jhct Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 hi there!! we've had our first tank about a month and have done all the recommended preperation. We know it may be a bit fast to populate our tank with so many fishes, but oh well (too late now!). None have died to date and they all seem very happy and active!! (although the gourami's seem to hide at the back behind the plants) we have: 10 x neon tetra's 2 x platty's 2 x male guppies 2 x dward gourami's 4 x glass catfish 2 x albino sucker/cat fish 4 x golden black stripe (mollies??) 1 x spotted plecostamus Our tank is 100 litres (75x37x37 cm), temperature is 27c, 1 x power glo bulb, built in filter system with bio balls, carbon rod things with wool around it, and these white tube things in a bag. We have an additional air stone going as well. Have been using cycle with every 25% water change twice a week and recently added the product waste control. We've got no real plants, just fake ones, ornaments and a piece of wood. We feed them flake food (a small amount twice a day) and bloodworm every few days as an alternative. Is this too many fish? The water seems to be cloudy white for a few days after a water change but doesn't seem to be dirty. Any helpful advise would be great! Here is a video clip of the tank... http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o80/ ... a_0001.flv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 once a tank is cycled you dont need to keep adding products to keep it that way as long as you do your water changes correctly (dechlorinate it because that will kill your bacteria IMO cycle doesnt do much anyway but some people have seen slight improvements with it. since your tank has been set up a month i would think its either finished the cycle or its nearing the end. are you able to get a test done for ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte done at your LFS? that will be able to tell you if your tank is cycled or not. your cloudy water is probably a bacterial bloom and they are pretty common during cycling or if something gets disrupted in a mature tank. do you dechlorinate the water before you add it to the tank? a bacterial bloom wont harm your fish or anything so just wait it out, as you have seen it doesnt take long to dissappear what do your albino suckers and spotted pleco look like? (i am on dialup so vids take years to load hehe). some plecos grow really big (50cm+) but you may have 'bristlenose' which are really good and will suit your tank wonderfully. i think your tank is stocked fine if we count out the suckers until we know what the are. all the fish are relatively small and if you keep up with tank maintence they should all be ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PENEJANE Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 4 x golden black stripe (mollies??) Going by the video I would say that they are golden barbs. Not mollies but if I am wrong I am sure others will correct me. Cheers. Tank looks awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 once a tank is cycled you dont need to keep adding products to keep it that way as long as you do your water changes correctly (dechlorinate it because that will kill your bacteria IMO cycle doesnt do much anyway but some people have seen slight improvements with it. since your tank has been set up a month i would think its either finished the cycle or its nearing the end. are you able to get a test done for ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte done at your LFS? that will be able to tell you if your tank is cycled or not. your cloudy water is probably a bacterial bloom and they are pretty common during cycling or if something gets disrupted in a mature tank. do you dechlorinate the water before you add it to the tank? a bacterial bloom wont harm your fish or anything so just wait it out, as you have seen it doesnt take long to dissappear what do your albino suckers and spotted pleco look like? (i am on dialup so vids take years to load hehe). some plecos grow really big (50cm+) but you may have 'bristlenose' which are really good and will suit your tank wonderfully. i think your tank is stocked fine if we count out the suckers until we know what the are. all the fish are relatively small and if you keep up with tank maintence they should all be ok Hi Sharn Thanks We have been using aqua one water conditioner each time to dechlorinate the water, and the other products (cause we thought that was an extra good thing to do)? but it seems the extra's may be just a waste of money!! The cycle over the month did get disturbed as we had to gradullay change as the interior design was not satisfactory and had to be changed (as u do) haha. Just tried to take pics of the albino's but they scurry around too much! so got some pics off the net of ones just like them.... Pleco also (he hiding somewhere asleep).... thanks again for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimTam22 Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Yea ill second that golden barbs http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... rb_700.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimTam22 Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 First pic is an albino cory and second is a gold spot?? pleco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Going by the video I would say that they are golden barbs. Not mollies but if I am wrong I am sure others will correct me. Cheers. Tank looks awesome Hi Penejane I think your right!! just googled images of golden barbs and they seem to look the same. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 First pic is an albino cory and second is a gold spot?? pleco :oops: Oh my bad... i think the LFS called the pleco leopard spotted.. and the albino i cant remember what they called it. cheers :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 the albino cories are fine, they will be perfect in your tank. the goldspot (there are lots of names for them) however might start to outgrow it fairly quickly, they get pretty large- normally over 40cm and they have this great tendency to decorate your tank like a xmas tree with their poopies :lol: i would look at rehoming him if you can and perhaps replace them with bristlenose if you want another 'pleco', they max out around 15cm and the boys are real cuties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freakyfish Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 The first catty is definalty an Albino Cory and the seciond one is a Sailfin Gibbicep http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=148 Very nice catfish IMO Though they do get large What size he now? They arent the fastest of growers and as long as only gets to about 25cm in your tank he will be fine till then After he gets to this size i would def relocate him Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 I hate to say this but I think you are heading for trouble! Too many fish added much too quickly. Those golden barbs will grow quite large and the tank is much too small for the plec. Are you able to take him back? His growth will be stunted in such a small space and it is not fair to keep him in too small a tank. I would ask you to do some water tests but since you have added extra products, especially the waste control, the readings will be innaccurate. There is no need to add such products (except to remove chlorine) to a well maintained and balanced tank. The blue gourami looked stressed to me although it is hard to tell from the video. They will find the other fish quite stressing I feel, although others may disagree. The water is going cloudy with bacterial blooms which will hopefully settle once the tank has a chance to cycle fully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PETEYPLECO Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 I have all below fishies in my 165 ltr cube with no worries. So long as you keep the water quality good, I have a large external filter and I do weekly 25 to 35% water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 I hate to say this but I think you are heading for trouble! Too many fish added much too quickly. Those golden barbs will grow quite large and the tank is much too small for the plec. Are you able to take him back? His growth will be stunted in such a small space and it is not fair to keep him in too small a tank. I would ask you to do some water tests but since you have added extra products, especially the waste control, the readings will be innaccurate. There is no need to add such products (except to remove chlorine) to a well maintained and balanced tank. The blue gourami looked stressed to me although it is hard to tell from the video. They will find the other fish quite stressing I feel, although others may disagree. The water is going cloudy with bacterial blooms which will hopefully settle once the tank has a chance to cycle fully. Hi Carol, ok - we are going to stop using the above mentioned products for a while and then carry out a water test. Our LFS and other fish friends assured us we hadn't over-crowded the tank? but after reading some posts in this forum it seems there are lots of different ideas about how many is too many! however - We are looking a getting an additional tank - much larger, where we can re-home "Vince" to (the pleco) before he grows up, and probably some of our other babies too :bounce: Thanks heaps for the advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 The first catty is definalty an Albino Cory and the seciond one is a Sailfin Gibbicep http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=148 Very nice catfish IMO Though they do get large What size he now? They arent the fastest of growers and as long as only gets to about 25cm in your tank he will be fine till then After he gets to this size i would def relocate him Brad Hi Brad, the little albino's are about 3cm and our Vince (Sailfin Gibbicep) is around 12cm long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 its not so much you over crowded the tank (after the plec is gone IMO you will be fine if you keep up rountine maintenence) but they were added quite quickly werent they? when lots of fish are added to a tank quickly ammonia and nitrite can build up to deadly levels very easily (part of the nitrogen cycle) and if very frequent water changes arent done for the first few weeks the fish can suffer burnt gills, nitrite and ammonia poisoning and in the worst case scenario die. normally when people do a cycle with fish they are added quite slowly so that the good bacteria have a chance to reproduce slowly and you wont get any spikes. ammonia is the first part of the cycle, then nitrIte and then the less harmful nitrAte follows. nitrates are removed by plants and water changes and dont pose a serious threat if they are kept low. during a cycle you can test your levels to see whats going on, first ammonia will rise then drop followed by nitrIte rising and then once thats dropped and you have nitrAtes registering the cycle is complete- you are aiming for a reading of 0 with ammonia and nitrIte. sadly most LFS wont tell you about cycling a tank when you go in and buy your first setup or fish so its quite a common thing, luckily most fish can handle it and from your list it looks like most of them are quite hardy hope i didnt confuse you too much or bore you if you already knew about the cycle :lol: it can be a heap to take in when your brain is already filled with learning about the occupants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhct Posted November 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 Hi, was so worried about numbers we have removed the 2x Plattys & 4 x Golden Barbs. Done water changes without using cycle or waste control. The 2 x dwarf gouramis now seem to be happier and coming around the front heaps more. So will give it awhile and hopefully this should all help. You all have mentioned testing for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites can you recommend a suitable test kit at a fair price?? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted November 30, 2006 Report Share Posted November 30, 2006 good to hear the gouramis are out and about :bounce: you can buy master test kits which have everything you need in them, they are around 45 on trademe i think. i found once the cycle had finished and i got more confident in fish keeping i never used the ammonia/nitrite test kits and they expired before i got the chance to use them. i still use my nitrAte test kit though, nitrates are the last part of the cycle and will always be present, i use the kit to give me an outline of how often i need to do water changes (cause some of my tanks need 3-4 a week). the downside about not having the kits on hand is you have to wait until the store opens to get them to test the water for you. when fish get sick the first thing you check is the water and often you dont want to wait until 9am the next day :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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