Restocked the 560

[Jon M]

I started over with the 560. Got the cycle back on track with some Fritzyme Turbo Start 700 which worked amazing. Thought some of yall may be interested in what I decided on with the stock and would like to talk about them. Almost all these are new fish to me and maybe some of you have kept some. I wanted to go with larger fish again and try to do a community vibe (like I feel I really had going with my previous stock), but a lot of these fish are a bit smaller than my previous stock, but still look like they get pretty beefy and tough. Here's what I went with:

1x RCK (in memory of my boy Gacy, but a royal!)
1x Delhezi Bichir (miss my ornate that randomly died on me and excited to have a new bichir)
1x fire eel (in honor of my boy Jack)
1x giraffe nose catfish
1x marble sailfin X TSN hybrid
1x black belt
1x pink face catemaco (or fenestratus?...)
1x vieja argentea
1x vieja melanura
1x red base flowerhorn
1x starry night cichlid (I know he's african but it's not like i'm putting together a biotope)
1x creamsicle red devil

I tried to do 6x tiger SD and 5 out of 6 got merc'd alrdy. Everyone is very small (under 6") but eating well and growing in the 560 right off rip I assume they'll grow fast. The water perimeters are perfect and I'm sure the 5 SD that got smashed overnight were from aggression. These guys have a bit of spunk. The pink face catemaco particularly. They all seem to get along great tho and the aggression IMO seems like common cichlid "back off" activity. When I come up to the tank 6 already swarm and swim together and come up for feeding. Tee 7 are the black belt, the fenestratus, argentea, malanura, flowerhorn, creamsicle red devil, and starry night cichlid. Took a feeding video tonight and there's another posted on my channel before that of a nice walk around where you can see everyone.

The lone survivor of the incident, my larger albino red O, is now rehomed into my 240. He seems miserable but I'm sure he's just pouting as Oscar do. I purchase a VT tiger Oscar (tiny growing out in a 55) to put in the 240 with him, and figure if the lone tiger SD survives I add to it to make it a whole shoal again, grow out, and do the 240 with two Oscar, some SD, and maybe something else like a firemouth or something? Totally open to ideas for the 240?... I'm thinking I'll keep the O over there tho, move the VT over with him, and the rest I'm up in the air on?

feeding walk around

 

[Trouser Cough]

What was "the incident"?

 

[Jon M]

What was "the incident"?

All Fish Dead

I've had my 560g setup for over 6 months and running perfectly fine. Last night I did a larger than normal water change and woke up to all my fish dead except my gar and oscar. Did everything the same as I always do. Drained. Dosed with 2x 1/4 tsp of seachem safe dilluted in water. Filled from...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[jjohnwm]

Can I assume that you did a 100% water change on the tank before hitting the LFS?

I love that tank; hope it goes well this time.

 

[Jon M]

Can I assume that you did a 100% water change on the tank before hitting the LFS?

I love that tank; hope it goes well this time.

Thanks man! I'll definitely be on here updating. Can't wait for them to start getting big and not looking like boring juvenile cichlids. Not 100%, no. I did one very large one and checked the readings. It was apparent it lost some of it's cycle from what happened but there were still plenty of nitrates. So I did another large wc and ghost fed for a few days. Then I did the fritzym turbo 700, added fish, and when I checked perimeters the ammonia and nitrite were solid zeros and the nitrates were there. So sall good and everyone seems to be doing very well. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared to do a fricken wc on this tank after that though... I truly think it was a chem overdose and I've done plenty of maintenance on my other tanks since with no issues but I haven't used those chems and went back to my trusted Prime. Man, I wish there was a LFS near by that had stock like what I got! I had to drive almost 2 hours to my buds fish store to pick them up!

 

[Panosian32]

Glad to see you are up and running again!

Like the plan for Oscars and SD in the 240. I have an Oscar and a couple other large Cichlids in my 225 with 4 “blueberry” SD (started as 5). I’ve been really happy with the combo.

 

[jjohnwm]

Good to hear that you won't be struggling through a fresh cycling of the tank.

I know you have the feeling that it was your dechlorinator that zapped all those fish last time, and if correct then your approach here should be great. I still believe that there was something else amiss with that water change, and that the deaths had nothing to do with the dechlorinator; I know several others expressed similar sentiments in that other thread. That's really the reason I was asking about a 100% change, to cover that possibility as well. Your testing will reveal ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels...but the countless other toxins that might have caused that disaster will not be revealed by normal hobbyist-grade tests.

I absolutely understand your newfound paranoia about water changes; since we don't know for sure, and likely never will know, what happened last time, there's no way to specifically guard against it in future. Don't get spooked away from big water changes. I rarely do less than a 70% change on any tank, and much prefer 90%+. I've never had a problem caused by it.

Goes without saying, but when you do your next change, I would be sitting and watching those fish like a hawk for several hours afterwards.

 

[Trouser Cough]

Bummer!

 

[Jon M]

Glad to see you are up and running again!

Like the plan for Oscars and SD in the 240. I have an Oscar and a couple other large Cichlids in my 225 with 4 “blueberry” SD (started as 5). I’ve been really happy with the combo.

What are the other large cichlid with your SD and O? I'm still brainstorming and could use the ideas. I was even considering adding more substrate to the tank and trying some live plants. I know big fish smash them up, but I have a very prevalent planted 55 so the plants would cost me nothing to at least try, and I though about weighing down the plants with large rocks and pots.

Good to hear that you won't be struggling through a fresh cycling of the tank.

I know you have the feeling that it was your dechlorinator that zapped all those fish last time, and if correct then your approach here should be great. I still believe that there was something else amiss with that water change, and that the deaths had nothing to do with the dechlorinator; I know several others expressed similar sentiments in that other thread. That's really the reason I was asking about a 100% change, to cover that possibility as well. Your testing will reveal ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels...but the countless other toxins that might have caused that disaster will not be revealed by normal hobbyist-grade tests.

I absolutely understand your newfound paranoia about water changes; since we don't know for sure, and likely never will know, what happened last time, there's no way to specifically guard against it in future. Don't get spooked away from big water changes. I rarely do less than a 70% change on any tank, and much prefer 90%+. I've never had a problem caused by it.

Goes without saying, but when you do your next change, I would be sitting and watching those fish like a hawk for several hours afterwards.

Did about 50% last night. Fish seemed fine the whole time and this morning are perfectly fine. I did everything like I used to do before the Safe and Fritz product. I used my regular old prime. Let the garden hose run for a good minute or two to get any stagnant water out.