# Learned My Lesson!



## Slinkky (Mar 26, 2010)

At the end of march i got 10 RPB (2-3") got a good deal on them too and made a rookie mistake of putting them in a fishtank that was not fully cycled







and they caught flex a few days ago (or some kinda fungus thing) i tried medication but it was too late all 10 RPB dropped dead today









R.I.P

Killer
Jaws
Princess
Spike
Dagger
Bruiser
Ripper
Chomper
Shredder
Fang

But at least i can view this as a learning experince and thanks to these guys i now know how to take better care for the next ones.

this thread might be kinda pointless but i felt i should have honored them somehow.

How long should i wait for a tank for fully cycle through? for a 65g tank and a 150g tank


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## Big Den (May 5, 2008)

Sounds to me like you have a lot to learn. I would suggest you do some reading up on how to look after fish. These fish are as hard as nails and only total neglect will normally kill them. Why not cut your teeth on a few guppies before you once again venture into keeping piranha's.


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## gtc (Nov 5, 2008)

Sorry to hear that bro, at least the next time you know what's need to get done before adding a new piranha or whatever fish you decide to go with in the future. Don't let a mistake like this push you away from the hobby, just be patient next time.


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## RedSoxfan (Apr 7, 2010)

Sorry for your lose,live and learn.


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## I Can Mate (Apr 8, 2010)

agreed with big ben that rbps are hardy as hell. i remember having them in super bad water cond. before by some neglect and they made it fine. but sorry for your lost man. hope that wasnt a big hole in your wallet


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

poor p's


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## THE BLACK PIRANHA (Dec 8, 2003)

If you were able to kill all 10 then you need to pick up a test kit and do some reading and never be afraid to ask questions we are all happy to help. Sorry for the loss but learn from your mistakes.


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## bigshawn (Dec 29, 2005)

sorry for your lose, you named the all


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## hugoale1 (Jan 26, 2009)

the aquaristic hobbie is for patient people, you need minimun a month for cycle, there are many posts for it, check it out, and sorry for your loss


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

You should do some reading before trying again.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

Rule #2. Dont name your fish. Thats my rule anyway. Im not giving you crap sorry to hear your loss but those were the most cliche names you could give a piranha. No point in naming fish they dont come swimming when you call em.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

LOL I love the way he calls them all names like, shredder, dagger, fang bruiser etc... Then theres princess!!









Sorry for your losses and good luck whatever you decide to keep next.


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## Slinkky (Mar 26, 2010)

i did have water test kits water conditioner, nutra fin, i did weekly water changes, amonia remover and all that stuff its just i didnt wait for the cycle =( i know i can be more patient once i reset everything up again, i did not neglect them at all its just i was not able to get rid of the flex or white fungus that they had in time =( this time i am gonna set up a hospital tank in case this ever happens again so i can isolate the problem and treat it better


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## 65galhex (Nov 5, 2008)

Sorry for your loss man, that sux bad. I think the point here is to make sure everything is in order first, IE: cycling of the tank, water params, etc before you put fish in. This way you wouldnt be relying on the hospital tank. The hospital tank should be a fall back or in an emergency not as a crutch.


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## TheSpaz13 (Apr 9, 2010)

I'm surprised to hear how many people are pretty much saying this guy shouldn't keep ps because he made a mistake. Patients is a virtue, but not everyone has it. The guy has 7 posts on p-fury and 3 of them are on this thread. Learn from your mistakes, get more ps, and ask questions...this forum is a wealth of knowledge and just about any questions can be answered in a couple of hours to a day...


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## Guest (May 3, 2010)

Okay so I am sorry to hear about the death of your fish. Lets work together and figure out what went wrong.

First of all, what the hell is flex? lol Do you mean Flukes? How did you treat for it? What did you use?

Also tell me more on your set up. Size, filtration, how much did you take out weekly when doing water changes? How did you clean the filters? with what and how did you replace the water changed? Did you gravel vac? What are your weekly water parameters? Do you have a test kit and what kind?

I am sorry if I am asking a million questions but we really need to know the basics before we can answer your cycling question. Feel free to send me a Pm and I will be more than happy to talk you through your setups


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## arok3000 (Nov 28, 2009)

I'd like to start by saying, GOOD GRIEF people. Please learn to English more gooder.

Secondly, yeah, he made a mistake, but it's not the end of the world. thanks KSLS for potentially helping this guy get his stuff sorted out.
Recently I made the mistake of not checking my CO2 regulator properly before I left town for a night to work. I got back and all my occupants had suffocated. It was only about 12 shrimp and 4 neons, but I felt horrible.
It wasn't so much anyones fault as it was an oversight on my part.
If I explained the specifics of that incident, would I have half of you jumping on my case to do some reading or never to keep shrimp again? Death happens.

We all know that "Bob" at the LFS will tell anyone they can toss some fish in their tank after 2 days anyways, so does this REALLY surprise you?


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Arok is completely right, when I first started keeping fish I made stupid ass mistakes quite a bit and killed off my share of fish. Saying that he shouldn't keep fish period is retarded and if he's interested in the hobby like he would listen anyway..... just go find a new forum. I'm surprised at this from everyone as this is not the end of the world guys and so a mistake was made but it was his. Instead of jumping down his throat over something we cannot change how about guide him to areas of the forum so that the next time he gets fish, the general knowledge of upkeep and tank maintenance is something we helped him CHANGE.That would be more suitable and fitting of the forum and it's community and definitely the whole f*cking reason why we are here. If everyone was a expert then this site would not exist. Further more you should be able to tell by his post count and his sign up date that he is new to this forum.WTF WERE YOU GUYS THINKING, this is not the welcome he should have recieved nor is it the one he needs. I will say this that the responses I have seen here dissapoint me greatly and certainly I expect a lot more from P-Fury. The next time that something like this happens to a new member here f*cking heads will roll. The whole point of us gathering here is to share knowledge and as a GROUP move in the direction of evolving the knowledge base and progress the hobby and hobbyist in general. Let me be the first to apologize Slinkky for the reception you got here today. I promise you it's not a typical one and for the life of me don't understand why you received it. Ksls(bless her heart) was dead on and also let me extend any help that I can give or try to answer any questions you may have. Also if it's a question or problem that you would like a more broad answer with perhaps more than one opinion, please make a thread about whatever you feel you need to and I promise you the response will be much different. Your initial and follow up posting was a bit broad for me so feel free to further elaborate on what you feel was the problem. Also let me say







P-Fury the greatest and most in depth Piranha information center in the world. We usually have members that are more than willing to help and very knowledgeable. Anything else you would like a hand with please feel free to as stated above PM me or start any thread you so choose.


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## CuzIsaidSo (Oct 13, 2009)

^^^RNR









Slinkky post the answers to ksls's questions and we'll be happy to help


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## Slinkky (Mar 26, 2010)

thanks guys i will post my tank setup in a bit with a few pics i took from before they all died D= hopefully we can figure this out i think maybe my problem was identifying the sickness? after a while of them having it my fissh looked like zombies with skin and white fuzz peeling off them. also when i first got them they didnt swim around too much the kinda all just chilled in one spot together and only really moved around when food entered the tank like blood worms of sometimes a frozen cube with veggies and blood worms, and the occasional goldfish like once every 2 weeks. and fed them like twice a day


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## Slinkky (Mar 26, 2010)

ksls said:


> Okay so I am sorry to hear about the death of your fish. Lets work together and figure out what went wrong.
> 
> First of all, what the hell is flex? lol Do you mean Flukes? How did you treat for it? What did you use?
> 
> ...


there was this white mold growing on them, at first when i looked up the problem i thought it was fin rot so i put liquid fungus cure from api and then after a day i realized that the mold wasnt going away at all and it spread from their fins to their bodies then i found this site http://thegab.org/Illness-and-Treatment/what-is-wrong-with-my-fish.html#Fuzz and then went to the pet store and got this stuff maracyn in the tank . i am also upgrading to a 150gallon tank for my new p's after it cycle and i am also letting my 65g tank cycle and i will be putting cichlids in it. the only fish in my tank to survive the fungus and stuff were the minnows i had in there.

i have a rena xp 2 filter i did about a 10-35% water change each week depending on the ammonia levels, when i changed the water i used water conditioner from nutrafin and waste control and cycle from nutrafin. i also vac the tank alot too because they crapped like crazy and made the tank look dirty lol i am using sand in the tank, and it is plantedwith live plants. some of the plants had white fuzz growing on it too so i got rid of them.

here are some pics of the tank from before that i took http://yfrog.com/42things1042jx


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Slinkky said:


> i did have water test kits water conditioner, nutra fin, i did weekly water changes, *amonia remover and all that stuff* its just i didnt wait for the cycle =( i know i can be more patient once i reset everything up again, i did not neglect them at all its just i was not able to get rid of the flex or white fungus that they had in time =( this time i am gonna set up a hospital tank in case this ever happens again so i can isolate the problem and treat it better


Bingo , that was your mistake. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER Use Ammonia Remover more than one time within a 2 month period on a new cycling Fish tank. Your killing %50 if not more of your bacteria everytime you do that. Hence , why you havn't been able to Cycle Your fish tank , and the inadequate filtration , and the over stocking isn't going to help.

I know Comets are cheap. throw a couple Comet goldfish into your Tank , and let them suffer through a cycle. Fish are near impossible to kill.
also , make sure to add some currant to the tank , I.E , Powerhead .


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## Genesis8 (Sep 11, 2009)

I feel sorry for the fishes, not you.


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## Guest (May 6, 2010)

Ok so I looked at your pictures and WOW is your water ever green! Looks like you have an algae bloom going on in there. So my question would naturally be what is causing this bloom? I think you are adding way to many things to your tank such as conditioners, ammonia remover etc and by doing this you are screwing with the water parameters.

Since all of your fish are dead (except minnows) I would empty as much water out of that tank as possible and fill it up with clean fresh water straight from the tap. DO NOT ADD ANYTHING

I would also completely rinse all your filter media and start over fresh.

Place your minnows back into the tank (what size is it and how many minnows do you have?) depending on tank size I can tell you how many minnows or goldfish to use to help with a cycle.

Also put your lights on a timer for no longer than 8 hours.


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Good advice B/C!'


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Slinkky said:


> i did have water test kits water conditioner, nutra fin, i did weekly water changes, amonia remover and all that stuff its just i didnt wait for the cycle =( i know i can be more patient once i reset everything up again, i did not neglect them at all its just i was not able to get rid of the flex or white fungus that they had in time =( this time i am gonna set up a hospital tank in case this ever happens again so i can isolate the problem and treat it better


You dont need ammonia remover so stop using it, most likely your tank never cycled properly because of it.

As was said list your setup filters and get a test kit before buying anymore fish.
Also do some research on the your filters and how they work and look into the nitrification process.

IMO you are adding to much stuff to your tank that you dont need so lets start from scratch and we will guide you through things

Meds and additives are pointless if your water isnt perfect so dont use them until you know for sure what the problem is and we get your water params right.
Do you have a quality test kit? If not then get the api master kit and test weekly and p[ost your numbers.

What are you using for media in your rena?


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## RedSoxfan (Apr 7, 2010)

My RBP's are all eating each other,so i know how you feel.


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## corbypete (Jan 24, 2005)

I dont understand... not cycling wont kill your fish, just put them through stress... but cycle any tank with fish and it will be hard for them. Piranhas are very hardy (god knows we all learn new lessons every week when we first get them proving this fact!), but im not sure this was related just to a cycle.

Are you sure you didnt contaminate the tank with anything... bleach, cleaning products, airstone near a contaminated air source (next to a drier), or somethign else like vibration (my father in law stuck his BASS speaker on top of his fish tank, the music went up loud and a bunch of fish died!)

unless the tank was really over populated and the ammonia went sky high... but again, if youve ever seen any fish come in from abroad, heavily packed and travellled thousands of miles this fish can take a majot hammering with ammonia.

Id be suspicious of other things if it was me... even down to what sponge you used to wipe the tank with (keep ita all seperate, no detergents, etc.) or any malicious firends (ive heard stories of beer goign in tanks etc.


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