Some questons...

H

H2OPawesome

Water Opossum
Apr 24, 2007
118
0
0
38
Louisiana
I...am a fish killer. I tend to get overzealous when cleaning. I thought it was best to rinse all the rocks really well, scrub the sides, dump all the water, rinse rinse rinse. About a dozen or more guppies and 3 crabs later, I've learned that is not the case. I got a new method, it seems to work, as my fish are still alive.
However, one of my females surprised me with babies. I noticed her getting big, but generally my females don't actually have babies...they'll look prego, then not have anything. I figure it's because their tank is too small to support more than it has in it now. Anyway, the one female started looking really big, so I moved her to another tank all by herself, more worried about the fact that she was acting funky, and I thought she was dying...she was having babies. I now have a ton of fry and 2 ghost shrimp in a tank by themselves, but...I don't know how to clean it. My method is not going to work...I'm trying to devise a new one...
I got a hose that I can use to syphon water out, I'm thinking just stick the syphon hose down and pour into a bucket, so I can get any babies that may go down the tubes...
but...how will that get the gunk off the bottom. There's like, decaying fishflakes that were too big for them to eat, and such.

Also, what do you do with the babies, lol? I have no clue how many will survive, never had babyfish before. I know of a few people I could give some away to, but...I don't need 20-40 more fish.
 
H2OPawesome said:
I tend to get overzealous when cleaning. I thought it was best to rinse all the rocks really well, scrub the sides, dump all the water, rinse rinse rinse.

Also, what do you do with the babies, lol?
Click to expand...

You don't need to go crazy cleaning your tank. The beneficial bacteria that eats ammonia, nitrite, etc is on all surfaces of your tank. The glass, rocks, plants, gravel, filter media, everywhere.

You don't need to clean your rocks unless they are covered with algae that you don't want to look at. What you do in this case... is siphon out some tank water into a bucket. (you the siphon on the gravel to suck out excess food and poop. about 10-25% of your water weekly. you don't have to dump the whole thing out.) Take the rocks out and gently rub off the algae in the old tank water. This insures you won't be killing alot of the bacteria that makes your tank function safely for your fish. If you clean your rocks etc directly with tap water, you are killing alot your good bacteria and starting a mini cycle all over again because most likely your tap water contains chlorine. One of the biggest mistakes newcomers to fish keeping make is going nuts cleaning your tank out. It's actually not helping but hindering your fish's health and making you go crazy in the process.

What is your current water change schedule? routines? water parameters? what size tank?

You can always take the babies to a local fish store or try to grow them yourself. They make great fish food too. hehe. :dance2:
 
Yes, What Palln said, Do you have a liquid test kit? The fry should know enough to get out of the way,but you need to watch for them also,Only clean {With the gravel vac} what is easily accessible until the tank is cycled.But see if you can post water readings so we know were your cycle is..........:dance2:
 
I haven't gotten readings in a while, I'll have to wait until this weekend to do it. Also, not sure what size tank it is. I know it's under 10 gal. it's probly way too small for my fry, but it's all i have to work with at the moment. I'll get a bigger one soon, when I move back home for the summer. I used to clean my tanks once a week, now I'm trying to let them chill for a little while...so no set schedule right now...as I said, I'm a fishynoob.

and make that 1 ghost shrimp, now...something is fuzzy in a corner...I should get that out...
 
Ok when you get new water test's repost them and we'll go from there. and yes try to get the fuzzy thing out,there shoud'nt be any thing like that in there......A local fish store may buy your fry's from you,or give you store credit...Also if you don't have any get some water conditioner like Prime. Is the tank filltered? Heated? .....:dance2:
 
it's not heated, but the temp in the room is constant. It has a whisper filter, (not a sponge, the kind that suction cups to the inside). I siphoned it out. or, half of it. And I got the fuzzy out. it was a shrimp.
 
You should get the proper media for the model of filter you have,or just buy a new one.there fairly cheep.... Glad you got the fuzzy thing out....
 
your going to need to do some tests when you get a chance. And then build a more concrete maintenance schedule

less then 10 gallons, sounds like a tiny college tank huh? :)
 
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