Hi Guys,
My kids have an aquarium at home medium size which has got a filter and they are changing the water and cleaning the whole stuff occassionally but not late. They are feeding them morning and evening according to the instructions from the pet shop. They have to buy new fishes in every two months as most of them are dying. They were using marble pieces to decorate. Some of our friends told that the fish will die if we use them so we changed it to clean sand and real stones. We are growing some real plants as well but vey often the fishes especially the smaller varieties are dying faster. I would appreciate if someone can help me to solve this problem.

jennapbt

Well, there are a few things I need to know first of all but I can give the advice I know for now. How many gallons is the tank? If you have a small tank its better to put community fish in there which only get a few inches. A rule of thumb is its an inch of fish per gallon. Do not over crowd the tank. If you are using sand it would be better to use just regular gravel as sand is very hard to clean. If you have just changed from stones to gravel I would wait a while until you change it to something else again. You can buy testing strips from any local pet supply store which should test Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, PH, Hardness, Alkalinity, and Chlorine. Nitrates, Nitrites and ammonia are the ones you need to observe the most. Lots of small fish react differently to different levels in tank water. I would cut down to feeding the fish just once a day even every other day. If the fish are dying I would also wait on the live plants. You have to consider that your taking care of not one but two totally different ecosystems when you have live plants in there. Once you get the fish situated you can go to caring for live plants. You should be doing at least a 25% water change once a month, which includes vacuuming the gravel, and changing the filter in the filtration system at the time of the water change. Also it depends on what kind of rocks you are using, some rocks if not specially made for aquariums could be dangerous to tank water. The minerals in the rocks could be released into the water. Do you have a heater on the tank? For smaller fish they need a steady temperature. The best bet is to test the water to see exactly what is going on with the levels of the tank before getting anymore fish. Try to avoid any chemicals to fix the problems in the tank the best way is to try to fix it naturally before throwing chemicals in. If you have any more questions feel free to ask for thats all I can think of right now. Good luck.

SHAVED

Dear Jennapbt,
Thanks for your reply. The tank is big enough. It is one metre in length and half metre width and height. We do not have too many fishes. I think it will not be more than 10 including two gold fishes. We are doing the cleaning (complete cleaning including the gravels and stones) at least once a month.
We were not growing live plants before and the fishes were dying and a friend told us to keep some live plants to give more oxygen. Feeding can be reduced (I agree with your suggestion). Thanks for giving the tip of testing the water. I will buy the testtrips for testing. Rocks were bought from the pet shop and that is what they are using in their tanks. No chemilcals are used. However we will try with using the gravel, testing the water, removing the live plants, feeding once a day or alternative days and cleaning the tank by changing water once a month. We will try your valuable tips and will let you know the outcome.

fredg

Hi, Shaved,
The other answer you received is very good. I had a similar experience years ago, and found out the pH levels were not correct.
I do wish you good luck, and testing the water with the strips, or other means, should do the trick.

jennapbt

No problem, if you need anymore help just feel free to ask. It was late and I was tired when i responded which is the same case right now just not being late (just got off work). Another thing I thought about though when you brought up the goldfish is make sure you keep goldfish with goldfish and other community or species together. Goldfish are very very dirty nasty fish they produce alot more waste than other fish. Supposedly they have a different slime on their body that other fish do and it can be harmful to other fish, but i've never read that anywhere else. Also take into consideration that one goldfish can get 13 inches. so a 20 gallon tank would suit one just fine. So, yeah live plants would supply more oxygen but only if they are healthy enough to supply that. Just having a filter w/ the flow of water into the tank supplies enough oxygen in the water though. Also you have to consider how long certain fish have been in the petstore and how well their tanks are cared for. Make sure to observe the fish you want carefully before buying it, and looking at the over health of all of the fish at the store. By your measurments it sounds like you tank is an 18 gallon long. Therefore I wouldnt put any goldfish in there. It would be a good idea to buy some aquarium salt, not the salt for salt water tanks for regular aquarium salt. It should say how much to use on the bottle but I believe it's one tablespoon per 10 gallons. That will help keep the bacteria level in your tank down and helps build a nice slime coat on fish. What about the heater? And do you have a temperature gauge? Well, if you have any particular questions to ask as you try to fix your tank go ahead and ask.