MapleDragon

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!

MapleDragon

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.

Piff Poff

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

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

Stu-pot

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.

MapleDragon

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.

Piff Poff

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

MapleDragon

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.

Piff Poff

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

MapleDragon

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'


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

asher

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

Piff Poff

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 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.

Piff Poff

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!

asher

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!!

good luck

asher

you can get a filter sponge that will soak up nitrites

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

Piff Poff

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