Who's had really good luck with hatchetfish? The LFS has some silvers (don't know which species) that look good an healthy. What are your water specs, and what foods do they seem to really like?
Hatchetfish: How much trouble?
- Thread starter monkey_toes
- Start date
I have had very good luck with hatchets, although they do take a little bit of special care because they can be sensitive, especially when new.
Marble hatchetfish seem to be more sensitive than the common hatchets. The common hatchets are usuallyincorrectly sold as "silver" hatchets. True Silver hatchetfish have scales that are more like mirror sequins and have a yellowish stripe. The common hatchetfish have a brown stripe.
I had a school of marbles which I kept for about a year and a half until a bout of ick wiped them out. I replaced them with common hatchetfish (sold as silvers at Petsmart). My LFS has had a few true silvers for several months and they are better looking because of their shinier scales.
If you get ich in your tank, all of the hatchets will get it. I am actually treating them for ick right now with heat (84-85'F) and 2 tsp/gal salt. A couple of them were acting a little tired a few days ago, but now they are all looking good and seem to be coming through it very well.
Their absolute favorite food is freeze dried bloodworms because they like to eat insect larvae off of the surface, but they readily accept flakes too.
My water conditions:
pH 7.0-7.2
KH 3
NO3 always less than 10ppm
One more thing about them: get at least 10 of them and their schooling behavior becomes MUCH more interesting. 4 or 6 of them mostly just float around at the surface, but a larger school really gets moving together. If my 75 gal cichlid tank ever becomes a community tank, I am going to have a school of 30 or so.
Marble hatchetfish seem to be more sensitive than the common hatchets. The common hatchets are usuallyincorrectly sold as "silver" hatchets. True Silver hatchetfish have scales that are more like mirror sequins and have a yellowish stripe. The common hatchetfish have a brown stripe.
I had a school of marbles which I kept for about a year and a half until a bout of ick wiped them out. I replaced them with common hatchetfish (sold as silvers at Petsmart). My LFS has had a few true silvers for several months and they are better looking because of their shinier scales.
If you get ich in your tank, all of the hatchets will get it. I am actually treating them for ick right now with heat (84-85'F) and 2 tsp/gal salt. A couple of them were acting a little tired a few days ago, but now they are all looking good and seem to be coming through it very well.
Their absolute favorite food is freeze dried bloodworms because they like to eat insect larvae off of the surface, but they readily accept flakes too.
My water conditions:
pH 7.0-7.2
KH 3
NO3 always less than 10ppm
One more thing about them: get at least 10 of them and their schooling behavior becomes MUCH more interesting. 4 or 6 of them mostly just float around at the surface, but a larger school really gets moving together. If my 75 gal cichlid tank ever becomes a community tank, I am going to have a school of 30 or so.
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Some people may disagree but if you get hatchet fish you will most likely be battleing Ich more often than not.
Well, you do have to be extremely nutso about quarrantining anything that goes in a tank with the hatchets.
I didn't quarrantine a PLANT and now have ich!
Good news is that I caught it early and all of my hatchets are looking good at day 5 of the salt/heat treatment.
I didn't quarrantine a PLANT and now have ich!
Good news is that I caught it early and all of my hatchets are looking good at day 5 of the salt/heat treatment.
Like YuccaPatrol was indicating, ich can be brought in on anything. Wash everything with bleach before you put it in your tank. QT plants or do bleach dips or both.
Silver Dollars -- double check the specie! You don't want to end up with Redhooks
Roan
Silver Dollars -- double check the specie! You don't want to end up with Redhooks
Roan
Definitely! But we're talking hatchetfish here …Roan Art said:
OK, so I'll watch out for ich. But I think I'll get the hatchets, even though my wife thinks they look deformed.
Roan Art said:
am i wrong, or is this askin for more trouble than ich :huh:
id rather just quarintine the plant somewhere else for a fortnight in about 80degree water, this would get rid of any ich if the q-tank (or whatever the plant is in) doesn't have a fish in it...
or you could just rinse it off with tapwater to get any of the spore thingies off of the plants :dive2:
Check out the plants forum. A lot of people do bleach dips. It kills parasites and hitch-hikers.Lobo. said:
You could do that too, but that's not gonna get all the hitch-hikers off. I either do both to make sure, or bleach dip if I'm in a hurry.
That doesn't help at all. Tap water ain't gonna do squat to ich.
Roan