Our Fishes!
 

Have just laid eggs! Whoopee!

It's the 3rd time they have acheived this, 1st 2 times the baby fishes all got eaten within a couple of weeks. Now, the parents finished off the main predater after the last batch so hopefully we'll have some baby fishmies make it to adulthood this time!:thumbsup:

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What sort of fishes? Tropical or cold water?

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We have tropical. Convict cichlids. One big (the daddy) albino and 3 stripey ones, the one we have with the darkest stripes is the mummy. I wouldn't be surprised if we lost one of the little ones as her stripes have virtually disappeared. :(

We also have a Puffer in another tank and daughter has boy and girl Beta's (in a huge vase).

Do you have fishes to?

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we had fish and ever time they had babies sure enough they got eaten and I would curse the sucker doing all the eating :curse:kinda sick eh we even had small crab things they managed to do the great escape and I found them dead dried up on the floor yuk we even had koi carp in the garden pond and a big bloody heron ate 20 or so of them:curse:now we only have daisy our dog:thumbsup:

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We had a large garden pond in the UK - we had quite a lot of baby fish appear! But we had to sell all the fish as the new buyer has small children and was filling the pond in. Broke my heart to see the fish go but they went to a very good home - the new owners even sent us photos of the fish in their new home!

We are thinking of getting an aquarium but will wait until we have bought a house. Not sure if we will have tropical or coldwater fish - don't know much about tropicals.

I'll be back to ask advice when we get aroung to buying the fish:D

Jo

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Jo, whatever you do, when you buy a tank and fishes DON'T get conned into buying CYCLE. We couldn't keep any fish alive until we stopped using that crap. Any fish forum will say much the same!

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Thanks - I'll bookmark this thread for future reference:) I HATE fish dying on me! We lost several very large orfe a couple of years ago when the weather was very hot (in the UK). The pond pump must have packed up overnight and they were all floating the next morning as they are vulnerable to lack of oxygen. It was a mightmare:eek:

Jo

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We had some live-bearers in our communal tank; Platies I seem to remember, and we had the same thing happen.

Then I went and got a little "nursery" tank with fine grills, that floated inside the main tank, and when I thought a female was ready to burst I put her in there until the babies were born. Then I took mum out and let the babies get to a certain size in the nursery.

When I thought they looked big enough not to be eaten I let them out into the main tank.

The other fish must have been looking forward to that day. By next morning the youngsters were all gone, except for one little thing that managed to hide in the foliage and grow to adulthood unscathed! :p

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Piff Poff don't you be sizing those eggs up when you are on your diet now Mrs!:tounge_smile::p

Mrs Miggins xxx

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We have just bought a 55 gal tropical and a 29 gal tropical also.

Zebra danios
gouramis
angel fish
cherry barbs
a betta
and a frog

so far...

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:rofl:They are only the size of poppy seeds at the mo', maybe I'll wait until the fishes have grown a little?:rofl:

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We had some guppies that did the same - the gouramis ate all the babies!

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A nice mix! You may find that the angel fish and gouramis attack every thing else though:ohmy: We have had all the above apart from the cherry barbs, we gave up with that sort and bought 2 puffer fish - one puffer killed the other and was swimming arounf in a 55g tank for nearly a year on it's own. We got him a smaller tank to be getting on with as he is still only about 2 inches in size and went for the convicts - easier than goldfish to keep!

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The cherry barbs are in a 29 gal tank along with the betta and frog.

The only 'smaller' fish in the 55 gal are the Zebra Danios and they are WAAAY too zippy for the angels and gouramis.

Although all the angels are only interested in eating my plants and the one gourami just loves to swim around in circles... there's nothing wrong with it, he zips around the tank, but seems to prefer swiming in circles looking at his reflection.

Was thinking of getting a red tailed shark too, need to wait till the angels grow a little first.

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I was going to warn about gouramis too .... some are more warlike than others, but we did have a couple we had to take back to the store before they killed everything including eachother!!!!

some species of barb do not make for good communal dwellers either!!!

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Thanks for the heads up guys. The Gouramis seem to be far too concerned about their own little world rather than who their sharing their tanks with.

The cherry barbs and Betta are doing well. I have a 29 gal bowfrint tall tank. The barbs hang out at the bottom half and the betta at the top.
If anything I would say that the Betta picks on them. The cherries are pretty horny at the moment too. I would try breeding them- but its IMPOSSIBLE to catch a pair.

I would post a pic- if I knew how!

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One of my poor Angel fishies has died :-(

I think the dog may have accidentally pulled the heater cord out of the socket and the poor think died of shock of the cold water.

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Oh Bless! Can I ask how long you have had the tanks? Has it done all it's cycling?

Our puffer has survived living in a bin for 5 days just after we moved house, two heaters exploding and living in cooler water than he should have as well as me guessing at the salt levels for 1.5 years:thumbsup:

Some fish will die pretty quick after getting them and some will survive anything. We had a gourami that killed and survived more things than I can mention - it only died when the puffers attacked it! The blinking gourami ate all the baby mollies we had when we had a community tank:eek:

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I used to have a 100 litre tank with gouramis, two angels, 4 silver sharks and a orange spotted plek. The plek got out of the tank one night, luckily the cat was out, i came downstairs about 4:30 turned on the light and saw the weird thing on the carpet. It looked dead, very dry but twitched slighty so i put it back in the tank, its still ok 2 yrs later. The last fish i bought were parrots but you need to be careful what you put them with as they will attack anything.

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Had the tank for 3 months, tank is nice and cycled. I monitor the water levels every other day. ph, amonia, nitrites and nitrates... were all good.
All the other fish are doing fine. Including the other 2 Angels that were both the same size and age.

It didn't appear to have any signs of disease, it had been eating well and wasn't acting strange in any way. There are no signs of rival fish attacks. It just looks as if it was shocked and died.

Now algae on the other hand Grrrr. had to scrub everything down today.

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Sounds like it was just one of those things then? Algae is a nightmare isn't it? How much water do you replace when you clean out - I do 50% fortnightly - keeps the algae under control. Can't remember when I lst checked for amonia and stuff - the more careless i am the better the fish survive.

Our eggs are wiggling now:D

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ohhh I bet you're so excited!

Well the algae is a bi product of the wrong kind of plant put into the tank. Stupid pet store people sold me 2 plants that weren't supposed to be kept submerged.
Anyhoo... a week later and we had 2 rotting plants, a big green tank and a not so happy trip to the pet store.

I have been doing 20- 30% water changes every couple of days ...we're struggling. Don't want to use any algea killer as Im told it harms the plants and fish. Dont want any more to die.

We have kept the lights off on the tank for 3 days to 'starve' the 'green terror'.


On a happy note...Im actually quite proud that all 6 of my otocinclius' are still alive. I am told this is a tough fish to keep and have a high death rate.

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Yeah, ALL of our problems we have encountered can be contributed to incorrect advice from the pet store. We keep the lights off on our tanks during the day and turn them on in the evening. The puffer only gets his lights turned on occasionally. I remember doing daily changes when we had an amonia problem. Most of our dilemmas stopped when we stopped using the cycle product the pet store kept advising us to buy.

Good luck with getting rid of your green terror:thumbsup:

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urgh, ok so we seem to have 'lost' one of our zebra danios. I think he may have died and been eaten or is hiding. Although we have looked everywhere!

We should have 6, now we only have 5 swimming around in a group. Unless this bugger has decided to rebel and form his own 'clan' :o


So I tested my water levels. Amonia is at 0, Nitrites for some reason seem to be spiking. I dont get it. We havent added any fish and have been great with the tank cleaning.
Could it be because of the algae? Or maybe too frequent water changes - with trying to get rid of the 'green terror'

ARGH :-(

I cried when my poor Angel died

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Hi
just saw this and thought I had better warn you

convict cichlids breed like rabbits and mature quickly they are very aggressive whilst breeding

we started with 4 fish we had 24 at the end and regularly supplied the local fish shop with young who kept us supplied with free food!!

however watching the males care for the young is fascinating as they gather them into their mouth to keep them together :thumbsup:

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Thanks - this is the 3rd batch of eggs and we only have a total of 4 convicts in 55g tank, so we are hoping some survive this time:unsure: We will then turn the temp down a little and any time we see them shifting the plants and stuff around move them back - that should stop the breeding until we need more fishmies!

You're right about watching them breed and look after their babies, it's really sweet and these are the best fish we have had for entertainment.

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I get really upset when a fish dies too - the bigger the fish the worse I am.

Have you had a previous nitrite spike? Do you use anything like cycle?

I would be really tempted to leave everything alone for a few days and keep an eye on the levels. I think you have real plants in your tank? Something we only did once when our molly had babies - never again, caused so many water problems, so maybe reduce the amount of plants until your levels stabilise? I'm no expert so take what I say with a pinch of salt, we're into our 3rd year of fish keeping and it's only in the last year that we don't really lose fish or have water problems.

I must clean the tanks this weeks - worried about sucking up the babies though - the daddy will attack my spongey thing and the hoovery thing - Oh well!

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no it wont stop them breeding the crafty things breed while you are asleep!!

and turning the temp down didnt stop mine either they just bred and bred!!:rofl:

good luck :thumbsup:

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you can get a filter sponge that will soak up nitrites:thumbsup:

just get a pleco they will sort out your algae problems but they will eat your plants

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We kept the temp down for a couple of months - did the trick for our ones;)

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I'm a new aquarium geek ! Who knew there was this fascinating new hobby out there!

We bought a small 10 gallon tank 5 weeks ago. This was my bribe to my youngest because I don't want a dog! Set it all up, let in run for two weeks, then bought three (red eye?) tetras. All ticketyboo. Bought five neon tetras last week, found one dead yesterday morning.

Already treating the tank for Ich - isn't the internet a wonderful place? That came up on the original three tetras - the neon probably went into shock with all the changes?!

I'm starting small and learning. I would love a huge aquarium in my home. But I need to learn loads more before that kind of investment.

Such a relaxing 'picture' to watch though.

Hubby taking the mickey now - "I thought this fish lark was supposed to be cheaper and easier than a dog?" :o

Mmm, maybe not - not at the mo anyway. What's wrong with Cycle, by the way? My little kit came with it already? What should I be buying next?

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Hi Ann,

Welcome to the world of fish:blink: It's an addictive hobby and very frustrating at times too. After many many tank problems, dead fish, huge water changes - back to Petsmart day after day for water testing, new advice, more dead fish, more water changes - getting the picture? I decided to do some internet research. Read through forums, fish keeping guides and joined a forum. All said Cycle was a bottle of poo that doesn't actually do what it says and you just add rubbish to your water and your filter has something else to clean out. Stopped using the stuff and Bingo our puffer is nearly 2 years old (not an easy fish to keep!).

Also the bigger the tanks the easier it is to monitor the water problems, with small tanks if the water starts having a problem it happens much quicker. I am assuming that as your set up is only 5 weeks old you maybe having either an amonia or Nitrate spike. With a new tank the 'friendly' bacteria has to build up so it can combat the yuks you get. I would suggest taking a water sample to your pet store and don't add anymore fish for a little while. If you have amonia or something do a 50% water change and then get the water tested again. Only in the very beginning did we use any product to get rid of yuks, (we didn't know any better), now our tanks seem pretty much stable.

All our wigglers seem to have disappeared, we're hoping the parents have moved them to the car, where we can't see them - otherwise someone had a nice lunch:curse:

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Thanks Piff. Yep, become a regular down at the petstore ! I'm testing daily at the moment for just about everything I can, I think. Probably don't need to test that regularly - but so far everything is coming back OK. The only thing that has changed a bit is the pH (gone down) but other than that, no nitrates/nitrites/amonia changes so far ...

Hopefully finished my Ich stuff now and will bring temp back down a little tomorrow and then change some water on Fri/Sat - see what happens.

Hope no-one had a big lunch round yours :(

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Still can't see them, but parents are rather protective of the rusty car ornament we have, so hopefully they are in there!

Hope your tanks continues to be OK!

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Hello Ann,
Neon tertas are VERY fragile and more than likely wont survive a cycling tank. You need to wait till the process is complete before putting in any more fish.

One thing, be careful you dont mix incompatable species. A lot of fish like to eat neon tertras :-(

Hope that helps

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Hi all,
I've been keeping tropical fish for 12 years now, bred Angels and Kribensis sucessfully. Now just have a community tank with Harlequin Rasbora, Boseman's Rainbowfish, Bulldog Plecs, assorted Tetras, Catfish, Galaxy Pleco and a Clown Loach.

The guy who taught me fishkeeping had a golden rule, once your tank is running right, don't mess with it...

As long as you are declorinating the water and not overstocking you should not have a problem, there is no need to keep testing ammonia etc levels.

Just maintain a regular water change regime. It's not generally a good idea to change water temperatures around too much as this distresses the fish.

For algae promblems you could try using something like 'Cleanwater', this absorbs the phosphates, nitrate and nitrites, without messing with the biological filtration which your tank needs.

My parents have never stopped reminding me about the time I visited them with 44 baby angels and my brine shrimp growing paraphenalia, they thought it was hysterical...

Luckily the Kribensis did not breed at the same time! The pair I had were really protective and the daddy would scoop the young into his mouth everytime I went near the tank (Kribensis aren't supposed to do this, but obviously he hadn't read the book!).

I have always found fishkeeping really relaxing, you might want to check out this site, its full of info...

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...pages/home.php

Beware though they have a forum :eek:

:wub:Charlie:wub:

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Oh Lord charlie, not another forum - run away, run away !! :rofl:

Well, all seven have survived and all look fine and healthy. Changed 25% of my water on Sat and everything going OK today. Will now leave it another couple of weeks before adding anything else. Need two or three small fish - perhaps something orangy coloured (see, dead technical me) so they 'show up' more !! So - what won't eat neon or red eye tetras. My kids want some female guppies (which I admit are quite pretty). Everything I've read talks about putting 2 males and 3/4 females together - but I presume that is if you want to breed them. I do not!! Is it OK to just buy 3 females, for example.

Don't offer me the name of anything too exotic or expensive 'cos this is all still very new and I don't want to kill the buggers if I can help it! :D

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Just wanted to report.....Our baby fishes have put in a brief appearance!

Mama and Papa fish brought them out from the scrap car and popped them by the bridge at the other side of the tank and this morning they are all back by the car:rolleyes: They are tiny fat bodies with bulging eyes and little tails and we have between 20-30 of them as a rough estimate.

Tried taking a photo - all you can see is the blue stones and slime on the tank. Got to try cleaning the tank today, it's looking really manky (a friend commented on how clean it was a couple of days ago but I know better!)

Ann your as technical as me - honest! I used to go in the shop and say do these ones eat these ones? whilst pointing to the tanks.

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Thanks Piff

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Oh Lord charlie, not another forum - run away, run away !! :rofl:

Hi Ann,
Exactly! I did run.... I didn't even dare look at it! (Well not the Forum, spent two hours looking into other stuff on the site, bit into my BE time... :curse:

The site is full of info though....

:wub: Charlie :wub: