Elements into keeping peacock bass.

[Phillis]

Im seeing alot of people asking about peacock bass with ich and how keep them without disease these important Elements are your key.

water:
If your water is tap it may be a main reason that your peacock bass are getting ich and possibley dieing. Some states usually have too hard of water (cali, hawaii orgeon, arizona etc. most west coast countrys but east cost is better in some ways.) and it usually has heavy metals(not good), to make sure the water does remain pure good for humans but not necissarly good for peacock bass specialy at small size the hardness and heavy metals could cause a overload in stress becoming a main cause of ich. make sure your water its Soft, softer water is there native water how you get soft water is to buy R/O(reverse Osmosis) water, R/O water helps them retain from ich at small size and it lowers fatality rate plus gives your fish way better color!


gravel:
try to make it river gravel like pebbles. as for it will make the pH more neutral. Add Aquarium salt as for that helps prevent disease and natrual stress remedy. raise the temp to 84-86 that will help too.
try to have double the regular filteration. and make sure you have allot of oxygen in your tank becasue if they do get ich, ich can hurt there breathing so the air will help them. if there having trouble breathing follow this guide and i will assure you if you get healthy fish they wont die.

By the way:
some species are more tolerant to hard water then others i have heard that ocell can tolerate 1/3 tap 2/3 soft but tem and most others need 3/3 soft. But agian they very amoung species do you know what yours are(my point is that soft water is better than tap)? But if you want the color and health R/O is the way to go. you can get R/O from a nearby lfs ask them if they have the machine to make it its usually 30-45cents a gallon. if they dont have any go to a vons/staters bro and they have these water machines that people fill with water. those are R/O i think.. and just bring alot of water bottles and fill it and treat it with AQ salt and your minerals. then just drop it in your tank.

Food:
try to get your fish to eat forzen foods instead of live. Most peacock bass will gladly except live or frozen bloodworms. if yours only eats live then there are other threads here that will gladly explain steps how to convert them off of it. If they eat pellets thats great and better. but you dont want to feed them live as for it has little or no nutritional value and full of fat and possibley parasites if you just must feed them live for the excitement of fish vs. fish get a QT tank and stock it with live feeders and wait a month or couple weeks if the ones alive are probabley parasite free.

here is a routine that i use works for me:
gives emm great color and less worry of parasites.

monday:Bloodsworms (frozen cubes)--once morning once night

tuesday:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- once morning once night

wensday:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- once morning once night

thursday:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- once morning once night

Friday:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- ONLY MORNING. QT Feeder Guppys (treat and need to feed cause i have payara in the tank that only eat live trying to get them off live but there bein picky.)

Sat:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- once morning once night

sun:Bloodworms (forzen cubes)-- once morning once night


Cleaning:
you never want to do more than a 25-30% water change it will cause stress and that could lead to disease. always have 0 ammonia and pretty much have good water.

Tank Size/enviornment:
the average tank size for a fully grown adult would be 250G. bigger the better ofcourse.
Peacock bass come from waters filled with places to hide and somewhat plants. try to add plants to your tank and caves and bogwood/drift wood just good looking decor.

What is they get ich?
http://www.cureforich.com/ this link is all you need for help on curing it.

any questions or comments just Pm me. Good luck with your fish.

 

[bOOsteN aUdI]

i am going to scan this a bit later to make sure its all true and then possibly make it a sticky

 

[FishDojo God]

Yesssssssssss

 

[ZOO YORK 207]

The only real problem I see is, you don't want to feed bloodworms every day. Mix it up, get them on pellets. Don't keep them on one food. And you shouldn't say "They will gladly accept them" maybe yours will, but others, well they may not. When babies I fed my pbass feeders, just because it make them grow faster, and it is better for them. But when they hit 4" I switched them over to pellets. IMO pellets are better for Cichla than bloodworms, just because they have more nutrients and all that.

The tank and environment area could be wrong too. It doesn't matter too much of how many gallons the tank is. What you need to worry about is the dimensions of that tank. You would need a tank at least 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, 2 feet tall. For most Cichla, Temensis are a different story, considering they get larger than Monoculus and other Cichla.

My cure for Ich is, just keep the temp up there like 87-88ºF and you wont have a problem. If you feel the need to add salt, don't add too much because Cichla are not used to that much salt in their natural environment.

Those are my suggestions.

 

[Rio Negro Lover]

The only real problem I see is, you don't want to feed bloodworms every day. Mix it up, get them on pellets. Don't keep them on one food. And you shouldn't say "They will gladly accept them" maybe yours will, but others, well they may not. When babies I fed my pbass feeders, just because it make them grow faster, and it is better for them. But when they hit 4" I switched them over to pellets. IMO pellets are better for Cichla than bloodworms, just because they have more nutrients and all that.

The tank and environment area could be wrong too. It doesn't matter too much of how many gallons the tank is. What you need to worry about is the dimensions of that tank. You would need a tank at least 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, 2 feet tall. For most Cichla, Temensis are a different story, considering they get larger than Monoculus and other Cichla.

My cure for Ich is, just keep the temp up there like 87-88ºF and you wont have a problem. If you feel the need to add salt, don't add too much because Cichla are not used to that much salt in their natural environment.

Those are my suggestions.

Above x 2. In their growing phase, IME Beta Carotene rich diet like shrimp/Krill and balance with small fish and Hikari pellets are more nutritional than blood worm. I always try to supplement my basses with wild caught feeder fish (mayan, tilapia, etc..) These feeders feed on vegetable matters and help bring out the blue in my basses. Beta Carotene rich diet helps on the orange/red part, but I have been observing temensis with healthy Carotene intake, they show their white speckles and spots very much more than those that do not. Don't take my words for it, ask around and do some test on your own cichla and see what you find.

 

[dmopar74]

ive never used any ro water and always done atleast 50%wc's, and i live on the west coast. in fact ro water is stripped of many minerals that fw fish need, its too clean. any heavy metal issues should be taken care of by a quality water conditioner.

 

[Phillis]

The only real problem I see is, you don't want to feed bloodworms every day. Mix it up, get them on pellets. Don't keep them on one food. And you shouldn't say "They will gladly accept them" maybe yours will, but others, well they may not. When babies I fed my pbass feeders, just because it make them grow faster, and it is better for them. But when they hit 4" I switched them over to pellets. IMO pellets are better for Cichla than bloodworms, just because they have more nutrients and all that.

The tank and environment area could be wrong too. It doesn't matter too much of how many gallons the tank is. What you need to worry about is the dimensions of that tank. You would need a tank at least 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, 2 feet tall. For most Cichla, Temensis are a different story, considering they get larger than Monoculus and other Cichla.

My cure for Ich is, just keep the temp up there like 87-88ºF and you wont have a problem. If you feel the need to add salt, don't add too much because Cichla are not used to that much salt in their natural environment.

Those are my suggestions.

i try'd Dmacks meathod to switch them in to pellets worked for a whire but then they just quit and got al fussy and wanted bloodworms im planning on adding some krill/shrimp to there menu.

 

[Phillis]

ive never used any ro water and always done atleast 50%wc's, and i live on the west coast. in fact ro water is stripped of many minerals that fw fish need, its too clean. any heavy metal issues should be taken care of by a quality water conditioner.

i disagree, R/O water is mineral less thats why you buy mineral supplement from your local lfs and add it to the water making it perfect water.

FWI/: water conditioner doesnt remove heavy metals as for it only removes chlorine and chlorine base chemicals. not anything else.

 

[ZOO YORK 207]

Above x 2. In their growing phase, IME Beta Carotene rich diet like shrimp/Krill and balance with small fish and Hikari pellets are more nutritional than blood worm. I always try to supplement my basses with wild caught feeder fish (mayan, tilapia, etc..) These feeders feed on vegetable matters and help bring out the blue in my basses. Beta Carotene rich diet helps on the orange/red part, but I have been observing temensis with healthy Carotene intake, they show their white speckles and spots very much more than those that do not. Don't take my words for it, ask around and do some test on your own cichla and see what you find.

I've done this with Monoculus, Ocellaris and Temensis. I think it works the best on Monocs and Ocellaris. In the Ocellaris it made the eyes a brighter red than you could ever imagine. Monoculus it made the tail really blood red, very nice color. In Temensis like you said, it made the speckles come out more.

 

[dmopar74]

i disagree, R/O water is mineral less thats why you buy mineral supplement from your local lfs and add it to the water making it perfect water.

FWI/: water conditioner doesnt remove heavy metals as for it only removes chlorine and chlorine base chemicals. not anything else.

you are correct, it doesnt remove them, but it does detoxify them. hence "any issues should be taken care of"

quote directly off of seachems website- Prime™ is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime™ removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime™ converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime™ may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Prime™ detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels.Prime™ also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat. Prime™ is non-acidic and will not impact pH. Prime™ will not overactivate skimmers. Use at start-up and whenever adding or replacing water.