In the long run it will save money, but I have already bought their food for the month. If I donated them all right now, the money I spent on the food would be for nothing, the money I spent on the fish would be for nothing, the money I spent on the tank and the drops and the filters, and the new light bar, the bubbler, would all be for nothing. So, it would take forever before the amount that I'm saving would actually be saved versus the cost I'm already into on this setup. We are still somewhat arguing about what set of fish we want to keep, we agree to keep the rope fish and the peacock, we agree that Snowball will be going to Trina's house to live in her tank. But he wants to keep convicts, I wanna keep Kenyis. I feel like we only need a few famales to make this male Kenyi happy, if I can trade what I have for what the male needs, I would be totally satisfied. But my husband is not interested in giving the fish away and waiting the amount of time it would take to break even to get more fish, and I understand. Once we decide what to keep we can take care of their needs ourselves. I like the fish, and I feel that every living creature deserves some respect, but I agree with my husband that at the end of the day a fish is a fish and I also don't wanna just throw away money until later. Haven't had any casualties (other than these poor feeder fish, that was a kind of sortid affair...) since the Oscars, I'm thinking it could be worse. Wanna figure out what is expected of me to care for them, then weed out the tank accordingly.
A problem with tankmates
- Thread starter jaymekelley
- Start date
Okay, changed 10/46g and added 2g cause it was a little low already. didn't wanna do too much. By the way, what is this fuzzy crap sticking to all the plants and the glass? Been there since we set up the tank, but it kind of makes me a little crazy...
Haven't seen the movie, but the title sounds somewhat appropriate, lol. a as I've said, didn't do my research and had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I'm learning. Its a process... My main goal is to eventually have a nice, beautiful tank, stocked with beautiful, happy, healthy fish, both to decorate my living room, and for my family to enjoy and interact with to whatever extent we can considering my kids are 2, 5, and 6, and can't really do much with the fish but look and play with them through the glass. I tried letting my six yr old feed them once with supervision.... Never again, supervision didn't stop him from quickly dumping about a quarter of the food into the tank. Jeeze, that was some serious cleanup work to keep it from dissolving before I could get most of it out...This sort of reminds me of
Yes, this is the most I would do without knowing the parameters. Basically, you don't want to shock them by giving them too much fresh water all at once. Doing it this way will slowly alter the parameters to make them better for the fish, but over time.
Ok. So, you're fish produce ammonia as a biproduct of eating and breathing. This is toxic in any level other than zero.
A bacteria eats this ammonia and produces nitrites. This is harmful in any level other than zero.
Another bacteria eats nitrites and produces nitrates. This is harmful in levels above 40 ppm. But even levels above 20 ppm can cause some issues. So, its best to keep it as low as you can.
Nitrates can only be removed by plants and water changes, while nitrites and ammonia can be removed by water changes and bacteria. So, what you can do to lower the levels are:
1) Feed less food
2) Have less fish
3) Have plants
4) water changes
The most important of these is water changes. Remember, nitrates can only be lowered by water changes.
This could be a few things. Detritus is one, basically organic matter that is decomposing (this produces ammonia by the way). Another is any of the numerous types of algae. If you have a gravel vac you should be able to suck it off the plants. If not you can pull them out and rinse them under the tap to get it off and replant them. With the glass you'll have to scrub it off.
Okay, so I already started the water changes, when I feed them I only give them what they eat immediately and if they are still interested I give them a little more, so as long as I'm the one to feed them that should be fine; I've been looking at the live plants every time we go to the fish store because I wanted to simulate a more natural environment for the rope fish anyway, so I guess it would be a good investment to go ahead and get a few because there's only plastic plants in the tank right now.we will be "culling the herd" soon, so that should take care of the last thing. Really need to get a test kit. Maybe my mom has one... If she does I'm sure she'll let me have it because she doesn't have her tank anymore. Thanks for explaining, the article I read was super wordy and a little confusing, it makes more sense the way you described it.
If you keep the African cichlids I would not do live plants. They will destroy them.
Hmmm. Okay, so maybe best to wait until the rope fish and peacock get their own home. Which should work out okay because when that happens there will be less fish in the tank we have now. Do the plecos help at all with any of this? I was under the impression that they just eat the poop and algae and that's about it, but now I'm not sure because they eat some of the solid waste, but eating creates ammonia, and then the pleco releases wastes which makes ammonia too..
The plecos eat algae and food that doesn't get eaten. They don't eat poop and they produce a lot of their own. Additionally, they should be fed a diet just for them. A sinking wafer type food that is designed for plecos/bottom feeders is a good choice. They don't help with the cycle at all, they do contribute to it.
