5.5g Fw Help Asap

T

trisc1sr

Registered Member
Jan 31, 2005
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I have a 5.5 G FW tank. It has been set up for over a month. MY frog and Gold fish got to big for my 1G FW. Set up. Under graval filter with 2 heads: long air stone lots of areation in the tank. I have an algae eater. not sure name or family. IF i remember right it starts with a C and he is hard to the touch. Does a good job at scavingering though. So my problem. I moved. Only 2 apt buildings over. i emptied half water and just walked it over there like the rest of my things... lol I set it up at 4 pm Jan 30th 2005. All was well. Showing a few signs of stress, but i expected as much. This morning they would not eat. I got home about 7 and was doing regular water testing on my SW tanks and i decided to do my FW even though i did it yesterday. The PH would not register on my FW test kit. had to use my SW to get a reading. 8.2 (I had to raise the ph in my SW to get it there) But it need to be at 7.2 max. WHY THE JUMP?? Also the water is cloudy to the point you cant see though it at all. WHY? i did half water change yesterday and half tonight to try and bring leavals down. Still very very cloudy. The nitrate and nitrite leavals are way past danger zones but no ammonia. WHATS HAPPENING IN MY TANK!!!!!????!?!??!!??!??! :eek:
What i know: It can't be the water i used to the tank up with, used the same in my salt water and nano and have perfect water and those were a compleate tear down. Tap water registares hard with ph 7.2 and no Nitrite or nitrate and no ammonia. Never had a problem before. PLEASE SOME ONE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm woried about my fishies. :*( i have them back in the 1G FW for the night but they can't stay long! ANy bit of help would be great! THANKS A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
If your tap water is 7.2 ph then do some water changes to get the tank pH back down. Start doing small 20% changes each hour. That should lower it slow enough not to hurt anyone.

Your algae eater is probably a Chinese Algae eater. And just to let you know, except for maybe the frog your fish are both far too large for a 5 gallon tank. a Chinese Algae eater (CAE) gets to be 10 inches long, and a goldfish (either fancy or common) can range in size from 6 inches to a whopping 18 inches. A life in a 5 gallon tank will be a short one for fish that should easily reach 15 years and for goldfish 25 years or more.

If the frog is a dwarf then a 5 gallon is perfect for them. If it is african albino clawed then it will need at least a 10 gallon.
 
Thanks

Thanks, i didn't know they could get that big! Finny is a common goldfish, got him for my sister about 4-5 years ago she gave up FW for SW and all i've ever had was SW so I'm new to this whole Golf fish thing. Why can i keep annomines and corals but the thought of keeping a Goldfish scares me? lol fergy is a albino dwarf aferican clawed frog, fat because he eats to much of the gold fish food along with his worms. Al (algae eater) is about 2.5 3 in long and spiny. Thanks for the name of him. I think i'll have to go to the 10 G FW then. Put my 5.5 back to the sump for my SW. I'll keep up with the water canges as best i can. I'm going to go to the store and get sone drinking water and test the leavels on that. Perhaps that would help if the Ph startes lower in the addin water. Thanks so much for the advice and name. :)
 
Yup, you really have a small tank filled with potential monsters. That pleco can be 18 inches long and produces a ton of waste. Also they need diftwood in their diet (the lignins in the wood feed their symbiotic bacteria in their gut I believe). Truthfully those fish would require a minimum of a 55 gallon 4 foot long tank to live in, but more realistically bigger. Of course if they are that old by now they are probably stunted and won't continue to grow much more. This will of course shorten their life span, but a 10 gallon would be better than nothing. I am surprised that the frog has not tried to eat the fish yet, they are carnivorous reptiles. You really should try feeding him some sort of sinking pellet, like a shrimp pellet high in protein. And algae tabs for the pleco would also be good. Drop them in at night as plecos are mostly nocturnal.

Large weekly water changes will help create a somewhat healthier environment for those guys. The pleco may continue to grow somewhat in a larger tank.

Normally I would tell you to give those fish away or trade them in to a fish store, but at least the goldfish is probably stunted by now so it won't get much bigger. Watch the frog and the pleco. If they get much bigger I would see if the fish stores around would take him for you. Many people with large tanks like bigger plecos and want to buy them already grown up.
 
TKOS, a frog is an amphibian. They eat insects and small fish such as minnows, but I really doubt it will try to eat anything bigger. (such as a 10 inch long algae eater or a massive goldfish)
I would get rid of the goldfish anyways because they're messy and kinda creepy looking, but that's just me.
 
Sorry I meant amphibian, but I try to type out my response fast and that is what I get. The clawed fogs can get huge and can use those claws to rip into much larger fish. You would be surprised with what they can attack. And they get very large, the size of your fist.
 
hehe

Wow.... My saulties dont need that much room.... hurm... i will get them into a bigger tank asap. my Sister had them all in a 1 G FW and i inherited them and put them in the 5.5 i had been using for my sump/refurgium. Thus far everyone has been nice. No sores or scratches. The frog gets Blood worms for protine and ofcourse because of their fatty content he's a chubby lill guy. probably 2.5 steched out. he just lounges around on the bubble stone and comes to the top when he wants to be petted. I know funny but he likes his back rubbed. Al (algae eater) i may take up to the Pet shop here. They deal in really! big fish. Had one in the other day that spaned the leangth of a 10G tank. I can't get rid of Finny the goldfish./ I got him for my sister when she was 8 and she's 13 now she can only keep one aquarium at my parents so i got him back when she went to salt after christmas. Not a good trade. a Gold fish i have to put money in to keep and she took half the stuff out of my reef. :mad2 any perticular types of filters or what ever for a FW tank i need? My first FW tank is failing in under a month of running. I'm out of ideas for that one.
 
Dwarf African frogs are different than the clawed frogs. Clawed frogs get large, the dwarfs do not. I have a clawed frog, she's about 4 inches from butt to nose, always hungry, and fully able to eat a fish up to about 2-3 inches. They are not community-safe animals. The dwarf frogs are, as long as you can ensure they get enough to eat--dwarves are not as aggressive of feeders as the clawed variety. Leopardess wrote an excellent article that's posted in the Articles forums on the dwarf frogs--highly suggested reading.
 
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