What precautions/medicine etc are necessary for a healthy fish tank?
I have a fish tank and have been taking real good care of it. I clean the water often, medicate it and supply my fish with high-quality food. But apparently I must be doing something wrong because my fish keep dying one after the other. Some get sick, 1 tiny one got stuck in the filter and one even jumped out of the tank and died. So, apparently my fish REALLY hate me. I only have 3 left when initially i had 9.
So i decided to start afresh. I cleaned the tank thoroughly and bought new accessories and pebbles and stuff. I decided not to add any live plants because I hear they carry a lot of parasites. My tank is 20ltrs [5 gallons]. What medications, precautions and that kind of stuff are necessary? Including pH, ammonia, bacteria and whatever else is a menace to my tank's wellbeing. I need a LIST of EVERYTHING i should have and do in order to be an good fish owner and finally stop my fish from getting sick and dying..
Most informative answer gets 10 points.
Thank you beforehand.
5 gallons is a VERY small tank. Suitable for a Betta or maybe a few small fish like guppies or White Cloud Minnows. 9 Fish of ANY sort is just out of the question.
The trick to keeping a fish tank is to set up a stable ecosystem where everything is in balance. That means the filter bacteria, the fish, the plants… a whole mini ecosystem.
You maintain it by adding food and fresh water, and removing waste by doing part water changes. Trying to keep a tank sterile is doomed to fail as you need certain bacteria to keep the natural cycles running in the tank.
Have a read of this link
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
It will explain a lot of what went wrong.
A good beginner tank is something 15-30gal. The extra volume of water means things are easier to keep stable, waste builds up slower
etc.
The only chemical you should need is a water conditioner, and thats to take out chemicals the water company have added.
Ian
Here’s what I did when I set up my 5 gallon betta tank.
What I started with
The tank (obviously)
filter
substrate
heater
thermometer
plant bulbs
one small decoration.
Seachem’s Ammonia alert (why I got this will become apparent later)
water conditioner
A container of pure ammonia
What I did:
I added the substrate, filled the tank, added the conditioner, threw in the bulbs and decoration. All the standard stuff. I then added 2.5 ml of the ammonia solution. enough to take up to about 5ppm. I used filter squeezings from my tetra tank and poured it directly into my filter to jump start the bacteria. I kept an eye on the ammonia alert. When ever the ammonia was completely gone, I added another 2.5 ml. I did this for two weeks. After that two weeks, the nitrate levels were at 80 ppm, so I decided it was enough. I drained the tank completely, filled it, drained it again, filled it again, conditioned the water, got the fish.
The most important thing when starting a tank is to not cram it full of fish right away. Your tank needs time to cycle. Fish produce ammonia. Ammonia is toxic. Bacteria grow that break down ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites are still toxic. More bacteria grows that breaks nitrites down to nitrates. When kept low, nitrates are harmless. If you add a lot of fish to an uncycled tank, you have a massive ammonia spike that will kill the fish.
It’s why I add ammonia into the tank when it has no fish in it. To allow the bacteria to grow so that when I do add fish, their waste is processed right away.
a 5 gallon can’t hold much. It’s really only good for one betta.
Every time you buy new fish, you should quarentine(isolate) them from other fish to make sure it’s not sick. Sick fish can get other fish sick. Depending on which time of aquarium it is(saltwater, freshwater, marine), it depends on what you will need. I own a freshwater tank meaning betta fish, plecos, anglefish, tetras, panda cory cats, etc. You will need ick medicine, aquarium salt, gravel, and REAL plants. Although they can contain bacteria, so can everything else. Rinse of the plants thoroughly with water before adding to rinse off bacteria. Make sure they are AQUATIC plants. You will also need a working thermometer, heater, and filter. Oh, and don’t forget the conditioner and fish nets. Before you PURCHASE the fish, research them. Different fishes have different needs in temperature, pH, water hardness, and diets.
The only suitable fish for a five gallon is a betta. You should never medicate your tank just in case and the only chemical you should add is chlorine remover.
Jason P described the procedure for establishing the nitrogen cycle in your aqauarium fairly well. The only thing you should do differently is when the tank gets the cycle established…when ammonia AND NITRITES drop to 0. At that point you want to do small water changes as needed to bring the nitrate level below 20ppm. After that 15 to 20% water changes weekly should keep your aquarium within proper parameters. By emptying the aquarium and putting in all new water you are removing most of the beneficial bacteria and you’re sending the tank into a new "mini cycle" which will have ammonia and nitrite spikes that are harmful to the fish. The only thing you should add to the water you are putting into the aquarium is a conditioner to remove chlorine and or chloramine (depending on what your water supply is treated with). Do not medicate the tank unless you are absolutely certain that the fish have the disease/parasite the medication is designed to treat. Putting medications into a healthy tank can cause more harm than it does good by unnecessarily stressing the fish.
Your problem is you put 9 fish in a 5 gallon tank! Have you tested your water at all? I’ll bet your ammonia is through the roof! A 5 gallon is a perfect home for one Betta, or two small (2-2½") fish. It is not a home for 9 of anything, except possibly snails or shrimp. 9 fish should be in a 20 gallon tank, at least!
The first thing you need to get are some beginner’s books on aquarium keeping. Then read them. You need to learn about cycling your tank, and testing your water. When your tank is properly cycled, add one Betta, or 2 small fish, and that is it. Test your water often. You shouldn’t need to medicate your tank at all unless you have a sick fish. If you test the water frequently and do regular partial (10-20%) water changes, your fish should be fine.
The best thing you can do for your tank is learn as much as possible about the water parameters. Fish cannot live in water that is toxic to them. Good luck!
I’m guessing you didn’t cycle the tank before you put the fish in and the ammonia is killing them. It is rare for even a small fish to be sucked in the filter chances are it was dead first then got sucked in. A canapy prevents jumping. Also 5 gal is far to small for 9 fish of any type.
There are no precautionary medications you need to put in the tank. You don’t medicate for a diseae you don’t have it just causes problems. The only thing a heathy tank needs added is dechlorinator during water changes
If you have scratched your orignal tank you will have to start the cycle from scratch. Look up fishless cycle online for instructions. Do not add any fish until the cycle is complete. A 5 gal is really only appropiriate for a single betta. Anything else is too big, too active or are schooling fish where an approprate sized school would overstock the tank.
I can tell you, I started with one 10gal, then after I got to love the fish, I went on to a 20 gal. I found that the less you clean the tanks or mess with them the better they get. YOu see fish, who live in the ocean or stream do not have someone coming in and doing house cleaning every week, they live on the same water, algae is good in the tank too. So, I found that I was cleaning the tank for me and a pretty look.
Yes, artificial plants do well. But give them plenty of rocks, places to hide. At Walmart you can get cheap plastic fish tank acquarium tunnels. Do not use something in a tank that isn’t sold for the tank. Fish also like hiding places cause when we look at them always they get stressed. Yes, that is true.
For another thing, start with cheap fish, guppies are happy and easy to care for. If the hiding places are good, they even multiply well.
So, even though you like to clean the tank, they like stale and idle times and now I remove 1-3 of water only about once a month or two months. The fish do fine with that.
Oh, yea and feed them only once every other day.
Your tank doesn’t need other health chemicals. Go onlline to acquarium stores and look into books to see the health of a starter tank. You need not add chemicals constantly, regular food dry, will do too.
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