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Help! (New Tank)
Badmans Tropical Fish Message Center:
Beginner freshwater : Help! (New Tank)
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Michael
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Sunday,
February 17, 2002 - 05:10 pm
About 2 weeks ago I found a fish tank in are shed I cleaned
it up and went out bought gravel a clear free filter and
some fake plants... about a day after I added water and
set up the take I bought 4 black mollies, 2 orange mollies,
2 bearded cats, 3 swordtails. I have a 10 gal tank. Well
around 2 weeks later all my swordtails where dead and 1
of my orange mollies died. I went to the local pet shop
bought some more mollies and around 10 guppies and 5 neons.
Then a molly died and I went to take it back and was told
I had high ammonia levels and pH levels. Went out bought
the test kits and stuff and I am trying to fix the pH and
ammonia problem. While I was doing this my orange molly
had puffy lips and I used fungus eliminator and he's
doing ok, well. So now I have around 11 mollies, 10 guppies,
and 10 neon’s, 2 beared cats. I also bought a water sprit{plant}.
Well my question is where did I go wrong I never had a freshwater
tank before. Please tell me what I did wrong and how I can
fix it, to where my mollies don’t die.
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badman
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Sunday,
February 17, 2002 - 07:00 pm
Michael, SLOW DOWN! all tanks must go through a bacterial
cycle before they are able to safely house fish. This process
takes between four and six weeks and until then the tank
cannot support any but the hardiest of fish. For now see
if you can return all but a couple of the mollies. Please
read the "genesis" section of the site it will explain
the cycle and give you time frames and charts to help you
along. Give it read and then re-post here if you have any
questions
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Michael
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Sunday,
February 17, 2002 - 07:04 pm
Thanks, but its my hard luck that the return time ran out
if they happen to die I'm going to wait and do it by
the time line on your site.
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Kick
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Monday,
February 18, 2002 - 09:00 am
Badman isn't talking about if they die. He is asking
you to return them "BEFORE" they die. Just call
the LPS, tell them what you have done, and I am sure as
long as there is no disease in your tank, they will be happy
to save these fish from certain demise. If they will not
take them back, you would be wise to find a new LPS as they
don't know any more than you do about a new tank set
up. I am not trying to be mean here, but it just irks the
daylights out of me that an LPS would sell you this many
fish at one time in the first place. Especially if you told
them this was a new tank (which on buying a filter and
other items for the tank, they should have asked!)
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Michael
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Monday,
February 18, 2002 - 10:01 am
I called the LPS and they told me to bring in as many of
the fish that I wanted so I put all the mollies in a big
jar and they said they chouldnt take them because one of
them seems to have white spotts wich i noticed when i bought
them. so now I'm stuck with my fish I pray they live.
the spots I think is just because its a mixed fish no other
ones had it but i tried telling him that. looks like I'm
out of LPS's both of them know jack about jack.
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Kick
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Monday,
February 18, 2002 - 08:24 pm
Michael, the white spots that your LPS was speaking of was
probably ich. Do the spots look like white grains of salt?
This is a parasite that attacks fish, and if one fish has
the spots, it means that your entire tank is infected with
it and the others will probably start showing signs of it.
The LPS will not take back diseased fish. The main cause
of this is stress. You are probably going to have more problems
as ich will attack the rest of your fish, and in order to
get rid of it, you will probably have to treat. And treating
a brand new tank with stressed fish is going to make matters
much worse.
You are between a rock and a hard place indeed. If the ich
was present on the fish when you bought him, then you also
need to learn how to tell the difference between a healthy
fish and one that is sick. You can learn about ich and how
to treat at Badman's main site, but I would say for
the time being you are going to have to cut your losses,
and deal with this tank full of fish the best you can. I
really don't see a good outcome here. Don't buy
any more fish, even if all of them die, until you know what
you need to do to provide a safe and healthy environment
for them.
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Michael
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Tuesday,
February 19, 2002 - 07:24 am
Thanks kick for that out put but its more of a color than
salt it goes like a big white blob from the top and little
white spots to the mid section then theres some on the fin
and tail fin so I think its more like color than ich from
what the pictures show. none of the other fish have it and
this one fish is as happy as can be. you know how they shake
when the mollies are stressed well i watch him about 2 hours
a day and never have seen him do this. i've seen others
doing this so on pay day i'm going to buy that sea salt
to help them out. thanks again kick
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Kick
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Tuesday,
February 19, 2002 - 07:58 am
You do not want sea salt. This is too strong for freshwater
fish. It might be okay for the mollies, but the others will
not be able to handle it. What you want is "freshwater"
aquarium salt. Generally, it comes in what looks like a
milk carton.
From the sounds of what you are telling me, it may be fungus
that you are looking at. The salt may help this but you
may need some fungus eliminator. However, try the salt first
as with this new tank, like I mentioned above, adding this
medication and that medication may cause more problems than
you already have. Good luck on trying to keep all these
fish alive.
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Michael
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Tuesday,
February 19, 2002 - 06:58 pm
Kick, your allot of help thanks again and as the fish go
i think they will thank you. i'm going to try all I
can to keep these fish alive I bought a new 10 gal tank
to day with a filter heater and all the works and I plan
on cycling this one with tetras and a catfish or 2 untill
that one is fully cycled I'm going to try and keep these
fish alive.
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Kick
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Wednesday,
February 20, 2002 - 08:05 am
Michael, I assume you are talking about moving the neons
and one cat that you already have to this new tank and certainly
not going to buy other fish for it.
Good luck on trying to save these guys. You are moving in
the right direction.
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alexg
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Wednesday,
March 20, 2002 - 10:35 pm
Hi Michael,
It seems that you have way too many fish for those tanks,
especially when you're cycling it. Start out with 1
or 2 until the tank cycles, then when that's done, keep
only about 5 or 6 inches of fish at the most. Don't
forget, you may have a 10 gallon tank, but when youadd the
substrate and plants, you may only have 7 gallons of water.
Don't forget, smaller tank doesn't necessarily mean
smaller fish, as the small ones tend to be very active and
need room to swim around in
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