Newbie Frustrations

[Ixthus]

Hi all,

I am a total newbie. I was given a 55 gallon tank 3 weeks ago. I read a book and visited LFSs and recently visited this site to gain what limited knowledge I have on this interesting hobby.

Here's how it's going so far. I put dechlorinated tap water and gravel into the tank. I added whatever plants looked good at petsmart to my tank: Mondo grass, hornwort, Water spire and some other tall grass like thing that I forget the name of - not very methodical I admit.

Not knowing about fishless cycling at the time, I waited a few days and added three Swordtails(1 female, 1 pregnant and 1 male) and an albino ancistrus. I've read later that the ancistrus is nitrite intolerant and I probably should have waited until my tank is cycled. It was one of those "get it now before they're all gone" kind of purchases. Oh well. Here are my frustrations in chronological order:

PLANTS: My ancistrus eats the grassy plants. I've been told not to feed him too much or he gets lazy and doesn't eat algae. So now he eats my plants. I haven't been feeding my swordtails too much either because of cycling and they like to nibble on my plants. They have shredded my hornwort to nothingness. They don't really eat it much they just cut it up. Naughty bad fish! Is there anything I can do to stop this or have I simply made bad plant/fish combinations?

BABIES: I was too busy to get a breeder tank and my mommy had babies. I just noticed 4 or 5 of them one morning. I think most of them got eaten because I am down to 2 now. Mommy still looks pregnant so I moved her to the new 10g tank. The surviving babies seem to be the brains of the family because they hide well in the grass and gravel. Is the mother going to have more? She still has a black area and is pretty big.

DEATH and ICH? : My male SwordTail died. I test my water often and change my tank twice a week. I don't think I've been above .25 on ammonia. Anyway he started not eating and hanging out on the top and bottom primarily. I tried salt baths and he may have gotten better because he ate a little. Then I noticed that the non-pregnant female had white spots so I guessed the Ich. I moved them to the breeder tank, making it a hospital tank, and put the mommy back into the 55g tank. I added "Ich away" to the 10g tank. The male didn't make it through the night but the female is active and eating well. She still has spots after 2 days. Could it be something else? Will I keep having problems with my 55g and Ich?

Thank you for reading all of this. I didn't think this hobby would get this complicated. Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks you,

Ixthus

[famman]

First of all, it is OK to put fish into a planted new tank. Planted tanks cycle differently from non-planted tanks. Try more heavy rooted plants like swords, anubus. Replace shredded plants with more of non-shreded plants.
Second of all, feed your albino, and he wont eat the plants so much. Try cucumber slices or Romaine lettuce. Feed your swordtails too. The black spot means she will have more babies, and since she can store sperm for extended periods, she'll continue to have them for a while even though the male is gone. The other swordtails will hunt the fry if you don't want to keep them. They will spend their idle moments nibbling on algae.
Third of all, keep fighting the ich, raise the temperature in both tanks to 82F, and add aquarium salt 1 tablespoon/5 gallons, 1 tablespoon/10 gallons for the tank with the albino in it. After the ich is gone, change water frequently until the extra salt is gone. Give it a week.
Fourth of all, you are doing a MAGNIFICENT job of starting off in the hobby! Give youself a pat on the back, research is key, personal experience a close second. And yes, it can become fiendishly complicated, one of the main reasons I enjoy it.
good luck
:)

[Ixthus]

Thank you, famman, for your advice and encouraging words. I am taking your advice. The ancistrus is now munching on fresh-from-the-garden cucumber, I put a Sword plant next to my near dead hornwort and the Ich seems to be on the run though I will keep temperature around 82 for a week. Hopefully this will get me through the next couple of weeks of cycling until a set of new challenges arrive along with new fish.

Thank you,
Ixthus

[famman]

happy to help, keep posting.
good luck
:)