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Hey, Im new to the forums and am happy to be here.

My question is, I have a 20 gallon tank with:

5 Glow Light tetras
2 corydoras sterbai
1 ghost shrimp
1 clown pleco

I had purchased 4 glow light tetras a few days ago and Each night for the past three nights, 1 has died, bringing me down to 5. This is very frustrating, I know these fish like slightly acidic water but the PH of my tank is about 7.8 to 8. I dont think this could be killing them, what could it be? I thought maybe my pleco was harrassing them in the night. I will be returning the pleco because I believe that a 20 gallon is too small for any pleco. The tetras I bought were pretty small, looked like near juveniles. Any advice on keeping this fish, I will be buying 5 more tomorrow at my LFS.

Thanks,
~ MyShrimpDied

How long has the tank been running? Take a water sample to the lfs and have them test it. Also see if they have some kind of guarantee on the fish, most due. I don't believe the clown pleco gets very big and should be fine in the 20g, I have an albino bn in my 20g. I had problems with tetras when I first started out as well. Try mixing your tap water with r/o water to bring the ph down. Welcome to fishprofiles and good luck with your fish.

It the Tetras are being killed they whould surely have bite marks on the tail. If there was something in the water they whould be death at all the time and not one by one and only for the night.

Suposing that you don't have any more fish on the aqua, and your ghoust shrimp is not a "zombie" shrimp, I think that your clown pleco needs more space, check out the profile on the clown pleco: "must be allowed a big enough tank to stake out territory" perhaps that's what is killing the tetras.

Another fact is that both pleco and glow tetras are from the Amazons river, and the little tetras are the bottom of the feeding line. So perhaps the clown becames omnivorous wen dosen't have any algae near.

z :88)

Assuming your water parameters are good and that the pleco isn't harassing the glowlights, I would assume the deaths can be traced back to the LFS. This past I had 7 of 8 died because my LFS recently got the fish and weren't fully acclimated there. If thats the case with you, then just wait it out, you can't really do anything and see how many survice. Hopefully you will recieve refunds and buy more at the LFS now that most of the weaker ones would have probably died and only the resilient ones left. A good guideline is to wait 2 weeks or so after the fish store gets the fish before buying them.

You must take the time to acclimate the new fish to your tank water...

That acclimation time would be at least two hours.

Do you know the technique??

--garyroland.

I watched one lfs do "acclimation once." Basically, there are about 50 big bags of fish on the ground (containing about 100 fish in each bag). After they are crushed by shopping carts and feet, they are then just dumped into the tank. So much for acclimation. Needless to say, most of the fish are dead after a week.