um well i did hear from the lady at the fish store it was prob the feeder fish i was feeding to the big blue one. and what i changed on the tank was all new gravel a new filter from an ugf. and what the fish had was the little black ones tail was see threw and looked like it was rotten. then the fat blue one was found dead the next day and was really fat and had lost all its color and looked to be rotten. and the yellow one still alive not doing to well hanging out at the top of the tank a lot and he has some scales looking like the rotting off.
new rock, and new to the forums pics.
- Thread starter myitchell
- Start date
myitchell;3977881; said:
I think it might just be what happens when you don't do any research and feed live fish to herbivorous fish that need to be in large groups in 50+ gallon tanks.
I know this might come across as rude but please don't buy fish until you've researched them online or in a book. Aquarium store employees can be the most well-meaning people in the world, but that doesn't mean they know every detail about every single fish.
I recommend asking your local fish store if they'll take whatever remaining african cichlids you have back (usually they will, don't expect them to give you anything for them) and look into more appropriate fish for your size tank. You want less than 3" adult size if you want to keep more than a couple fish (don't trust the adult size on the little cards at petco, they lie through their teeth) or you could keep a couple 4-5" fish.
I'll list off the various necessities. All of these are essential to fish health.
The nitrogen cycle
The most important and immediate issue in fishkeeping is the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle is the process that removes fish waste from the water.
Basically, fish waste breaks down into ammonia (which is HIGHLY TOXIC and KILLS FISH)
Ammonia is broken down by bacteria into nitrite (which is also HIGHLY TOXIC and also KILLS FISH)
Nitrite is broken down into nitrate (which is relatively harmless at reasonable levels) Nitrate is eventually removed in water changes or by plants.
The problem here is that the bacteria necessary to do this aren't immediately in your aquarium in large enough numbers. They need to multiply before they can handle the amount of ammonia and nitrite produced. The bacteria that convert these toxic chemicals tend to double in number every day, so, at the end of a month, 1 bacteria has become about 4 billion. It tends to take 2-4 weeks to complete the process of stabilizing your ammonia and nitrite levels at zero. Until this is achieved, the spikes of ammonia and nitrite tend to look like this:
These spikes cause much frustration in new aquarium owners, because they tend to kill fish.
To start this process off, you need "food" for the bacteria. You can do this with fish, in which case you need to slowly increase the number of fish over a few months until you reach your full stock, or you can add an ammonia solution with no detergents or fragrances. They sell this at ACE hardware (in a 10% solution). Start off with 5 drops of 10% solution in 20 gallons, test for ammonia (I recommend getting a proper test kit with a test tube and a bottle of test solution, available at any aquarium store) and you should have about 3 ppm. Test daily, and keep it at about 3 ppm. If you do too much, you can do a water change (the bacteria colonize surfaces, they're not in your water.) Always use dechlorinated water for water changes, as chlorine will kill your beneficial bacteria.
There's a couple ways you can speed the process up:
You can buy the bacteria in bottles. There are several companies that sell this. The most respected one is probably seachem (their bacteria product is called stability.) This won't completely establish your bacteria immediately, but it should shorten the time to complete this process down to a week or less.
You can also use filter media taken from an established tank to "seed" a new tank with bacteria.
Live plants help immensely because they come with some free bacteria and they eat ammonia themselves. Make sure you have appropriate lighting. If you heavily plant the tank, you can probably just start adding fish.
Grows best at 86F, so crank that heater if you're using the pure ammonia solution.
Once your tank is cycled, it's ready to be fully stocked with fish.
Heating
Tropical fish require 74-82 degrees fahrenheit. A submersible aquarium heater accomplishes this.
In a 20 gallon tank, to increase the temperature 9 degrees above room temperature you'll need a 50 watt heater. If you need more than that, go up to a 75 or 100.
Filtration
Filtration accomplishes 3 things:
Mechanical filtration removes particulate matter from the water, making it look clear.
Biological filtration is housing for the beneficial bacteria I talked about earlier. Basically, it's just some material with a LOT of surface area for the bacteria to colonize. You never ever want to clean your biological filtration. If it gets really clogged up, swirl it in a bucket of tank water (NEVER tap water.)
Chemical filtration is any kind of chemically active media. You can get all sorts of stuff. The most common is carbon, which removes substances from the water via adsorption. I personally don't use carbon. You can skip this step entirely if you want.
You want a filter that has a lot of flow. 5-10x turnover rate per hour is good, which is 100-200 gallons per hour in a 20 gallon. Types of filters include: air powered filters (I don't recommend using these, because they don't have good mechanical filtration), hang-on-back power filters (most common), canister filters (least visible, most customizable as far as media goes). You need flow so that fish waste will get pushed into the filter.
Stocking
There are lots of completely bunk rules for stocking. An example is: "1 inch of fish per gallon of water." The problem with these is they don't take into consideration the fact that the mass of the fish goes up exponentially with the length. So here I am putting my 6 foot (72 inches = 72 gallons, right?) shark into a 75 gallon tank (75 gallon tanks are 4 feet long.)
So how do you solve this? Simple: use common sense. Does it look crowded, or will it be crowded when the fish are fully grown? Yes? Less fish or bigger tank. No? Good! Carry on! Or, when in doubt, snap a picture, list your fish, and ask a forum.
The nitrogen cycle
The most important and immediate issue in fishkeeping is the nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle is the process that removes fish waste from the water.
Basically, fish waste breaks down into ammonia (which is HIGHLY TOXIC and KILLS FISH)
Ammonia is broken down by bacteria into nitrite (which is also HIGHLY TOXIC and also KILLS FISH)
Nitrite is broken down into nitrate (which is relatively harmless at reasonable levels) Nitrate is eventually removed in water changes or by plants.
The problem here is that the bacteria necessary to do this aren't immediately in your aquarium in large enough numbers. They need to multiply before they can handle the amount of ammonia and nitrite produced. The bacteria that convert these toxic chemicals tend to double in number every day, so, at the end of a month, 1 bacteria has become about 4 billion. It tends to take 2-4 weeks to complete the process of stabilizing your ammonia and nitrite levels at zero. Until this is achieved, the spikes of ammonia and nitrite tend to look like this:
These spikes cause much frustration in new aquarium owners, because they tend to kill fish.
To start this process off, you need "food" for the bacteria. You can do this with fish, in which case you need to slowly increase the number of fish over a few months until you reach your full stock, or you can add an ammonia solution with no detergents or fragrances. They sell this at ACE hardware (in a 10% solution). Start off with 5 drops of 10% solution in 20 gallons, test for ammonia (I recommend getting a proper test kit with a test tube and a bottle of test solution, available at any aquarium store) and you should have about 3 ppm. Test daily, and keep it at about 3 ppm. If you do too much, you can do a water change (the bacteria colonize surfaces, they're not in your water.) Always use dechlorinated water for water changes, as chlorine will kill your beneficial bacteria.
There's a couple ways you can speed the process up:
You can buy the bacteria in bottles. There are several companies that sell this. The most respected one is probably seachem (their bacteria product is called stability.) This won't completely establish your bacteria immediately, but it should shorten the time to complete this process down to a week or less.
You can also use filter media taken from an established tank to "seed" a new tank with bacteria.
Live plants help immensely because they come with some free bacteria and they eat ammonia themselves. Make sure you have appropriate lighting. If you heavily plant the tank, you can probably just start adding fish.
Grows best at 86F, so crank that heater if you're using the pure ammonia solution.
Once your tank is cycled, it's ready to be fully stocked with fish.
Heating
Tropical fish require 74-82 degrees fahrenheit. A submersible aquarium heater accomplishes this.
In a 20 gallon tank, to increase the temperature 9 degrees above room temperature you'll need a 50 watt heater. If you need more than that, go up to a 75 or 100.
Filtration
Filtration accomplishes 3 things:
Mechanical filtration removes particulate matter from the water, making it look clear.
Biological filtration is housing for the beneficial bacteria I talked about earlier. Basically, it's just some material with a LOT of surface area for the bacteria to colonize. You never ever want to clean your biological filtration. If it gets really clogged up, swirl it in a bucket of tank water (NEVER tap water.)
Chemical filtration is any kind of chemically active media. You can get all sorts of stuff. The most common is carbon, which removes substances from the water via adsorption. I personally don't use carbon. You can skip this step entirely if you want.
You want a filter that has a lot of flow. 5-10x turnover rate per hour is good, which is 100-200 gallons per hour in a 20 gallon. Types of filters include: air powered filters (I don't recommend using these, because they don't have good mechanical filtration), hang-on-back power filters (most common), canister filters (least visible, most customizable as far as media goes). You need flow so that fish waste will get pushed into the filter.
Stocking
There are lots of completely bunk rules for stocking. An example is: "1 inch of fish per gallon of water." The problem with these is they don't take into consideration the fact that the mass of the fish goes up exponentially with the length. So here I am putting my 6 foot (72 inches = 72 gallons, right?) shark into a 75 gallon tank (75 gallon tanks are 4 feet long.)
So how do you solve this? Simple: use common sense. Does it look crowded, or will it be crowded when the fish are fully grown? Yes? Less fish or bigger tank. No? Good! Carry on! Or, when in doubt, snap a picture, list your fish, and ask a forum.
myitchell;3978178; said:
By rare I assume you mean somewhat unique.
You could do 3-5 dwarf puffers. They're really cool.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o1fw9jtRNc
Information: http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/
You could get a bichir, they get too big for a 20 gallon so you'd be in for a tank upgrade at some point in the next year.
Pictures: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=272
Information: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65770
Not a fish, but you could go cold water and get an axolotl:
http://images.google.com/images?q=axolotl
Whatever you do, PLEASE put some effort into researching its needs before you go out and buy it. If you see something you like in a store, don't buy it, go home, google it, decide if its right for your tank, and then buy it.
I don't recommend using feeder fish at all. They tend to bring diseases and parasites.
There are very few fish that will not eat pellet or flake foods. A good quality pellet or flake (new life spectrum foods are by far the best if you don't have time to feed a truly varied diet) is better than live food anyway.
There are very few fish that will not eat pellet or flake foods. A good quality pellet or flake (new life spectrum foods are by far the best if you don't have time to feed a truly varied diet) is better than live food anyway.
