Tipskey - Freshwater Aquarium Fish Survival Guide

Written: 2006-08-09; posted: 2007-01-22

Freshwater Aquarium Fish Survival Guide

Why does the fish that swims happily at the aquarium shop die without obvious reason when it reaches your house?

Let city water sit out for three days or use dechlorinator. Well water may contain harmful gases but there is no conditioner in fish shop for it so let it sit out for a week.

Stocking a fish tank is the fun part of the hobby but please let the new tank stabilizes itself first with the equipment switched on for a few days before adding fish. People commonly make this mistake. Add at most three hardy fish (e.g. Black-skirt Tetra) first. Then add more after a week.

Beside water quality, fish compatibility must be considered too.

When you buy fish, get the water from that fish tank itself. Do not take the water given by the shopkeeper. Put at most 3 fish in a bag. Do not let the shopkeeper choose the fish for you. If you want to add more than one type of fish, observe compatibility at the fish shop.

When reaching home, follow this simple procedure. Put the plastic bag in a container about the size of the plastic bag. Pour a little water from your fish tank into the plastic bag. Pour it in slowly so that the fish will not get hurt. Repeat that after 5 minutes. Do it until the plastic bag is full but do not do it too long as the water in the bag may be out of oxygen. Watch the fish from time to time from jumping out. Finally put the whole plastic into the tank to let the fish swim out itself. If when you are in the process of adding water and the fish are gasping at the water's surface, stop the procedure and go straight to the final step.

After putting the fish in, do not feed them in the first few hours.

After adding new fish into the tank that already has fish, for a few days observe closely if there is any bite injury on the existing fish or the new fish.

If your fish are gasping at the water's surface, it is a sign that there is not enough oxygen in water for the number of fish you have. Do not overcrowd the tank. My own reference for fish number estimation is the tank bottom available area. I ask myself this question: "Is there enough area for every fish to sleep?"

New tank owners especially like to overfeed the fish. When you go on vacation, your helpful neighbor may also overfeed them. For-year-old kids will always overfeed the fish. If two people feed the fish, the chances of overfeeding double. Feed the fish only when you watch them. You just like to see them eating, right? Feed the fish until they lose interest to the next pellet you drop in. Goldfish's long shit is a sign of overfeeding. It is OK if the fish is not fed for one day. How overfeeding will kill the fish:
a) Rapid health decrease. It is unnatural that the food is always available. Occasional hunger can promote health.
b) More ammonia in water due to more excretion.
c) Unconsumed food will pollute the water.

Although you should not overfeed the fish, you must be cautious at the same time that you do not underfeed the fish.

Nitrite can be a problem in a new tank after introducing the fish. Chloride in the salt neutralize the nitrite in the water. Salt also helps fish build their slime layer (their first defense against diseases) and decreases osmotic pressures. Try not to use table salt because it may contain unnatural additives. Buy salt from aquarium shop.

Fish body or fin tip turning black may be a symptom of ammonia burn. Rapid increase of ammonia level in water is mainly caused by adding too many fish. Add new fish only when there is no dying fish or other problem for a significant period of time. Add one type only at a time so that you can observe compatibility.

Changing water is essential but do NOT ever change all of the water and clean everything. The most you can go is to take out the water until the level that is just enough for the fish to breath without evacuating the fish. But actually the change should be less water more frequency especially for less hardy fish. We do not want the fish to get physical shock. We want the water to achieve a biologically and chemically steady state.

I change water when I wash the filter media. Right before changing water I rub off the algae (if any) on the tank walls and stir the substrate (of course the part that does not have plant) a little so some alga cells and dirt can be also removed during the water change. If the water is crystal clear I wash the filter media only when
(1) water flows out of the groove where the siphon tube is mounted on the hang-on power filter. That means the filter media are already packed with dirt so the water finds alternative exit or
(2) I see some suds on the water surface
I pull out the siphon tube (I will flush the tube later anyway) of the hanging power filter (a picture of the filter is shown in freshwater aquarium starter guide) before I pull out the filter pad so that less dirt from the filter compartment flows into the tank. Then I scoop out water from the tank into a pail to wash the filter media. The brownish wash water is then used to water pot plant. Each scoop of tap water (approx 2 liters) is added with two squirts of dechlorinator (make sure it is enough. I lost my last Platy) and stirred up a little with my finger. I pour the new water into the filter after putting back the filter media to make some dirt detached from the filter wall and trapped by filter media (the detached dirt will be cleaned away during the next washing). I like to see the bubbles in the aquarium light by pouring in slowly. I do not just immerse the scoop in the fish tank because the sudden big addition of new water may cause physical shock to the fish. I did that once and the next morning one Rosy Barb and four Gold Tiger Barbs died.

When the water level decreases due to evaporation, do not just top up because the pollutants are still in the tank. Still need to change some water.

Quarantine plants from lake or river for a few days (I take 2 days) in saltwater before putting them into your tank as the plant may have some harmful bacteria or chemical. The plant may also have snail's eggs that may hatch and infest your tank.

Do not put Devil’s Ivy (Epipremnum aureum) into the tank. This plant is poisonous and will slowly kill all your fish (none of my guppies survived, painful).

If you have a lot of plants, you should ensure there is water movement (produced by air pump or filter) in the tank to promote air exchange after you turn off the light at night because when there is no light plants also consume oxygen.

Fish that is neither surface feeder nor bottom feeder like black-skirt tetra must not be fed with big pallet because the fish either cannot eat it or tries to swallow it (and has problem later).

Pellets swallowed dry without being chewed will expand in the fish stomach and cause chronic health problem. Try let the pellets be in the water for a few minutes first before letting the fish eat them.

Some fish (for example pleco) can be spooked to death when you switch on the light in the dark if there is no plant for the fish to hide under. Get a lamp with flexible neck that looks like a reading lamp. To avoid spooking the fish, before switching it on you can turn the lamp away and then turn the lamp slowly to the aquarium again after switching it on.

Copper kills invertebrates (shrimp, snail or clam). Do not put aquarium under an air-conditioner to avoid water dripping into the tank. Air-cond contains copper pipe. Also see if the supplement / medicine that you use on fish contains copper.

Do not pour distilled water into the tank. The fish can be killed. Distilled water absorbs things (mainly carbon dioxide) from the air. Only outdoor soil can neutralize things in distilled water.

For goldfish
Do not put small gravels in goldfish tank. If you want to have plants in goldfish tank, get ones that grow on bogwood instead so that gravel is not needed to secure the plant. This is because goldfish may have SBD (swim bladder disorder) if you feed them with floating pellets. You should feed them sinking pellets but if there are small gravels at the bottom, the goldfish may accidentally swallow the gravels too. You know goldfish eats voraciously. And goldfish poops a lot so the gravel layer may trap a lot of poop that is harmful for the tank environment. Also if there are gravels you cannot see leftover food from each feeding so you cannot estimate how much you should feed.

Fish with sucker mouth (e.g. pleco) will suck on goldfish. Although you may think it does not harm goldfish physically but the goldfish will be under stress. Stress kills. So do not keep them together.

For patient people - Nitrogen Cycle
For new tank add just a few hardy fish (I recommend Black-skirt Tetra) first to produce some ammonia to let the nitrogen cycle takes place. Ammonia buildup multiplies Nitrosomonas bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite and they will colonize the tank if there is constant supply of ammonia. After Nitrosomonas fully colonizes in the tank, Nitrospira that breaks down nitrite to nitrate will multiply. They will also colonize the tank if Nitrosomonas are not killed by your mishandling. At least one month is needed to achieve full cycle (ammonia to nitrate). Only then fish that are less hardy can be introduced. During bio-cycling the tank, small and frequent water change is as necessary as usual time.

If you add many fish into a clean tank, the ammonia spike (relative to its previous clean non-ammonia state) will kill your pioneers. If the ammonia is very severe, you may see red streaks and spots on the fins and tail, and even black marks on the tips of the fins and tail which are ammonia burns. Some of your fish may die immediately, but even after you take care of the problem, damage to internal organs may kill some fish weeks later. For this one, prevention is better than cure. Again:
a) Do not house too many fish.
b) Do not feed too much.
c) Change water frequently.
d) Provide more oxygen so that beneficial bacteria can do the job.

Do not use any canned nitrifying bacteria as they may not be the same with the ones in your environment and when they die there will be no reinforcement. It is impossible to mimic nature anyway. On what basis do the manufacturers formulate the bacteria?

Petting: Other Articles
Algae On Freshwater Aquarium Walls
Freshwater Aquarium Fish Compatibility
Freshwater Aquarium Starter Guide
Keeping Budgerigars
When Freshwater Aquarium Looks Cloudy
White Spot On Freshwater Aquarium Fish

Tipskey Unlock Practicality
Home \| Guestbook \| About