Rescue tank journal - 10g

[DebSills]

So, a few weeks ago I rescued two guppies, an endler and an ADF from being tossed in someone's back yard because they didn't want to take care of them anymore (after less than a month). Well, the tank they came from was only about 8 gallons and it was divided - fish on one side and originally three ADFs on the other. I'm pretty sure the water had never been changed and the ammonia was so bad you could smell it.

Fast forward a few weeks and I have sadly lost one of my guppies, I think the previous tank conditions as well as some bullying from the other guppy took its toll on him and he unfortunately just didn't make it. The remaining guppy and the endler get along pretty well - or at least I haven't seen any damage on either of them. So I am going to start replanting and rescaping the tank to "tailor" it more for the ADF and her future friends. I am hoping to get the plants to settle in and start growing and then I'll get two more ADFs to keep my solo girl company.

As I get new plants and new scape in I'll update and then hopefully there will be pics of some new ADFs in the fall 🙂

when I first set the tank up - anubias have since died from anubias rot 😐

My lonely ADF 🙂

Endler

Guppy

RIP 😞

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry about your little boy. At least he got to spend some time of his life being cared for properly by you. I read somewhere that Anubis rot is contagious.  I don’t know to what extent or if it is something that would stay in a tank after removing it. Might be something you may already know or want to check out or forgo anubias.  Best of luck with this tank. I’m looking forward to following your journey. 

[DebSills]

@Guppysnail I haven't really gotten a good answer for how long anubias rot stays in a tank, but it definitely seems to be contagious - I lost the one of the left first, and removed the other two over the weekend. I am probably going to add a java fern and a buce in there just to be safe and leave the anubias for my future betta tank 🙂 (I'll have to start a journal for that one too haha). I have two crypts in there now (wendtii and lucens) and am probably going to add some more floating plants - the ADF likes floating in them

[DebSills]

Absolutely devastated - I was a little worried yesterday when my girl wouldn't eat (actually swam away from it) and I came home from work today to find her face down in one of the crypts 😢 I'm not sure what I did wrong, or if she was sick. When we got her out she did have some kind of slime on her, but other than that, she had been swimming and eating up until the last day or two. I tested the water yesterday and everything was perfect and had been for the whole time she was in there, so I'm not sure what happened. I just hope that I didn't do something wrong and maybe she just wasn't healthy when I took her in 😢 I'm just really sad that I couldn't save her 😞 

RIP little cutie

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Sorry for your loss, the poor care prior to you is at fault. Unlike humans our aquatic friends don’t always show their scars on the outside but they are there. I appreciate an aquarist that takes on a challenge like this, good on you for giving it a real try/effort. I did the same with a 45 g a year ago. Still have about 6 of the 12-14 fish I was given and appreciate them every day. Never kept adfs but I can see now why you would. 

[DebSills]

so...I am getting over the loss of my froggy friend (slowly) - sometimes doing some scaping (with the help of a credit card, my LFS and the ACO website) is all that you can do to get over a loss...or maybe I'm just using it as an excuse 😉 

my two rescues are still doing well - I think I'm just going to leave them in there on their own...maybe add a nerite, but not much else other than that...let them have a nicely planted tank to themselves and keep them happy for as long as I can 🙂

here's an updated picture of the tank after some rescaping (my crypt needs to do some growing, but I'm confident that it will look pretty awesome once it grows up a little bit)

[Hobbit]

The tank looks great! You’ve been making good use of that credit card 😁