Hello. I have a rather new aquarium set up. Its 20 litres (5-6 gallons). I cycled it for a couple of weeks, and tested the nitrates (0.05). I then did a 50% water change and bought 10 rcs, and 6 neon tetras. It all went fine, i may have overfed a bit in the beginning, but made sure to do a 20% water change every twice a week, to compliment that. 2 first weeks went fine, but then i noticed a dead shrimp. I pulled it out, did a water change, and didnt give it much thought. About 3-4 days later, and i just found a dead neon. I might suspect i have lost more shrimp, since i couldnt see them all today, but i dont know for sure. I was just wondering, is it normal to lose a couple of fish the first month of a new tank, or should i be worried? The water temperature is around 24C (75 Fahrenheit), and they dont give any signs of struggle.

Thanks in advance

It's not a very big tank and the sudden load in additional food, fish and shrimps might not be enough for the beneficial bacteria to cope with the added ammonia. 

So if i just make sure to not overfeed, it should be fine? I have become observative about the amount of food im feeding, also since i only have about 6 tetras as actual fish.

8 hours ago, Brooohm said:

So if i just make sure to not overfeed, it should be fine?

That would help  reduce one source of ammonia. But really, what you need is for the tank to mature, and that can only happen with time. Unfortunately there might be more deaths until the tank matures.

Edited May 27, 20188 yr by jayc

Thankfully it´s not the most expensive fish I have in the tank. Im down to 5 tetras, but the shrimp seem to be happy, and I think I might have seen 1 or 2 berried, not really 100% sure since im still quite inexperienced. Would frequent water changes limit risks? (2 times a week). Thanks btw, the help is really appreciated. 

It depends in your water quality. Do you know its parameters? TDS and GH and KH and pH are good to know.

You can add liquid Beneficial Bacteria to help process the Ammonia and Nitrite