Jump to content

Squeegee79

Members
  • Posts

    105
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Posts posted by Squeegee79

  1. 8 minutes ago, William_ said:

    I test my tanks constantly. They're on a rotational schedule so I always know the levels. The ammonia and nitrite are almost always 0ppm but the nitrate holds a steady 10-20ppm range which I remove with water changes of course. I don't have a lot of plants, mostly moss, so the nitrates don't really have a place to go. Are the Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter really that efficient in converting ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate respectively, or perhaps I don't have such a large load that the levels would fluctuate as I've seen in examples by other people?

    Unless the tank is way overstocked, they are being way overfed, or something like a dead fish is rotting in the tank, ammonia and nitrite levels should be 0 or very close to 0 at all times. Now, if you added a large number of fish to an established tank that could cause a spike, because there would not be enough bacteria to support the added bio load, but it would not take long for it to catch up.

  2. 5 minutes ago, William_ said:

    Thank you for the info guys. My worry is removing the water too much will also remove the food source for the Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter Bacteriums. Causing a massive die-out in the filter and on the substrate spiking the ammonia and killing all my fish before the Nitrosomonas bacterium can come back to reassert the cycle. Any thoughts?

    Nah, this won't be an issue. Your fish are constantly producing ammonia so there will always be some in the tank to be removed by the bacteria. 

  3. Personally, I like to feed multiple smaller meals throughout the day.

    If you are feeding flake food, I would submerge a pinch of it under the water so that it sinks right away to make sure the cories get there fair share. The betta and endlers will pick from the water column fine.

    Typically I aim for all of the food to be gone in about 2 minutes. If there is still food floating around after 10 minutes, then it was probably too much. 

    If you are prepping fish for breeding though, you might want to feed more to fatten them up, but that is another scenario.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  4. So, I think there are two ways to look at the M/F ratio. I think adding 2 females may be less desirable if you have no desire to breed them. Adding 2 females could result in the males harassing them to the point of exhaustion. Generally the answer to this is to add 4+ females so it is spread around.

    The other way to go would be to get 2 more males. 4 males together would likely get along fine because they wouldn't have any females to fight over. Although if there is little to no cover in the tank this could also end badly, but if you have a few hiding places it should work out.

  5. 11 hours ago, HenryC said:



    Electric blue acaras - Super peaceful right?
    Pair of Red spot severums - Also peaceful
    Pair of Festivum cichlid - Dunno much about this guy
    Single Texas cichlid - They say it can be extremely aggressive, but love the coloration
    A few firemouth cichlids - Maybe peaceful in a group?
    Pair of Keyhole Cichlids - Peaceful
    Pair of blood parrots - A bit feisty but mouth doesn't let them do much damage
    Group of silver dollars - peaceful right?
    A salvini - Aggressive? 


     

    Edited quote for space
    I personally would not put any of these with small tetras, the tetras would almost certainly become dinner.
    I think you might be underestimating what will fit in a fishes mouth. 🙂
    Perhaps a small school of Bosemani's rainbows or something? There is still a chance they pick off some neons, but it is much smaller than with the cichlid species.

    • Like 1
  6. I have worked at a few shops, and one of the things I learned was to be flexible when pricing things, especially fish.

    One of the owners I worked for had a hard fast rule that fish were priced at 3 times what he paid for them. Even if he was paying 12 cents for neons from over seas, or if he was paying 8 dollars for a baby arowana. (this was 20+ years ago)

    The point is, make your money where you can. If regular price in your store for neons is 1.99 and then you trans ship some in for 12 cents each, sell them for 1.49.....not 39 cents. And when you get that big specialty fish in that cost you $10, sell it for $19.99 so you can move it before it eats $30 worth of food.

    • Thanks 1
  7. I think all of the potential concerns stated so far are valid. I don't think that every 6 months is too much though, especially if it's a different illness.

    Using antibiotics always has the potential to make resistant strains if not everything is killed, same as humans/mammals.

    Using antibiotics will likely have an affect on beneficial bacteria and heavy overdosing could cause a crash.

    Because all of these things are risks though, is why a quarantine tank is recommended. If you are not adding sick fish to the main tank, then it shouldn't have to be treated. If the quarantine tank loses bio mass it's not a huge thing because you can always swap media from your main tank into it.

    My other concern would be...if you are medicating often enough to do damage, then what is going on with the tank that you need to medicate so often? Are you not using a quarantine tank and new fish are bringing in disease? I know that things can always slip through, but if you are taking precautions they should be minimal.

    If there is one fish in your tank that is constantly getting sick while others show no signs, it could be that it is just a genetically weak specimen. Difficult as it may be, it is often best to cull specimens like that, as you would never want to breed it, and it's going to have a very poor quality of life.

    Just some thoughts on the subject....

    • Like 1
  8. Just my .02, and I am not saying I am right, just what I would do.

    If there are still other fish in there, which it sounds like there are, I would just let the tank run as is for 2, 3, 4 weeks. This will allow it to remain cycled since you have a few fish in it still without disrupting them. 

    Then, if everything is looking good at the 2 week mark, you can get the first group of neons and get them quarantined on some meds for a couple weeks before adding them to the larger tank.

    Like I said, just my opinion, not trying to say a hard reset would be wrong.

    • Like 2
  9. First, I agree that Peacocks are on the larger size for fish that I would put in a 55. It is not 100% a no go, but would require more frequent water changes etc.

    If you do go with peacocks, I would do the same type unless you get all males. Peacocks, and many mbuna for that matter, will crossbreed with fish that are similar. Generally speaking that just leads to an unhappy place.

    I also tend to prefer having larger groups of fewer different types of fish. Mbuna tend to be more comfortable in their surroundings if they have lots of friends. Maybe like 5-6 yellow labs and 5-6 Ice blue zebras or something.

  10. Are there any other fish in the tank with it? It kind of looks like it has taken a beating from someone. Perhaps the ships you took out were keeping aggression in check. The above treatment should help out either way.

  11. 2 minutes ago, swivvr said:

    I tried getting a honey gourami at my lfs, but the employee did not sell me it since she told me that gourami's can not be with other fish, need to live with another partner, and need a 40 gallon tank or higher.

    Sounds like a fairly misinformed employee, although that is better than just selling you a bunch of stuff that would destroy each other.

×
×
  • Create New...