Hey folks, for some background, I just finished about a 6 week fishless cycle using fishless fuel on a 29 gallon tank, current parameters below
ph: 6.6-6.8 , Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates ~5ppm, temp 80 degrees
I have brought AM to 2ppm and confirmed it and Nitrites drops to 0 within 24 hours, its heavily planted and plants are growing and looking great. So i think to myself "Sweet lets get some bad boys in this tank". For reference I really liked Cory's video of the South American trio of fish with Hatchets on top, Cardinals in the middle, and a breeding pair of Apisto's on the bottom layer.
Went o my LFS to inquire on which order I should try and add these fish, they told me they liked the idea a lot and they recommended the Cardinals first, then Hatchets, followed by Apistos last. Seemed fair to me so I picked up a school of about 10 cardinals, got them acclimated pretty well, and added to the tank.
This was Monday, Now as of today I am down to 6 Cardinals. One died the day after on Tuesday which I figured could be stress/acclimation not taking to the fish well. Wednesday I see one fish off by his lonesome not wanting to school and breathing rapidly. On further inspection It looks to most certainly have Ich. At this point I begin treating the display tank with Ich Z since they are the only inhabitants, and wake up this morning to see 2 more have fallen.
Keep in mind this whole time I have been testing water parameters twice a day and still all readings look completely fine. So I call the LFS again just to inquire how long these fish have been there before I picked them up to see if they or any of the other fish they shared a tank with showed any signs of illness. Its at THIS point they tell me adding Cardinals as the first fish in this process was a bad idea, and they then tell me my whole plan sounds like a bad idea, and that they recommend I should use Mollies or Platies first in this tank to get it going well, and then maybe look at my future plan later down the line, even though like I've said, my parameters all seem completely fine
While it seems like decent advice, am I being thrown for a ringer here? its been really disheartening and I came pretty close to saying screw it and giving up on fishkeeping again today when i really don't want to, any advice would be greatly appreciated