stocking question and stocking rant...

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chilligirl

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Nov 9, 2007
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Okay, so I work in a group home, and a couple of the women who live there have fish tanks. Being the only staff who's experienced with fishkeeping, I am in charge of maintaining the tanks.

There's good and bad to that.

On the positive side, I like working with aquariums (was probably my favourite part of working in the pet store industry), and in the one gal's tank, which is a 10 gallon, I have free reign (she's pretty indifferent to her fish tank, so it's become my project, which I pay to stock, and she pays for filter media, etc.). When I started at the house, her tank had awful gaudy decorations and multi-colored gravel and was housing three bleeding hearts with some serious fin rot. I tried to save them through meds, but they were too far gone. After that, I continued the meds on the empty tank for a couple weeks to kill anything left, then restocked with a trio of white clouds, an otto, and a betta. Slowly, all but one white cloud and the betta succumbed to fin rot and overfeeding (I only work weekends, and the other staff, who aren't knowledgeable about fish, overfeed during the week) - the betta also developed fin rot. About two months ago, I decided to remove the gravel (go barebottom), bleach everything, and start the tank over, with the remaining two fish. I'm soooo happy to say it's been successful. Tank is cycled, betta and remaining white cloud are doing well, the betta's fins are growing back, no more sign of disease. The barebottom makes keeping the tank clean easier, and helps stop other staff from overfeeding. Last weekend I added a bronze cory, to help get what does wind up on the bottom.

Anyway, what else should I add to the tank? This is a 10 gallon, barebottom tank with a few (cheap and ugly but oh well) decorations/fake plants. It's heated to about 75. pH is 7.0. Current tank residents are a betta, a white cloud, and a bronze cory.

I'm thinking two more bronze cory, and two or three more white clouds? To be honest, I don't really care for white clouds, but, since one lived, and they're schooling fish, it makes the most sense to give him/her some buddies...

Now for my rant: the other tank I take care of :( It's a 2 gallon acrylic tank, with a dinky little fluval submersible filter. The woman who owns it is very high functioning and has full control over what goes in her tank. Which would be great, except she's a pack rat, wants what she wants, and doesn't care about the welfare of the fish. So, in this tiny little tank we have four danios, and an albino cory. Oh, and the **** thing is stuffed so full with decorations that there's hardly any water and the fish can barely swim. Seriously, in this tiny tank there's a bunch of plastic marbles (from her old gumball tank) which sit on top of the gravel, and the plastic pirate ship background thingy that came in the tank, and two plastic plants, and a seahorse ornament, and a mickey mouse scuba diver attached to the air pump, and the submersible filter. There was also a second airstone, but I managed to convince her to let that go. She's been requesting buying more fish lately, but I've been able to be firm on not allowing it, as there's no room. GAH! :wall:
 

Lupin

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Sep 21, 2006
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For a 10g, I wouldn't think of stocking it Corydoras aeneus. The dwarf species would work though. For white clouds, they will prefer plenty of swimming space although 3-4 will work to prevent overcrowding. Eye on some tetras such as Hyphessobrycon amandae but I will warn you that a lot of tetras are really sensitive to water conditions.
 

Squawkbert

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Oct 3, 2006
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Maybe you could negotiate a trade!

Lady 1 could keep the 2g w/ a dec. or two and a nice Betta or some shrimp & snails & a clump of Java moss (if tank is fairly close to a window or can take a bulb like in my 5g minibow - see sig).

Lady 2 could have her existing decs & fish in the 10g - even in going to a 10, I'd still be inclined to trade the WC & C. aeneus for a few GloLites or Neons or Harlequin Rasbora & dwarf Cories.

Got buckets?
 

chilligirl

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Nov 9, 2007
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There will be noooooo trading - believe me *rolling eyes and shaking head*. The gal with the 2 gallon is completely inflexible, and it's just not an option. She wouldn't even trade in to the fish store for other fish - for her it's add more or don't add more, but NOTHING leaves that tank once it's been put in...And if I convince her to upgrade to a bigger tank, she'll only do it if she can add more fish - arrrrrgh!

as for the 10 gallon, I feel like a tool for putting the cory in there now! I thought I'd read cories recommended on here for 10 gallons, but y'all must have been talking about dwarf cories. There aren't any dwarf cories around in my lfs. I saw some in Big Al's (over an hour away), but they didn't look great, imo. Can anyone suggest an alternative bottom feeder for the 10 gallon that is relatively common and cheap? If I can provide an alternative, I can probably return the cory or swap it into my 90 gallon and get it some buddies...I do need a bottom feeder in the 10 gallon to help with cleanup as, as I stated, the rest of the staff overfeed. I clean the tank every weekend, and without fail I'm vacuuming up big globs of flake - ewwww.
 

GirlieGirl8521

Planted Tank Collector
Dec 21, 2006
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Dwarf cories are pretty sensitive to water quality, more so than their larger relatives, so I wouldn't suggest them. :) I wouldn't put any cories in a 10g, personally.

I'd take the Cory back and get enough White Clouds to make a school of 6-7 with the Betta.

You could get some shrimp, although its not entirely safe with a Betta. Try the cheap Ghost shrimp. They may eat some of the leftover food, although you could try to teach the other staff how to feed properly and only have them feed every other day (maybe make a calendar or something?).

Having tons of leftover food to rot on the bottom isn't really good for cories. They can get bacterial infections of their barbels from the rotting food. ;) Another reason not to put cories in this tank.
 

Brian Bivens

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Jun 8, 2007
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Ghost shrimp. get 6-10 of em. or split it between 4 GS and 4 Amano shrimp, they are fun, work hard to keep it clean, and they are pretty durable if the tank is stable...
 
Jun 25, 2007
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IMO, Ghost shrimp will be easy pickings for a betta in a barebottom tank.

I'd teach the rest of the staff not to overfeed. Can you get envelopes, label each with one day when you're not there (e.g. Monday, Tuesday, etc) and put the proper amount of food in each envelope? You can re-use the envelopes for a few weeks and then the staff will probably get the picture.
 

bbiesenkamp

AC Members
Oct 6, 2007
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If you want to train the staff to feed, use the weekly pill containers. Fill the little sections with the daily amount of food then hide the rest of the food. You may have an easier time getting the resident to feed the fish correctly if she is functioning high enough to take her own meds.
 
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