Why did my fish die?

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Hi guys!
A while back, I bought a ten gallon tank. I put water in it, along with stress coat. It ran for a couple days, then I put my male Betta in there, that I was keeping in another tank. I then added two ghost shrimp. Later, I bought blue gravel from Walmart, because it is cheapest there. Then I went to PetSmart, and bought plants and some decor. Not long after, one of the ghost shrimp died. Then a few days later, the other one died. I figured it was just because ghost shrimp aren't known for living. Then maybe a week later, my Betta died! He had been doing just fine, and wasn't acting strange or anything. I want to add some more fish, but I'm afraid they will die. I'm going to completely change the water, and clean everything. I was wondering if maybe the gravel had some chemicals, or something. Although i did thoroughly rinse it before i put it in the tank. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Pyxis]

What water did you use to fill it? Did you use your own tap water, or did you get distilled water to fill it with?

 

[Kusanar]

Ok, a few questions, did you cycle the tank? How many water changes did you do? What are your Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels? Also, what is the pH of your tap water if you used tap water.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Also I'm not sure what ghost shrimp are but betta fish are very aggressive and will kill other fish. I made the mistake of putting my betta in with some gold fish when I was a kid. . . woke up the next day to a bunch of dead goldfish. Oops.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

What water did you use to fill it? Did you use your own tap water, or did you get distilled water to fill it with?

We have a well, so we use well water. We have had it tested at the pet store, and they said it was okay, we just needed to put in stress coat. Also, I did everything the same with the water in my 1 gallon, which he was in before, and also in another ten gallon, and we haven't had any problems.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Ok, a few questions, did you cycle the tank? How many water changes did you do? What are your Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels? Also, what is the pH of your tap water if you used tap water.

Yes, it had been running with the filter and heater on for a couple days with the stress coat in there. I changed about half the water once, and put in e appropriate stress coat in there once. It was like less than a month that I had the tank with the fish in. They say to like change it once or twice a month, but I had like one fish in there, so I wasn't worrying a whole lot about it. I don't know the levels of our water right off. We have it tested at the pet store every once in a while. They said it was fine just put in the stress coat. Also, we used well water.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Also I'm not sure what ghost shrimp are but betta fish are very aggressive and will kill other fish. I made the mistake of putting my betta in with some gold fish when I was a kid. . . woke up the next day to a bunch of dead goldfish. Oops.

Yeah. He had been with them before. There weren't any problems. He just ignored them. I just thought something was up, because even he died.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

I also noticed, that whenever you mess with the gravel, there are a lot of thin, paper like, paint peices that float, and get stuck to your hand.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Yeah. He had been with them before. There weren't any problems. He just ignored them. I just thought something was up, because even he died.

I'm sure something was up with either the plants or gravel. . I was just making sure you knew betta s would do that before you picked out some more fish.

 

[Kusanar]

Yes, it had been running with the filter and heater on for a couple days with the stress coat in there. I changed about half the water once, and put in e appropriate stress coat in there once. It was like less than a month that I had the tank with the fish in. They say to like change it once or twice a month, but I had like one fish in there, so I wasn't worrying a whole lot about it. I don't know the levels of our water right off. We have it tested at the pet store every once in a while. They said it was fine just put in the stress coat. Also, we used well water.

I also noticed, that whenever you mess with the gravel, there are a lot of thin, paper like, paint peices that float, and get stuck to your hand.

Ok, first off, if you are using well water, there shouldn't be any chlorine or chloromine in the water so stress coat isn't needed.

Also, cycling a tank is MUCH more than just running it with the filter in there for a day or 2, you need to get the nitrogen cycle started and that took me about 2 months to get started and leveled off with my 20 gallon tank.

How big is this tank? You should do partial water changes weekly unless you are testing often and can prove that you don't need to.

Do you have a heater on this tank?

The gravel losing it's color is a problem, I would definantly toss that gravel and get new or even try without the gravel (it's really just for looks unless you are using it to anchor plants)