Tell me about. . . caring for fish.

[AlexSem]

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You need to cycle your tank.

Go to www.about.com and search for aquariums... Then for "cycling".

I'd like to add that Puffers are tough fish to keep alive and um.... you need to really really do your homewor kon this.

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I woke up today and he was hugging the bottom of his tank lookin' real sick and not moving much. I changed the water and now he's swimming around happily. Not sure if it was because he was trying to take a nap or if it was because there was a dangerous level of toxins in the water.

Please explain more on the cycling business. For a small tank, should I just go ahead and do a full water change every few days for the next couple weeks?

That link said that I should take out 10-15% of the water and put it back in. Is that just for larger tanks or is there a reason I want to keep some of the old water in there?

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Read what I told you to read.

You're going to be responsible for MANY fish's deaths if you do not read at least 100 pages worth of material on caring for fish. Stop being so goddamn lazy. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[skunkworks]

TJ, you've got a good chance of killing your fish. Use a high quality dechlorinator (Prime is the best, Chloram-X is good as well) and learn about the different types of filtration (biological filtration vs. mechanical). In short, your filter has to be able to strain poop and leftover food out of the water (mechanical) while fostering beneficial bacteria that helps convert poisonous ammonia and nitrites (waste by-products) into less harmful things.