After getting them in the new tank (I did acclimate them for 20 minutes) I absolutely loved staring at them as they begged for food, and to be honest, I gave in a few times. I sat there for at least an hour. I continued to stare at them, then go on to do other things, until I finally went to bed. The next morning I woke up and immediately went to go check on the fish. Two where dead. I returned them in exchange for more fish. This continued until I went through about 15 or so fish. Throughout the entire cycle of fish dying and being replaced, two of my Angels and the Pleco survived. The last fish I got as replacements were a Bala Shark and two Tiger Barbs (Surprisingly the Tiger Barbs didn't nip the Angels at all). I decided that these fish were going to live, and after a trip to an ACTUAL aquarium store (Optimum Aquarium), I returned with a sheet on the nitrogen cycle and Seachem Stability. I was able to get the 20 gallon cycled (Sorry I forgot this detail, I had these problems because the tank didn't cycle) fully within two weeks. After more research, fish videos, and more research after that, I came to the conclusion that I would need a 55 gallon tank for all of my fish to live the rest of their lives in.
I continued to do more research, and discover more fish after deciding on the 55. After I would find out about more fish, I would pick one from those and add it to my stock list, and as I did this, the size of the tank I wanted would grow too. I eventually decided on a 200 gallon (I know that's a big difference from a 55). At one point I even wanted a few Figure eight puffers, but decided not to after learning how many fish they weren't compatible with. I changed my future stock list a lot after seeing all of the fish I could get. As It got closer and closer to my Birthday, I started looking on Craigslist for a 125 gallon since I started to thing water changes would be a pain for a 200. About a month before my birthday, my Dad took me to Waffle House and told me that we had to go on a road trip for work. I had a suspicion that he was going to buy me a tank, but he hadn't told me, so I tried not to get my hopes up. He woke me up about 10 minutes before we got to the house that he was going to buy the tank at, and told my why we were on a road trip. I was just as excited as I was when I was leaving PetSmart.
My Dad drove me all the way to Alabama to get that tank (3 hour drive). Once we got out of his truck to buy the tank, the first thought that went through my head is: There can't be a tank in a trailer home. When I walked up the porch, I saw the tank sitting sitting there. I told my Dad that the tank looked rather large for a 125. He said, "You're right. It's a 210." After buying the tank, the trip back home was rather short, being I slept for most of it. Once we got home, my Dad let the tank sit in the truck, where it got rained on. I told him it would ruin the stand and his response was that it wasn't the first time it was rained on. It should be fine. It took three people and a truck to bring the tank inside the house. Once we brought it in I spent about three hours cleaning it. I'm going to fast forward a little bit (don't feel like typing that much more). My Dad gave me $300 to buy equipment (other than filters) and once I did, we went to home depot and bought materials to set up the water changing system. The next night we put it together, and it worked quite well.
I was able to get it cycled in about the same amount of time as the 20 gallon, and I moved all of the fish over once I deemed it safe for them to live. Every thing was going fine. At one point in time, my stock list was 5 Angels, 1 Blood Parrot, 6 Mystery Snails, 7 Tiger Barbs, 1 Elephant Nose, 4 Emerald Cories, 1 Half Banded Spiny Eel, 1 Pleco, 1 Aftican Featherfin Catfish, and 2 Bala Sharks. I only wanted one more Angelfish, and I was going to stop buying more fish for the tank. It turned out that this Angelfish had ich, but I didn't notice it in the store because of the dim lighting. My Dad said I wasn't cleaning my filters thoroughly and so he took EVERYTHING out and washed it. By doing this he killed my biological bacteria. He did this the same night that I bought the Angelfish, and this is why I believe the ich spread so fast. By the next morning my Blood Parrot was dead, and I was devastated. Throughout this entire ich epidemic my Elephant nose, 4 Angels (including the new one), all of the barbs, all of the cories, my eel, and the snails died. One of those Angels was one of the two that Survived the 20 gallon being cycled. I felt so much pain for the loss of that Angelfish that I wasn't even able to weep. I was able to cure the remaining fish that had ich (some were near death), and recycle the tank. Here a few pictures of the tank from the ich. The owner of the store that I bought the Angelfish from (Premier Aquatics) gave me nearly $120 in in-store-credit for all of the fish I had die.
Although I was devastated by the fish dying, I still kept on with the hobby. While I was recycling the tank, my Angelfish decided to do breed for their first time. This picture is of them preparing the slate.
They also bred once more, but ate the eggs. The male Angel (Leopard Pattern) died of fin rot about a week ago. I was also very sad about losing him because I was sure those two Angels would breed successfully one day. The male died of fin rot, but I didn't notice it until it was too late. The fungus grew very low to the tail, so I didn't see it until it completely covered the tail. The fungus acted different than I've seen before. It covered the tail and grew very low profile. The fungus also waited until it covered the entire tail before it started to eat at it, and once it started, and destroyed the tail rapidly.
A month later, I'm experiencing no problems and plan to build a 55-75 gallon sump. My current stock list is 3 Angels, 2 Balas, 1 Orange Shouldered Severum, 1 Green Severum, 2 Firemouths, 1 Pleco, 1 African Featherfin Catfish, 1 Sun Catfish, and 1 Black Ghost Knifefish. Here are a few pictures of all of the fish now. The two veil tails and the less colorful (I believe female) Firmouth. Sorry that I don't have very good photos of the bgk and the Sun Cat. Neither of them wanted to come out. The first Severum is bigger than the second.
This Bala is smaller than the first one but it looks bigger since I had to zoom in because it kept swimming away.
I continued to do more research, and discover more fish after deciding on the 55. After I would find out about more fish, I would pick one from those and add it to my stock list, and as I did this, the size of the tank I wanted would grow too. I eventually decided on a 200 gallon (I know that's a big difference from a 55). At one point I even wanted a few Figure eight puffers, but decided not to after learning how many fish they weren't compatible with. I changed my future stock list a lot after seeing all of the fish I could get. As It got closer and closer to my Birthday, I started looking on Craigslist for a 125 gallon since I started to thing water changes would be a pain for a 200. About a month before my birthday, my Dad took me to Waffle House and told me that we had to go on a road trip for work. I had a suspicion that he was going to buy me a tank, but he hadn't told me, so I tried not to get my hopes up. He woke me up about 10 minutes before we got to the house that he was going to buy the tank at, and told my why we were on a road trip. I was just as excited as I was when I was leaving PetSmart.
My Dad drove me all the way to Alabama to get that tank (3 hour drive). Once we got out of his truck to buy the tank, the first thought that went through my head is: There can't be a tank in a trailer home. When I walked up the porch, I saw the tank sitting sitting there. I told my Dad that the tank looked rather large for a 125. He said, "You're right. It's a 210." After buying the tank, the trip back home was rather short, being I slept for most of it. Once we got home, my Dad let the tank sit in the truck, where it got rained on. I told him it would ruin the stand and his response was that it wasn't the first time it was rained on. It should be fine. It took three people and a truck to bring the tank inside the house. Once we brought it in I spent about three hours cleaning it. I'm going to fast forward a little bit (don't feel like typing that much more). My Dad gave me $300 to buy equipment (other than filters) and once I did, we went to home depot and bought materials to set up the water changing system. The next night we put it together, and it worked quite well.
I was able to get it cycled in about the same amount of time as the 20 gallon, and I moved all of the fish over once I deemed it safe for them to live. Every thing was going fine. At one point in time, my stock list was 5 Angels, 1 Blood Parrot, 6 Mystery Snails, 7 Tiger Barbs, 1 Elephant Nose, 4 Emerald Cories, 1 Half Banded Spiny Eel, 1 Pleco, 1 Aftican Featherfin Catfish, and 2 Bala Sharks. I only wanted one more Angelfish, and I was going to stop buying more fish for the tank. It turned out that this Angelfish had ich, but I didn't notice it in the store because of the dim lighting. My Dad said I wasn't cleaning my filters thoroughly and so he took EVERYTHING out and washed it. By doing this he killed my biological bacteria. He did this the same night that I bought the Angelfish, and this is why I believe the ich spread so fast. By the next morning my Blood Parrot was dead, and I was devastated. Throughout this entire ich epidemic my Elephant nose, 4 Angels (including the new one), all of the barbs, all of the cories, my eel, and the snails died. One of those Angels was one of the two that Survived the 20 gallon being cycled. I felt so much pain for the loss of that Angelfish that I wasn't even able to weep. I was able to cure the remaining fish that had ich (some were near death), and recycle the tank. Here a few pictures of the tank from the ich. The owner of the store that I bought the Angelfish from (Premier Aquatics) gave me nearly $120 in in-store-credit for all of the fish I had die.
Although I was devastated by the fish dying, I still kept on with the hobby. While I was recycling the tank, my Angelfish decided to do breed for their first time. This picture is of them preparing the slate.
They also bred once more, but ate the eggs. The male Angel (Leopard Pattern) died of fin rot about a week ago. I was also very sad about losing him because I was sure those two Angels would breed successfully one day. The male died of fin rot, but I didn't notice it until it was too late. The fungus grew very low to the tail, so I didn't see it until it completely covered the tail. The fungus acted different than I've seen before. It covered the tail and grew very low profile. The fungus also waited until it covered the entire tail before it started to eat at it, and once it started, and destroyed the tail rapidly.
A month later, I'm experiencing no problems and plan to build a 55-75 gallon sump. My current stock list is 3 Angels, 2 Balas, 1 Orange Shouldered Severum, 1 Green Severum, 2 Firemouths, 1 Pleco, 1 African Featherfin Catfish, 1 Sun Catfish, and 1 Black Ghost Knifefish. Here are a few pictures of all of the fish now. The two veil tails and the less colorful (I believe female) Firmouth. Sorry that I don't have very good photos of the bgk and the Sun Cat. Neither of them wanted to come out. The first Severum is bigger than the second.
This Bala is smaller than the first one but it looks bigger since I had to zoom in because it kept swimming away.
Btw the lfs is a great person for giving you that store credit.