# NEED LOTS OF ADVICE, New to Fishkeeping



## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

As a biology major with a concentration in marine biology and a love for all aquatic life, I thought it was a fitting idea to start keeping a fish tank. I have a tiny 10 gallon freshwater tank, currently with 5 fish: 1 lyretail guppy, 1 pristella tetra, 1 cherry barb, and 2 neon tetras and 1 live plant... Not very impressive, I know, but I love them dearly. Unfortunately, I've already lost 2 long finned gold danios and 1 neon tetra and it's really heartbreaking. My goal is to become an expert at fishkeeping so I can one day own a giant saltwater tank and get an octopus. So I had to start somewhere. But losing 3 fish already and I've only had the tank for a month? Is this normal?

Products I've used for my tank include: TetraAqua AquaSafe water conditioner, API Stress Coat+ and Stress Zyme+. I'm alternating between 2 foods: TetraMin Plus Tropical Flakes and TopFin Tropical Color Enhancing Flakes.

I also need to vaccuum/change the water.. (you know, with that big tube thing) But I'm terrified of killing my fish and I've never changed the water before, PLEASE HELP! I don't even know what kind of tube/siphon to use..

I need the advice from advanced fishkeepers. What are the best products to use? (water treatments, vaccuums, food etc) How should I use them and how often? What fish should I get and what other fish do they get along with? (I want to get 2-3 more) Any and all advice is greatly appreciated <3

:fish:


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

I think you lost fish and might lose more due to cycling the tank first. Because it's not as simple as add freshwater and put fish in. Read in this link for cycling, but I think at this point you're cycled already. 

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/gen...posting-if-your-fish-dying-your-new-tank.html


As far as vacuuming and water changes. What filter do you have on your tank (because it needs to be cleaned periodically too!) ? Next as far as vacuuming is concerned of the gravel, that is more or less up to your overall view of the tank. Water changes should be done 1-2 weeks and should be 1-2 gallons for your current size (or more for gravel siphoning). I've personally never used the stress coat and zyme so I couldn't tell you. 

From personal experience of never having to change water the old fashioned way, buy a python gravel vac (google it) or something of similarity. It comes with instructions (for everything), you can easily hook it up to a faucet and never have to use buckets and can easily flip it and fill your tank at the same time. And no sucking on a hose to get it started. With a 10 gallon, this is tricky and you could use a hand when you fill it back up, but if you're talented or just use smarts you'll be fine to do it on your own.

As far as putting more fish in there, you can if they are all smaller fish and the ones you have now I believe will all get along together. But your tank is already mildly crowded. But could hold 2 maybe 3 more fish.

Food wise, flakes are flakes and that's all you'll need. Granted you don't want to buy the publix or walmart brand. Buy a brand like you are now TetraMin or Topfin or both and you'll be fine.

As far as the water conditioner, though it's not much money in the first place, you can set your water out for 24 hours and it distills the water ( yay for boyscouts?) which will do just fine in the same method of treating it with the TetraAqua AquaSafe water conditioner. Fortunately for me I have a thing about not drinking or showering in nasty city water so I put a RO system on my house so I only have pure/clean water aside from residual elements in my pipes.

Water treatments. I personally never used any for nearly 2 years up until the point I started getting a really, really nasty algae outbreak. Cleaning your tank is pretty easy, buy a walmart brand glass scrubber/scraper for the glass and you're already getting the gravel vac. Regardless of anything you put into your tank whether it's your hands, glass scrubber, gravel vac. Rinse everything thoroughly before putting it into the tank (aside from the obvious stress stuff/food/etc). Any soap on your hands, or residual chemicals from the manufacturer or shipping of any product will have something on it. Otherwise cleaning the tank you scrape the algae buildup on your tank off, vacuum the gravel, clean the filter. Can all be done at once. Nothing is done with soap. You can give your fish the stress coat/zyme but it's not really required. To help with the algae in your tank, might want to consider a mystery snail (ask someone at petsmart) because they will do a lot of that cleaning for you. Then you have to do it less often.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

So yes, this is normal. They don't call it "New Tank Syndrome" for nothing. Once your tank's bacterial levels mature enough to detoxify all the waste, your fish will be fine.

Water changes--> The MAIN thing to know is that new "raw" water right out of your faucet very often cannot support fishy life, chlorine notwithstanding, simply because the dissolved gases ratio in that water are all wonky thanks to the water pressure in the pipes. Those Pythons mentioned above kill a lot of fish each year. This means that you should never change too much water at one time.
That said, you could change half of it every day if you wanted to, provided that you let that new water sit out for 24 hours each day to "breathe" and re-balance before adding it to your tank. Also, never make a huge water change in a tank that hasn't had any water changed in a long time. make a bunch of smaller ones first, to avoid the shock of conditions being too different too fast.


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

Do explain on how the pythons kill fish aside from a 10 year old sucking the fish up lol. Or the obvious of draining too much water and so on (or is that it and I misread?)

Thanks for adding that last bit about the water changes too TOS. Forgot the aforementioned.


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

you also have to know dont put goldfish in your tank. some are neat but they dont like the heat that you need for tropicals and they give off a lot of ammonia. When you set up the tank some people cycle the tank with fish and other use the bacteria in a bottle and some use both just dont go out to the store and buy more fish after others die you will burn a hole in your pocket. When your tank cycles you will notice it will get cloudy and that could last anywhere from a week to a month or longer and then it will become crystal clear. when it becomes clear this means all the bacteria that is essential for the fish are there. then all you do is weekly or monthly water changes. replace filter cartridges. tip: if you have filter cartridges that you have to assemble or can be opened. what i do is empty the charcoal(the charcoal works by trapping impurities in its pores and once they fill up you need new charcoal) run them under water to get the debris off, ring them out and put new charcoal in. you can buy the cartridges about once or twice a year instead of every month all you need is the charcoal which isnt too expensive.

another thing that is more noticeable in saltwater tanks but the larger the tank the easier it is to take care of and after initial setup i think my 10 gallon costs me more then my 38. If you ever do start a saltwater tank you have a lot to learn and the initial cost is quite expensive and you need to start out with a minimum of 55gal. but you'll learn all the saltwater stuff after a few years with fresh.


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

I'm pretty sure my tank is done cycling. It went through its cloudy stage and cleared up. The first tetra that died did so because of stress before I even floated the bag in the tank. The first danio that died may have done so due to the larger danio constantly chasing it and biting it. The second danio died mysteriously. However, I could tell it was on its way out because of the way it was arching its back in an unusual way the day before. I found him dead in the most bizarre position however, I'll attach a picture (not to exploit the dead, but just to show how odd it was).









As for the water change, I'm concerned about leaving the water to cycle in a bucket for 24 hours without heating it to the appropriate temperature. But then again, if it's not a big change, it shouldn't affect the fish too much right?

Here's what I'm most confused about. When you vaccuum the gravel, doesn't it take out water too? So adding water (or "changing water") would be neccessary anyway right?


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## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

you are correct. thats why i wait to vaccum my gravel untill i do a major water change so i can do a good cleaning on the gravel.


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

just did my first gravel cleaning/water change (about a half hour ago) with a basic vaccuum/siphon (didn't even get any water in mouth, thank God). much easier than i thought. i was so afraid of stressing my fish out but they seem to be happy and thriving. i just put a drop of conditioner into a bucket of lukewarm tap water, swirled it around and added it to my tank slowly. i changed about half the tank. (i got a little crazy trying to vaccuum out all the old food lol) hopefully the fish stay happy bc that would mean i did a good job, right?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Well, after the aeration part, you could always just plop a heater in the bucket for a half hour. That'll warm it up quite nicely.


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## grfury (Feb 2, 2011)

2 neon tetras
1 lyretail guppy
1 pristella tetra
1 cherry barb

I just want to point out here that cherry barbs, neon tetras, and pristella tetras are all shoaling fish. I personally am surprised your cherry barb is still alive they usually go "emo" as my fiance likes to say and hide in the back of your tank if they are all alone. Generally neons need to be in a shoal of 6 or more (9-12 would be better, which is way to many for a 10 gallon), Cherry barbs are happiest in a shoal of 6 or more, same with pristellas, as for guppies they are the "Retards of the fish world" so I don't think they notice to much. A 10 gallon is actually harder than anything else for a new aquarist to keep, chemical problems (ie. ammonia), stocking problems etc. 

If your local fish store has a "take me back/trade in policy" here are some stocking ideas.

The Betta Tank
A male betta
6 cherry shrimp or 3 flower shrimp or ghost shrimp

My personal tank 10g setup at the moment, decorated properly this stocking combination is incredibly pretty.
6 Zebra Danios
1 Flower Shrimp

For water treatment SeaChem prime is my favorite (much better product than most). As for a siphon no need to suck the end...unless you are like me and like to watch the woman in your...never-mind. Take your siphon...submerge it, parallel to the surface, then move the siphon rapidly back and forth and viola...your siphon is started. Another way to do this is to fill the siphon with water, turn it upside down, wait until you have water in your bucket, then immediately invert into the tank. 

Anyway just my .02 cents mate, happy fish keeping!


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

grfury said:


> I just want to point out here that cherry barbs, neon tetras, and pristella tetras are all shoaling fish. I personally am surprised your cherry barb is still alive they usually go "emo" as my fiance likes to say and hide in the back of your tank if they are all alone.
> QUOTE]
> 
> 
> ...


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

danielleborys said:


> grfury said:
> 
> 
> > I just want to point out here that cherry barbs, neon tetras, and pristella tetras are all shoaling fish. I personally am surprised your cherry barb is still alive they usually go "emo" as my fiance likes to say and hide in the back of your tank if they are all alone.
> ...


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

well. it's been a week now with the redtail shark, haven't seen him attack the other fish. hes really occupied with eating all the algae. my skull had a nice layer of red on it and its all gone now! he must be really hungry. i guess ill just buy a larger tank when he starts to grow.

here's another question: if i wanted to add more gravel to my tank (so my live plant's root could be buried deeper), is that possible to do? or is that a horrible idea?

also should i be feeding my frog something other than the fish flakes?


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

Update to last post: My red tail shark is hanging out at the top of the tank behind the heater; I fear he is on his way out. He had been hiding in the tank skull for the past days. His color seems dramatically faded. His tail barely red, his black body, greyish, as if the a coating of some white film. I have no idea what to do =(


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

same exact thing happened to mine.2 days later his tale was a darker red color than before and was very active


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## danielleborys (Jan 26, 2011)

crazy day for the fish. my redtail shark is dying. laying upside down at the bottom of tank but still breathing, moves awkwardly when disturbed by the other fish who seem to be nipping at him from time to time. i don't have any clove oil or i'd put him out of his misery. theres a baby fish swimming around my tank, i just noticed it a few minutes ago. i want it to live and grow but my other fish are surely going to get it. i heard of seperators but i feel like if i go out to buy one now, he'll have been eaten by the time i get home. my guppy is being unusually aggressive. 

any advice? and what could be killing my shark if my other fish are fine?


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## Joie (Apr 6, 2011)

Well?! What happened to your shark and the baby fish?! I have to know now!!!


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