rahina

=18]One more important question which bothers me is that I learnt that I have to change the fish tank water totally every six months so this means that I have to leave the tankk fishless to do its nitrogen cycle :roll: and just add live plants and fish food and check the percentages daily then introduce the fish after the cycle is completed :-?

Today Saturday I found two more dead fish. only two females left :-? :-? :-? and I doubt one of them is pregnant. I did not take this nitrogen cycle seriously at first in fact five years ago when I had my first tank I knew nothing about it :roll: yet still I want change my plan I determined to have a healthy fish tank :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: so I will wait this time and be patient for the cycle to continue WISH ME LUCK

Hi All :fun: well I now want your whole opinion about the whole situation. As you know I am a new fish tank owner I have bought a tank, left the water for three days, added the gravel, the filter and the live plant and left it for three days extra then I added six guppies.; two males and four females this was last Tuesday. :good: the problem is they did not eat food, flakes and dried worms except Friday's morning. they ate finally . :hyper: one of my friends said that this might me because of the change of the tank and the fish might be feeding on the live plants. I saw one of the females doing so but what about the others? :look: On thursday one of the females died :-( . she made some hysterical moves before her death. I noticed something strange as well one of the males seemed shy and hid within the gravel. :unsure: was it because the other male was dominating and wanted the females for himself? Well! guess what? the other "bold" male died on Friday . I found him lying dead at the bottom although he seemed lively and suffered no problem since I bought him I have read about the nitrogen cycle. 8) I figured that my tank hasn't cycled yet although my plants seem great. they are not considered a symbol to show that the tank has cycled. :blink: now I have decided to buy no more fish before two weeks and do the tank maintenance regularly. I think it is very important to buy the test kit although it won't be easy to find it. Wish me luck and I highly welcome all your advice

One more question please? :bounce: Should I add salt to the water? If so how much salt should I add to a 16 gallon tank? Thanks

thanks for all those who posted replies I would like to make clear that I turn off the air pump when I feed the fish so that the food doesn't settle to the bottom of course the air pump is attached to a filter and another pipe making bubbles I only do this for 15 minutes daily when I feed the fish but I have noticed something new 1- one of the males prefers to hide in between the rocks at the bottom :roll: 2- one of the females is upside down I think it is dying . I have transferred it to a spare tank what should I do?

thanks Alan you were so kind to answer me :lol: in fact I do have live plants but I never imagined that plants can keep them full I will watch them closely and post my observation as soon as possible 8) one more thing which part of the tank do guppys prefer? because when I turn the air pump some of them sink down other prefer to rest by the plants but when the air pump is off they raise to the surface of the water thanks a lot

thanks Nickle Pickle for ur help my tank has been set up for let's say five days before the fish arrival and I tried to feed them flakes and another time that kind of food that looks like small macaroni it is yellow and hard but softens when it is put in water should I try worms instead? dried or perhaps live ones? :bounce:

thanks for entering my topic I have bought six guppys yesterday, two males and four females. 8) they didn't seem inteerested in food today why? may be because of the change of the fish tank and how long can this last? how long can a fish stay without food? I greatly appreciate your help