fish newbie seeking imeadite help!!!!what's up with my fishes?

[Suger Rush]

so, i just set up my tank today. i went out early and got almost everything i was sure i needed for my dinos . i got a 5 gallon tank, gravel, a heater, a filter, plants, a littlt cave/rock thing, and then i set it all up at home, got the heater running and then headed out around 5:30 to get fish food, a light, and the fish and the frog that i wanted! but the lady at petco seemed shocked when i told her the tank had only been up and running for less than 12 hours. she wouldn't even let me get the six fish i planned to buy. she told me 5 was a better number and that i should only get 3 to start with. so i did. i got the fish and the frog plus the food but they didn't have the light i needed so i had to head home without it. it and it just gets worse. one fish didn't survive the ride even though i held the bag securly in my lap. i made sure he was dead as a rock before letting him go. my zebra's seem to be doing fine. they are swimming around and all that. but my frog it just wild. he is swimming all over the place up and down and mainly near the edge of the tank like suddenly the glass wall is going to vanish. i suppose moving around is better than laying at the bottom but i'm just new to all this so i don't know what's normal behavior for them yet. is there a policy on feeding? when should i start feeding them? when will they reconize the food? i dropped in a few flakes but they didn't even look at it. a few words of encouregment would really help right now!!
thanks!!!

 

[Edward Doe]

A 5 gallons tank is a bit small to start with, but no worry. This is something you need to do or your fish will have a very rough time going through this. This is the reason why the petco associate wouldn't let you buy all the fish at once.
I'm sure you heard Nitrogen cycles before, let me make it simple and easy to understand.

Fish, food, poop waste breakdown into Ammonia which is very toxic to fish.
Ammonia turns into Nitrite also toxic, and the final state is nitrate is alot less toxic, that fish can tolerated. up to certain amount. To do all this the new tank will required a good amount of benificial bacterias, however it will take up to 6 to 8 weeks to build up enough bacterias to do the job to convert toxic waste into less toxic waste. Fish store sell bacterias supplement to increase cycles process.
During this time if you have too many fish produce too much toxic wastes but there isn't any benificial bacterias help break them down yet, then ammonia level will rise high enough to kill all your fish.
I recommend you to buy a water test kit -test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and ph levels. These are the most important things in water chemistry that aquarists must have.
Right now you need to do a 10 to 15% of water change everyday or 2 days if you see ammonia level goes up to .50ppm until your tank is fully cycled means that ammonia, and nitrite levels are zero, and nitrate is about 10 to 40 ppm.
After you find out that your tank is fully cycled then go ahead add more fish into your tank, but rules of thumb is one inch of full grown fish per gallon of water.
About feeding your fish. You should wait at least 24 hours before you feed them, but during this time you can only feed them 1 per day, enough food that they can eat in 2 minutes, make sure they eat all of it, no excess on the bottom of the tank, if so stop feed them until they eat all that or vaccuum the gravel otherwise it will make ammonia level increased.
Maintain the correct water temperatures for your fish (find out what is best for your fish online) each water change makes sure you use water conditions to removed chrolorine in the tap water - very toxic to fish they can't tolerate it even a little amount is in water.

Good luck

 

[fish keeper]

First of all when you set up a tank for the first time you should always let it cycle for 24-48hr. so good bacteria has time to grow. you should feed them two times a day morning and night remember fish don't get full, if there's food around they will eat it, so if you walk in front of the tank and they act like there starving don't feed them cause they know that you=food so don't be fooled into over feeding them, idk how big Dino's get but even 5 sounds like to many for a 5 gallon with a algae eater and a frog remember 1inc of fish for every gallon of water. i just read heart o' gold s answer and shes write about the book one i recommend is called "THE COMPLETE BOOK OF THE FRESHWATER AQUARIUM A comprehensive reference guide to more than 600 freshwater fish and plants by Vincent B. Hargreaves" I have that book and its awesome it walks you through setting up the tank and has a lot of fish info i highly recommend it hope this helps

 

[mwm0788]

your tank has to cycle and fish hate new water. MY best advice is to return the frog, you have to research fish before you buy them or you end up making tragic mistakes. That frog will starve soon as his only food is frozen blood worms. Problem is his food fish love but its too high in protein for them and they die in months.

for a 5 gallon 2 fish to start with is best, 3 might be ok but you better do 15% water changes weekly for the first month and never ever feed too much.

what keeps fish alive in a tank is special bacteria which eats fish waste. that bacteria takes 3 weeks to really set up shop so with too many fish and no bacteria the fish will die of there waste which is ammonia.

i wish You luck..do some research and should be okay. no more impulse buys or everyone dies.

just plain stupid.


good luck

 

[Sakura Shaunessy]

Danios shouldn't be in anything under 15 gallons sweetie. Dwarf frogs need a way to get out of the water. They need a buddy too.

Also :

The lady shouldn't have even sold you any fish. Your tank has to at least be set up for at least 1 week BEFORE getting fish.

sweetie listen to Itty Bitty. Did you do any research at all??

 

[Rainbow Child]

The store is right.. you should not have anything in that tank just yet.. as the tank is not cycled.
cycling is the time period of 6-8 weeks when good bacteria is grown in the tank. Bacteria grows in the filter media, and is needed to break down poo and ammonia and waste matter.

Now you have 3 fish don't get any more till your tank is cycled.
Because there is no bacteria in your tank.. basically what happens is..the tank is toxic from the poo and any uneaten food. Toxic= death to fish and anything living in it.
There are fish that are hardy and are used for cycling but no more than 2 . fishless cycling is the more humane way.

If you find your fish dead in the next few days weeks, it is due to being in an uncycled tank.

5 gallons is too small a tank for 6 fish of that kind and a frog.

zebras are hardy fish. so you can use them to cycle your tank.

Generally the fish would have been fed that day. It is okay to wait a couple of hours before feeding them as you are not sure when they were last fed.
Feed them no more than 2ce a day with a tiny tiny pinch. remember their stomachs are tiny..about the size of their eyes. Fish know their food. Give them time to settle in the tank, let them be quiet and find their way around the tank, and new plants.
Did you float the fish first before placing into the new tank?

about the frog..he seems stressed. there is not much else you can do except research the kind of frog he is.. and do remember that frogs do jump and they do swim, they are not inactive creatures.

Have you got the right food for the frog?

 

[heart o' gold]

I suggest getting a book on fish tanks for newbies and reading it. This is not an easy one paragraph answer.
As for the immediate behavior...imagine that a giant hand swooped you up, stuffed you in some sort of container, jostled you all around then dumped you in an entirely new environment where the air felt hot to breath and your eyes burned and all your skin felt like it was on fire. What would you do? Act disoriented and slosh around like an idiot probably.

The first thing you need to know about fishtanks is that the water fish need isn't tap water. You need to condition the water, this varies depending on your water and your local fish store will knwo how to advise you. Then there are bacteria colonies that need to be built up for the fish to be able to survive. This takes WEEKS and that's why the gal wouldn't sell you all the fish you wanted, they'd just die anyway.

Now that the tank is running and you've added a couple of animals, you need to just leave the tank alone, other than feeding a tiny pinch of food each day, no more than the fish can eat before it hits the bottom of the tank, for about 12 weeks. The fish poo, the bacteria that eats the fish poo needs to build up. The the bacteria that eats the bacteria poo needs to build up, then the bacteria that eats that bacteria poo and changes it to things that aren't going to harm your fish needs to build up. Each of these bacteria colonies will build up in turn and 'spike', which can be very harmful to your fish. If you add too many fish, they'll all just die while the tank is still cycling.

What you do to start a tank is set it up, run it for a couple of days, a couple of fish, and maybe a couple of plants (be sure they are the non slimy plants which just make the water dirty) and then leave it running and alone for three months. After the three months you can slllloowwwwwllyyyy ad more fish. But for a five gallon tank, you can't have very many fish. The max is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. A five gallon tank is also much more difficult to keep balanced that a larger tank. I never liked to mess with anything less than 10 gallons.

Anyway, the worst thing you could do now is to keep messing with the tank. Just leave it alone and let it cycle and balance. And don't feed the fish too much, that makes the water dirty and will kill the fish. If the fish aren't interested in food right now, don't feed them.

 

[Dinah]

Boy O Boy, you are in a rush.... Slow down a little. You really need to let your tank set up for 2 weeks. You should have no more than one inch of fish for one gallon of tank. Danio's are hardy fish. Frogs like the dark. Frogs will hide if you turn on the lights. So have a hiding place for them. And check to see what kind of frog it was because some get BIG. You have a 14 day return policy for all that you loose (die) from petco. Just save your receipt. And bring in the dead body. Your frog may live. They produce high ammonia ( so other fish might not make it in their with him). The frog likes things that smell good, they find their food by smell. ( Like frozen blood worms) you can get bottom feeder food a food that sinks to the bottom and only feed the little guy once a day, one pellet. I said blood worms cause I know they love them. Good luck and slow down .
Oh, You can get your water checked for free at both Petco and Petsmart. Do it before you buy any more fish. But don't let them talk you into pH chemicals. Only use two kinds (to De chorine and some thing to Balance your system -like cycle).

 

[Little Bitty]

Your tank is uncycled. Unsafe. You need to take the fish back, because they're in a completely unsuitable home. They want away from the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

Not to mention, the only things that can go in a 5 gallon tank are betta, shrimp, and snails. All of which like live plants. Bettas cant have fake plants or caves with all kinds of decorations and crevices. It'll tear up their fins.

I realize you're a first time fish owner, but you should know that you -need- to do your research before you buy -any- kind of pet. Zebra danios need a 20 gallon tank minimum and LOVE to swim around. ADFs need a 10 gallon and a friend ADF.

What you're doing is pretty cruel, and if they aren't dead in the morning, then you need to return them. Please.

 

[noselessman]

Fish tanks takes weeks to cycle, you can not even establish a stable temperature in 12 hours. you have to know what your ammonia and nitrate reading are before you can buy fish. You have to know what your PH is befor you choose fish, many fish need different PH, and will die if they are forced into a tank with PH that is not appropriat for them. Some hardier species can adapt to a PH outside their range, but you must float the bag longer, and carefully acclimate them
danios need to be in groups of 6 or more in 20 gallons at a bare minimum. they are very active fish.
From what I have read, it seems that Dwarf frogs do better in groups of 3 or so. The nicest thing you could do is return those pore fish and frog. Then give your tank 3 -4 weeks to cycle while you reasearch fish and dwarf frog care, then buy 1 or 2 more frogs or a betta, no other fish can live in a tank that small.