HELP! Newbie ready to give up...

[famman]

My humble advice; dump the stress coat, just use plain dechlorinator/dechlorimanator. Bump your water changes to 20% weekly, and vacuum the gravel. Test for nitrAte, could be your problem. Only add one or two fish every few weeks, and with a 5 gallon, you can only keep a few fish happy anyway. Try minnows like white clouds. That way you can have several.
good luck

 

[Archer]

Yeah, hang in there, golfnfish.
It's usually very exciting when one is new to the hobby, but it can become frustrating when the fish starts to die, which can be due to cycling, fish incompatibilities, too many fish, too much feeding, not enough water changes, and so on. It's part of the growing pains which most (if not all) of us experience. Once we get a thriving aquarium, it becomes a wonderful (and educational) experience, something which the kids will surely enjoy as well.

Yes, neons, otos, bumble bee gobys, and even Mollies are not really good for newbie's, as they are not as hardy or have special requirements.

I think the previous posts have made good suggestions and hopefully the fish will survive. If not, I suggest getting Platy's, Guppies, or Zebra Danios next time. They make good beginner fish, as they are hardy, colorful, and do well in your ph of 7.6.

Also, try not to keep more than 4 to 5 small fish in the 5 gallon. If you really want to add more fish, a bigger tank (such as an Eclipse 12 gallon) would be better.

Good luck!

 

[ewok]

have you by chance changed the filter recently?

i'm not really seeing anything glaringly wrong. stress-coat is fine, sort of expensive, i use it myself.... $26 a gallon at www.bigalsonline.com

the things i would suggest are mostly along the lines of....
increasing water changes, at least a gallon a week, dechlorinate the water and try to keep the temperature close.(it should be cool to the touch)
vacuuming, this is another thing that sort of depends on the water changes, the more water changes the less vacuuming. every week would be ideal but possibly overkill.
you need another place for bacteria to grow, next time you change the filter dump the baggie out and maybe rinse it in tap water or dechlorinated water and put it back into the rear of the filter behind the new bag. you don't want it to impede water flow, but you want the water to go through it. this piece isnt for filtering it is strictly a place for bacteria to grow. (you can also use other kinds of floss, but i would suggest the "cut to fit stuff if you want to buy new.)after the new filter you put in gets nasty you can also rinse that in tank/dechlor water..... this will give you much more longevity per filter and save some money. don't worry about the charcoal, use it if it comes with it, but if you just rinse it shouldn't matter if the old stuff stays in. some people would reccomend discontinueing ti entirely, but if you get it free with the bags you might as well use it. only clean the filter or the pad in any given week, do not do both.......

test the water for the next several days for ammonia and nitrites, if the reading are 0 like 3 days in a row then the tank should be safe and you could replace some of the missing stock. i'm not sure i would add more than 1 every week or so, maybe a couple days less but not much. i would sort of start buying towards stronger fish too honestly, danios are good and small, i cycled one of my tanks with red eye tetras too........you could even go back to molly/swordtail types but they are very susceptable to the nitrites i think.

other than that, just keep up your water changes...... if anything seems funny do an extra water change or 2.....

i'm sort of wondering if you are being "too clean" by replacing the filter that often on a newer tank, possibly every time you change the filter you cause at least a small "cycle" spike until the bacteria recover. by adding the extra piece of filter material and only washing one piece at a time you should even be able to decrease the impact of mini-cycles somewhat.

sorry i can't be more helpful, just not picking up an anything as being glaringly wrong.

 

[fishlips]

I have a 5.5 g and its been running for a year now. It can be done. In fact this little tank is always crystal clear. If you have or make good water, have the filter and heater you should be fine. I have neons and one cory in mine. What is the longest you've had the same fish in the tank? That could be helpful. Try spring water to make sure its not your water source. Feed very little and watch out for ammonia and nitrite spikes. There is so much info on this site your going to be a pro in a year. Read, read and read. Best of luck.

 

[golfnfish]

Thanks gang. I'm feeilng a little better knowing I'm not doing anything terribly wrong.

I'll try your extra filter media trick Ewok. Kinda makes sense to me. The water is very clear and not much algae troubles since I added the water sprite plants.

Fishlips, the longest I've been able to keep fish alive is about 3-4 weeks. Right now, the molly fry is about 13 days old, so I would think if my tank had anyting drastically wrong, he'd have been history days ago. Or are fry super tough and not as susceptible to the evil things?

What your best advice if I want to add non-tap water? botteld drinking water, spring water, distilled water?

I think I'll add 2 danios to the tank in the next few days.

 

[Darkangel]

golfnfish, I would NOT add those danios yet. You need to get evrything under control first. If you add more fish now you will just mess everything else up. How many molly fry are there? That tank is really not suitable for more then 3 or 4 of the smaller molly types or 2 of the larger species. Fish can and do live a very long time. My oldest current fish is one I bought in 1988 and she is still going strong. Work with what you have till you get the hang of things. Adding more fish in this situation is just plain bad. If you are going to use other then tap, do not use RO, de-ionized or distilled. These are too pure for fish to live in. Ask at the local store if there is anything you should know about the local tap water. It would have to be pretty bad to be your problem. You can also call the water supply company and ask them for the specifics of your water. They will tell you all you need to know.

 

[golfnfish]

I'm taking your advice DA and NOT adding any fish just yet. Right now there is one adult Gold Dust molly and one of her fry, about 14 days old.

I tested the nitrAtes tonight and they're between 20-40. Also tested chlorine and it appears to be zero.

I'll just sit tight and hope these last two can tough it out.

 

[ewok]

your assumption is basically right tho.... fry are generally very easy to kill, all the ones i have had, even from cichlids are pretty weak. if the water was totally off i think you would see it floating.

just for the heck of it, test some dechlorinated water for ammonia. maybe somehow chloramines are getting you. at your ph ammonia is pretty toxic, so maybe adding water dechlorinated recently is causing an ammonia spike because it is chloramines....

just a thought.

 

[fishlips]

Regular drinking water in the gallon jugs. Something is wrong and you might as well start there. Start uesing it for all your water changes. Soon the whole tank will be spring water. At that point you can rule out water supply as the killer. Otherwise it could be bacteria problem? and or sick fish? Did you clean the tank with any chemicals? You should not be having all kinds of trouble. Fish die but most should last the duration. So far every fish has died off then?

 

[O-man21]

You might try adding stress coat to the fish