Quote Originally Posted by IRescue452
Do you know what the nitrite cycle is? This would be a good start for research. Aquariumadvice.com has lots of info. Then onto the stocking scheme. You 15 gallon was overstocked and improperly stocked and the fish probably died because of that. A site like liveaquaria.com has info on fish and proper tank sizes for each. I know many many people who order their fish online and most are very satisfied with the fish. I've never ordered online. The only one time I remember a problem is when somebody ordered an oranda from a betta breeder, who didn't know anything about shipping this type of fish. The poor guy had ammonia burns all over.
Yep. Foster and Smith have an aquarium outfitters mag, of which I am subscribed to, and they talk about it in every issue. Wow, crap. The fish store folk (We didn't start getting anything from them until *after* the last Wal Mart fish had died) told us what fish would be good together and we took them up on their advice. I guess variety doesn't really go hand in hand with health, huh? In any case, the fish that we got from them ( the plecostomus, frog, the angel fish, and the shark) all lived. We couldn't travel for four days with a fish tank in the car so we ended up giving the fishes to a woman who had several rather large fish tanks. (The same lady who gave us our girl cat)