My nephew has been asking for fish for a couple years now, and we gave in for his fifth birthday last week. We wanted to start small, so we purchased a five gallon tank start kit from Walmart and brought it home. We got it all set up and headed to Bob's for fish. He informed us we needed to wait until the next day to let it cycle for 24 hours. We did just that.
When we came back the next day, Bob's told us for our five gallon tank, we needed about eight fish. My nephew and his big brother proceeded to pick out their eight, one of which included a Rainbow Shark. This was on a Friday. They told us not to feed the fish until Monday, and not to touch the tank to clean it, change water, or do anything for 45 days.
The next morning, the water was cloudy, so we went back for Seachem's Stability. He assured it was normal and nothing would go wrong; the tank just needed time to cycle with the fish and bacteria. He said to add a caupful every day until the bottle was gone.
The next morning, the neon tetra my nephew picked out was dead.
I also joined a group on FB after that to look for some advice, and I'm really glad I did. I found out that not only was our tank wildly overcrowded. Not only was it overcrowded, we had a mixture of fish that were not compatible to live together, and the Rainbow shark was not safe to live in a five gallon tank, and that the smallest it should live in is a 55 gallon, that in smaller aquariums, though they are community fish, they become territorial and aggressive. we watched him chase our red tux guppy and nip at him all day yesterday.
We found out you are actually supposed to cycle your tank for 2-6 weeks before adding fish to make sure the ammonia and nitrites are not harmful to your fish. We found out that a five gallon tank is not so forgiving when dealing with ammonia, and that if you need to cycle fish in your tank, it's best to have a bigger one.
After everything was done, we couldn't afford a 55 gallon tank upgrade. We explained to my nephew that his Rainbow Shark would have to go live somewhere else for awhile until maybe one day we had a tank big enough for him to live in and it was safe.
We upgraded our tank to a 20 gallon, got a better quality filter, and we found out which of our fish could be compatible, which need to be purchased in schools or groups (because Bob's didn't bother to give us this information either), and we learned about doing water changes and testing the water with the API master kit to ensure water quality for a healthier fish.
Since they are the only LFS in an hour to two hour radius, I am likely to buy from Bob's again in the future, but I will not do it at their direction or advice. I'll make sure I do my own research before going in and purchasing a fish to keep this from happening again.
Do your research first. read more