Kento Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Hey guys, I have a few issues regarding to the little fishies I have in my aquarium, hope you guys can help. thanks in advance for reading such a long post :cofn:. Tank Details: 170L +/- established est beginning of march Cycled 2 filters 2 heaters has plenty of live plants, driftwoods and stones. Temp: 25 degree C. PH: 6.5-6.8 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5.0 ppm or under In the tank I have: Corydoras Guppies Minnows Otocinclus Bristlenoses (had swordtails) Apistos No fish had ever died on me ever since the establishment of the tank (other than one guppy, who only him and God would know how he was able to jump out of the closed lid and died). :dunno: So leading on from the statement above, the issues start occurring...... issue 1) couple weeks ago i bought a pair of swordtails (1m, 1f). they were a bit slow, but eventually adapted to the environment and got a lot well with others. a week later, i found the female dead after coming home from work (i don't know what cause her death as she was fine in the morning on that day before i left for work. This morning (04/06), same thing happened, the male was swimming around looking all good. I left the tank for 30mins and when i came back, the male was on it's side 90% dead, struggling to survive, he swam for 2 secs and back down onto the gravel on its side (before i could even go grab the fishing net downstairs, he had passed away. so what could'v caused the death of the swordtails? are my new pets in issue 2 has something to do with his death? (female died a week before the new pets were put into the tank. Male died this morning after a day or two adding in the new pets) male and female swordtails plus guppy male alive male dead issue 2) A.Macmasteri Cockatoos (I was told they were anyways). So I added a pair of these a couple days ago, was told that they are quite young aswell. I did some research and in my conclusion, these fish (apistogrammas) are as hardy as they will ever get out of small cichlids. they are doing great so far, but then i have realised that the male has started flaring his fins a bit every time he gets around the female and tries nipping her (he'll give up and swims away after a few tries). is he hassling her? or is it a sign of him wanting to breed? are they old enough to breed? (males colours are slowly getting brighter and more of it where the female were white, but has now shown a sign of yellow tint to the body). one thing I also realise about the apistos is they sometimes when they are still, they tilt a little (like the image of the two female and male apisto, last pic...the male is slightly tilted), is this behaviour normal? male apisto female apisto male and female apistos Also just a side story, my two SMALLEST guppies tends to hassle the apistos quite a bit at the beginning but has since slowly died down. (I snapped one of them which seems to being nipping it) <-- strangely, this guppy tried nipping the male swordtail too. smallest guppies didn't want to leave them two alone guppy trying to nip male apisto Issue 3) White Cloud Minnows, When I first got them many weeks ago, they were all small and slim. I have 10 of them and about half now seems to be big and fat. So i wondered whether I have a mix of females and males and therefore the fat ones could be pregnant females. could it be a possibilty? 3 or 4 of them has been fat for a few days now, others seems to be at the same size being slim and small. one of the FATTEST minnows in the tank Issue 4) Otocinlus, I have 3 of these in the tank (all were small, short and thin). I had read somewhere on the net saying if they go big and fat,they they are a healthy oto, but i don't believe that, lol. one seems to be getting bigger, the other two show signs of grown BUT its nowhere near as big. the body width is like a cm wide =.=''. is this normal? woow woOW WOOW Random images which I took while shooting for above pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 What kind of gravel is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kento Posted June 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 What kind of gravel is that? it's black grit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artem Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Dont worry about the Otos, check out the thread on Fatty Catfish in the Catfish Forum - Sophia and I have posted pics of our fat Otos there. You're not alone Id say the fattest one is probably a female but that is just a guess. What you read is completely true, a fat Oto is a happy Oto :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Firstly - awesome shots! Ok here goes: They're Apistogramma Cacatuoides - there's no macmasterii in there - and he is a tripple red. It seems she hasn't shown and red markings (the flames in the tail and fins) but I found mine didn't until after a few spawnings and even then it's only a bit on the tail and anal fin. The male is ready to spawn and the female is getting there too. The nipping is normal. Once she goes fully yellow and starts chasing him it's all on. My guess is that the territory fight killed the swordtails - the apistos can get a bit too boisterous for their tank mates around this time (nothing compared to once she's guarding a brood though). It's possible that something else got the swordtails but I wouldn't be surprised if this was it. The tilting is normal - especially towards each other. They're trying to show the other fish their awesome colours in all their glory so will flare and tilt to give the other as much of a show as possible. How many guppies do you have? Is it possible that the small ones are the males and they're trying to asser their dominance over the tank? There's always one or 2 that do this but usually it's the other guppies that get the beating. Not sure about the fat minnnow but wait and see if it settles down. Could be holding eggs or it could be a blockage which a salt dip could fix. it could also be anything or nothing at all. (sorry) As above the ottos are perfectly normal. The cories look amazing on that grit. I was concerned that the grit in my tank was too sharp for them so added some silica too and they loved it (but it was white vs. the black). All in all I think the tank is behaving normally and I assume the swordtails were either already sick or the apistos/stroppy guppies attacked them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kento Posted June 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Artem: hahaha, i'v just checked out your post in the catfish section and WoW, your otos are massive, lmao...good to know mine are normal and it's not the only ones around :happy2: The-Obstacle: Thanks for all the information and clearifying what type of apistos i have. so from all of the things you said, my tank is operating as normally. that's good to know and i guess my swords were stressed out with the guppies around bullying them therefore the female gave in first leaving the male hanging on but eventually the male gave in too when more stress were added to the tank from the apistos... so sad. I have 7 guppies and they're all male...I am planning on getting 5 female guppies and lessen up the males in a couple weeks time to balance it up. I have tried white substrate at first too, but then in my eyes, it didn't look as nice and i thought for future hassle, black base would be the the way to go because dirt wouldn't show as much, white will just get dirty over time =D ***MASSIVE DISCOVERY.....well not really, but to me it is: the Apisto male seems to be getting more agressive and is chasing corys even longer (like chasing them away further) and both male and female is guarding around the plant pot area (cave)...could this be a sign of spawning??? And do Cories or other fishes learn to keep away from the Apistos territory? the Cories specifically seems to go inside the pot (cave) more often now but as always, gets chased out by the apistos..i'm afraid that some of my cories would die over time even though they are out swimming the Apistos atm. and "if" the apisto did spawn, do the eggs smell like food for other fishes? because if it does then i don't know how many are going to survive =.='' (most likely none). information from everyone in advance will be appreciated as "if" it does spawn, i have no idea what to do..well most likely get in a panic mood and taking out my lovely camera snapping shots, lol. thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-obstacle Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 The-Obstacle: Thanks for all the information and clearifying what type of apistos i have. so from all of the things you said, my tank is operating as normally. that's good to know and i guess my swords were stressed out with the guppies around bullying them therefore the female gave in first leaving the male hanging on but eventually the male gave in too when more stress were added to the tank from the apistos... so sad. no worries. We're all here to help. It's just my guess / assumption on the swordtail front but it seems likely. I have 7 guppies and they're all male...I am planning on getting 5 female guppies and lessen up the males in a couple weeks time to balance it up. Yeah, this is why I asked. I had the same problem with 5 males in a tank. They tried to assert their dominance over everything in the tank. I added 8 females and they all chilled out. But then they started breeding. :roll: I have tried white substrate at first too, but then in my eyes, it didn't look as nice and i thought for future hassle, black base would be the the way to go because dirt wouldn't show as much, white will just get dirty over time =D Yeah, the black grit looks awesome. Some people recommend not using sharp substrate for cories as it can damage their barbells but the grit is so heavy mine never sifted it anyway so I doubt it'll be an issue. ***MASSIVE DISCOVERY.....well not really, but to me it is: the Apisto male seems to be getting more agressive and is chasing corys even longer (like chasing them away further) and both male and female is guarding around the plant pot area (cave)...could this be a sign of spawning??? And do Cories or other fishes learn to keep away from the Apistos territory? the Cories specifically seems to go inside the pot (cave) more often now but as always, gets chased out by the apistos..i'm afraid that some of my cories would die over time even though they are out swimming the Apistos atm. and "if" the apisto did spawn, do the eggs smell like food for other fishes? because if it does then i don't know how many are going to survive =.='' (most likely none). yep - it's on! They'll court each other around hte cave until the eggs are laid and fertilised then she'll chase the male away and anything that comes near the cave. In general most fish will learn to stay away. I had 20 panda cory in a 75L tank with a breeding pair of cockatoos and I lost a few because they got stuck in dense vegetation trying to get away and the female killed them but if there's room to run yours will be fine. I had totally overstocked the tank at the time so it's my own fault. The tetra I had in there at the time just stayed at the other end of the tank for a few weeks. Don't worry about the eggs - the female won't let anything near them. information from everyone in advance will be appreciated as "if" it does spawn, i have no idea what to do..well most likely get in a panic mood and taking out my lovely camera snapping shots, lol. thanks again If there is a spawn she'll guard the cave until the eggs hatch (they usually don't the first few times round) then she'll lead the wrigglers around the tank finding food for many weeks until they are big enough to swim off on their own. Or she'll eat them - which often happens the first few times. Get used to this behaviour because you'll be seeing a lot more of it in the future. Congratulations and don't panic. There's nothing you can do to help the cycle from here so just watch and enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 Apistos are cichlids. Cichlids are relatively territorial. If you are having difficulties now, they will only increase if they spawn and get worse when there are fry around. Suggestion which you can take or leave would be to get a second tank for the pair of apistos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige.xo Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 No advice- but your tank is very pretty from what I can see of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kento Posted June 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 Apistos are cichlids. Cichlids are relatively territorial. If you are having difficulties now, they will only increase if they spawn and get worse when there are fry around. Suggestion which you can take or leave would be to get a second tank for the pair of apistos. I do have a spare 50L tank in the garage, been on the shelf unused for about a decade? lol, i might convert it into a plant tank as spare just incase if anything did happen, it can be an emergancy tank or something =/ paige.xo: Thanks =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 I wouldn't stress about the minnows. I have a pond with 7 adults, they're so fat, there's maybe a few hundred babies in there with them. They breed out of control! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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