Re: my fish are dying why ?
#11
Hi Eddie,
Just thought I'd put my two cents' worth in. After reading the preceding posts it's pretty obvious this is a case of the dreaded "New Tank Syndrome" - if only there was a law passed to ensure that no aquatic supplier could sell more than half a dozen fish to people for their first lot! This is a fairly universal rule which can be bent depending on circumstances, but 23 is definitely a no-no!
Anyway, you know all this by now - what I'm interested in stressing is the importance of testing the water regularly, and testing for the right things! I've lost count of the number of people who've told me that their water test came out fine, only to find that they've only tested for pH and phosphate levels - those don't tell you anything about toxic waste levels in the tank, which is the critical thing to keep an eye on, especially in a new tank.
Without rambling too much (hopefully!), the main things you need to test for are Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, and the levels which are considered safe are: Ammonia - 0 parts per million (highly toxic!), Nitrite - 0 p.p.m (still highly toxic, but less than Ammonia), and Nitrate - less than 50 (or so) p.p.m. (not directly toxic to fish, but has been shown to increase stress levels).
I could waffle on for ages about starting up a tropical aquarium, but the best thing to do is get a decent book so you can refer back to it when you need to - I would personally recommend the Baensch Aquarium Atlas vol.1 if your budget allows it.
Marc