Hi, everyone, Im new to the forum but, not entirely new to fish keeping.
A bout 10 yrs ago,I use to keep three 10g tanks with mostly mollies and guppies.And one 55g salt water tank...i have know idea what types of fish were in it, as it was givin to me fish and all.I just followed the instructions givin to me and the fish lived for quite a few yrs,lol.
But on to the topic.First off, I did not cycle my tanks that i have now.I did my research on fish types and selected the types of fish that would be best for our home and the care needed for them and i did research setting up a fish tank.I never came accross anything about cycling for more than 3-4 days...so dont yell at me,lol, i had no idea to reasearch....cycling itself.I've done the 3-4 day thing quite a few times with no problem, i just changed the water allot the first couple of mths is all..lol...just lucky i guess. But, here are my questions... first off...water testing.What the heck is that?How do i do it, what do i need to do it with and what should my readings for a 10gallon and a 20gallon be??Believe it or not, ive never done it.Whenever i had a fish that looked stressed, i always set up a new inviroment for him in a separate tank.Or if the entire tank of fish looked stressed i always changed the water ASAP to solve the dilemma.lol, i had NO idea until now that you buy stuff that would tell you what the problem was.I just squeaked buy with doing 30-50 percent water changes every 3-4 weeks and cleaning the rocks/decor.So, i guess all of this knocks me down to newbie level,lol.Because allot of this stuff is new to me.
OK, i still have a ton more questions.I'll start again buy listing what is in my tanks.First off i have a 20g tank and a 10g tank.I came accross this site while doing more research on tetra behavior.
20 gallon
6 fruit tetras( i know,but i felt sorry for them)
6 orange and black tetras(cant recall the name)
2 tiger tetras(friend bought but decided fish were not for her)
2 dwarf gouramis,blue(came from same friend)
1 sucker fish(dunno the technical term for it)
10 Gallon
4 neon tetras
The problem with this is,i think their are too many fish in the 20g.Also, i started out with just the 6 fruit tetras and a baby bottom feeder.The 6 fruit tetras were EVIL they killed the bottom feeder.They fight,peck and pick at each other and anything with a sort of faned tail.I asked my lfs what was up and he said...lol...buy more tetras, bigger ones to balance it out.So i went home,looked it up and found the same anser online.So... i bought the orange and black tetras.This did help for awhile.The orange and black ones swam in a school and everone was happy.But, not now.They are ALL evil now,lol, little pirana tetras.I've tried everything from adding more decor to giving everyone their own room so to speak, to taking away decor, to leaving the light off for a few days...and nothing.So, i quess this is normal behavior for tetras? Maby the males dominate a spot in the tank?Maybe I have too many males or females or not an equal amount of each(I cannot tell the diffence in sexes)Or just plain too many fish in one tank, even though they did this when there were only 7 fish in the tank.Also, i later added 6 neons(this is before my friend gave me her fish)And they killed 2 already, so i grabbed an old 10g out of the shed to save the remaining four's wee little lives, they are doing fine now.But, now i know that the new 10g is cycling with them in it.......how do i handle that? just keep changing some of the water?It looks nice and clear right now and this is day 4.
Ok, the remaining questions,lol. I SOOOO love those dwarf gouramis.They are just the sweetest, slow swiming lil guys with their cute little whiskers an all.BUT, I'm worried that my pirana tetras are gonna murder them.lol They seem to be holding their owm and because they swim about slowly and calmly, i have to practically hand feed them to make sure they get food because the tetras eat it up so fast.The tetras do a nice surface dive and scatter around the tank dipping and diving very quickly...very active fish, the kids love watching them.And im affraid the gouramas maybe unable to keep up.Even though they seem to be fine, i may just like them entirely too much and am over worried,lol.I wanted to know if it would hurt to put them in the 10g tank with the neons?Is it too small? Also, i have a phobia about tansferring fish, so im affraid to do it, actually.Especially if they are doing just fine inside the tank they are in.If its a situation such as the neons,where they may die either way but have a better chance if they are moved, i'll do it.lol...just call me crazy.I know that if i did move them, i would need to let the 10g cycle first.But, should i even move them? Also, if there is anything i can do to chill my pirana tetras out...PLEASE let me know.I cant seem to find much on them, so i was unaware of most of this behavior.
Also, im not sure my 20g has finished cycling.There are small almost foamy bubbles at the top of my tank,My lfs told me about cycling and water testing when i asked about the tetras behavior.Unfortunately, this is not where i bought my fish, lol, so i was unaware.Had i gone to him, i would have known.Although, i did purchase the orange tetras from him, he helped me select large ones and i introduced them 3 at a time just like he said.Because according to him you should introduce your fish slowly.Now, we did do this rather fast, he said it could be done faster but he doesnt recemend it but we did it, the fish seem fine, other than their bad behavior which for all i know may be normal.One more question.It appears ( i dont really know which is which)that i have 3 mature tetra females, fat possibly with eggs.They each have a smaller one swimming around the tank with them.I may be wrong, im just guessing here, but it looks like 3 females with 3 males.Can I leave them in the tank when they do there egg thing and just let the eggs get eaten? I dont want ANYMORE tetras.Or will this process upset the balance of the tank?Will it hurt the other fish and water levels to just let things go as they are? or should i remove the 3 pairs, allow them to do their thing and then just dispose of the eggs? I dunno.I quess i did NOT do as much reseach as I thought i had,lol.
I would be very greatful for any help and ansers that anyone can offer.
A bout 10 yrs ago,I use to keep three 10g tanks with mostly mollies and guppies.And one 55g salt water tank...i have know idea what types of fish were in it, as it was givin to me fish and all.I just followed the instructions givin to me and the fish lived for quite a few yrs,lol.
But on to the topic.First off, I did not cycle my tanks that i have now.I did my research on fish types and selected the types of fish that would be best for our home and the care needed for them and i did research setting up a fish tank.I never came accross anything about cycling for more than 3-4 days...so dont yell at me,lol, i had no idea to reasearch....cycling itself.I've done the 3-4 day thing quite a few times with no problem, i just changed the water allot the first couple of mths is all..lol...just lucky i guess. But, here are my questions... first off...water testing.What the heck is that?How do i do it, what do i need to do it with and what should my readings for a 10gallon and a 20gallon be??Believe it or not, ive never done it.Whenever i had a fish that looked stressed, i always set up a new inviroment for him in a separate tank.Or if the entire tank of fish looked stressed i always changed the water ASAP to solve the dilemma.lol, i had NO idea until now that you buy stuff that would tell you what the problem was.I just squeaked buy with doing 30-50 percent water changes every 3-4 weeks and cleaning the rocks/decor.So, i guess all of this knocks me down to newbie level,lol.Because allot of this stuff is new to me.
OK, i still have a ton more questions.I'll start again buy listing what is in my tanks.First off i have a 20g tank and a 10g tank.I came accross this site while doing more research on tetra behavior.
20 gallon
6 fruit tetras( i know,but i felt sorry for them)
6 orange and black tetras(cant recall the name)
2 tiger tetras(friend bought but decided fish were not for her)
2 dwarf gouramis,blue(came from same friend)
1 sucker fish(dunno the technical term for it)
10 Gallon
4 neon tetras
The problem with this is,i think their are too many fish in the 20g.Also, i started out with just the 6 fruit tetras and a baby bottom feeder.The 6 fruit tetras were EVIL they killed the bottom feeder.They fight,peck and pick at each other and anything with a sort of faned tail.I asked my lfs what was up and he said...lol...buy more tetras, bigger ones to balance it out.So i went home,looked it up and found the same anser online.So... i bought the orange and black tetras.This did help for awhile.The orange and black ones swam in a school and everone was happy.But, not now.They are ALL evil now,lol, little pirana tetras.I've tried everything from adding more decor to giving everyone their own room so to speak, to taking away decor, to leaving the light off for a few days...and nothing.So, i quess this is normal behavior for tetras? Maby the males dominate a spot in the tank?Maybe I have too many males or females or not an equal amount of each(I cannot tell the diffence in sexes)Or just plain too many fish in one tank, even though they did this when there were only 7 fish in the tank.Also, i later added 6 neons(this is before my friend gave me her fish)And they killed 2 already, so i grabbed an old 10g out of the shed to save the remaining four's wee little lives, they are doing fine now.But, now i know that the new 10g is cycling with them in it.......how do i handle that? just keep changing some of the water?It looks nice and clear right now and this is day 4.
Ok, the remaining questions,lol. I SOOOO love those dwarf gouramis.They are just the sweetest, slow swiming lil guys with their cute little whiskers an all.BUT, I'm worried that my pirana tetras are gonna murder them.lol They seem to be holding their owm and because they swim about slowly and calmly, i have to practically hand feed them to make sure they get food because the tetras eat it up so fast.The tetras do a nice surface dive and scatter around the tank dipping and diving very quickly...very active fish, the kids love watching them.And im affraid the gouramas maybe unable to keep up.Even though they seem to be fine, i may just like them entirely too much and am over worried,lol.I wanted to know if it would hurt to put them in the 10g tank with the neons?Is it too small? Also, i have a phobia about tansferring fish, so im affraid to do it, actually.Especially if they are doing just fine inside the tank they are in.If its a situation such as the neons,where they may die either way but have a better chance if they are moved, i'll do it.lol...just call me crazy.I know that if i did move them, i would need to let the 10g cycle first.But, should i even move them? Also, if there is anything i can do to chill my pirana tetras out...PLEASE let me know.I cant seem to find much on them, so i was unaware of most of this behavior.
Also, im not sure my 20g has finished cycling.There are small almost foamy bubbles at the top of my tank,My lfs told me about cycling and water testing when i asked about the tetras behavior.Unfortunately, this is not where i bought my fish, lol, so i was unaware.Had i gone to him, i would have known.Although, i did purchase the orange tetras from him, he helped me select large ones and i introduced them 3 at a time just like he said.Because according to him you should introduce your fish slowly.Now, we did do this rather fast, he said it could be done faster but he doesnt recemend it but we did it, the fish seem fine, other than their bad behavior which for all i know may be normal.One more question.It appears ( i dont really know which is which)that i have 3 mature tetra females, fat possibly with eggs.They each have a smaller one swimming around the tank with them.I may be wrong, im just guessing here, but it looks like 3 females with 3 males.Can I leave them in the tank when they do there egg thing and just let the eggs get eaten? I dont want ANYMORE tetras.Or will this process upset the balance of the tank?Will it hurt the other fish and water levels to just let things go as they are? or should i remove the 3 pairs, allow them to do their thing and then just dispose of the eggs? I dunno.I quess i did NOT do as much reseach as I thought i had,lol.
I would be very greatful for any help and ansers that anyone can offer.
