Child’s first fish(es)
Discussion
Crossflow Kid said:
So nothing died this week.
Marshmallow and Grace seem very happy now there’s just the two of them, although we have had occasional bouts of reclusiveness and lack of feeding.
Water quality remains precarious. Still coming back as hard and with a high Ph.
Nitrates and nitrites came back near-zero.
MrsCFK decided a 100% artificial environment wasn’t ethical for the fish or something, so “we” added a small amount of live foliage. As expected, even though it’s just one small plant, this has turned the water a bit cloudy and given it a proper outdoor pond smell.
Did a 25% water change and a monthly filter clean (
) which improved things.
CFKJnr still engaged, says goodnight to them without prompting
Good stuff.Marshmallow and Grace seem very happy now there’s just the two of them, although we have had occasional bouts of reclusiveness and lack of feeding.
Water quality remains precarious. Still coming back as hard and with a high Ph.
Nitrates and nitrites came back near-zero.
MrsCFK decided a 100% artificial environment wasn’t ethical for the fish or something, so “we” added a small amount of live foliage. As expected, even though it’s just one small plant, this has turned the water a bit cloudy and given it a proper outdoor pond smell.
Did a 25% water change and a monthly filter clean (
) which improved things.CFKJnr still engaged, says goodnight to them without prompting
Hard water & high pH is ideal for most live bearers.
Some can even adapt to seawater.Zero nitrates is very unusual as tap water will have a nitrate reading so it should show somethig up even with fresh water going in from the tap. Ammonia turns to Nitrite which then turns into Nitrate. What test kit do you have? The API liquid Nitrate kit is notoriously inaccurate, NT labs is easier (you can just get the NT labs Nitrate bottle)
So here we are two months in.
The two surviving fish are.....surviving and water quality appears a bit more stable since the early demise of their tank mate.
The two snails have, sadly, also departed though, a couple of days apart but they weren’t appearing to contribute much in keeping the tank clean. No idea what happened there. Fine one day, then just nothing. Water went a bit grotty until they were removed but soon recovered.
Deceased snails smell REALLY bad by the way and transfer that smell to anything they touch.
Gravel was also starting to look a bit sludgey so I gave that a clean using an aquarium vacuum (cool gadget btw....very therapeutic to use).
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
The two surviving fish are.....surviving and water quality appears a bit more stable since the early demise of their tank mate.
The two snails have, sadly, also departed though, a couple of days apart but they weren’t appearing to contribute much in keeping the tank clean. No idea what happened there. Fine one day, then just nothing. Water went a bit grotty until they were removed but soon recovered.
Deceased snails smell REALLY bad by the way and transfer that smell to anything they touch.
Gravel was also starting to look a bit sludgey so I gave that a clean using an aquarium vacuum (cool gadget btw....very therapeutic to use).
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Crossflow Kid said:
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Yes most likely that caused a small ammonia spike. Sounds like the biofilter has now dealt with it. If you do it more regularly it helps minimise it.But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Well done and yes dead snails do smell a bit ripe
budgie smuggler said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Yes most likely that caused a small ammonia spike. Sounds like the biofilter has now dealt with it. If you do it more regularly it helps minimise it.But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Well done and yes dead snails do smell a bit ripe
I now do a quick gravel vac just before each water change - the vac gets the worst of it, but any s
te kicked up into the water column will be heavily diluted by the water change. You can never change too much water!
Crossflow Kid said:
So here we are two months in.
The two surviving fish are.....surviving and water quality appears a bit more stable since the early demise of their tank mate.
The two snails have, sadly, also departed though, a couple of days apart but they weren’t appearing to contribute much in keeping the tank clean. No idea what happened there. Fine one day, then just nothing. Water went a bit grotty until they were removed but soon recovered.
Deceased snails smell REALLY bad by the way and transfer that smell to anything they touch.
Gravel was also starting to look a bit sludgey so I gave that a clean using an aquarium vacuum (cool gadget btw....very therapeutic to use).
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
You cannot really stir up any toxins with a gravel cleaner...technically if there were dead spots you could release sulphur dioxide I think) The two surviving fish are.....surviving and water quality appears a bit more stable since the early demise of their tank mate.
The two snails have, sadly, also departed though, a couple of days apart but they weren’t appearing to contribute much in keeping the tank clean. No idea what happened there. Fine one day, then just nothing. Water went a bit grotty until they were removed but soon recovered.
Deceased snails smell REALLY bad by the way and transfer that smell to anything they touch.
Gravel was also starting to look a bit sludgey so I gave that a clean using an aquarium vacuum (cool gadget btw....very therapeutic to use).
Thing is, I think that stirred up a lot of finer debris and toxins - fish went in to hiding for a few days, to the extent I thought we’d lost (another) one of them.
But, pleased to say the water’s cleared, the fish appear happy and maintenance has become routine. A 25% water change takes less than ten minutes now (water prep time aside)
Sludgey gravel could build Nitrate in theory as it is just rotting matter. Most sludge is dead bacteria which if a natural part of the nitrogen cycle.
I agree that remove the food source for the green furry stuff, it could be Phosphate in the water but often it is excess food and light.
Caddyshack said:
You cannot really stir up any toxins with a gravel cleaner....
Poor choice of words. Maybe not toxins as such but maybe pollutants?Although the filter in the gravel vacuum caught a lot of crud the water turned rather brownish after the gravel had been disturbed which I know is entirely to be expected. I just don’t think Marshmallow and Grace appreciated it.
Algae-eating shrimps.....any good? Think they’d be an entertaining and interesting addition.
In my opinion there is no better Algae eater than a Bristle nosed catfish (Ancistrus) they do not grow as big as the other sucker mouthed cat fish, they leave the other fish alone and they are tough little things. Just make sure you offer them some boiled cucumber on a fork every now and then if there is not enough food for them. Try and buy them young.
You have to boil things like cucumber to break down the cellulose. out of water plants etc. use cellulose to overcome gravity and "stick up", water based plants do not need this so the tummy of the fish is not designed to digest the cellulose.
You have to boil things like cucumber to break down the cellulose. out of water plants etc. use cellulose to overcome gravity and "stick up", water based plants do not need this so the tummy of the fish is not designed to digest the cellulose.
Caddyshack said:
You cannot really stir up any toxins with a gravel cleaner...technically if there were dead spots you could release sulphur dioxide I think)
Based on...? It's fairly common to see raised ammonia/nitrite after disturbing the substrate as a quick google search will reveal:
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/why-does-moving...
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/88-shrimp-other...
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads...
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads...
etc
And the sulpherous smell comes from hydrogen sulphide
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