fish dying continuously

i have bought a 40 gallon tank
2 feet high, 3 feet long & 15 inch wide.
first i put a ap2500 power filter but it was to fast for my tank so i replaced it with ap1500 power filter
i aslo bought a used gravel from pet store and also placed a used filter cotterage,
for about two days i cycled my aquarium then put about 20 fishes atonce and my fishes started to die continiously 4 to five each day( i put chiclids and other antigold fishes , when they die their colour turned into white ,and temperature of my aqua is 28 to 30. when my fishes started to die the second day i didnt knew what to do so as petstore keeper told me to put amoxill capsule powder 500 mg an antibiotic used for humans, in my tand and the next day change half the water as i was afraid to practice this i put 250 mg amoxil and next day changed the half water but it was not helpful at all,
i have a underground water storage tank i used that water to fill my aquarium and i didnt used any or the medicines or other anticlorine in my tank, test kits are not available in my country so i dont know what to do
as i am a bigginer i didnt kknew about nitrogen cycle
i read ur article about it and it was quiet helpfull thxx
QUESTIONS
1 i am not sure if that is a disease or fishes dieying due to nitrogen cycle. is that a disease ???

2 do i need to continiously run my power filter as now i switch it off at a time when i go to sleep , and turn it on when i wake up?

3 if i assusme its due to nitrogen cycle , then how long should i need to cycle my aquarium ? at the moment there are 3 sweepers alive in it all fishes died,.

4 do i really need to use anticlorine?

5 do i need to change half water of my tank or completely change my water and wash gravel again ( i also washed my filter catterage and gravel when i bought it from store)

6 at the moment i dont have any heaterinstalled as temperature here in my city is warm about 35 degrees to 40.

any suggestions ??? and thankss

What exactly fish species did you put in your tank?
20 fish in a 40 gallon would be fine only if the tank is fully cycled before you adding the fish, and the fish must be tiny like no more than 2~3 inch long each.

You added too many fish at once...before the tank was cycled.

Filter must be turned on 24/7. Never turn it off.

Doing nitrogen cycle with fish in the tank is quite tricky. In order to keep the fish alive, you must do partial water change of 30~50% every day or at most every two days. But by doing so, you lower the ammonia concentration enough for the good bacteria to grow slower, yet not enough to be safe for your remaining 3 fish. What species are the last 3 fish anyway?

You must use a water conditioner on tap water before you add it to the fish tank. Or fish will die to chlorine in the tap water.
I recommend Prime, as it is not only a water conditioner that neutralize chlorine like the typical aquarium water conditioners do, but also it can detoxify ammonia for up to 48 hours.

Never change 100% the water. Fish dislike sudden large change in water temperature, hardness, PH, nitrate concentration etc. Do no more than 50% partial water change will lesser the amount of changes.

Are you referring to C or F when you said 35 to 40 degree? If it is C, then the temperature is too high.

Additional to what has already been said. If your fish started to die on the very first day, it has to be resulted from either shock or untreated tap water.

What water conditioner are you using?
If the tap water was untreated, the chlorine can kill the fish fairly fast.

How did you add your fish into your tank?
If you didn't give the fish time to adapt, they can die from the shock rather quickly because the water in the bags you brought them home have different water hardness, PH, and other chemical makeups.

You might also want to read this article to check what mistakes you had make.

Aside shock, the fish has been dying to ammonia poisoning for sure. You did not cycle your tank at all.

fish species i put in my tank are
2 chicklids 3inch in size
6 zebra fishes 1.5 inch in size
6 red eye tetra fishes 1.5 inch in size
4 sweeper fishes 2 inch in size
2 Albino Red Finned Shark 2 inch in size

the last 3 remaining species which are alive are sweeper fishes.

the temperature is in C' if itstoo high what should i do to bring it down?

fishes started to die like i put then in my tank next day when i woke up say 6 fishes dead.

at the moment i didnt use any conditioner

i put bag of fishes in aquarium water for 15 minutes then after 15 minutes i opened plastic bag and put all fishes in tank along with the water in plastic bag.

and thank you very much i appreciate your kind help ,

now ill change my half water daily , tell me how long i need to do that??
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1. Since you did not use a water conditioner, chlorine can play a role in killing the fish.

2. The way you introduce new fish into your tank is totally wrong.
Letting the bag float in the tank for 15 minutes does no good. Sure the temperature of the water in the bag can become closer to the water temperature in the tank, but the chemical makeup of the water are still different. You need to add a little tank water into the bag every 15 minutes or so, to let the bag filled with mostly tank water eventually before letting the fish out. Without doing that, your fish can die to the shock from sudden change in water chemistry.
For details, read
http://petskeepersguide.com/reasons-behi...fter-sold/


3. I just went back to read your first post again, and I noticed that you said you were told to use antibiotics and other medication.
Do not use any medication on the first sign of "trouble". Your troubles aren't even caused by any disease or parasites. Using any medication will only make things worse.

4. As being said, your tank wasn't cycled and it couldn't handle the ammonia produced by that many fish. Ammonia poisoning is one of the leading causes for fish to die in new tanks.

At this point, if you want to save your remaining fish, you might want to get Prime and Tetra SafeStart as soon as possible.

Prime can help detoxify ammonia and nitrite up to 48 hours. If you keep doing water change every day with Prime, you can minimize the damage.

Tetra SafeStart is the only proven working live bacteria product that can speed up the aquarium nitrogen cycle. Get a bottle rated 2x the size of your tank, and dump it all in at once after a new partial water change. Do not change water again for the next day or two.

I have no idea how you have such high water temperature. Do you have a heater? What is the setting on it? Or is it because you have high room temperature?

Keep in mind, there is no guarantee your remaining fish will live through the cycle. Hope for the best while doing your best.

@ RAM
ram tell me if i put my remaining fishes in a bucket , will they remain safe??
and thank you very much information was quiet helpful, i feel very sad for the poor animals which died from my ignorance.

@ ADMINISTRATOR
i just bought a conditioner , and will use it as adviced.
i have no heater at the moment because temperature in my state is very hot, and it is the reason for high temperature of water in my tank.
and thx i hope i do my best to keep other fishes alive as i feel very sad each time i came to know about a dead fish.
il keep in touch for more help an thank you very much

Transfer fish into a bucket is not a solution. Since there will be less water in the bucket, the ammonia concentration will raise faster in the bucket than in your tank. Not to mention you might have a hard time to install the filter on the bucket.

My best recommendation would be if you can return the remaining fish, please do it. They have very little chance to survive at this point in your uncycled tank. Even less chance if you transfer them into a bucket. So if you can return them, then you can do a proper fishless cycle before start over again.

If returning the fish is not an option, just keep them in the tank. Make sure your filter is always running 24/7. Never turn it off. Every time you do a partial water change, please use the water conditioner on the new water first. What water conditioner did you buy anyway?

You also might want to let the new water sit for at least a day in the same room as the fish tank before using it for water change. It is to avoid temperature shock.

Keep up the partial water change every day, or every other day if the water conditioner you bought is Prime.

You may also speed up the cycle by turn up the air pump, and add a few more air stones. Those nitrogen cycle bacteria can really use more oxygen for faster growth.

Where do you live? Typical tropical fish will be comfortable with about 80F or about 26C. Your water temperature (35~40C) is on the worse than uncomfortable side. You may want to turn off the lights if you have it. Where is your fish tank located? If it is near a window, you should relocate it. It's a big no no to have the tank at a place to expose to direct sunlight. If you have a hood on the tank, keep it open. Water evaporation will help to cool it down a little.

i livein pakistan , and my tank is no way near to any windo or exposure to direct sun light and i have also removed the hood
thxxxxxxxxxx

If chlorinated water is the main culprit, there may be two things which can be done simultaneously.

One is to get something which would neutralize the chlorine in the water. When I was in school, I have tried Sodium Thiosulphate successfully. Just check with your nearest tropical fish shop to see what's available. The other thing to do is to start storing up water in separate containers. Usually after three days, the chlorine in the water would have dissipated. Then use this water to change that in your aquarium. If you keep on adding fresh water from the tap to your aquarium and chlorine is the main culprit, it wouldn't solve any problems.

As for the question of temperature, I have used a small fountain before to solve the problem. When the water goes up in the air, it cools down very fast. Then when the cool water falls back into the aquarium it would help to bring the temperature down. If you cannot find a ready-made fountain, you can make one by modifying a small water pump, the type used to filter the water in the aquarium. All you need is to add a spray head to the outgoing end and you are all set. Make sure the incoming end is properly shielded with a net so as not to suck any of the smaller fishes into the pump.

Letting the water sit by itself won't get rid of chloramine, it is much more stable than chlorine.

He said he finally bought the water conditioner. Both chlorine and chloramine shouldn't be a concern if he has the correct water conditioner.

It is not helping though since he isn't answering the questions of what water conditioner he just bought.

i tried to find out the exact name of water conditioner
the thing written on bottle is like
aqua fresh water conditioner made by a MERK company thailand
and i bought it from a local pet store and it was the only waterconditioner available here

(06-23-2012, 07:33 AM)ommairmalik Wrote: i tried to find out the exact name of water conditioner
the thing written on bottle is like
aqua fresh water conditioner made by a MERK company thailand
and i bought it from a local pet store and it was the only waterconditioner available here

Could be Tetra AquaSafe.
Does it look anything like in the following picture?

yup it is the one.


hey tell me my tanks water smells bad , what can i do for this
is there any way to reduce or eliminate bad smell?
and if you have any information about hi grade fish feed ??thankss

The tank water smells bad can mean there is something rotting in there.
How many fish do you still have left?
Did you remove all dead fish immediately?

How often and how much have you been feeding?
Overfeeding can cause poor water quality and result in bad smell. You only need to feed once a day and as much as the fish can finish within 30 seconds. All leftover fish food must be removed immediately after feeding to avoid spoil the water quality. Immediate fix for your poor water quality is to do partial water change with substrate vacuuming. Make sure you the aquarium vacuum suck up all the leftover fish food and other debris such as fish poo.

What fish food have you been feeding to them?
So you are looking for a high quality premium fish food. I recommend New Life Spectrum pellets. Make sure you pick the correct size. I am using 0.5mm pellets myself because most of my fish are only 1.5 to 2.5 inch long. I have tried 1mm pellets first, they are a little too big for my fish.
For more premium fish food, check out this article.

i have 2 fishes remaining which are 2 inches in size
i removed them as soon as i came to know about them,
and i am feeding them thrice a day, 2 to 3 pinches .
water quality is extremely good, visibility is fine too but odor still prevails.
at the moment i am fedding my fish Blod Worms dry comes in a can.
asking about hi grade fish feed because i have recently bought 24 chicklids 1 inch in size (babies) some one told me to use hi grade feed so that these may grow fast,
at the moment i put my chicklid in a 10 ft deep and 10 foot large (plus wide) pond out side built in my lawn ,just waiting for a moment to put in aquarium
petstore keeper told me to place a coal above water in aquarium he said it helps in reducing smell,

If I understood correctly, you just added another 24 cichlids?

I am sorry to tell you that, it is highly likely these fish will die again. Just like the last 18 out of 20 fish.

You are way overstocking a uncycled fish tank. Your tank isn't big enough for 24 cichlids + 2 surviving fish from the last batch. You shouldn't judge the fish load based on their current size. It's their full adult size you must look at.

You must cycle your fish tank before adding any fish at all.

Whether the water quality is good or not shouldn't be judged on what you see. Ammonia and nitrite can't be seen, and they are toxic. You need to get a water test kit to be sure.
A well established tank should have earthy smell, not stinky smell. With stinky smell, the water quality can't be good.

I really wish you can actually learn something before making the same mistakes again.

If I am correctly, did you say "dry bloodworm"? Freeze dried bloodworm shouldn't be used as stamp food for any fish. They are too high in protein and can cause problem if fish eat them every day. You need a premium pellets as stamp food. Bloodworm shouldn't be fed more than once or twice a week. From what you said, you are feeding too much as well.

no no i have not put my chicklids in my aquarium
i have temporarily put them in a water pond built outside in my lawn its quiet big .
waiting for a aquarium cycle to cmplete soon, cant wait to put my fishes in aquarium

It is Cichlids. Not "chicklids".

A pond without sufficient nitrogen cycle bacteria can still have ammonia build up. How big is it?

thx for rectification lol
about 500 gallons of water is stored in pond

Do you have a liquid test kit? Without it, there is no way to be sure if your aquarium is cycled or what stage of cycling it is in.

You also need to keep in mind that since you have only two fish left in your fish tank, even if the tank is cycled with the two fish, there is no way you can add several fish into the tank at once and expect the water quality to be perfect. The sudden added bio-load will surely add more ammonia into the system. The amount of good bacteria feed on the ammonia produced by two fish will not be able to take on the ammonia produced by 4, 5, or 6+ fish without going through another mini-cycle.

Your 40 gallon tank is too small for that many cichlids. Even when it is fully cycled with the maximum amount of ammonia your filter system can handle, your 40 gallon aquarium will not be able to handle the full load of 24 cichlids. You will need something like a minimal 90 gallon fully cycled tank for that many fish.

Unless you live in a tropical area, your outdoor pond will not support these tropical fish (cichlids) for long.

You need to return some of the cichlids, or you need a much bigger tank and it must be cycled fishlessly with pure ammonia.

hummmmmmmmmm
test kits are not available here in my country, so i can only take risk

You can always try to buy it from Amazon and Ebay.
If they are not available in your country, you can always order them internationally.

trying to do the same in best way possible