# Lidl 15litre tanks



## Aziraphale (Jul 28, 2009)

Hi guys, I've had a quick flick through the forum and haven't found anything yet, so thought I'd try a new thread.

Basically the situation is this:

GF bought herself a starter fish tank last week from lidl. Its 15 ltr, comes with pump/filter, light, gravel, plant etc. Having set it up, she's left it for a week, used the water safe drops as directed and all seemed fine. Tried her first fish in it two days ago, it lasted 5 hours before ending belly up. Thinking it could be the water quality, I tested it for nitrates and ammonia, no problems have come up, so we put it down to the fish dying of shock. Tried another fish today, and it lasted 4 hours and is currently bobbing along the bottom of the tank, looking to go the way of the first. Both fish were bought from the same place, [email protected], so we thought we were buying safe. 

Is there anything we can check to make sure the tank is safe? She's really upset (understandably) as she was looking forward to it.

BTW the fish were both fancy goldfish, can't remember what type. I know they'd be way too big for the tank, but as they were small to begin with we didn't think it would matter too much as long as we upgraded the tank after a while.

Thanks guys

Az


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## kizno1 (Mar 17, 2010)

the tanks is to small for fancy goldfish. there ar only a few fish that can go in there aand all the ones i can think of ar tropical. has the tank been cycled?


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

tank hasn't been cycled. see the sticky for more info. :2thumb:


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## Aziraphale (Jul 28, 2009)

I guess that then means that I've been lucky then, as I've never cycled my fish tanks. Until now I never knew of it either.

Like I say, I know that tank is too small for fancy goldfish, but you know what girlfriends can be like when they see something pretty that they like!


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## kizno1 (Mar 17, 2010)

Aziraphale said:


> I guess that then means that I've been lucky then, as I've never cycled my fish tanks. Until now I never knew of it either.
> 
> Like I say, I know that tank is too small for fancy goldfish, but you know what girlfriends can be like when they see something pretty that they like!


 tell her if shhe puts a 25w heater in there she can have alot prettier fish. get her to google 
endlers
galaxy rasbora
ember tetra
pygmy corys
sparkling gourami
cherry shrimp
they would all work in a tank that size.

do you have any other tanks? if you do you can take some of the sponge out of them and put it in the new tank and then it will be cycled and ready to add fish.


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## Aziraphale (Jul 28, 2009)

nice idea to use the sponge from my tank, except that the 2 tanks are 200miles from each other lol. I'll pass on the information about cycling though and see what she thinks. I'll probably end up doing it though lol. 

Would the heater still work if the tank was plastic? I know it's not ideal, but she thought it would be a good idea at the time!


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## kizno1 (Mar 17, 2010)

Aziraphale said:


> nice idea to use the sponge from my tank, except that the 2 tanks are 200miles from each other lol. I'll pass on the information about cycling though and see what she thinks. I'll probably end up doing it though lol.
> 
> Would the heater still work if the tank was plastic? I know it's not ideal, but she thought it would be a good idea at the time!


post it. just put it in a tub of water with some ammonia or if not use fish food or prawns to produce ammonia it should be fine like that for a few days. should be fine i have a 25w in a 5G plastic tank for a year with no problems.


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## Moogloo (Mar 15, 2010)

Pets @ Home suck.... that is the moral of the story...

15L tank is inhumanely small for a fancy goldfish, even a baby one, the filters arent man enough with the amount of waste they produce. I have 4 fancies in 125L tank, 2 of them are only 1.5cm panda moors,1 is a 2cm orangy short tailed ryukin and the fourth a 3cm jet black ranchu and they still look crowded!!

Get a £15 - £20 heater and a male Siamese Fighter and 3-4 Neon Tetras or Ember Tetras etc...

And get it from Maidenhead Aquatics, there is bound to be one near you there are over 100 up and down the country...


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## Aziraphale (Jul 28, 2009)

cheers for the help guys, its great to get such quality info from a ready source!


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## Assaye (Sep 23, 2009)

Aziraphale said:


> Hi guys, I've had a quick flick through the forum and haven't found anything yet, so thought I'd try a new thread.
> 
> Basically the situation is this:
> 
> ...


Could be a number of things:



Bad stock from [email protected] - some are just sickly and fragile from the word go
Ammonia or nitrites in the water and your test kit hasn't picked up on them (what kind of kit is it and are you sure it is in-date?)
Really bad pH that is intolerable to fish (unlikely)
Drastic difference in temperature/pH/hardness between your water and [email protected] water and not enough time spent acclimatising the fish
Combination of the above
So, what tes kit do you have? Liquid or strips? How long did you spend acclimatising the fish and how did you do it? You say readings for ammonia and nitrates were fine - exactly what were they and what about nitrites?

The facts that your tank is not cycled and the fish are unsuitable _are_ problems but will not explain why the fish are dying within hours. New Tank Syndrome (aka ammonia and/or nitrite poisoning) usually takes a few days to kill if it is severe enough to do so and the fish won'y be getting stunted from a few hours in the tank (although I might from a few months). 

This is what I would do:



Make sure your water has been tested using an in-date liquid test kit such as the API Freshwater Master Test Kit for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH. Post the results. Your ammonia and nitrite must be _zero_.
If your water is all OK, make a choice between a _fishless cycle_ and a _controlled fish-in cycle_.
When adding new fish, give it plently of time to adjust to temperature and water quality. I use a small tub and some air-line tubing with a knot to slowly drop tank-water into the tub with the fish, thus slowly getting it used to the new water. This could take 30 mins to 2 hours, depending on how great a difference there is between my water and shop's water. Another method is to keep the bag and fish in the tank but slowly add cup-fulls of tank water to the bag, and then emptying some down the drain, and then adding more. Add more water every 5-10 mins and keep going for 30 mins at least. Do not add any bag water to the tank - it could be contaminated or full of ammonia.
Test daily for ammonia and nitrites for at least a week after adding the fish and alwys do a large water change (50%+) if there is _any_ in the tank. Stop testing when you have had consistent levels of zero on ammonia and nitrite for at least a week and you've seen nitrates slowly rising.
With the fancies, they'll need to be upgraded ASAP. Not in a few months or whatever. In a small tank (especially one without enough bacteria in the filter such as yours) the water will get polluted very fast and with such messy fish, it will be very hard to get it properly cycled and stable. The fish will also start to get stunted if it is in the tank too long. Goldfish can reach most of their adult size within a year and given that they get to 6-10 inches, that shows you that you need a big tank very soon. I would suggest 20 gallons for one at least, personally I would opt for 25-30 gallons. If you stick with goldfish, please only get one and upgrade the tank within 2-3 months at most. 

To comment on what Kizno1 suggested about alternative fish - those fish are much more suitable but you're still very limited stock wise on that little tank. In all honesty you'd be looking at endlers and cherry shrimp for a 15 litre tank. The others are great fish for small tanks but the tetras and galaxy rasboras need groups of 6 or more and I don't feel that would be suitable for the little tank. In the end it's your choice but if you do go for it, consider only having 4-6 small fish and 6-8 cherry shrimp (which fortunately produce very little waste). I would suggest 4 male endlers and 6 cherry shrimp : victory:

Pygmy corys would be too large and need groups of 6-8 to feel settled. They would also dreastically reduce the space you would have for mid-swimming fish like tetras.

Finally to comment on Moogloo - a male betta (siamese fighter) could be OK in that tank. I personally try to give them more space but I know that with the right care 15 litres is sufficient. However, I very strongly feel that with male fighters a lot of research should be done on tank-mates and care and in a 15 litre tank I don't feel there is any room for anything other than perhaps a few shrimp. Certainly would not subject neon tetras to a tank that small. They get to a good 1.5 inches as adults (at least mine have - maybe they are mutants) and use all the space in my 65 litre tank. I can't see putting them in anything less than 40 litres.


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## Skunk (Apr 11, 2010)

Apart from oddities in the water chem levels and fishie death (  ) sounds like a good set up for some small tropical fish if you can get a 25w heater (I have a 17ltr cycling at the moment, will take around 3 weeks) as Assaye said above!

How much was it?


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## joshy8oy141 (Dec 22, 2012)

All I can say is just don't buy pets from pets at home


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## mdoire (Feb 1, 2013)

Small tanks are very difficult to maintain and I don't think that its that good to keep a fish in a small tank. She can keep a small community of shrimps or some other inverts. Amano and RC Shrimps are not difficult to keep.


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