Ignorance May Not Be Bliss

metalyx

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 23, 2007
238
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0
Colorado
Hello everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. I'm new here, but I think my recent experience will be a good "what's wrong with this picture" exercise. I've only been feeding the aquatic habit for 4 months now, but the lessons learned have been enriching. My tale begins thus:
My girlfriend had recently moved into her dorm, and found the idea of a Betta for show a great idea. I had established a ten gallon tank 7 years previously and thought I could lend a hand. The idea of a Betta however, appealed to me as well. Right off the bat I purchase a Splendis female and a ten gallon tank with a divider and moved both fish into it. The chemical requirements were completely lost on me at this point, but both fish survived and did well. As I am prone to do I began researching the Betta's and decided that I could breed them myself, easily. Keep in mind I didn't forsee fry at all and didn't consider rearing a lot of potential fish in a second floor apartment. The fish however were both very aggressive and refused to "do the deed". She took her Crowntail home and I picked and purchased another male. The new male wasn't nearly mean enough and after 3 weeks recovery time grew back the lost fin post-female encounter. Chemical balancing eluded me still.
With no luck in the end of breeding, I decided to purchase some tank mates to liven up the home aquarium experience. Amidst purchasing a nice employee of the local store gave me a bit of a rundown as to keeping fish. Not to be deterred by most likely toxic water, I picked and purchased several White Cloud Minnows, Fancy Tail Guppies, a Golden Dojo loach, a Black Ghost Knife, a Plecostomaus, and several Mollies. Understand my ten gallon tank looked like an uncomfortable elevator with one last person trying to squeeze in. The added Mollies went straight into nibbling the female Betta, and within the day were replaced by two Neon Blue Gourami. Researching again the needs of fish I find the Knife has the potential of nearly two feet however unlikely in the home aquarium. I won't have my fish living in bad conditions, so I pick a 20gallon tank being sold used for a great deal. After rinsing and adding gravel, everyone is moved into their new home with little distress. Did I forget to mention at this point that I have a 20 gallon tank and a ten gallon tank on a glass topped table? True to form, after about eight hours the table gives way. Minus one Guppy and one Minnow, everyone is recovered to a large cooking pot, and a ten gallon tank is bought with all speed at the local Wal-mart, at 12pm. The Black Ghost Knife died one week later from the stress I'm sure, but I'd never seen him eat. I find another used tank via Craigslist, and purchase a fifty gallon. It came with two Channel Cats that I resold to make room for my current population. Another failure of conduct, the previous owner had no filtration or heating. Once a month someone would clean her tank for her. As I found out, poorly. After 2+hours of rinsing brown gravel that turned out to be red white and blue, in the tub of my second floor apartment, The tank is set back up and everyone is added to it. The population grows to 4 Golden Dojo Loaches, 1 Striped Raphael Cat, 1 Black Ghost Knife, 1 Kuhli Loach, 5 m/f Fancy Guppies, 2 Plecos, 5 Green Tiger Barbs, 4 Harlequin Rasbora, 2 Neon Dwarf Gourami, 2 Opaline Gourami, 2 Red Tail Gourami, about a dozen Ghost Shrimp, 5 Mystery Snails, 1 Common Brown Snail, 1 Peacock Eel, and 1 Glofish. The ten gallon was converted into a tank for two Red Tiger Oscars and a Pleco. Stay with me now, as the elapsed time in between each setup is not enough to complete the chemical circle. I find that loaches love to dig in sand, so I purchased a 29 gallon rubbermaid, 50lbs of play sand, and a 5 gallon bucket. After about 6 hours of rinsing sand in my second floor apartment bathroom, the tank is re-resetup. I begin at this point to feed common Creek Guppies to the Oscars. 1 month after this has been arranged, the Oscars make it clear that a ten gallon tank will not do. The went from 1.5" to 6 and 5" respectively. Shortly after the month, they are donated to the local Petco. Any sane person at this point I'm sure would take a break but I'm not one to pause, let alone listen to reason.
To keep me on my toes, the 50gallon tank has started a leak along the front bottom seam, and is losing about 5 ounces every 10-12 hours. I find an eighty gallon tank, and purchase. Another 50lbs of play sand, and the population resolves at this. 5 Green Tiger Barbs, 5 Mixed Fancy Guppies, 4 Golden Dojo Loaches, 1 Black Kuhli Loach, 4 Black Ghost Knives, 2 Plecos, 2 Bamboo Shrimp, 4 Harlequin Rasbora, 4 Golden Platys, 6 Snails, half a dozen Ghost Shrimp. The ten gallon tank is running a breeding experiment with guppies. My plant life includes Anachris, Cambomba, Chilensis, Bamboo, and an Anubias. Everyone has plenty of breathing space and even the Knives are rarely aggressive towards each other. I realize I need a bigger tank to comfortably house the Knives, but I do have some time as they are still awfully small. That's my story, take from it what you can, I hope it helps. With any luck some of the pros will point out exactly what I did wrong on the way, and give me some pointers are getting my Knives as big as possible. Thanks everyone.
 

Tokis-Phoenix

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2007
290
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0
Somerset, England
IMHO The lessons you need to learn;

a. Do thorough research before you buy fish- this does not mean going down to the petshop and asking a couple of questions before buying a fish, nor does it mean just asking a couple of people that seem to have kept their fish alive etc.

Fish are complex animals, in the hobby we have millions of types of fish available to us from all over the world and from every sort of aquatic habitat imagionable.
So naturally, you cannot expect to just buy some different sorts of fish which could have originated from anywhere in the wordl and expect them all to get along or thrive in the same sort of habitat that you provide for them in the tank.


The sorts of things you should thoroughly research about fish you want to get using up-to-date books or the internet etc would be;

a. How big does this fish grow to and will my tank be large enough for it in the long term?
Gallons isn't everything, more than often its the exact measurements/dimensions of the tank that are the most important factor when deciding if your tank is going to have adequate room for your fish in the long term.

b. What does it eat and can it be fed off prepared foods easily? Feeding a fish a varied and appropriate diet is one of the many keys to good health in fish, many fish are omnivores and will eat a variety of foods, also, many fishes dietry needs will change as they grow (for example, juvenile common pleco's live almost solely off algae as juveniles, but as they mature they go off eating algae a bit and onto a more higher protein diet etc).

c. Will this fish get a long well with my other fish? Some fish may be too active and skittish for your current ones, while your current ones may be too agressive or territorial for the new fish you want to get etc.

d. What water quality conditions like ph does the fish prefer? Most fish are quite adaptable when it comes to stuff like ph, however some fish are not, fish like cardinal tetras for example will not thrive and survive in the long term if you do not keep them in their prefferred ph etc.

e. What sort of habitat does my fish need to be happy in? This is an area where many fish keepers mess up.
Some fish may prefer a warm tropical tank with peaceful waters and plenty of dense planting, while other fish will prefer a fast flowing cool tropical tank with lots of open spaces and little decor etc. Some fish need caves to sleep in during the day, while other fish need certain type of substrate to feed properly etc.

White Cloud Mountain Minnows/WCMM would be an example of a fish which prefers tanks with strong current and cool tropical temp and plenty of open spaces, while betta's/siamese fighting fish are an example of fish that enjoys the exact opposite sort of habitat, with peaceful warm tropical waters and lots of dense planting to spend its time in etc.

f. Does this fish prefer the company of its own kind or not? Shoaling fish like WCMM's need to be in groups of at least 6-8 or more to thrive best, as in numbers smaller than that they will not be able to shoal properly and will feel stressed and insecure in numbers too small etc.
On the other hand, a betta is an example of a fish that is very solitary in nature, and really do prefer to be on their own.

With many fish, you must also take care with the genders of the fish that you stock. Male livebearers like guppys, mollys, platys etc have very high sex drives and if there are not enough females per male, the male will constantly try to rape and harrass the female- so you should have at least 2-3females per male to help avoid this.


g. Is this fish actually a true tropical fish? There are many sub-tropical and coldwater fish which are sold as true tropical ones or vice versa. Keeping fish in the right temps is very important, since fishes metabolisms are controlled by the temp of the water that you keep the fish in, and so keeping the fish in the wrong temp can have very negative effects on its health
Tropical fish are fish that do best in temps 24 degree's C or more, sub-tropical fish are fish which do best in temps 19-23 degree's C, and coldwater fish are fish which do best in temps 18 degree's C or colder- there are many fish whose preferred temps over-lap these definations though.

h. Is this fish a true freshwater fish? There are a suprising number of fish sold as freshwater fish which are in fact brackish fish, while there are a fair amount of fish which may start off as brackish or freshwater when young, but then changes to freshwater or brackish when older etc.



Etc...


(more in a moment).
 

Tokis-Phoenix

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2007
290
0
0
Somerset, England
b. You need to learn about how the water quality works in your tank. Keeping good water quality is vital to keeping healthy and happy fish, and you need to understand how your water quality works to make sure yours is good.

There is a term you will often hear called "cycling", when a tank cycles it basically means that the beneficial nitrying bacteria that are found in your filter are establishing themselves in your tank, this is called the Nitrogen Cycle- it is a simple process and easy to learn what it is about, but it is crucial that you do learn about it, as you will save a lot of your fish once you know more about water quality etc.

Here is a good article on how cycling works take from another site;

""New Tank Syndrome"

For a lot of people, their fish keeping experience starts like this:

They buy a tank, a stand, a filter, a hood, lights, selection of plants, rocks, diver with genuine bubbles... They add water (which they have carefully dechlorinated and got up to temperature). And then they make their first (and biggest) mistake: they buy some fish. This might be a week later, but apart from checking the tank isn't leaking and all the gizmos are working, leaving the tank to stand for a week doesn't accomplish much.

The problem is ammonia: Fish pee ammonia. Not only that, but their poop also breaks down to ammonia. So before long, your new fish are swimming about in a toxic pool of ammonia.

Tragically, ammonia is deadly poisonous to fish. It inhibits their breathing, rather as carbon monoxide does in humans, and they slowly start to suffocate. Don't believe anyone who says there's a "safe" level of ammonia for fish - I'm sure there's a safe level of carbon monoxide, but I'm not going to rent a house that has it!

Beneficial Bacteria

This is where your bacteria come in: fortunately, certain types of bacteria can break down ammonia into a less toxic substance called nitrite (that's with an 'i' - note the spelling, it's important) aka NO2-. After a few days, this "ammonia-eating" bacteria start to grow in your tank, particularly your filter and gravel, and drop your ammonia levels to zero. Phew!

But your fish aren't home and dry: nitrite is less toxic than ammonia, but is still toxic and can still kill fish. Thankfully, another sort of bacteria starts to grow in your filter and gravel (albeit a little more slowly than the "ammonia eating" bacteria). This beneficial bacteria breaks down nitrite (NO2-) and turns it into nitrate (NO3+) - note the 'a'. Nitrate is only harmful in quite high levels, which can be controlled by regular partial water changes, and is useful to aquatic plants as a fertiliser.

This process is called the Nitrogen Cycle, and in fish-keepers jargon, a tank where the bacteria are happily munching on ammonia and nitrite is said to be "cycled". In summary:

Fish waste --> ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate, which plants use to grow.

The beneficial bacteria are what make your tank safe for fish. Although present in the water, they are largely found in the gravel or sand in the bottom of your tank and in the filter. As well as ammonia, they require a good source of oxygenated water to grow.

How to "Cycle" Your New Tank

Traditionally, the way of getting around this problem of establishing the beneficial bacteria is to put just a couple of really tough fish in your new tank and wait 8 weeks before adding a few more fish.

Unfortunately, even if the fish survive (which is a pretty big "if" ) they have to endure weeks and weeks of first ammonia poisoning and then nitrite poisoning. They may survive, but they may never enjoy good health or live as long as they should and I personally feel it's a welfare issue.

But there is a better way: Fishless Cycling.

The advantage to Fishless Cycling is that it effectively grows your bacteria before any fish are damaged. By the time your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero you'll have plenty of beneficial bacteria to break down the waste from as many fish as you want in your tank and can fit.

Can a Cycled Tank Un-Cycle Again?

Even in an established tank you can get ammonia or nitrite "spikes", usually because something has killed off your beneficial bacteria. This could be for several reasons:

1. You forgot to dechlorinate your water when you did a water change. Chlorine kills bacteria!

2. You over-cleaned your tank, particularly the filter media and gravel, particularly is you didn't dechlorinate your water and particularly if the gravel or filter were out of the water a long time.

3. Some filter companies recommend you change the filter media every month (Well they would say that, wouldn't they??? ). Not only is this an expensive waste of time quite often (filter sponges usually just need a rinse in some old tank water), you could be removing the beneficial bacteria. If you want to replace a filter insert, leave the sponge or floss in the tank for a week or so beforehand.

4. A power-outtage stopped your filter or pump from working for a couple of hours (bacteria need oxygenated water to survive).

5. You over-loaded the bacteria in your tank's ability to break down the fish waste, for instance by suddenly over-stocking your tank, particularly with messy fish.

6. A tub of food has fallen into the tank and gone bad, thus overloading the beneficial bacteria's ability to cope.


How to Save the Day (and the Fish) with an Un-Cycled Tank

OK, so you didn't do Fishless Cycling or you did scrub out your matured tank and now your fish are dying and nothing's breaking down that ammonia and nitrite. What do you do now?

Here's what I do to give my fish the best chance:
1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).

2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.

3. If at all possible, get some matured filter media and/or gravel from a matured tank and put it in your tank, suspended in an old stocking. This will hopefully impregnate your new tank with the beneficial bacteria. One lady successfully used floss from a relative's fish pond to colonise her new tank! (you have to be careful that what you use is clean and free from pathogens, of course).

4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.

5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.

6. If you have delicate fish in the tank, such as plecos, corys or other bottom dwellers, tetras, pencilfish etc. try to re-home them temporarily, such as asking the Local Fish Shop to look after them until your tank is cycled (after all, chances are that they got you in this mess in the first place).

7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.

8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.

9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.

Frequently Asked Questions on New Tanks and Cycling

Why didn't my Local Fish Shop (LFS) tell me any of this?

Good question. Probably ignorance - people are amazingly ignorant of the Nitrogen Cycle, which is shocking when you consider its importance. IMHO, more people have killed more fish due to bad advice from an LFS than anything else. Temperature and pH are most often blamed when ammonia and nitrite are by far the more significant problems. When it comes to buying fish and aquarium products: Trust No One. Double-check everything you are told and plan in advance.

The guy at the LFS sold me some "Instant Cycle" product that contains the beneficial bacteria. Do I still need to cycle my tank?

There are a variety of bacteria products on the market which claim to be able to increase the speed at which your tank cycles (note: none of them claim instant cycling, whatever LFS employees may say). Personally I can't see how they could work, since the bacteria require a source of ammonia and oxygenated water, but even if they can be held in some sort of "suspended animation", that still doesn't get around the fact that they can't instantly colonise your gravel and filter. Colonisation takes time!

The LFS sold me a product that locks away ammonia. Can I use that to save my fish?

That's a difficult one. Ammonia is deadly to fish and you want it out of your water ASAP. However, products that lock away ammonia have some major disadvantages: For a start, they mess up your water test readings so either look negative when they aren't, or look terrible when they aren't so bad. Secondly, if the beneficial bacteria still aren't established, and the ammonia from fish keeps rising, it could over-shoot the ability of the product to lock it away and you get a sudden (and deadly) ammonia spike (which of course you can't reliably test for). Thirdly, theoretically, "locked" ammonia can't be utilised by the beneficial bacteria and may possibly retard its growth.

Why did my pleco die while my gouramis and danios were fine?

There is a big difference between "alive" and "fine", but even so, the reason that your pleco died is probably because he was less able to get to the top of the tank where the oxygen levels are highest and the ammonia levels a little lower. Danios swim near the top of the water and are famous for their survival ability (I believe they used them in nuclear experiments in the 50s). Gouramis and bettas can directly breath air, through their labyrinth organ.

The LFS guys said he'd never heard of this "Fishless Cycling" nonsense and he's been in fish-keeping for 40 years. He said to cycle with danios. How come?

Fishless Cycling is a relatively new technique that has only really been talked about since the age of the Internet. It is a lot safer for fish and avoids suffering. It also prevents fish being subtley damaged in a way that may affect their health for life. However, people may be tempted to stick to what they know "works", possibly not really understanding the welfare implications, or the great advantages to cycling fishless.

I have a betta in a fish bowl. Can I cycle without a filter?

You certainly can (and should). Just follow the same procedure as for a larger tank - the bacteria should colonise your gravel. Since the bacteria really need oxygen to do well, adding an air-pump with an air-stone, or better yet, a small tank filter of some kind, will improve things even further.

But my biggest problem is that algae that's taken over my tank!

Algae in an un-cycled tank is a trivial cosmetic problem that you should worry about later. Algae doesn't kill fish - but algae can directly use ammonia, which is probably why algae-covered tanks are assumed to be unhealthy tanks.

But I tested my water when I first set my tank up and it was fine!

You won't get ammonia or nitrite unless you have fish, or an artificial source of ammonia (such as that you add during fishless cycling).

Won't carbon in my filter remove all the toxins anyway?

Carbon may temporarily remove some of the ammonia, but it won't touch nitrite and only works a few days anyway, and then everything can leach back into the tank again! There are no short cuts to growing beneficial bacteria (other than using a matured filter and gravel) to cycling your tank.

But it's so boring waiting for my tank to cycle. Can't I just add a couple of fish now?

If you are impatient just remember that it's even less fun watching fish die. So spend your time designing your "aquascape", soaking your bogwood and rocks, establishing your plants and checking that everything works fine. Also, get on the Internet and read up about the species you'd like to get, checking with your LFS's to see what they have in stock. Buying online is often cheaper and more convenient, so get to know your favourite outlets now.

Yeah, but what exactly is "Cyling a Tank"?

If you ask this question now, you'll get a custard pie in the face!

RTFM!




 

Tokis-Phoenix

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2007
290
0
0
Somerset, England
c. You need to know your limits- at many points during your story, you added far far too many fish to your new tank set ups which ended up causing a lot of stress to your fish (and even killed some), which could have easily been avoided had you done more research.

Big fish need big tanks. Even little fish may need big tanks. You need to concentrate on what fish you REALLY want that can live happily in the tanks of your sizes/gallons.

You haven't put many paragraphs and stuff in your post, which can make difficult reading. Tell me exactly what sorts of fish you have, how many, and what tanks are they in exactly at this point in time? If you tell us, we can help sort out your fish stocking problems and make your fish a lot happier and make the whole fishkeeping experience more enjoyable for you too etc :) .
 

metalyx

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 23, 2007
238
0
0
Colorado
I apologize for the lack of coherence in my writing. It's always been a problem equating my experiences onto others. As far as what I did wrong, Tokis, you pretty much nailed it all down. My problem going into the hobby is lack of experience amplified by excited prospects. As far as what I currently have in the tank:
5 Green Tiger Barbs; The don't nip every one else, just each other.(so far)
6 Fancy Guppies; 2 male 4 female; Providing some disease free food every month or so for the others.
4 Harlequin Rasbora; Bought for appearance, probably won't stay in the tank.
4 Sunburst Platy; Provide a disease free meal every spawning.
2 Bamboo Shrimp; Bought on a whim, will not be staying.
6ish Ghost Shrimp; Used as feeders to the Oscars, those left made it through.
4 Golden Dojo Loaches; C'mon, they're just like puppies.
1 Black Kuhli Loach; ...
6 Snails; The snail young turn into tasty snacks for someone in the tank.
4 Black Ghost Knives; This is a temporary population. Originally taken by a romantic urge to present a great are and to and promote spawning, I bought them all. This will not last too much longer as one Knive in particular is getting much larger than the others, and I don't have the space for all of them to "grow up". Even as the primary I have gets bigger, I'll need eventually to get a larger tank.
1 Common Pleco;
1 Chocolate Albino Pleco; Neither Pleco was acquired for the long haul. As they outgrow space, I intend to trade them back for smaller ones and begin again.
This is my primary tank. It is an 80gal with a 2 inch sand substrate. I have about a dozen hidey holes made of black slate placed all around the bottom. My plants for the most part are placed to provide cover at the bottom around the hiding spots, with some of the chilensis and the longer anacharis free floating to provide fry hiding spots at the top. I have an 80gal/400gph biowheel filter plus a 30gal/150gph filter hooked up. I have a 6 inch airstone primarily for a bubble wall display. My lighting is provided during the day by 4 14" 10000k 55w bulbs. I'm down to a once every two weeks 20% water change, and my stats hover at about: 79F, 6.8ph, ammonia/nitrites 0, nitrAtes 15.

My second tank is a ten gallon full of common Creek Guppies(about 15). I used to feed them to my Oscars, but decided to keep the most colorful of them and see how long it takes to get a common to a fancy tail.

The experience I've had so far has taught me to do the research first, not post. My last actual purchase was the cobomba right at a month ago and I've finally let my tank settle. My focus now is of course providing the best possible habitat. That's what brought me here in the first place. I can create a pretty good setup based on what I find via research, but experience is the best teacher and I have a feeling someone around here may just know more than me. Thanks very much.
 

Tokis-Phoenix

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 9, 2007
290
0
0
Somerset, England
I would keep an eye on the tiger barbs, they can be very tempermental fish and may become more agressive towards the other fish (particularly fish like the guppys) as they grow and mature. It would probably be a good idea to get another 4-5 of them, since the bigger the shoal the more stable they tend to be as a group :thumbsup: .

I would advise doing more regular and larger water changes because you have some big waste producing fish and some very water quality sensitive critters like the bamboo shrimp, it would be much better to do a 30-60% water change once a week to prevent stuff like a build up of organic matter in the tank etc.

The khuli loach would also benefet having some buddies too, they really do enjoy the company of their own kind and you will see a lot more activity from the khuli loach if you get it some more of its own kind :) .



With the albino pleco, if you don't want large plecos in your tank in general it would probably be a better idea to just buy one of the smaller varieties of plecos and keep it permanently, for example bristlenose plecos in general stay very small (the most common variety will not exceed 4.9inches), they also come in albino and even veiltail varieties and make much more effective algae eaters than common and sailfin plecos etc;

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=49

Are you sure your common creek guppys are not mosquito fish? They were introduced to a lot of waters in a bid to cut down on mosquito populations, they look a lot like guppys except they are not generally as peaceful as them, mosquito fish/[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Gambusia affinis[/SIZE][/FONT];

http://www.artmarshall.org/images/flora5.gif

http://www.chinabiodiversity.com/shwdyx/ruq/images/43.jpg


With providing the best posible habitat, dojo loaches tend to do better and live longer at cooler temps, although they are very adaptable fish. What i would do is somewhere down the line is set up a 50-60 gallon long tank with strong filtration and a deep soft sand substrate and dedicate the tank to the dojo loaches and an array of sub-tropical (many types of danios, loaches, corys and certain cyprinids etc are all sub-tropical fish) or coldwater fish like fathead minnows etc :thumbsup: .

The black ghost knives will definately need to be rehomed at some point though, but overal your stocking looks a lot better- just keep up on larger and more regular water changes and test the tank for its water quality every now and then and make a few adjustments to the fish stocking etc and you should do very well :thumbsup: .
 

cichlid savage

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 25, 2006
4,261
4
0
Look up
Could you put this on audio. My eyes are numb.
 

metalyx

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 23, 2007
238
0
0
Colorado
I had considered more Kuhli's, at the time however my Raphael Cat was eating small fish. I could at this point, and just may do so. I'm looking at increasing the color threshold of the tank right now with some "look at me fish". After I have the Knives out I'm thinking some rummy-nose tetras, 6 peacock gudgeons, and maybe a couple of kilifish. Are there any problems between those fish and the ones I have now? I figure with all of the built in hidey spots the gudgeons would be fine.
As far as mosquito fish, I don't think the fish I have are those. Look later tonight(my time) and I'll have some pics up. Coincedently, I'm looking for homes for three Black Ghost Knives right now. Is there a place here to post it? Or does anyone reading reside in the Denver area and want a BGK? Sorry, I don't mean to toss a sales pitch.
More to the point, what else would be a good addition. I understand the needs of space and fish, but I would love to add color. Left out of the original list are Pheonix Rasbora, Glass Ghost Cats, and even (get this) a couple of Discus. I've decided (well I think) not to approach discus with my tank. You all should know why.
As for the Loaches, I have it a hotter tank will speed up the metabolism and ultimately shorten their lives. While this isn't the best possible option, they'll have to stay for the next year or so. Until I have the space to really expand as I like.
Are their better, colorful fish I can add to the tank? I'd love to have another schooling sort of fish, but can make exceptions where needed. Remember also, this weekend(if possible) I'm relocatting the Rasbora, Bamboo Shrimp and 3 BGK's. Thanks again.
 
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