G'day, g'day everyone!
Jeeze, been a long time since I made a thread, usually just skulking about the forums or making the odd post, or (rarely, but getting more frequent) dropping into chat to say hello. Anyways, that's not the point, but just happened to come to mind.
Now, as a few know I left the hobby for a short while (about 18 months), though I continued to keep some of my older fish (old angelfish & some bettas, which slowly died off from age), & then started looking back into it late last year when I cleaned out & set up my 7.5 gal. Earlier in the year, I refilled the 75gal community & I set myself up for Betta breeding again, though the community stayed empty of fish until May & I reconsidered the Bettas & decided I'll hold off till later in the year, when I have time off (October & then some in November).
In May, my brother & dad put some wild fish they'd trapped when they'd gone camping in the tank, so those fish just lived in the tank, with a few scant plants & a buncha big rocks, gravel & filtration. Until recently, it sat there just like that.
Probably a bit over two weeks ago, got my act together & pulled out the plants, rocks, gravel vacuumed the tank (I emptied probably the entire tank twice & refilled it), checked all the filter bits, gotta replace some power heads & a heater, but everything else is working. Then, replaced with some different rocks & put in plants, added salt & let it sit for a couple days.
Tested the params with an API liquid test kit, looked good, so added my Plakat betta male, Turbo, & my rescue female Princess Peach (I was playing some Mario game at a friends when I noticed this sad excuse for a fish in a vase, so took her home with me, pretty ugly looking but I love her). Got some other fish from an out of school course I was doing this last 6 months, added them a few days after the bettas.
Anyways, I noticed that the wild fish had Ich the day after I added the other fish, so I've been treating the tank. They've been getting a water change every Wednesday, that plus a gravel vac & algae scraping every Sunday (going to keep it up too). So far, no one has died, & a lot of them are actually looking pretty fab now.
Now, at current, I've got thr 75gal stocked accordingly:
4 Silver Tip tetras
4 Lemon tetras (originally only 1, but got 3 more Tuesday)
3 Zebra Danios
3 White Clouds
4 Platys (2 male, 2 female, got some fry in a seperate container)
2 Bettas
I'm going to add another 2-3 Zebra Danios & White Clouds, to give them a little school. The platys are acting as live food production for everyone, so I'm not worried about their numbers. I plan to add in 2 Bristlenose Plecos, as I've had them before & they've always done well.
However, I would like to put 5-6 Congo Tetras as the 'big' fish & 5-6 Neon or Cardinal Tetras for more colour, plus 3 Yoyo & 3 Dwarf Chain loaches, or 6 Kuhli Loaches (yes, I like loaches). I'm thinking I may avoid the Kuhli's, as I can only get them as little fish, & Turbo would likely try to eat them before they were too big to fit in his gob. I also would like to add in 4 cories (Peppered or Pandas). Is this a bit over acheiving? Bit over the top on stocking? I was just thinking, since I'm doing quite an amount of maintanence on it, it could work out, but figured I'd get a few other opinions on it.
Whilst I'm treating the tank for Ich, I won't be adding anymore fish, & the loaches wouldn't be added in until everything is established & nothing new is being added, as scaleless fish are hard to treat (looking at a few months, FYI, going to be a long process for establishment). As is, it looks like the Ich is under control for no other fish have gotten it & that on the wild fish, the spots are slowly disappearing. I'm giving them all a couple days break from treatment, but I'll be dosing the tank & w/c Tuesday night, so I can sleep in Wednesday (Sunday & Wednesdays are my usual days off). So any thoughts, ideas, suggestions are appreciated
Also, my old red Veiltail Betta boy in my 5.5gal died (just shy of 3, poor man), so I'm considering moving the Pacific Blue Eyes to that tank & keeping it as just them, the snails & the Kuhli loaches (no way in Hell would I be able to get them out of that tank). I figured it'd best, as I can keep the Leopard/Spotted Danios in their current tank (7.5gal, lots of current in it), & have the PBE still in my room where I can keep an eye on them. I've only got 3 at the moment, will likely get another two, but they're quite hard to get hold of & these ones aren't the best, though a bit of care & they'll probably be fine.
So, yeah. Sorry this got a bit long, but any feedback is welcomed
Cheers.
Jeeze, been a long time since I made a thread, usually just skulking about the forums or making the odd post, or (rarely, but getting more frequent) dropping into chat to say hello. Anyways, that's not the point, but just happened to come to mind.
Now, as a few know I left the hobby for a short while (about 18 months), though I continued to keep some of my older fish (old angelfish & some bettas, which slowly died off from age), & then started looking back into it late last year when I cleaned out & set up my 7.5 gal. Earlier in the year, I refilled the 75gal community & I set myself up for Betta breeding again, though the community stayed empty of fish until May & I reconsidered the Bettas & decided I'll hold off till later in the year, when I have time off (October & then some in November).
In May, my brother & dad put some wild fish they'd trapped when they'd gone camping in the tank, so those fish just lived in the tank, with a few scant plants & a buncha big rocks, gravel & filtration. Until recently, it sat there just like that.
Probably a bit over two weeks ago, got my act together & pulled out the plants, rocks, gravel vacuumed the tank (I emptied probably the entire tank twice & refilled it), checked all the filter bits, gotta replace some power heads & a heater, but everything else is working. Then, replaced with some different rocks & put in plants, added salt & let it sit for a couple days.
Tested the params with an API liquid test kit, looked good, so added my Plakat betta male, Turbo, & my rescue female Princess Peach (I was playing some Mario game at a friends when I noticed this sad excuse for a fish in a vase, so took her home with me, pretty ugly looking but I love her). Got some other fish from an out of school course I was doing this last 6 months, added them a few days after the bettas.
Anyways, I noticed that the wild fish had Ich the day after I added the other fish, so I've been treating the tank. They've been getting a water change every Wednesday, that plus a gravel vac & algae scraping every Sunday (going to keep it up too). So far, no one has died, & a lot of them are actually looking pretty fab now.
Now, at current, I've got thr 75gal stocked accordingly:
4 Silver Tip tetras
4 Lemon tetras (originally only 1, but got 3 more Tuesday)
3 Zebra Danios
3 White Clouds
4 Platys (2 male, 2 female, got some fry in a seperate container)
2 Bettas
I'm going to add another 2-3 Zebra Danios & White Clouds, to give them a little school. The platys are acting as live food production for everyone, so I'm not worried about their numbers. I plan to add in 2 Bristlenose Plecos, as I've had them before & they've always done well.
However, I would like to put 5-6 Congo Tetras as the 'big' fish & 5-6 Neon or Cardinal Tetras for more colour, plus 3 Yoyo & 3 Dwarf Chain loaches, or 6 Kuhli Loaches (yes, I like loaches). I'm thinking I may avoid the Kuhli's, as I can only get them as little fish, & Turbo would likely try to eat them before they were too big to fit in his gob. I also would like to add in 4 cories (Peppered or Pandas). Is this a bit over acheiving? Bit over the top on stocking? I was just thinking, since I'm doing quite an amount of maintanence on it, it could work out, but figured I'd get a few other opinions on it.
Whilst I'm treating the tank for Ich, I won't be adding anymore fish, & the loaches wouldn't be added in until everything is established & nothing new is being added, as scaleless fish are hard to treat (looking at a few months, FYI, going to be a long process for establishment). As is, it looks like the Ich is under control for no other fish have gotten it & that on the wild fish, the spots are slowly disappearing. I'm giving them all a couple days break from treatment, but I'll be dosing the tank & w/c Tuesday night, so I can sleep in Wednesday (Sunday & Wednesdays are my usual days off). So any thoughts, ideas, suggestions are appreciated
Also, my old red Veiltail Betta boy in my 5.5gal died (just shy of 3, poor man), so I'm considering moving the Pacific Blue Eyes to that tank & keeping it as just them, the snails & the Kuhli loaches (no way in Hell would I be able to get them out of that tank). I figured it'd best, as I can keep the Leopard/Spotted Danios in their current tank (7.5gal, lots of current in it), & have the PBE still in my room where I can keep an eye on them. I've only got 3 at the moment, will likely get another two, but they're quite hard to get hold of & these ones aren't the best, though a bit of care & they'll probably be fine.
So, yeah. Sorry this got a bit long, but any feedback is welcomed
Cheers.
