the other two and then by adding the water conditoner with the new water I put in became too much for him.

As of now, the other two are still swimming about and both have good appetities.

The water seems to be evaporating a little quicker than I expected. I'm not sure how low I can let it go before I have to add water. It's still pretty close to the top so I won't worry about it for the next few days. I'm going to try and post some pictures later tonight.

 

As long as the bottom of the filter intake tube is covered by water you should be fine. What kind of top do you have on your tank? And what kind of light? Certain lights and hoods trap heat which make water evaporate faster.

 

I can't see any way that your adding conditioned water would have been responsible for the fish's death.

 

Sorry to hear about your little fish not making it. :-( Cycling fish-in does unfortunately pose a greater risk of fish dying. This is why I decided to do a fishless cycle, which is less risky, because I wanted to minimize the risk of having to explain to my sons why the new pet died so quickly. However, even if one does a fishless cycle and does everything right, there is still a risk that some fish may die. You do not know what kind of stress your fish were under before they got into your care. Most fish you buy were recently shipped to the pet store from a supplier and then bought by you, so that is at least two times in a short amount of time that the fish need to acclimate to new tank, and some fish do not handle this acclimation. I wish you that your other fish will continue to be well. All the best!

 

I can't see any way that your adding conditioned water would have been responsible for the fish's death.

The OP was cycling her tank with TSS and you shouldn't add anything including water conditioner (unless it's been in water for 24 hours).

I thought they just said this because it might happen. Turns out it WILL happen.


Sorry for your loss though. ):

 

The OP was cycling her tank with TSS and you shouldn't add anything including water conditioner (unless it's been in water for 24 hours).

I thought they just said this because it might happen. Turns out it WILL happen.


Sorry for your loss though. ):

Uh, no, have to disagree with you here. Adding conditioned water MOST LIKELY did not cause the fish's death. Else the other fish would be dying, and they're not.

Tomorrow is a new day.

 

Legures, if you read back a little, you will see that it was me who warned laramiya that adding water with water conditioner that hasn't sat for at least 24 hours could kill the SafeStart bacteria.

But even if the water conditioner did kill off the SafeStart bacteria, the fish would not have been exposed to ammonia long enough to kill it. Most likely, the SafeStart bacteria hadn't even started consuming ammonia at that point. SafeStart does not work instantianiosly.

So I feel very certain that it was just a sick/stressed fish to begin with.

 

My apologies, I didn't read through all of the posts and it slipped my mind that there were other fish besides that one. Sorry, disregard my previous post

 

My little one did not make it. I feel so bad. I'm wondering if maybe he was slightly weaker than the other two and then by adding the water conditoner with the new water I put in became too much for him.

As of now, the other two are still swimming about and both have good appetities.

The water seems to be evaporating a little quicker than I expected. I'm not sure how low I can let it go before I have to add water. It's still pretty close to the top so I won't worry about it for the next few days. I'm going to try and post some pictures later tonight.

I have a 10 gallon guppy fry tank and my water seems to be leaving moderately fast. What I did is I filled it up pretty full first and I let it evaporate and generally every weak or other weak I need to fill it back up. Sorry you lose your little one but glad the other 2 are doing ok.

As for your cycle just let it run it's course. If a necessity you can try to add another bottle of TSS to help out some and you can do a water change before adding it.

Best of luck!

 

My apologies, I didn't read through all of the posts and it slipped my mind that there were other fish besides that one. Sorry, disregard my previous post

Hey buddy if you are too lazy to read all 114 posts prior to posting...Just kidding!!

No need to apologize, I was just trying to clarify that I was aware of the dechlorinated water being added but didn't think that was the cause of the fish death.

 

HI everyone. Thanks for all of the feedback. I was really hoping he'd pull through and I'd find a hungry, perky fish this morning but unfortunately that was not the case. I'm very glad that at least for now the other two seem to be doing ok.


I'm going to post a few pictures of my tank. I've added a few plants since my last picture. I think I still need to get a few more, especially taller ones for the upper half of the tank. Let me know what you think. I read that skirt tetras like densely planted tanks but I'm not sure how dense I should go. Also, I am planning to eventually add a few red cherry shrimp but that probably won't happen until a few months from now.

Thanks everyone.