Thank youIf you want to continue to keep the snowball in there, add more airstones, aeration and dont bring up the ph any higher, target feed it if its belly is still sunken in and you just got it it might have parasites. Angle still showing me its too thin. Just make sure you have pipette or tong to driectly place food in front of it.
I agree withduanes on nitrates testing. Thats why I ran out of my nitrates on my API master kit the quickest than any other test while the common pet stores stock ammonia as a stand alone test kit. Not nitrates.
Good luck there
My fish look unhappy
- Thread starter GrapeGuy
- Start date
Try dropping in algae wafers if he still isnt eating I would move him. For the rest of the tank I would create more hiding places and honestly a 25 % water change weekly is more than enough. Dont try to change the parameters of the tank. You can tell some of your fish are healthy others look worn probably because they are stressed by all the commotion and then catch an illness. I think your water is fine.
How do you make the grand assumption that 25% weekly is enough? If his parameters dictate larger volume or more frequency he needs to do it, there is no cookie cutter waterchange solution.
My fish don't mind waterchange day. They are not freaked out and I usually treat them to a favorite food that day.
If your max nitrates are 30ppm right before your WC then you might be ok. But as mentioned I keep mine under 20ppm with weekly 50% WC and a deep sand layer will help tremendously. I noticed a little bit of fin rot if I let my nitrates stay above 30 ppm. For haps I recommend larger caves vs the holey rock. While it still works for many hap tank I have large slate where many 2 sided caves of all sizes are created. Most fish prefer caves at or near the bottom of the tank. Your pleco will appreciate this as well. Your females need a place to hide from the males mainly.
A great way to decrease aggression in hap tanks is to shorten your light period. 8 hours is about the max you should really have them on for unless your fish are very mellow and unstressed. When my fish are acting up after I add new tank mates I will cut them back to 4 hours until they mellow out. Also I keep my temps at 78 to keep them mellow. But watch out for ich since it seems flare up at lower temps.
Also to feed your pleco algea wafers use a 1" PVC pipe so you can drop wafers into his hole after the lights go out. My haps ( mainly my 10" venustus) trys to get into the plecos hole and steal wafers so I have to make the cave just right so the pleco can block him out while eating.
When it comes to haps IMO quality of caves is better then quality so get some rocks and mess around until everyone who is beat up has a hiding spot. I'll attach a picture of my 180 gal so you can see how I did my rocks. Haps are generally a mellow fish in the right conditions.
A great way to decrease aggression in hap tanks is to shorten your light period. 8 hours is about the max you should really have them on for unless your fish are very mellow and unstressed. When my fish are acting up after I add new tank mates I will cut them back to 4 hours until they mellow out. Also I keep my temps at 78 to keep them mellow. But watch out for ich since it seems flare up at lower temps.
Also to feed your pleco algea wafers use a 1" PVC pipe so you can drop wafers into his hole after the lights go out. My haps ( mainly my 10" venustus) trys to get into the plecos hole and steal wafers so I have to make the cave just right so the pleco can block him out while eating.
When it comes to haps IMO quality of caves is better then quality so get some rocks and mess around until everyone who is beat up has a hiding spot. I'll attach a picture of my 180 gal so you can see how I did my rocks. Haps are generally a mellow fish in the right conditions.
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Love the aquascape of your tank. Very natural looking with how the rock work is layered, it would be neat to see a couple anubias plants mixed in but knowing Africans that's probably not going to work out except as a salad lol. Either way fantastic looking tank, keep up the good work.
