Of the 10 guppies and 6 neon tetras I've bought, I only have 6 guppies left. Four guppies died while I cycled (I over-fed). The tetras died I think from temperature change. I didn't get these pets to end their lives, but I keep making mistakes at the their expense.
I guess my question is, are dead fish simply to be expected?
Sadly...you can't keep fish without having some dead ones...
I haven't been having luck with the oto cats...all my other fish are fine...my water is fine...but there's something up with the otos...either they don't like my water, or they were sick to begin with...I've had 8...I can only find two...4 are definately dead...2 are MIA...hope they're okay...
So yes, some dead fish are to be expected...
...when you do everything as right as you can...and have dead fish...then as sad as it is, it remains a learning experience...
...but when people deliberately set their fish up in poor conditions...and don't care if the fish lives or dies...that's quite another situation...I consider that animal abuse...
Just to be clear, I bought seven guppies, four died. The tank cycled. When everything was fine, I added three guppies and six neon tetras. The tetras died.
...as I said, sometimes fish die...could be the water - even if it's okay, it could just be very different from the 'okay' water that they were used to...could be poorly-bred fish...could be stressed-out fish...likely a combination of factors...
sometimes if u add to many fish at the same time, even if your tank is cycled, it can create a bit of an ammonia spike while the tank adapts to the increased bioload. i think it's usually best to add a couple fish at a time. this doesn't always happen and if it does that many fish prob wouldn't have died. so you probably had some unhealthy tetras when you got them.
The ammonia, nitrites and nitrates were 0 starting on that Monday (and continuing that week). Friday was the six-week mark, which is when I got the new fish.
I also changed the blue filter for the very first time that Friday. On Saturday I had a very slight amount of ammonia ... around 0.15 PPM. I did a 1/6 water change and added a small amount of Biozyme (or something) to the water on top of the blue filter.
I use the 5-in-1 strips for nitrites and nitrates and found them to be accurate. Ammonia strips suck, so I switched to the type where you put 8 drips from each of two bottles into a glass tube with 5ml of water.
ive just lost 2 mollys you cant always tell the age of fish you buy and the mollys were full grown when purchased so how old they were is beyond me the same goes for most short lived fish
I don't remember what the nitrates reading was at the end of the cycling period, but it was at least in the safe range when I added the new guppies and neon tetras. (I understand how the cycle works.) My filter information can be found under the Tanks button. The filter I replaced was the blue one, not the BioWheel.
Thanks for the replies, but I didn't mean this thread to turn into a discussion of the nitrogen cycle. My question is, is it normal for fish to die? If you had a small tank, cycled it and put small schooling fish in it, would you expect a 100% survival rate?
no, there are many more things to look at like sudden changes to the environment (ph, temperature) cyanide poisoning (cyanide wont be a problem with tank breed fish but can be a problem with wild caught) stress at teh fish store, an undetected disease etc
Like Rue, I have trouble with otos. I can only keep 3 alive at any given point. I have come to accept this and no longer even try to keep more than 3. The ones I have are active and healthy, but those others... they just die. Neons are bad about this too, which is partly why I haven't kept any in 8 years and am currently "hooked" on black neons.
count me in, i have 1 oto survive the break-in period of the first month. Hard to get in the aquarium but once there ok with it, they can prove to be quite hardy
Sadly...you can't keep fish without having some dead ones...
I haven't been having luck with the oto cats...all my other fish are fine...my water is fine...but there's something up with the otos...either they don't like my water, or they were sick to begin with...I've had 8...I can only find two...4 are definately dead...2 are MIA...hope they're okay...
So yes, some dead fish are to be expected...
...when you do everything as right as you can...and have dead fish...then as sad as it is, it remains a learning experience...
...but when people deliberately set their fish up in poor conditions...and don't care if the fish lives or dies...that's quite another situation...I consider that animal abuse...
I don't agree with the dead fish are to be expected... I've cycled 3 tanks, all with fish, with not one fatality. They are all still going strong (knock driftwood). It's all about the size of the tank, the type and amount of fish used and diligence in testing/changing out water. And help from a good LFS and this forum doesn't hurt either. : )
Of course fish die, just like everything else in the world, but I don't feel that dead fish are a necessary outcome of cycling a tank.
But like musho said, there is always disease, pH, etc. which is probably the case if this tank was truly cycled, or didn't go into a mini-cycle after the addition of fish.
I think it is 100% Ok to lose some fish and make mistakes, that is how we learn! no? It says EVERYWHERE DO NOT OVERFEED!!! and yet you did well... i guess u just didnt know how much is overfeed is?? right ? well now you know how much is actually over.
I give up. I'm going to take the remaining guppies back to a store and sell this tank. What a colossal waste of money and time. All I got was heartache from this stupid hobby. I'm sick and damned tired of living things dying because of misinformation, misunderstanding and assumptions. @#$% this.
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