Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 I've lost 4 fish since getting them 2 weeks ago. A blue dwarf gourami came DOA then one of the cory cats passed then I realized I was missing a rasbora and found it on the floor behind the tank last week and just lost one blue ram yesterday. This one looked like it had a nip on the fin so I wonder if something happened with the other 2 I had went with one of the value packs from liveaquaria.com which was 31 fish (they said it was good for 20-26g) but I'm starting to think it's too much for my 27g cube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taco Playz Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) Okay so do you know what your parameters are? Could you also send a picture of your tank. And lastly did you cycle your aquarium if you didn’t here’s a quick blog for cycling your aquarium. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-tank-cycling I your aquarium keeping goes well! And welcome back to the hobby. Edited July 13, 2021 by Taco Playz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Did you cycle the tank? Did you add all 31 fish at once to the tank? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 I have yet to get a test kit so I bring it to my LFS which I'll be doing this week. The tank was running for 4-5 weeks before I added the fish. I added them over the course of an hour or so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebSills Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 My guess is that you added too many fish at once and you ended up with an ammonia spike - I am fairly new, but highly recommend you get a master test kit (I got mine before I even got a tank so I knew where my water was straight out of the tap). Do you have plants? What did you do while it was running 4-5 weeks to get the cycle moving? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaintoppufferkeeper Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) On 7/13/2021 at 7:02 AM, Fresh said: I've lost 4 fish since getting them 2 weeks ago. A blue dwarf gourami came DOA then one of the cory cats passed then I realized I was missing a rasbora and found it on the floor behind the tank last week and just lost one blue ram yesterday. This one looked like it had a nip on the fin so I wonder if something happened with the other 2 I had went with one of the value packs from liveaquaria.com which was 31 fish (they said it was good for 20-26g) but I'm starting to think it's too much for my 27g cube. First off dont worry about it much you are doing great Irene has some excellent articles that I find helpful https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium My general rule would be to do a test strip to see ballpark what the parameters are currently, do a water change as needed and also one any time I notice anything off with the behaviors of my fish. I do the quarantine med trio on shipments and use the Fritz A.C.C.R conditioner when dosing paracleanse. That seems to help in my systems. Assuming nothing looks off with your tank parameters or fish illness wise there are some reasons that each loss could have been: I would chalk up the gourami to the shipping stress, the rasbora issue happens just because many fish will jump out to avoid predation, to hunt flying bugs, if they get surprised, etc. The cory could have been a shipping issue or possible some negative interaction with the rams defending their claimed areas. I might try and add some spawning sites for the rams in the corners etc to give them a home to protect if you haven't yet. My Bolivian rams would chase and bite the other rams once they paired up so that could be the ram issue. The one with the nip on it could easily be from the other two based on limited experience with the Bolivians. 27 cube is decent size is that something like 20x18x20" ? That is an interesting package they offer is this the one you purchased? 3 2 German Blue Ram 9 Glowlight Tetra or Pristella Tetra 9 8 Harlequin Rasbora or Black Harlequin Rasbora3 2 Green Aeneus Cory Catfish or Peppered Cory Cat 1 0 Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami 6 Checkerboard Barb or Candy Cane Tetra Do you have live plants? Plants can definitely help out with keeping the tank parameters in line and keeping the fish a little less stressed with the resulting breaking of sight lines, visually framing territories, providing spawning locations, hiding spots/ security, and usually some microfoods to pick at. Assuming this was the package you got which of the or choices did they end up sending? The catfish would likely benefit from adding 4 more of the same specieshttps://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/cory-catfish-care-guide . Edited July 13, 2021 by mountaintoppufferkeeper 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 It's not as bad as it sounds. The DOA gourami wasn't your fault. The fish that jumped out wasn't due to water quality, some fish just jump a lot. Most of the time Cory cats bought online are small and small cories are pretty fragile. German Blue Rams like pretty warm water and if they got chilled along the way, that could explain its loss. I wouldn't stress out too much. You've had the fish for two weeks so things seem to be going about as I'd expect them to. Work on sealing the top more to prevent more jumpers. Forget losing the gourami as that had nothing to do with you. And the cory and GBR likely just got overly stressed on the way to you. I think you're doing fine and can take a deep breath and relax. If things were going disastrously bad (an ammonia spike for example) it would be affecting a lot more fish and after two weeks, you'd clearly know it was a problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Do you have Seachem Prime as your declorinator? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 On 7/13/2021 at 10:15 AM, DebSills said: My guess is that you added too many fish at once and you ended up with an ammonia spike - I am fairly new, but highly recommend you get a master test kit (I got mine before I even got a tank so I knew where my water was straight out of the tap). Do you have plants? What did you do while it was running 4-5 weeks to get the cycle moving? It's believable as everything was all good until about day #8. 2 sprites, 1 wisteria & frogbit at the moment. Getting some swords and some kind of Anubias next. The usual dechlorinater and I bought some feeders to get going. I use to do that for my piranha tanks On 7/13/2021 at 10:19 AM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said: First off dont worry about it much you are doing great Irene has some excellent articles that I find helpful https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium My general rule would be to do a test strip to see ballpark what the parameters are currently, do a water change as needed and also one any time I notice anything off with the behaviors of my fish. I do the quarantine med trio on shipments and use the Fritz A.C.C.R conditioner when dosing paracleanse. That seems to help in my systems. Assuming nothing looks off with your tank parameters or fish illness wise there are some reasons that each loss could have been: I would chalk up the gourami to the shipping stress, the rasbora issue happens just because many fish will jump out to avoid predation, to hunt flying bugs, if they get surprised, etc. The cory could have been a shipping issue or possible some negative interaction with the rams defending their claimed areas. I might try and add some spawning sites for the rams in the corners etc to give them a home to protect if you haven't yet. My Bolivian rams would chase and bite the other rams once they paired up so that could be the ram issue. The one with the nip on it could easily be from the other two based on limited experience with the Bolivians. 27 cube is decent size is that something like 20x18x20" ? That is an interesting package they offer is this the one you purchased? 3 2 German Blue Ram 9 Glowlight Tetra or Pristella Tetra 9 8 Harlequin Rasbora or Black Harlequin Rasbora3 2 Green Aeneus Cory Catfish or Peppered Cory Cat 1 0 Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami 6 Checkerboard Barb or Candy Cane Tetra Do you have live plants? Plants can definitely help out with keeping the tank parameters in line and keeping the fish a little less stressed with the resulting breaking of sight lines, visually framing territories, providing spawning locations, hiding spots/ security, and usually some microfoods to pick at. Assuming this was the package you got which of the or choices did they end up sending? The catfish would likely benefit from adding 4 more of the same specieshttps://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/cory-catfish-care-guide . I noticed the bag for the gourami was kinda flat so I assume it had lost air during the trip. I feel like I have some decent spots for each species to go back to but I'll take a picture later Yup exactly that size. I had emailed them prior to making the purchase and they advised that the value packs were made specifically for each tank size. They sent me the glowlights, black rasboras, green cory's and the candy cane tetras Yes 2 sprites, 1 wisteria and some frogbit. On 7/13/2021 at 10:27 AM, gardenman said: It's not as bad as it sounds. The DOA gourami wasn't your fault. The fish that jumped out wasn't due to water quality, some fish just jump a lot. Most of the time Cory cats bought online are small and small cories are pretty fragile. German Blue Rams like pretty warm water and if they got chilled along the way, that could explain its loss. I wouldn't stress out too much. You've had the fish for two weeks so things seem to be going about as I'd expect them to. Work on sealing the top more to prevent more jumpers. Forget losing the gourami as that had nothing to do with you. And the cory and GBR likely just got overly stressed on the way to you. I think you're doing fine and can take a deep breath and relax. If things were going disastrously bad (an ammonia spike for example) it would be affecting a lot more fish and after two weeks, you'd clearly know it was a problem. Yea I was pissed as that was going to be the showpiece even though I had 3 blue rams. I currently do not have a heater as my apt stays warm where the tank is setup since it faces East, water temp so far has ranged from 78-81 On 7/13/2021 at 10:34 AM, Mmiller2001 said: Do you have Seachem Prime as your declorinator? I do not recall which one I had used but I ran out so time to buy more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 I think @gardenman has some great advice in his post above. I’ll also add that many folks keep German Blue Rams at higher temperatures. I’m not sure what temps the tank mates can handle but it might be a good idea to get a heater and raise the temp a bit. 82F might be a good place to start. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmedByFish Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 I think all the practical help I could offer already has been. The test kits are super key. I guess it was less than a year ago that I learned Nitrates exist... which led to learning about ammonia, then not chasing pH... you get the picture. I think most of us have been in some situation where we're having to rapidly figure out what in the world is going on with a tank. You'll make it through, and you've got empathy here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 On 7/13/2021 at 9:09 AM, Taco Playz said: Okay so do you know what your parameters are? Could you also send a picture of your tank. And lastly did you cycle your aquarium if you didn’t here’s a quick blog for cycling your aquarium. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-tank-cycling I your aquarium keeping goes well! And welcome back to the hobby. I don't understand why they keep uploading upside down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Nice looking tank! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 Thanks! I keep moving the plants around since they're growing fast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 We’ll need some pics of those Rams! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 I just made a post in the breeding section with an image of it check it out. I am so amazed yet clueless right now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameCzar Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 You got all the great advice above, just offering my positive vibes and telling you to keep the faith-a faith-a faith! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 Appreciate it! I'm getting my water tested tomorrow so I'll go from there. I knew it wouldn't be easy having this much in a 27g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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