I heard the small ones are very hard to keep. I bought mine at about 12" and it is easy to keep. Eats pellets all the time and attacks anything moving in the tank including me! My recommendation don’t buy babys, hold out until you can get one in the 8 to 12” range.
Best tank set up for Aba-aba??
- Thread starter bjah
- Start date
This thread has some excellent advise on Aba's in general. From people who keep them long-term. I managed to peice together some info in keeping my current one alive from all the posters.
Catch22- If your interested you can read my min-journal I guess about Bruce my aba I've raised thus far to 10" in the picture sub-forum. gives a bunch of general info I utilized.
Knife section needs to have a nice Aba sticky
Catch22- If your interested you can read my min-journal I guess about Bruce my aba I've raised thus far to 10" in the picture sub-forum. gives a bunch of general info I utilized.
Knife section needs to have a nice Aba sticky
Egon;5121473; said:I agree with the aba sticky. I vote you write it
I knew someone would say that!.. bleh! I won't even pretend to know enough about these guys to make a sticky about their care. I've just gotten lucky and learned alot from Others who do actually know alot about them.
What is the range on the water hardness and PH for this fish. I checked my water and it is extremely hard (250 ppm) but all of my other fish seem to be doing fine. I have a Pink-Tailed Chalceous, a red tailed pike, a Fahaka Puffer and two convict cichlids in the tank. They all seem perfect, maybe they have gotten accustomed to the hardness of the water. Every time I get a Aba it does fine for the first hour and then starts thrashing its body rapidly like its having a heart attack and dies.
BTW... What is a sticky? Like I said I'm new so excuse me if this question sounds dumb.
BTW... What is a sticky? Like I said I'm new so excuse me if this question sounds dumb.
I think I need to bring my Nitrate levels down as well. Any advise? My Nitrate level is at 200 ppm (Extremely High), my Nitrite level is 0, My Hardness is 250 ppm, The alkalinity is somewhere between 0-80 ppm (Low End) and the PH is 6.8 - 7.2 in range. What do you think is killing them?
NItrates... I was only successful w/ my juvi Aba when I put him into a med-tech planted tank that had been established for awhile. NItrates where always below 20ppm.
imo when they are under 10" they should be in a tank by themselves.. only kept with food. They are very delicate and shy dureing this time of their lives.
What about your ammonia levels?
GH/KH seem not as important. my guy is is very high ( off the charts) and has done fine. But when the nitrates start creeping over 20ppm he will start rubbing on things.. everytime this starts happening I've done a water test and a water change.
Stickies are at the top of forum pages and are generally commonly asked questions/info searched for in said forum.
Sounds like in general you have some water quality issues that you likely will want addressed before trying to keep more delicate fish.
imo when they are under 10" they should be in a tank by themselves.. only kept with food. They are very delicate and shy dureing this time of their lives.
What about your ammonia levels?
GH/KH seem not as important. my guy is is very high ( off the charts) and has done fine. But when the nitrates start creeping over 20ppm he will start rubbing on things.. everytime this starts happening I've done a water test and a water change.
Stickies are at the top of forum pages and are generally commonly asked questions/info searched for in said forum.
Sounds like in general you have some water quality issues that you likely will want addressed before trying to keep more delicate fish.
Thank you for the advice. I will try some water changes and to test my water more diligently before attempting another Aba. Thanks for the help.
