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Yesterday I went to the fish store to buy 4 Cardinal Tetras for my 10 gallon tank. There was nothing in the tank and the nitrite, nitrate and ammonia were all zero. The only difference between my water and the shop water was the pH so I thought slow acclimatisation. So, over an hour and a half, I acclimatised the fish. I put them in a bucket and then added the tank water every 15 minutes.

A couple of hours later I notice one is hiding and not moving around much. So I keep an eye on him. Then a few hours later he has lost equilibrium and it looks like his tail has fin rot and that his scales from his tail to half way up is body are maybe missing or at any rate they are all red. He wasn't having much fun in the tank with the filter so I scooped him into a spare bowl.

Then this morning I get up and the one in the bowl is dead (no surprise) and another has died, tail in the air. I'm guessing the same thing. Another is swimming around with loss of equilbrium and the same redness and rawness from the tail. The other one appears fine but I keep thinking it is only a matter of time.

Just some things to note. The fish shop had no heaters and so neither did I. I spotted Ich in at least two of the tanks at the store yesterday and informed the employees and put them in somewhat of a panic. They use the same nets for all of the tanks. I can't see any white spots on the fish but I've never seen it on a tetra before.

My tank is not planted, just plastic plants. Fluval 2 Plus filter. The tank has been well established for years. I just haven't had fish in it for about a year. It has been running the whole time and I have been checking the parameters weekly.

So what has happened? And did I do anything wrong?

I've just had a look at a few diseases and it looks like ammonia burning has the closest symptoms. How can they have ammonia burns, though, if the ammonia in the tank is zero? Could my test kit be wrong?

If your test kit is older, it may not be accurate anymore.

Running a tank empty will not keep the beneficial bacteria that handle ammonia (and other nitrogenous products) alive, so basically you sent your tank into a cycle, and tetras tend not to be very hardy through cycles.

For more information about the cycle, click here.

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If the tank is cycling then I would be getting ammonia readings, no? Also, I don't think 3 hours of having the fish in the tank would spike the ammonia that much.

I've been keeping the tank cycled with decaying food etc. And did gravel vacs when the nitrate spiked.

how long have you had your test kit? EDIT: and what type is it?

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Aquarium Pharmacueticals for Ammonia and Nitrate and they are about a year or a year and a bit old.

The Nitrite is a Hagen test kit. It would be about 9 months old.

None of them had a use by date. Or any instructions about proper care.

I have ordered a new test kit with a higher pH range too. All four of the fish died. It wasn't very nice considering my boyfriend bought them for me as a late Valentine's Day present.

New test kit arrived. pH 8.0. Nitrite 0. Ammonia 0. Nitrate just under 20ppm.

The nitrate is a little high, but not enough to kill the fish, right?

I've done a gravel vac and put new water in.

Maybe it was white spot and I've just couldn't see it on the tetras. I don't know...

20 ppm should be tolerable for Cardinals,though lower is better of course, there shouldnt really be a problem there. 4 cardinals isnt really a shoal though, and they might have been stressing out because of the lack of numbers,and this only gets worse as you progressively lose fish.That stress drops the immune system. Is the tank very bright, and does it have much cover?

Although the symptoms sound like a classic case of ammonia burn ,in this case the problem is probably bacterial or fungal, and stress is making them unusually vulnerable , and that of course, wont show on a test kit. Try a treatment of melafix and pimafix next time this happens.

Only one had signs of fin rot.

I only put 4 in because the tank has no fish in it. Didn't want to overload it. Should I put all six in at once?

I've used black rocks, four big fake plants, a hollow ceramic? log and a black background. I didn't think the tank was that bright. I was going to get some blackwater stuff though too.

I didn't have time to treat anything. They all died in less than 24 hours of having them.

The fish that died last were all swimming around perfectly happy and then suddnely they lost all balance and then quickly died. It was so strange.

are the fish that are still in the LFS ok , if not then its not your problem but if they are at least it narrows it down, did the water in the bag get too warm? all in all cardinals are very small fish and not as robust as others

OH TOLEEDY!

I rang the fish store and they said they were all fine. Apparently the outbreak of white spot was only confined to two of the tanks despite the fact that all tanks use the same nets, cleaning stuff etc. I'm dubious.

They are generally a good pet store but you can just never, ever trust them. Even the good ones never want to accept liability. And their staff are always less than knowledgable. This is the same pet store that sold me a gold fish and a bowl and told me I was a liar when I told them, after my fish died in four days, that a vet had told me that they should be kept in large, filtered tanks to avoid swimbladder. Luckily I found FP. They also had dead fish and a large whitespot outbreak on two of their tanks and didn't notice...

Hi there,
I actually went to the store yesturday and bought 4 as well.. when the store clerk got them out of the tank, in the bag they were like upside down and she claimed it was because of stress.. well the fish have been in the tank now for 12 hours, and they seem to be swimming around just fine, so I hope that I am alright.
I have had my aquarium for 2 weeks now, so I'm hoping that my fish will make it through the cycling I didn't know that you had to do that until after I bought my little fish!