Theresa_M Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I have a 75g community tank and find that I am accounting for all 40 of my fish several times a day. I’m devastated whenever one goes missing (I think I crushed one of my corydoras yesterday moving my hard scape 😩 can’t find #6 anywhere). Please tell me that more experienced I am, the less I will be counting and obsessing over my fish! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 No it's like an obsession I count my fish a couple of time aday 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorydorasEthan Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 8 minutes ago, Theresa_M said: I have a 75g community tank and find that I am accounting for all 40 of my fish several times a day. I’m devastated whenever one goes missing (I think I crushed one of my corydoras yesterday moving my hard scape 😩 can’t find #6 anywhere). Please tell me that more experienced I am, the less I will be counting and obsessing over my fish! Sorry to hear about your corydoras (they are my favorite fish). Actually, I was checking on my guppies in my tank during feeding, but when I came back to the tank a couple minutes later I noticed what looked like a dead leaf in the tank. When I looked closer, it was a flattened/crushed guppy. I was devastated, knowing that I was probably the cause (I don't remember crushing any, but I'm pretty sure something might have happened with the hardscape in the tank. Maybe it got stressed out or my hand/net trapped against something). I also do the same thing counting fish, but now in terms of guppies there are too many to count. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa_M Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 minute ago, CorydorasEthan said: Sorry to hear about your corydoras (they are my favorite fish). Actually, I was checking on my guppies in my tank during feeding, but when I came back to the tank a couple minutes later I noticed what looked like a dead leaf in the tank. When I looked closer, it was a flattened/crushed guppy. I was devastated, knowing that I was probably the cause (I don't remember crushing any, but I'm pretty sure something might have happened with the hardscape in the tank. Maybe it got stressed out or my hand/net trapped against something). I also do the same thing counting fish, but now in terms of guppies there are too many to count. My pandas are my absolute favorite too. I’ll need to grab another 2-3 when I go back to my lfs. (I’ve been waiting for him to reappear all day, but alas, he is for sure gone. Just not finding remains yet...maybe not ever) Thanks for sharing your story! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanTruth Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Usually I do that when fish first arrive. After a while though, I know they're doing all right and I just enjoy them. Guppy tanks on the other hand look like the population have doubled overnight so I start counting to see how many are actually in there. Lol. Never can get a full count, but I really do try at first. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmare Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 CONSTANTLY. Every single time I see my tanks I go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 tetras good. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 cories good. and so on. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Pretty much every time I feed. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 My tanks are too heavily planted to count most of the fish. I haven't counted the corys in either of the 3 tanks in months. I do count the 9 pearl gouramis at least once a day, and I count the rainbowfish (11) several times per week. I have no idea how many CPD's and sparkling gouramis are in the 20, or how many tetras are in the 40 or 65. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyJames Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I have too many active fish to count. I count species. I know i started with 20 neon tetras and I count them about once a week. Sometimes 1 or 2 come up missing...I think I'm still at 19. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonske Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I only count my fresh guppy fry in their tiny tank because there are just 7 of them. Other fish are inspected for signs of stress and illness at the feeding times, but never counted. Reading this thread might help...hope might not be lost yet for your corydoras. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Today I counted my pea puffers right after dinner...1, 2, 3 girls, 1 boy. Good. A few hours later I went into the bathroom where the tank is to get ready for bed. There was something odd on the floor. Since I have both cats and children in my home, I picked it up with a tissue, not sure what I was about to have in my hand. It was a tiny little wet puffer, limp and still. I was sad and astonished, because the lid has a tiny gap and this fish found it. I was about to compost it when I wondered if it was the boy or a girl. Thinking that the markings would show up better in water I dipped out some tank water and flicked the puffer in. It rolled over, twitched, and belched out a little air bubble, and began breathing frantically. I could not believe she was alive! I put her back in the tank and after a few seconds she managed to swim almost normally to a secure little hiding place. Fingers crossed. I will now be counting even more obsessively. They are tough little nuggets. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 3 minutes ago, Brandy said: Today I counted my pea puffers right after dinner...1, 2, 3 girls, 1 boy. Good. A few hours later I went into the bathroom where the tank is to get ready for bed. There was something odd on the floor. Since I have both cats and children in my home, I picked it up with a tissue, not sure what I was about to have in my hand. It was a tiny little wet puffer, limp and still. I was sad and astonished, because the lid has a tiny gap and this fish found it. I was about to compost it when I wondered if it was the boy or a girl. Thinking that the markings would show up better in water I dipped out some tank water and flicked the puffer in. It rolled over, twitched, and belched out a little air bubble, and began breathing frantically. I could not believe she was alive! I put her back in the tank and after a few seconds she managed to swim almost normally to a secure little hiding place. Fingers crossed. I will now be counting even more obsessively. They are tough little nuggets. its amazing how resilient they are. fish can often make a come back as long as they arent totally crispy dry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I found one of my bristlenose on a piece of wood an hour after I had taken it out of my tank put right back in my tank acted like nothing had happen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I can easily count my rasboras (19), but have not been able to count all 6 otocats since about a week after putting them in. I also have trouble counting my dwarf danios - I lost two and didn't even know it until I moved them to a new tank and 2 were missing and I was down to 9. Now I have fry in there, but no idea if any will make it. It's easier to scan the tank for a non-moving fish than to try to count them. I also have two different species of shrimp in two tanks, and they disappear and reappear all the time. I have no idea how many shrimp there are, as mama shrimp is giving birth soon and there are too many hiding spots. At first I fussed over all this too much. I wanted to know exactly how many of each were in there and check their health. It's just impossible to do in a planted tank with small fish that swim very fast. I had to stop thinking of them as pets like cats and dogs, and think of them as wet pets, and know that one could just disappear or die for known or unknown reasons, but mostly they're just hiding. I started this hobby for mental health purposes and the last thing I needed was to stress out over missing, injured, or deceased fish and not know why. So I looked to how they live in nature where the same kind of stuff happens or they're dinner for a bigger fish. If you are providing them with a good home and the best care possible, then they're doing at least as well there as they would be just about anywhere else in the world, hopefully that brings comfort to you. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa_M Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Maggie said: I can easily count my rasboras (19), but have not been able to count all 6 otocats since about a week after putting them in. I also have trouble counting my dwarf danios - I lost two and didn't even know it until I moved them to a new tank and 2 were missing and I was down to 9. Now I have fry in there, but no idea if any will make it. It's easier to scan the tank for a non-moving fish than to try to count them. I also have two different species of shrimp in two tanks, and they disappear and reappear all the time. I have no idea how many shrimp there are, as mama shrimp is giving birth soon and there are too many hiding spots. At first I fussed over all this too much. I wanted to know exactly how many of each were in there and check their health. It's just impossible to do in a planted tank with small fish that swim very fast. I had to stop thinking of them as pets like cats and dogs, and think of them as wet pets, and know that one could just disappear or die for known or unknown reasons, but mostly they're just hiding. I started this hobby for mental health purposes and the last thing I needed was to stress out over missing, injured, or deceased fish and not know why. So I looked to how they live in nature where the same kind of stuff happens or they're dinner for a bigger fish. If you are providing them with a good home and the best care possible, then they're doing at least as well there as they would be just about anywhere else in the world, hopefully that brings comfort to you. Thanks Maggie! I too set this up thinking it would be therapeutic, but at the end of the day, it has just caused a ton of stress and a lot of sleepless nights, lol. This was mostly due to me researching after I’d already picked up a new tank in December and immediately filled it with fish!! We are now fully cycled in multiple tanks with relatively few losses. Last week, I went through the quarantine trio and had 5 of my 8 neon tetras die in one day and one seemingly healthy panda that mysteriously went missing over the weekend. I’m feeling a lot better about where we’re at now and how we’ll do this morning forward but I think I’m traumatized by my losses. Your advice is great, though! I need to stop of thinking of them as cats and dogs and just do the best that I can for them while they’re here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alesha Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Yessssss. I do that too! I have found that after the number of fish goes over 12 or 13, I don't count as often. So...that's something. And I had to stop counting guppies within a month or so...there were just too many to keep track of. And I am no longer able to say I love all fish equally. I count my "favorites" several times a day. My bias definitely shows up in my counting!😆 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evan Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I count all the time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphy1701 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Twice a day. During morning feeding and when I get home from work. Usually it's not to bad since they are like dogs at the window waiting to be fed, but the Corys and my Bristlenose Pleco like to hide sometimes. Never crushed one, but I have sucked a couple of fish up in the siphon tube a couple of times during water changes. Fortunately they weren't hurt and were quickly freed.. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanked Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I count new arrivals a couple of times a day for the first week or so. After that maybe once a week. The Amano shrimp disappeared on day one, I've seen them twice. The Nerite snails get counted more often because there always seems to be one missing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 My cardinal tetras will sometimes school in two different schools. So I'll see one of the schools, and be like, 1,2,3,4,5 - where are the other 5! Only to relize there on the other side of the tank! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa_M Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 13 hours ago, Fonske said: I only count my fresh guppy fry in their tiny tank because there are just 7 of them. Other fish are inspected for signs of stress and illness at the feeding times, but never counted. Reading this thread might help...hope might not be lost yet for your corydoras. I cannot believe I’m writing this ... just fed the tank and panda #6 turned up!! I don’t know where he’s been, lol. I guess he came back through the portal! He’s was absent for both Saturday and Sunday meal times. My heart is bursting right now, lol. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) Counting moving fish sounds like an exercise in futility. In birdwatching there are methods for estimating the count of large flocks of moving birds. But even when you're estimating, it's difficult (to me at least). Counting schooling fish swimming back and forth in an aquarium sounds not fun. Maybe just count dead fish and subtract that number from the total you started with! Dead fish don't move and are super easy to count, and, if you're doing things right, that number will remain zero each day! Edited January 25, 2021 by tolstoy21 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 41 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said: . . . Maybe just count dead fish and subtract that number from the total you started with! Dead fish don't move and are super easy to count, and, if you're doing things right, that number will remain zero each day! That sounds like a fine theory, but with healthy populations of corys, snails, and neocaridina shrimp in heavily planted tanks I rarely find dead fish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolstoy21 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 minute ago, JettsPapa said: That sounds like a fine theory, but with healthy populations of corys, snails, and neocaridina shrimp in heavily planted tanks I rarely find dead fish. If a shrimp dies in the dwarf sag and no one is there to see it, is it really dead (or did it ever even exist)? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemon Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 14 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said: If a shrimp dies in the dwarf sag and no one is there to see it, is it really dead (or did it ever even exist)? deep thoughts lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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