Dead Fish Questions

[cbfishman]

After recentley cycling my 10 gallon tank, (should have been the end of the cycle by now) the female swordtail died. I am not sure what caused this since she appeared to look healthy the night before and did not appear to have any signs of sickness. I am worried that something may happen to the male swordtail who was the second fish i got to cycle my tank with. This death seems to be very odd to me as i have been doing frequent water changes and keeping to a good feeding schedule. What should I do about the male swordtail, and how long should I wait before I add the new fish which i was going to purchase? Please help me as this seems to be a very odd occurance.

[GoodMike]

you need to test your water, or have your water tested. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. then we should beable to give you an answer.

[emc7]

What do you mean by a good feeding schedule? During cycling once every other day is good.

[cbfishman]

I was feeding them one every other night... goodmike, i will have my friend test the water ( i dont have a water test myself).
Thanks

[bscman]

Originally Posted by cbfishman

( i dont have a water test myself).

There's really no good way to cycle a tank if you dont have a good test kit. How do you know it's cycling? How do you know when it is finished? How do you know if your ammonia levels are out of control, and that's what killed your fish?

It never ceases to amaze me how people will spend hundreds of dollars setting up a tank, but won't spend $20 for a decent test kit....

Please, get a test kit