mcmillanm

Hi, Am thinking of getting a few angelfish that I've seen on trade me. They won't go with (or fit in) my other two tanks so is dependent on getting another tank past my husband LOL but am going to give it a go and getting excited. What I'm after is some advice on tank mates and stuff. The fish I'm looking at seem to be a smaller type of angel and the guy selling said they wouldn't get much bigger than 6cm from their caudal fin to their tail. They are 7 months old, is it normal for them to stay that small? I'm thinking of getting a 60-90L tank depending on what I find on Trade me for a reasonable price and was going to put them in with 5 Sterbai Corys and not sure what else? Maybe a couple of extra plates and swordtails that I have? Would ottos survive? Thanks

Thanks for everyone's advice. I'll def stop cleaning the filters all the time (it will certainly save me some time) and in the meantime will continue with 2 water changes a week, moving ornaments every 2nd time to get any trapped gunk and keep an eye on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to see if I can reduce it to once a week in the future. Thanks again :thup:

Yeah they both have sponges and noodles.

Thanks. I've just retested and after my big water change nitrates are now down to between 5-10 and ammonia and nitrites look to be 0. In hindsight it may be lucky that I have two filters in my tank as I had the spare to fall back on if I kept killing the bacteria with my hot tap water... Just to check - I gather it is ok to rinse out the wool each week (in tank water) and replace when it can no longer be cleaned in my internal filter? Have a good w'end!

Thanks everyone, you must think I'm a bit silly bit I've honestly been trying to mAke things better with all this cleaning... Will keep with twice weekly water changes & start cleaning the filters in tank water but less often. :gigl:

That's sad (and arrogant) that they won't accept any advice to help their fish. When you know how gregarious and active loaches normally are it isn't nice to see them suffering:( I saw a lone kubotai loach looking really withdrawn and nowhere to hide or play with in a pet shop near me & I just had to leave the store. GL with helping them.

Ok, so now I'm getting a bit confused... I thought that the build up of 'gunk' ie: fish waste, plant bits etc in the tank & filter was what was causing me to have nitrates despite 2 water changes a week & ammonia/nitrites being fine. Is it somehow ok to have it in the filter sponges, box etc but not the tank? Thanks

I seem to have somehow lost this post so will try again, sorry if it doubles up: Thanks Mark, I rinsed it all under the tap with hot water but only ever clean one filter out at a time. Because I did a 40-50% water change I also added a capful of cycle. I was planning to clean out the external filter tomorrow to try and get everything cleaned - that should give time for the good bacteria to get going again in rio filer I hope.. Thanks for your reply Jennifer - the fish all seem ok except my remaining big Mollie girl who still swims mainly at the top and a couple of neons with a small white lump on their fin or mouth. I just dont want it to deteriorate. Hopefully all will be a bit better when I next test.

Hi, I tested for nitrates in the tap water the other day and it tested fine. Admittedly, even though I do 2 15-20% water changes a week and usually clean 1 of the filters (internal rio & external aqua 1000) I haven't moved my ornaments for months so I've just done a 40-50% water change and vacuum with the ornaments out and given the rio filter a really good clean. :bounce: Phew, it took ages LOL. Does anyone else with a Jewel rio, I have a 180 find that a lot of plant matter etc gets stuck both in the filter box and between the box and the glass? I wonder if that is 1/2 of my problem?? Anyways, will clean out my external filter tomorrow am and retest the nitrates as well ad the tap water. I hope the problem isn't too big, I'm alreay spending way to much time and energy trying to get it right... Thanks for your ideas.

Very cute! :nfs:

Obstacle - do you mean Flourish Excel? I use that with leaf zone every 2nd water change (once a week). I just tested my other tank (lightly planted) and it too had nitrates at almost 40ppm and everything else ok. There was also a dead Otto cat:(( so I gave it a good vacuum under ornaments, a 40% water change and am dosing with aviverm as I know the ottos were wild caught and my smallest chain loach looks a bit thin and quiet. Anyway, re big tank : I'll do a bigger water change and move ornaments & try and give the rio filter a really good rinse on the weekend when I have some more time. I don't really want to add co2 if possible as it sounds like another expense and the tank is outside my bedroom - is it noisy? Should I add Excel with every water change? Thanks for the ideas!

Not sure if it's luck or the chain loaches I got a couple of months ago but Y tank has gone from swarming with snails to a lot less snails hiding under stuff. I uspect the chain loaches...

Hi, My nitrites and ammonia did seem to be around 0 before my water change today so they have come down from a couple of weeks ago when they were a little way up the chart, it is mainly the nitrates that are worrying me. It is in my planted tank though - When it was mentioned that there may be something 'rotting' in my tank it reminded me that when I clean out the rio filter media there does seem to be some plant debrit that is still in there? There is also a bit of green scum/algae? that is stuck between the internal filter box and the glass that I can't get out... I'll do another water change and give that filter a clean on Saturday and maybe try to stand above the tank and see if I can see any plant matter stuck anywhere. Yeah, I've heard the neons can be a bit delicate so not too worried but I also assume it means the water quality still has room for improvement. :roey: Thanks for your ideas.

Through trial and error I seem to have solved the issue of whatever parasite was bothering my fish and causing them to over flash against objects a few weeks ago. I've been doing water changes every three days since then as some of my levels of nitrites, nitrates etc were a bit higher than I would have liked. Most of the fish seem ok except for a couple of neons who have a wee bit of fin damage and one with a small lump on it's top fin and two mollies who seem to have a moderate case of swirling disease? My remaining dalmatian girl stays near the top of the tank and a female gold dust molly seems to mainly stay near the bottom but sometimes swims normally. I've been treating the mollies with 20gms salt bath with a drop of meth blue once a day when I get time & the neons get a dip for a couple of minutes as they go sideways and seem to play dead when I put them in LOL. anyways, I tested the water today. My pH was around 7.2-7.6, kH was 4 and ammonia, nitrites were low but my nitrates are still at around 40ppm. I tested the tap water as Carol suggested earlier and that was 0. Should I be concerned at this level or is it normal? Thanks for your replies. :cofn:

Cheers, the crochet mesh may work. :thup:

Are tank dividers made of mesh or glass? Would they have to be a certain brand to fit the tank correctly? I'd be interested to hear how a frame works out..

Hmm, not sure how I could do that with filters and things but thanks. What sort of mesh/ tank safe wire have you used for it? Did you find it easy to set up and effective? Thanks

I'm sorry you and your fish have had a rough time of it lately. I enjoy most things about the whole tropical fish keeping thing but find it REALLY frustrating and sad when problems arise despite doing the best you can. The hardest part seems to be diagnosing what in fact went wrong to cause the issue and then fixing it in time to save the fish in question. I too have lost fish in the past and could only guess at why as the water parameters all seemed fine and no-one could figure why. Good luck in the future!

Hi, It's a relatively busy community tank with platies, mollies, loaches, corys, bristle noses, a couple of rams, neons, rummy noses, SAE's & rasboras. I think I read about the idea on the loaches website but I also suspect that in ensuring everyone gets fed that I in fact over feed during the week. I have therefore been not feeding for one night to hopefully rectify this and make my tank situation closer to what would happen in the wild??

Hmm maybe I should go back to 7 nights a week then...

As above, I feed my community tank flakes in am and an assortment of pellets, tabs for various fish 5 nights a week and bloodworms & spiralina tabs one night. I've been not feeding at all one night as I read it was good for fish (loaches I think) & am wondering if anyone else does and recommends this. Thanks for any any answers/discussions on this.

It looks great, I don't suppose you would like to sell any future baby plants?

Hi, that sounds like an interesting idea for when my corys or rams spawn again. How exactly did you do that? Thanks

Yeah, it's lucky that they seem to like each other as they are the only two in my tank. I must say it looked like hard work guarding their eggs against my loaches who looked to be taking turns at doing a 'swim by' on them. They must have been exhausted if they'd been having to do that all night LOL! Hopefully they will give it another go in a few weeks...

Ok, after guarding their eggs all night from the advances of my cheeky loaches, Corys etc they gave up this morning... When I got home from walking the dog - no more eggs and my rams are back to their 'pre egg' behaviour of hanging around the front of the tank greeting me when I got home. Better luck next time!