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my fish died last night im quitting fish keeping

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 14:38
by eddiec
I lost my upsidedown catfish, pictus catfish and black ghosy knife. My fish tank is pretty much empty and my water is cloudy. Im quitting

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 14:49
by Yann
Hi!

Please don't quit! Tell us more about your tank.How big is it? What fish are left.
Take it as you should restart from the beginning.
If such fish died, the problem should be the water, have you check the nitrtites level, have you use any type of product lately. Have you vaporised something close to your tank....
Keep the Spirit up, you will sort out everything and really start enjoying keeping fish.
Cheers
Yann

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 15:06
by eddiec
mw water is a little cloudy and i used some accuclear yesterday. I used amoonia lock so the test strips give me a false reading. Im trying to find a way to hold some fish in another tank and redo the water in my 30 gallon problem is i dont have another tank. and all my fish are lame. I lost $60 worth of fish and am not willing to buy more. My ph is 7.0. Ive been trying for 2 weeks to get my water clear but nothing will work. Fishkeeping is to difficult and expensive for a kid to do.

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 15:20
by Silurus
I don't think you should quit at this point. However, you might want to take a short break now before starting over.
During this break, read up as much as you can about fishkeeping. Ask questions (this forum is a good place to start, for catfishes at least). Once you've gained enough yourself from the experiences of others, start over. Most importantly, be patient and realize that not every problem in your aquarium can be fixed instantly.
You might also take the opportunity of this break to collect rainwater for your tank.

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 16:44
by katfishguy
dude,, don't quit,, it is such a fascinating hobby... unfortunately there will be times in this hobby when you will feel very low,,you will have to learn from experience, do research and make sure the same mistake doesn't happen again. I lost fish worth more than $2000,, but I never quit, such was my love for this hobby. Just to give you an idea of the kind of fish I lost,, Tigrinus,B.Vaillanti,P.Notatus,A.Torosus and whole lot of other exotic fish,, most people can't even get these fish,,, I too felt the same way when I lost all these beautiful fish, because of PH crash,, since then I learnt the root cause of the problem and made sure it never happened again.

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 16:56
by Sid Guppy
That white cloudiness you mentioned seems like a bacterial bloom to me; it happens sometimes, when the water is getting too rich on nutrients (waste). Suddenly such a tank reaches a critical point and WOOSH within hours fish start dying.
The last time it happened to me ("luckily" in one of the breeding tanks, not the big Tanganyika) I lost about 80 baby calvus (a Tanganyikan cichlid) and some 50 baby bristlenoses within 8 hours. (of course when I was at school, not at home...)

Believe me, I was pissed and depressed too. Mostly angry to myself, because a near three decennia of fishkeeping should have warned me, when it got a wee bit misty.
These things happen!
I can recall several diseases that were so virulent and malicious, I saw fish fall to pieces, literally! Cost me some things that I still cannot get anymore anywhere.
But don't give up! clear out the tank, make a fresh start, think about getting live plants on a simple sandy substrate about 2"; get a good filter, or fill the one you have with substrate and start -after some time- with just a few though and easy catfishes. The bug will get you again, believeme.

Or you'll get truly itchy everytime you pass a good LFS....

:wink:

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 18:45
by Barbie
You didn't mention how long your tank had been set up? Have you read any material on "cycling" your fish tank? That initial cloudiness is usually due to the presence of ammonia in your tank, and the resulting bacteria that are colonizing to convert it. Overfeeding at this point in the game can have dire consequences. We'd be happy to help you in the right direction with putting together a stable healthy environment. You mention your pH, but IMO, that test is one that most people shouldn't worry about. Modifying your water that comes out of your tap shouldn't be done in your tank, so acclimating the fish to the water you have available will give the fish much more stable parameters to deal with.

If you change your mind about tearing down the tank, I'd be happy to search out some links with good reading material for you to reference.

Barbie

its not that i want to quit fishkeeping its i dont have any

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 19:00
by eddiec
its not that i want to quit fishkeeping its i dont have any money to get any more fish. Ive replied to every free fish on this site but no one will reply. how can i collect enough rainwater and keep it from getting stale before putting it in my tank. Thanks barbie

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 19:01
by eddiec
its been set up for about 1 1/2 months

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 19:05
by Silurus
Money for fish can be saved up again. Just hold on to your tank.
Rainwater will not go stale. Collect it, store it in your tank and aerate/filtrate it as if a normal aquarium.
This way, when you eventually save up enough to buy fish again, the tank will be nice and ready for the fish.

Posted: 04 Apr 2003, 19:10
by eddiec
no im selling my tank and equpiment for some mula. My fliter doesnt reach very far down in the tank so id need to coloet 20 gallons of rain water before i could start filtering it.

Posted: 05 Apr 2003, 12:18
by thefishdaddy
Eddie,

If you can have the patience to cycle your tank in the next three weeks, with the unmodified tap water from your faucet, and maybe catch up on some reading about tank filtration, E-mail me thefishdaddy@yahoo.com or PM me and I will send you free fish just pay for half off the shipping cost......the condition of the deal is that you have to send me the info of your tank, tank size 30 or 75 gallon tank, the PH from the tap water, lighting, filtration, temp. and brand of heater even the location of the tank, if it is near a window or not, decoration, gravel, the brand of fish food you currently have, and the # of person who feeds your fish...........

Fishdaddys The Best

Posted: 07 Apr 2003, 13:52
by eddiec
my dad owns the 75 gallon and has ciclids so ill be setting up the 30 gallon again. I only lost one more fish before rescueing them. It was my favorrite channel catfish. Do you mean the tap water plus aquasafe. The rain water in my areas is not ideal for homee. Use. I have a plen plax 150 watt heater. A cascade 50 gallon mechanical hang on filter. I have red gravel and many artificial plants and rock hide outs. I have hikari sinking catfish wafers, freeze dried tufifex, brine shrimp flakes, shrimp pellets, algae wafers, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen blood worms. The only light my tank receives is the light i have on it. I usually have that on for about 10 hours a day. What kind of fish would you be sending to me? Thanks for your help.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Posted: 08 Apr 2003, 02:47
by thefishdaddy
most of the fish that i'm going to send you are still small and they tend to stay a lot smaller than your channel cat, If you don't mind bringing your channel cat to the place you got it and mybe trade for more fish food or store credit, one thing you can do first is keep the fish for a week or so until you decide when is the good time for me to ship some fish to you. what I was asking is for the PH straight from the tap no additives That way I have an idea on what type of fish I can send you, hope airborne express delivers where you live...
you have a private message from me for the details of the shipping address. and other stuff...
thefishdaddy@yahoo.com

Posted: 09 Apr 2003, 15:36
by CATWITHOUTHAT
man big ups to the fish daddy for helping eddie out...kep your head up eddie all of us have lost fish...all of us...i thinkk all of us have learned the hard way what not to do...now we are all slowly figuring out over YEARS what TO DO...hang in there youll love it if you do...

ben