guppy is gone

[j-man the skater-man]

my BEAUTIFUL guppy died today after a three day bout with some problem he had.

i am conditioning my tank and he was fine when i put him in but the next day he started hiding the the next day he would not eat either and today he hade a small red spot (ulser i think?)

what happened to him? > did i do something wrong?

will it hapen to the other two fish i ahve in my tank?

how can i prevent what happened to him happing to the other 2?

please help bring closure to me

[Thunderkiss]

[Lexus]

If I recall right you have not cycled the tank so its going through it... you will most likely loose all your fish through the cycle

[fish_doc]

I have cycled many tanks without losing any fish. If you do a 20% water change every other day during the first month you will be able to keep the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels at a level the fish can handle during the nitrogen cycle.

I will explain the nitragen cycle to you here.
The Nitrogen cycle is also known as "new tank syndrome"
This is the process by which nitrifying bacteria colonize in your filter and gravel,
the single most important step in establishing your aquarium ecosystem. As soon as you
add fish to a brand new, clean, clear-watered aquarium,they start to make waste. Excess
food and fish waste contains bacteria that will utilize oxygen to break the waste down
into ammonia. Ammonia is very toxic to fish, irritatingtheir gill tissues and causing
severe damage to other body tissues. We call this Ammonia burn, because it basically
burns your fish's sensitive tissues. The benefical bacteria multiply in your tank, and
further break ammonia down into nitrite, Nitrite is still very toxic to fish. It destroys
the hemoglobin in their blood, which carries their oxygen. In simple terms, nitrite is
suffocating your fish. This causes stress, and any kind of stress will affect your fish's
immune system, leading to disease and usually death. Lastly, Nitrite breaks down into
Nitrate. Far less toxic than ammonia and nitrite. Nitrate is the end product of the
Nitrogen cycle. This chemical is only toxic at high levels, above 50 parts per million
or so. To keep nitrate at a healthy level, most aquarists do water changes every 14
to 18 days, removing only about 20 percent of their aquarium's water and replacing it
with new water. It is important to only change this small amount, or you will lose too
much bacteria and the cycle will begin again! Live plants also help keep nitrate under
control, they use it as fertilizer. The whole cycle usually takes around 4 Weeks,
depending on how quickly your bacteria grow. It can take longer, especially for saltwater
aquariums. There are products avaliable now that contain actual bacteria, to give your
aquarium a little boost through the cycle. There is also a process known as fishless
cycling that many have tried.


Good luck and remember that water quality is the key to healthy fish.

[MyraVan]

Fish_doc: that's an excellent description of cycling, but I did have one question about it. You wrote:

It is important to only change this small amount, or you will lose too
much bacteria and the cycle will begin again!

I don't understand that! The bacteria live in your gravel, on your rocks and plants, and in the filter, they don't live in the water as far as I know. So how would changing large amounts of water have you lose too much bacteria?

As for me, I change about 15% once a week. I don't change any more because the 15% allows me to do enough gravel vacuuming to keep the tank clean, and it corresponds to just one bucket's worth of water that I have to have sit around for a day.

[fish_doc]

Sometimes when you tell someone to do a water change they misunderstand and put the fish in a bucket and change 100% of the water in the tank. This brings in chlorine from the new tap water and will kill off the bacteria in the gravel bed. Because they dont use conditioner.

Hope that helps clear things up.

[MyraVan]

Ah, that does clear things up! I just use water conditioner by default, so I didn't think about what would happen if your don't. Of course if you don't, and you use water fresh from the tap, you will certainly kill bacteria.

[Tocs1001]

for a water change where do I get the water if I dont want it to be chlorinated tap water?

[fish_doc]

You can get a bucket and fill it with tap water. Then treat it with conditioner before adding it to the tank. Or you can buy water by the gallon from any store and use that.