ok so long story short i have been having issues with my tank lately and have become pretty annoyed and uninspired with it lately. I had a big die off with my Ca set up when a filter went out and thought i would go with a more peaceful set up, well for some reason (maybe residual nasties in water that just werent dissipating from multiple water changes, im not really sure) but i kept on having some die (baby angels, black neon tetras and some juvie kribs and rams) well initially it was because i had a small bgk and a larger juvie severum that were being bullies at night apparently but even after separating them had some fish still die off, well anyways the die offs have stopped and my tank seems to FINALLY be stable again after a bout a month and a half. besides the silver dollars/spotted silvers and the tetras the only cichlids that remain are one ram, a pair of kirbensis and an angel. Now getting to the pike, when i first had the big die-off and was looking to restock i wasnt sure in the direction i wanted to go and picked up a pike cichlid from a fish store near my parents place when i was visiting that carries some oddball stuff sometimes (all i have here is large chain stores) wasnt sure what type it was so took it home to identify it and im pretty sure its a venezuelan (though could possibly be a lent, looks exactly like the juvie pics on google of the venny but its starting to get some spots past its head now) anyways i have this juvie (around 3in) separated in a 10g tank right now with a small delhezi (remaining from stock before my big die-off, he survived) because once i found out it was a venny i was considering rehoming it since i then decided to go the peaceful route. but now that my tank is finally stable im not sure if i want to continue trying to go the peaceful route or just do a large oddball tank with the fish i already have and perhaps add in another one... would the venny be able to mix with a bgk since they are so similar in shape? the venny does fine with the del but the del is larger and they are in a small separation tank right now with only one real hide. the venny is smaller than the bgk right now if that makes a difference but i know they grow much faster and are much more voracious (i have weaned this pike onto frozen and he attacks the krill as soon as it hits the water) would food be the only issue? (if so i could always feed the bgk threw a tube, and the bgk eats pellets which the venny wont touch anyways) if this would work what could i put in with the venny, del and bgk and if the bgk/venny wont work, which would you get rid of and what you be good oddballs to add to this set up (open to other pike spp. that are not too hard to get a hold of/expensive that get more color/design than an adult venny, wish these guys kept their juvie colors!)
sorry for the long drawn out post just wanted to have everything covered, the tank is a 5ft 120g and even when i was having fish die my nitrites were always 0 my nitrates below 20 and i once had a very faint ammonia reading but did water change right away and it went back to 0 (most likely was from fish that had died that day)
sorry for the long drawn out post just wanted to have everything covered, the tank is a 5ft 120g and even when i was having fish die my nitrites were always 0 my nitrates below 20 and i once had a very faint ammonia reading but did water change right away and it went back to 0 (most likely was from fish that had died that day)
