Tank maintenance safety (mine !!!)
- Thread starter hamfist
- Start date
I'm not about to pin a fish against the tank, or net it, for doing what comes natural. Some fish have the killer instinct, and for those fish I simply learn to accept it. FH's are no different than any other large aggressive CA species of fish, some are just more pissy than others.
Good question...I wonder why too. Cleaning like that seems to me that it can be fatal if the pH jump too much. I only do 20% water change 1-3 times a week until it's crystal clear.creepyoldguy;4385177; said:
There's certainly nothing wrong with doing a water change daily, and if anything the pH would remain more stable as the water going in should match the water going out. No different than those who use auto water change systems on their tanks.
Try to catch the fish with a net, its kinda like the net is dominating the fish, then put a big net between you and your fish when your cleaning your tank.
bleublaze55;4385231; said:
Yeah, that was my point at the first. Anything that isn't just respectfully holding your ground and letting him know you don't take **** from anybody will just make him hate you, or worse, respect you less. This is how cichlids show dominance to each other, so it goes that this is the best way to show the FH that you're not gunna take his crap. Those gloves the guy reccomended do work well though, that's what I used to clean the big dangerous midas tank. Just don't get a hole in them, it feels wierd to have a glove on thats full of water
So my advice would be to just stand your ground, if you're worried about being bitten use those gloves, if you have them on the first time and you can take his crap then its probably likely that you can slowly get him used to your hand and maybe later remove the gloves. But you never know...
Some great advice, thanks to everyone, and obviously lots of different approaches out there.
BTW, my daily maintenance is merely a quick gravel vac to suck up the poo, no more than 15-20 litres. He then gets his normal WC's once (or twice) a week.
I have now ordered a couple of pairs of those gloves, and I like the sound of the option of merely standing my ground and letting him realise that I am no threat and yet also will not respond to aggression. Hopefully that will happen. If not , I will still have the gloves to protect me.
there's no way I am going to just let him attack me with no protection. he has already bitten me once and drawn blood .... not his fault, I was trying to get him to just up out of the water for a prawn, and he accidently got my finger instead. It was just a nip really but made me aware of just how much damage he could do to me if he was serious. He has some serious hardware in there.
I think the gloves will be a good investment. I am picking up a Midas on weds for my other larger tank, so again will probably have another fish that gets pissed easily.
BTW, my daily maintenance is merely a quick gravel vac to suck up the poo, no more than 15-20 litres. He then gets his normal WC's once (or twice) a week.
I have now ordered a couple of pairs of those gloves, and I like the sound of the option of merely standing my ground and letting him realise that I am no threat and yet also will not respond to aggression. Hopefully that will happen. If not , I will still have the gloves to protect me.
there's no way I am going to just let him attack me with no protection. he has already bitten me once and drawn blood .... not his fault, I was trying to get him to just up out of the water for a prawn, and he accidently got my finger instead. It was just a nip really but made me aware of just how much damage he could do to me if he was serious. He has some serious hardware in there.
I think the gloves will be a good investment. I am picking up a Midas on weds for my other larger tank, so again will probably have another fish that gets pissed easily.
CichofitAll;4387754; said:
I'm jealous !
I got bitten properly by Buster for the first time today, as I predicted would happen, during gravel vac time. I tried batting him away and trying to show him that I wouldn't be messed with, but it just seemed to rile him up even more !
Anyway, I have some of those long gloves now ordered, so I'll be safe enough once I'm using them. I do hope they are pretty thick though, as I'm sure he could quickly bite through them unless they are pretty "industrial" thickness.
Hopefully, as Kaliedoscope suggested, I might get him used to me not reacting to him whilst using the gloves. Then he might give up trying to get me. Hopefully I would then not need the gloves anymore. Just have to see how it goes !
