[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Fish tank help, please (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 3/21/2015 10:08:22 PM EDT
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On Wednesday I got my 4 year old daughter a small fish tank as a "big sister gift" since she now has a brother.
Fish tank is a 1.7gal filtered tank. The store employee said that I could keep 4-5 neon tetras in the tank, so we got three. We followed their directions exactly. One fished died yesterday (first day of fish in the tank), so we replaced it. Another fish died tonight. I did some research and I have discovered that the rule for Tetras is 1 gallon per fish, and no less than 5 tetras per tank. I have spent $65 at this point at this store, and I am getting pretty frustrated and a little worried for my daughter. What should I do? Find store employee that sold me the tank, blade at 45 and give him a 1.7 gallon, acrylic encased enema? 
Try to get my money back and risk a heart broken daughter? Is there a fish whisperer here? Help me Arfcom, you're my only hope. |
| The filter takes roughly 30 days to cycle. This means wait two or three weeks to add/replace any fish. Feed very minimally for the next 30 days. They may be dying due to high levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water from waste and food breaking down. The filter has not had time to grow bacteria colonies to recycle the water. A big help would be to replace 1/3 of the water every several days for the next week or two. |
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Quoted: The filter takes roughly 30 days to cycle. This means wait two or three weeks to add/replace any fish. Feed very minimally for the next 30 days. They may be dying due to high levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water from waste and food breaking down. The filter has not had time to grow bacteria colonies to recycle the water. A big help would be to replace 1/3 of the water every several days for the next week or two. |
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Put a goldfish or Beta in it they are hard to kill. This. After pouring $50 worth of neons and tetras down the toilet, I grabbed two feeder fish and haven't looked back since. Those feeder fish are living the life now! FWIW, at my place I have had the same Gurami for what seems like a decade. Every now and again he plays dead, I throw him in the toilet, he comes back to life, and I return him to the tank for another round. This has happened twice now. I can't kill him since he's lasted this long, so I literally keep a 26 gal tank going just for him (or her)? 
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I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. |
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The filter takes roughly 30 days to cycle. This means wait two or three weeks to add/replace any fish. Feed very minimally for the next 30 days. They may be dying due to high levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water from waste and food breaking down. The filter has not had time to grow bacteria colonies to recycle the water. A big help would be to replace 1/3 of the water every several days for the next week or two. If the last 2 die, should I wait 30 days while still doing the water changes before I add fish? I have been feeding pretty minimally (a few small flakes 1x per 24 hours) |
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This thread will tell you and take you to anything you need to know to start.
But 1-2 gallons per inch of fish first off. |
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Everybody has good advice here.
Basically what happens is you dump fish into a sterile environment. They crap in this environment and piss in it, raising the amonia and nitritessky high. One these levels get high, bacteria usually start growing on the filters and where water runs past. These bacterias start to break down these levels. Usually after about 30 days this balances out where the level of crap and stuff is being broken down by the amount of bacteria that has grown in the tank. The fish you bought come from tanks that are already cycled, so they have fresh water. In your tank they will get shocked by the amout of ammonia and nitrites and likely die off. Plus, with that small of a tank it's hard to keep running smoothly. Think of it like this. If you pour a coke into your tank, and into your batchtub full of water, which one is going to be effected by it more? Smaller tanks are MUCH harder to keep running smooth. The coke will be much more diluted in a larger tank, and will be more concentrated in a smaller tank. Neons are also not as easy to keep alive as most other tetras. Some pet shops don't carry them because so many die from just the shiiping alone. I remember receiving complete bags of dead neons and Cardinal tetras when I used to work at the pet shops. I always recommended Blackskirt Tetras to cycle tanks and for tanks as small as yours a Betta or goldfish(nasty dirty fish also) Take everyone's advice here. Replacing some water with fresh dechlorinated water will help but don't wash off your filter yet. Remeber that's where most of the bacteria will be doing it's job. |
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Tank hasn't cycled yet and it's one inch of fish per gallon of water. Take the dead fish back and they'll replace them. At the rate I am killing fish, the only people that get any benefit from that are the gas station owners. 
My dad suggested getting a little ship wreck for the missing fish to hide in 
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If the last 2 die, should I wait 30 days while still doing the water changes before I add fish? I have been feeding pretty minimally (a few small flakes 1x per 24 hours) Quoted:
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The filter takes roughly 30 days to cycle. This means wait two or three weeks to add/replace any fish. Feed very minimally for the next 30 days. They may be dying due to high levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water from waste and food breaking down. The filter has not had time to grow bacteria colonies to recycle the water. A big help would be to replace 1/3 of the water every several days for the next week or two. If the last 2 die, should I wait 30 days while still doing the water changes before I add fish? I have been feeding pretty minimally (a few small flakes 1x per 24 hours) You need a bigger tank for 3 tetras. We had a 10g that had 3 tetras live for a year in it with minimal water changes. They died when we got more tetras and they got the fin rot and whatever that tetras disease is... |
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This. After pouring $50 worth of neons and tetras down the toilet, I grabbed two feeder fish and haven't looked back since. Those feeder fish are living the life now! FWIW, at my place I have had the same Gurami for what seems like a decade. Every now and again he plays dead, I throw him in the toilet, he comes back to life, and I return him to the tank for another round. This has happened twice now. I can't kill him since he's lasted this long, so I literally keep a 26 gal tank going just for him (or her)?
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Put a goldfish or Beta in it they are hard to kill. This. After pouring $50 worth of neons and tetras down the toilet, I grabbed two feeder fish and haven't looked back since. Those feeder fish are living the life now! FWIW, at my place I have had the same Gurami for what seems like a decade. Every now and again he plays dead, I throw him in the toilet, he comes back to life, and I return him to the tank for another round. This has happened twice now. I can't kill him since he's lasted this long, so I literally keep a 26 gal tank going just for him (or her)?
My dad has some kissing guramis that are at least 12-15 years old. We had clown loaches that were over ten years old and nearly 7 inches long as well. Hell, most of the fish in that tank areover 10 years old. |
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On Wednesday I got my 4 year old daughter a small fish tank as a "big sister gift" since she now has a brother. Fish tank is a 1.7gal filtered tank. The store employee said that I could keep 4-5 neon tetras in the tank, so we got three. We followed their directions exactly. One fished died yesterday (first day of fish in the tank), so we replaced it. Another fish died tonight. I did some research and I have discovered that the rule for Tetras is 1 gallon per fish, and no less than 5 tetras per tank. I have spent $65 at this point at this store, and I am getting pretty frustrated and a little worried for my daughter. What should I do? Find store employee that sold me the tank, blade at 45 and give him a 1.7 gallon, acrylic encased enema?
Try to get my money back and risk a heart broken daughter? Is there a fish whisperer here? Help me Arfcom, you're my only hope. 1. if you're using tap water it has chlorine let it sit for 24 hours or longer before adding living critters 2. get an African ciclid they are pretty, & tough as hell and love a dirty tank in fact when you clean the tank they'll pout on the bottom for a few hours. |
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Quoted: They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. Quoted: Quoted: I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. People told you about the cycling of the tank and you didn't give any indication that this made any sense to you. You also haven't said one thing about the various aspect of water quality. It needs to be monitored carefully, especially in a tank that is small for the fish load. Gallon ratios are just rules of thumb to make things easy on you. Starting with good water and keeping the filter cycle going correctly is the key. You could always go fishless and check the water for a few days to be sure there are no chloramines, chlorine and it has a suitable ph, etc. Once, you know the quality of the water in the tank, you can introduce a fish and then monitor it as the filter cycles. Frequent water changes with good water can help until you get a good biofilter going. Under gravel filters are inexpensive and effective, but I found external filters much easier and nicer to work with. That tank is ridiculously small. |
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On Wednesday I got my 4 year old daughter a small fish tank as a "big sister gift" since she now has a brother. Today is Saturday. Are you telling us that you put fish in a tank that was 3 days old? Do you know what "cycling a fish tank" means? It's OK if you don't as I can teach you. You need to cycle your fish tank for 2+ weeks before putting fish in it so the water chemistry is stable. At this point, there are many reasons your fish aren't doing well and we need more information, starting with answering my questions above. |
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Personally I'd keep at least one fish in the tank while it's cycling but have been told yes and no. You want some pollution going on to help the filter cycle.
The fish may be dying for another reason than the filter. I'm thinking 2 to 3 small fish for 1.7 gal tank at most. Where did you get your water from? City water should be treated to remove chlorine and well water can be hard on fish. We used the water out of the dehumidifier I run in the garage but you could buy two gallons of spring water next time your at the grocery. I always had salt water tanks but no longer. We got our daughter a 5 gallon tank and had gold fish originally because they don't need a heater and live pretty much forever but the kid got bored of them so we now have tropical fish and they live a year or two and die. My daughter doesn't get too upset anymore. Sounds like your feeding correctly. |
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water is not ready for fish. +1 OP, if you are serious about keeping fish, you need to understand the principles of cycling the fish tank. I'm sure there are many tutorials out there, and this one is mine. I keep an aquaponics system which essentially combines an aquarium and using the fish waste in the water to grow plants. However, I go through the cycling process of an aquarium in detail in that link. I have an aquaponics thread here as well: |
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Nitrogen cycle
youre doing it wrong as stated above, a tank (ecosystem) needs several days-weeks to become self-sustainable. that is the millions of nitro-bacter bacteria must get established in the media (filter, gravel, rocks, plastic plants ect) to consume all the fish piss in the tank. until the bacteria multiply in proportion to the piss the fish will continue to die off due to the piss(ammonia) burning their gills. there some products which accelerate this "cycle" 
also most of these water conditioner products contain declorinators which break down the chorine in tap water.(chorine and chloromine kill fish) that being said Neon teteras are unlikely to thrive in an unheated tank, they are tropical and prefer 78-82 degree water, a betta (Siamese fighting fish is you best bet) or gourami as they both can partially breath air don't mix bettas and gold fish (the betta will eat the gold fish fins) or two bettas for that matter they will fight add a small heater and you could get a few tetras( neons or glowlights) and water changes... topping off the tank to make up for evaporation is not a water change. you have to siphon or dip out the old water and put in new. |
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It only takes an hour or two to read up on filtration and water quality testing. You need to be able to do it. People told you about the cycling of the tank and you didn't give any indication that this made any sense to you. You also haven't said one thing about the various aspect of water quality. It needs to be monitored carefully, especially in a tank that is small for the fish load. Gallon ratios are just rules of thumb to make things easy on you. Starting with good water and keeping the filter cycle going correctly is the key. You could always go fishless and check the water for a few days to be sure there are no chloramines, chlorine and it has a suitable ph, etc. Once, you know the quality of the water in the tank, you can introduce a fish and then monitor it as the filter cycles. Under gravel filters are inexpensive and effective, but I found external filters much easier and nicer to work with. That tank is ridiculously small. Quoted:
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I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. People told you about the cycling of the tank and you didn't give any indication that this made any sense to you. You also haven't said one thing about the various aspect of water quality. It needs to be monitored carefully, especially in a tank that is small for the fish load. Gallon ratios are just rules of thumb to make things easy on you. Starting with good water and keeping the filter cycle going correctly is the key. You could always go fishless and check the water for a few days to be sure there are no chloramines, chlorine and it has a suitable ph, etc. Once, you know the quality of the water in the tank, you can introduce a fish and then monitor it as the filter cycles. Under gravel filters are inexpensive and effective, but I found external filters much easier and nicer to work with. That tank is ridiculously small. EDIT I gather that I did not cycle long enough now I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality
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The filter takes roughly 30 days to cycle. This means wait two or three weeks to add/replace any fish. Feed very minimally for the next 30 days. They may be dying due to high levels of ammonia and nitrites in the water from waste and food breaking down. The filter has not had time to grow bacteria colonies to recycle the water. A big help would be to replace 1/3 of the water every several days for the next week or two. This. Google nitrogen cycle. You cannot just fill a tank with water, add fish and hope they'll do well. I've been an aquarist for almost 40 years, and hear it over and over. It takes time and patience for some things. Kids have no patience. Kids + aquarium = fail. Now if you want to teach kids about life and death, get them an aquarium and toss stuff in there. |
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OP, let me save you some trouble and money. Please skip the goldfish. Goldfish require much higher water quality than most tropical species. If you have added chlorine remover then go buy some feeder guppies. Don't get too many, aim for 5 or so. Shouldn't cost more than a couple of bucks. Grab yourself some java ferns to go in the tank with them. When you get home make sure you acclimate the fish. Put the bag in the tank for about 10 minutes, then exchange a little water every 5 minutes. After about 30 minutes dump them in the tank. If you really want to give them a fighting chance do a 20% water change every day for a week or so, this should help with any spikes until the bio cycle levels out. |
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EDIT I gather that I did not cycle long enough now I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality
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I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. People told you about the cycling of the tank and you didn't give any indication that this made any sense to you. You also haven't said one thing about the various aspect of water quality. It needs to be monitored carefully, especially in a tank that is small for the fish load. Gallon ratios are just rules of thumb to make things easy on you. Starting with good water and keeping the filter cycle going correctly is the key. You could always go fishless and check the water for a few days to be sure there are no chloramines, chlorine and it has a suitable ph, etc. Once, you know the quality of the water in the tank, you can introduce a fish and then monitor it as the filter cycles. Under gravel filters are inexpensive and effective, but I found external filters much easier and nicer to work with. That tank is ridiculously small. EDIT I gather that I did not cycle long enough now I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality
You won't finish the cycle in 3 days. I'd give it a month. The test strips work fine. Tap water and the water conditioner they gave you is all you need. It's the cycle thats missing, if you don't let it run it's course in full, you will keep killing fish. |
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Quoted: I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. They tested the water and told me it was good (I treated it before they tested) and I put the bag-o-fish in the tank for 1hour for the water temps to equalize before release. The tank has an under-gravel filter with the air pump thing, and the surface of the water is agitated for the gas exchange. Tank is unheated but we keep our house between 76 and 78. First fish died after 6 hours, second fish was in for a minimum of 24, possibly 32 hours. The one gallon thing is what I have read on the interwebs... so I take that with a grain of salt. But IIRC, my sister had a 20 gal tank with about 12 tetras and some algae eating bottom feeder thing when I was a kid. People told you about the cycling of the tank and you didn't give any indication that this made any sense to you. You also haven't said one thing about the various aspect of water quality. It needs to be monitored carefully, especially in a tank that is small for the fish load. Gallon ratios are just rules of thumb to make things easy on you. Starting with good water and keeping the filter cycle going correctly is the key. You could always go fishless and check the water for a few days to be sure there are no chloramines, chlorine and it has a suitable ph, etc. Once, you know the quality of the water in the tank, you can introduce a fish and then monitor it as the filter cycles. Under gravel filters are inexpensive and effective, but I found external filters much easier and nicer to work with. That tank is ridiculously small. I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality You have ph, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, chlorine, chloramine, and others. I used tests that involved liquid drops. It wasn't that expensive. The water you add is sort of a function of the water in the tank. I had an under sink two filter home filtration system with a really good carbon drinking filter on it and I tested before adding to the tank. Frequent changes of small portions are better than large changes of water less frequently. And that tank is ridiculously small. And go read up on water quality, additives, testing, and filters. I did goldfish. They are big, friendly and they pay attention to people. Eventually, they spawned. It was a large tank, so it was easy to take care of and we eventually ditched the undergravel filter for a big expensive German canister filter that I really liked. I discovered the spawn when I was doing a thourough cleaning of the cannister filter. Some of them got sucked into the cannister. I remeber struggling to get them out of the cannister and save them because I didn't want to be a marine abortionist. |
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EDIT I gather that I did not cycle long enough now I grasp the water cycle concept, I ran the tank for 36 hours before fish. I have had the pest store test my water a few times, but it looks like its something I need to do some more research on. Are the test strips a decent route? Or is there some system that is going to cost a fortune that I need? Should I buy special water? Like distilled or that stuff that cost more than aviation gas at the pet store? I have been using the tap water treatment that they sold me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I found that If I had gone to a pet store .5 miles from the one I went to, I could have gotten a 10gal tank and a cartridge filter system for about $10 less.... so at this point I have to decide if I want to shill out another $25 to keep the $0.99 cent fish alive, or teach my daughter a lesson on mortality
Please read my link if you want to understand fish tank cycling. No, you didn't cycle it long enough. It takes 2+ weeks at 75-80F to cycle it properly and ensure a large population of bacteria to break down fish waste. A 1.7 gallon tank is small. I'm sure I could keep 5 Tetras alive in it but it would take a good, well-cycled filter and water changes. Fish need a stable environment. Most likely yours were not killed by an ammonia spike but rather a drastic change in the chemistry of the water, possibly pH, or you didn't dechlorinate the water. Do you have city water? ETA: You need Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria in your tank. The best source for this is the washings from a filter sponge from someone with a well-established fish tank. Find a friend/family member that already has a fish tank going and ask if you can have some washings from their filter. Pour some of the washings into your tank. Your filter will filter it out and the bacteria will then start growing on your filter. |
| Small fish tanks ie .5 gallon-<5gallon can be a royal pita to keep going--even for experienced fish keepers --especially at first. If you really want to run something easy in that size, keep a betta in it, or some other animal that is good at dealing with small volumes of water. |
| Tank is too small, and you should cycle it with one fish. As stated, Neon Tetra's are not hardy fish. I would recommend cycling the tank with a Molly or Moon. Also, make sure to use a product like "Cycle" to help speed up the process. Also, make sure to use water conditioner to remove the chlorine. You should also use a small amount of "Aquarium Salt". |
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Put a goldfish or Beta in it they are hard to kill. Goldfish are the cows of the fish world and shit like crazy, creating massive amounts of ammonia in the tank to have to cycle. That tank is way too small for goldfish. OP go for something like 2 or 3 black shirt tetras, zebra danios, blood fin tetras. General rule is one inch of fish per gallon, but you can stretch it with different filters being better than others. |
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My name is Charlie. I live in a fish tank. Some people call it an Aquarium! My water was fine. My view was clear. Now the walls are all covered in slime! I got the fish tank blues! That's what I got. I ain't even asking for a pair of alligator shoes! I just want my water to be fine! I want my food to float. And I want the walls to shine! |
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And it's ridiculously small. Quoted:
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And that tank is ridiculously small. A tank that small is really meant for one fish. Yeah, even 5 gallons is small. I have a 550 gallon fish tank for my aquaponics system. It's the one on the left. The middle container has 250 gallons of expanded shale that is used at the filter media. Think about that for a second. Imagine the filtering/processing capacity of a 250 gallon capacity canister filter! 
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Not a long enough time to cycle, coupled with fish that die if you look at them funny.. On top of that, the tank is too small. OP, take your daughter to the store, and let her pick out a molly of some type. That is going to be all that tank supports. But I would wait a few weeks and let your tank cycle... I doubt your other tetras will last much longer. Once they croak, get a cheap water test kit, and some bacteria in a bottle. When your levels look good, buy the molly and toss it in. I, myself, gave up on small tanks years ago... I have 3 tanks now, 2 55s and a 29.. the 29 is only staying up as long as it's sole occupant lives (a REALLY grouchy Oscar that has killed anything put in with him, he just gets feeders now for company... usually five minutes or so... but the kids love watching him eat.) Anything less than 20 gallons is an exercise in futility to keep ammonia levels down.. I have to do weekly water changes on the 29 to even keep it in control... but it does have a big, messy occupant. The 55s almost maintain themselves at this point... I wish I had gone big in the first place. |
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A lot of good advice here. Small tanks take a lot of maintenance and water chemistry can go downhill really fast. I wouldn't keep more than one fish in that small of a tank. Those fish are probably done for. Change out half the water and treat new water with Aquasafe or an equivalent dechlorinator. Make sure the new water is the same temp as the tank before you add it or the temp change could shock the remaining fish.
I started out with a 2 gallon tank about 15 years ago and now have a 105g, 90g, 75g and 37g (all African Cichlids) and the smallest tank requires the most attention. Good luck and don't get discouraged, aquariums can be a lot of fun! |
| The bigger the tank the easier it is. Ive got an 80 with some tetras in it. Often the tetras in the stores are sick from the start. You might only have a 50% sucess rate even with a cycled tank. Also i wouldnt trust an under gravel filter. Get double the filtration you need and it will be way easier to maintain. |
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I call BS on the 1 gallon of water per neon tetra. I have had (years ago) several in a small aquarium and they died of old age. I would guess that you have a chlorine problem or a lack of air bubbling or maybe temperature shock. I would guess the same. OP, did you use tap water, perchance? If so, did you let it sit, without fish, for at least 48 hours to allow the chlorine to out-gas through evaporation? Buy her a Male Beta splendens (only ONE, unless you want to watch them kill each other) they are truly beautiful fish, and can take in atmospheric air if water quality isn't ideal (they're members of the toothed Carp family). Also, they tend to live a few years with moderate care, which makes them good entry-level fish. Fish require dissolved oxygen, and you have to have a filter to clean out bound nitrogen (i.e. fish poop) otherwise the fish die from nitrogen toxicity. Waterfall type filters work great |
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Aside from small tanks like that being difficult, there is also a problem with neon tetras that a lot of other fish don't have. They are high volume fish, when pet stores order them it's usually 25+ at a time. That means that wholesale places keep them in very crowded conditions. They keep their order of several thousand in one or two big tanks so they are easy to net and pack up in large numbers. They won't have someone going to a bunch of different less crowded tanks spending a half an hour to fill a 50 ct. order. Most of the other tropical fish are not kept in such stressful conditions in wholesale. So they tend to not do as well at the pet store or often once they are taken home. |
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I never have much luck with neon tetra. Out of thirty or so over the past seven years, I have two left. But they are big, fat, and happy. They just don't do well compared to larger fish. My first batch of clown loaches are five years now followed by dojos that are three.
I agree with others that your tank needs to cycle first so be aggressive with daily partial water changes. It's also quite tiny. My quarantine tanks are 10 gallons. Main tank is 75. Fishkeeping is easier with larger tanks. |