new fish lover HELP

Hi so can anyone help, iv my tank about A month and i have 3 guppies and a peco living in it happy and seem to be doing great its a 10g tank i know its small so im not putting much fish in it. So i got a siamese fighting fish and he is lovely long flowing fins, but i came home today (now i only have him one day so i have not looked at him as much as the others to get to know him and his fins) and it looks like some of his fin in the middle is missing ? would it be the guppies or the filter or something else? I did not see it happen and i could be wrong coz as i said i didnt get to know him well yet ? any answers would be great ? lisa

Don't think it could have been the guppies Lisa but I'd just keep an eye on them.

Like you said, he might have just tore it on a decoration.

It's hard to say what happened, I would just keep an eye on him

bettas and guppies dont usually make great companions, as the bettas can mistake the long colourful fins of a fancy guppy, as another betta and would kill them. the guppies could of accidently mistaken the fins as flake food and taken a nibble.

SO i got up this morning and my fighting fish was dead with no fin left but my peco was gone aswell? my 3 guppies are still doing great i dont get what i did wrong ?

Mixing guppies and bettas is not a good idea, however, this doesnt mean you can't have them together if you are cautious. Both fish have their own personality. Also, I have heard of guppies being a bit territorial sometimes.

I have my betta in a community tank with many other fish such as neons, ember tetras, rasporas, otos, pygmy corys, habrosus corys, black bee shrimps, siamese algae eaters, chipmunk loches and clown loaches and they all get along fine (and I know that some people say that bettas and clown loaches/siamese alga eaters might not get along well). My betta (Mr Noodles) is very peaceful and I have never seen him being aggressive towards any other fish (not even the shrimps). He normally minds his own business but it is not rare to see him schooling with other fish too. Some bettas will bully everyone in the tank while others will be the ones being bullied!

A few things could have caused your betta death, maybe he hurt himself with some of the ornaments, or maybe the tanks current is too strong?

However, this wouldnt explain the plecos death. Have you noticed if any of your guppies was behaving aggressively?

Sorry to hear that. How often are you changing the water? A tank only a month old, plus the fact that its only a 10g could be your problem. What are your nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels?

My little guppies are so sweet they never seem to act aggressively in my tank. So to answer some questions i am only doing what iv been told by my pet shop, im changing 20% water every 2weeks i take my water in to them to test it once a week and i was told my ph level was a little up so they gave me a thing called ph down ? !! so put it in and they said my water seemed fine when i went back in. Also i know iv a small tank but im getting married next year so we are in the middle of buying are home so i cant get a bigger tank at the mo but surly people can keep happy helthy fish in a 10g tank with a little help and smart thinking and not over stocking it. As for my pleco he was my fist fish and it was only a month but he seemed to be doing fine we had algae flaks for him to make sure he was eating and had things for him to go behind im told they like to do that. iv very perplexed at the mo Lisa

Hi Lisa, I am answering both of your threads, hope you dont mind.

I am new at this too but I have been reading about fish and aquarium for a few months now so If you dont mind my advice...

My wife bought me my aquarium as a Christmas present. She was told by the petshop that all I had to do is to fill the tank up, pour a product called Tetra safe start and wait 24 hours before adding any fish.

Before I doing this I went on the internet and starting reading about freshwater aquariums. First thing I read was something called the nitrogen cycle, which I was completely unaware off.

Basically means that your tank will have to go through a cycle before their water levels (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) are stable, this cycle can take from 1 week to 8 weeks, even more depending of how you decide to cycle your tank. During this cycle ammonia and nitrites will spike to levels dangerous to many fish and sometimes even plants. So it is not advisable to put fish during this period and is better to wait until your cycle has finished and a bacteria colony is setup in your filter.

Products like safe start ect might speed up the process. however, in my experience, after using it my nitrites levels when up to >3 ppm and stayed there for almost a week, which would have probably killed any fish in my tank. Some fish can withstand this spikes better than others.

We dont know if this is the reason why your fish died though. Best way to know for sure is to test your water and see what's like.

As I said on the other thread I was told not to use products such as JBL pH down as this will be effective only for a few hours. Meaning that you will have to constantly test your pH to make sure your pH is not going up again and when it does, dose some more. Because you dont have a pH test you really can't keep track of it so I would advice against it. If you want to lower your pH there are other ways of doing it, and what you are looking for is a long term solution.

10 G is plenty of space too!

Bohrio wrote:

10 G is plenty of space too!

that very much depends on what you are putting in the 10 gallon . Its a pretty small tank really

She said 3 guppies, 1 pleco and 1 betta

Should be ok, shouldnt it?

It will depend on the type of pleco but for the rest that seems ok, but I am open to corrections

It will also depend on the type of filter media as well as the amount of water changes

1 gallon is 4.5 litres
so max capacity of that tank is 45 litres
which means less the substrate and an inch or so from the top for.water level
you could be in the 35-40 litre range.
Did your pleco die or go missing ?
Sounds like your water parameters could be off.
You should get a test kit to test for nitrite and nitrate aswell as Ph.
Was your tank cycled or have you hit a spike in the cycle ?

Bohrio wrote:

She said 3 guppies, 1 pleco and 1 betta

Should be ok, shouldnt it?

It will depend on the type of pleco but for the rest that seems ok, but I am open to corrections

It will also depend on the type of filter media as well as the amount of water changes

It sounds like there are fundamental issues with this tank set up . Therefore talk of stocking levels etc is down the road I think ..

Hi Lisa
I know it's difficult to get your head around things when you first start off, but it will get easier. Also you will always get conflicting ideas as what's best to do or don't. My advice is to read all the info given to you and make your own mind up as the best way to learn is by making mistakes. Your tank is fine for a few guppies and the like, but if it was a little pet shop you were probably sold some sort of gibbiceps Pleco which can grow 2ft +. I'd keep up with your water changes but leave it another month before adding fish, go for a small ancistrus type Pleco if that's what you like. Also most fish bought now a days are able to live happily in most water ph and hardness so I wouldn't go messing adding shop bought chemicals. There are more natural ways of adjusting these, which can be explained as and when needed.
Thanks
Jamie

I change my water like i was told 20% every 2 weeks im not putting any new fish in there till i fix my tank im not here to kill my fish but i need help so im going to go get a test kit and stat from there iv 3guppies living in my tank so my hope at this time is keeping them safe, so my first step is to test my water whats my next or does that depend on my results ? LISA

I know it's more expensive but stay away from the test strips. They tend to be very unreliable. I use the jbl kit but others may recommend another make

It will depend on the test results. You are getting very good advise here but if its ok with you I will give you my opinion, I think 20% water changes every two weeks might not enough for a 10 G, specially if you dont have any plants in the tank, if I were you I would go for weekly 20-25% water changes.

But before doing any water changes you need to test your water, I would also recommend testing your tap water pH too.

This is just my opinion but if you can spare some money also get a hold to a KH and GH test (KH is you dont want to spend too much) to test your water hardness this will help people here determine if your pH buffer is high enough. A higher KH will mean less pH fluctuations. But maybe this is not your main priority at the moment, maybe other people with more experience here can confirm this

Plants, its funny story i got some live ones and my mad guppies ( my little blue one is the instigator ) got into my plant and eat it till my tank had green bits all around it everywhere !!

Hi Lisa

Welcome, take a read through this www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/artic...al-fish-tank-a-guide

In the articles section and it should give you an idea of what people are talking about regarding cycling a tank and the nitrogen cycle.

You're in the right place to get help as this forum has pretty much kept my fish alive despite my making about every mistake in the how not to keep fish book.

One important thing I would advise is, unless you have a fabulous LFS double check everything they tell you. If they say your water is fine ask for the actual readings and remember they may put the health of their till receipts before the health of your fish.

Thankfully there are some good LFSs so hope you find or have one.

Rgds
Dec

Q_Comets wrote:

One important thing I would advise is, unless you have a fabulous LFS double check everything they tell you. If they say your water is fine ask for the actual readings and remember they may put the health of their till receipts before the health of your fish.

Dec

Oh I hope that was not too synical (am is that how to spell synical)

Welcome to the forum Lisa.

Just picking up a few points above.

The Plec.....some of the "plecs" that are sold are pretty large (2 foot)....and so having one in a 10 gallon tank could be a problem.

On the water quality.....testing means nothing unless it comes with an interpretation. Often people go well wrong by hearing a mis-interpretation of their water and then start messing with the chemistry.

For the fish you mention, it would be a very rare case of normal conditioned tap water being sdo far out that it is unusable.
Good quality water changes are absolutely important.

And picking up on a comment from a post above.....the term "the water is perfect" is totally meaningless.....so when a shop or anyone else gives that as an answer then demand to know more. ;

ian

Hi all so my ph is 6.4 my nitrate is 7.8 and ammona was 5.0 but im due water change today, iv changed my pet shop as iv been told somethings about it my new one has been great and helpfull i still have my 3 guppuies but one of them has a big eye ? know what this is ?

Could he if damaged it? If you can see a build up of fluid behind the eye it's probably popeye. Especially with such high ammonia levels. If it were me I'd do a big water change and add some aquarium salt. Don't be surprised if the eye or fish is lost. Maybe others can add their thoughts.

Oh, and a picture says a thousand words

iv no way of putting pics up yet sorry but working on it, it looks bigger not by much but did the water change but as of now i dont have the salt il get some tomor im guessing its not household salt anyway

U could try Epsom salts if you have it.

lisa1 wrote:

Hi all so my ph is 6.4 my nitrate is 7.8 and ammona was 5.0 but im due water change today, iv changed my pet shop as iv been told somethings about it my new one has been great and helpfull i still have my 3 guppuies but one of them has a big eye ? know what this is ?

Hi did you do the tests yourself? I ask because some of the numbers given don't match up with reading you would get from the API test kit that most shops sell. Nitrate for example would usually be 5, 10, 20, 40 and so on.

If your ammonia is 5.0 I don't think water changes alone will do you would probably have to 50% twice a day to get that down. You should ask the new shop for an ammonia removing product.

I know what your going through I had fish in a not cycled tank at the start also.

Hi Lisa I have been reading your thread, one thing for sure you will always get good advice here there is a world of experience on this Forum . You didn't mention what type of filter you are using.Also do you treat "New" water when you do water changes (I always use Tetra Aquasafe). And I would always pop a bit of Activated Carbon in small power Filters when I use them.
There is no reason why, with the right filtration and water management regime,you shouldn't have a nice little community tank in a 10 gal.

By the way we are mad about pictures on here, even if they are only from your phone, you would be amazed what an experienced fishkeeper would spot from a photo.

Popeye is usally a sign of something else been wrong with the fish, however it may still be down to a trauma of the eye also. Nonetheless I would strongly recommend improving the water conditions and that should help things along also.
As for the 10 gallons, thats plenty of room for those 3 guppies...the pleco as already pointed out can grow large depending on the type.

Gavin

Hi ok to answer some questions no i got it tested by my new pet shop, and yes i got some things to put in my water i got safestart and aquasafe. My guppie aka blue well, last night afere we seen eye we changed 30% of water put in my new treatements and today his eye is way down almost normal and he looks great. Ya il work on the pics il get them up soon as i can. Any take on what else i need to get for my water?

I wouldn't mess with it too much anymore, just regular water changes and watch your ammonia etc. I would leave it a little while before adding any more fish.