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Huge Mistake?

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  vinoth1465 
#1 ·
Last week I decided I wanted a freshwater aquarium after seeing one of my friend's with a large Oscar in it. I went out and bought a 55 gallon tank. The next day I went and bought my fish; 2 Oscars, 1 Red Devil, 1 Texas Cichlid, and 1 Jack Dempsey. I filled the tank, installed the filter and heater, and used the water treatment packets that came with it. Then I started reading and NOW I have questions that should have been asked before any of this happened.

Are all of my fish going to die from the way I just dropped them into the brand new aquarium with brand new water? They seem fine now but I realize I should have done A LOT more preparation.

Is there anyway that the combination of fish I have will live together at least until they outgrow the tank they are in? Right now they are all less than 3" and seem to be getting along except for the Texas that insists on chasin the slightly smaller Jack around; it doesn't look really aggressive right now but all of the other fish tolerate eachother (and the Jack) just fine.

I know that the type and amount of fish I have won't be compatible in the long-run but will they be ok for now and if so, what and when do I need to do about this situation? I guess I made the mistake of listening to the guy that worked in the pet store I bought the fish from when I was asking about compatibility; he seemed very knowledgeable and I'm pretty gullible :?
 
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#2 ·
its never too late...best suggestion would be to return the fish to your LFS and start the cycling process.

with the # of fish you have currently, ammonia will rise and will poison the tank, before nitric bacteria can form... most of the time, fish die... but even if they make it, they will have long term affects...

http://fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=3738

Oscars grow very fast and the minimum requirement is 55 gallon per fish...

read the sticky and try to do a fishless cycle... saves the fish from any suffering.

while your tank is cycling, you can ask all the questions you can, do all the research to learn more...

hope this helped, and i am sure other members will provide more information about fish compatability...


vogelmann said:
Last week I decided I wanted a freshwater aquarium after seeing one of my friend's with a large Oscar in it. I went out and bought a 55 gallon tank. The next day I went and bought my fish; 2 Oscars, 1 Red Devil, 1 Texas Cichlid, and 1 Jack Dempsey. I filled the tank, installed the filter and heater, and used the water treatment packets that came with it. Then I started reading and NOW I have questions that should have been asked before any of this happened.

Are all of my fish going to die from the way I just dropped them into the brand new aquarium with brand new water? They seem fine now but I realize I should have done A LOT more preparation.

Is there anyway that the combination of fish I have will live together at least until they outgrow the tank they are in? Right now they are all less than 3" and seem to be getting along except for the Texas that insists on chasin the slightly smaller Jack around; it doesn't look really aggressive right now but all of the other fish tolerate eachother (and the Jack) just fine.

I know that the type and amount of fish I have won't be compatible in the long-run but will they be ok for now and if so, what and when do I need to do about this situation? I guess I made the mistake of listening to the guy that worked in the pet store I bought the fish from when I was asking about compatibility; he seemed very knowledgeable and I'm pretty gullible :?
 
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