help me please...

kelly82

kelly82

AC Members
Jun 1, 2007
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Lincolnshire, UK
i have just been given 2 tanks from my friend who was moving, 1 is cold water and ive started a thread in there for that one,the other one is tropical, it is 3ft x 1ft x 15 inches, and it has 1 kissing gourami, which is now 9-10 years old, 2 silver dollars and 4 albino corys in there, when i first saw the tank i couldnt believe anything was alive in there, the filter was so clogged it was trickling out, it is a fluval 4+, ive cleaned it out in old tank water, and have had to swap the media in it, so i just did one side first,and will change the other side asap. the gravel in the bottom of the tank was thick with scum and dead fish, (she said the last time she looked properly she had 4 neons, 3 leopard danios and 4 zebra danios with all the others,i found the rotting bodies of 1 neon and 1 bigger fish under a rock thing),so much so that it was like a mix of slime and stone, and i couldnt stand the smell,so ive changed the gravel to black sand, the corys seem much happier now, and im doing regular water checks as im expecting a cycle now. i cannot buy a bigger tank as i have no room for one, and the stand it is on is 4ft on the top (has 4ft tank with fantails in)and about 3.5ft underneath,so i cant really put a bigger tank under the big tank anyway. im hoping since hes been in this tank now for some time hes ok in there,especially without the dead fishies in there,and the half handful of food she put in 3 times a day,she said she has had him for all his life, and when she first got him he was a tiny fish,and hes grown to well over 6inches now,she did have 2 but this one killed the other one. so now the kissing gourami has 2 silver dollars for company instead of another gourami. all seem happy, swimming well, eating well, and i just wanted to check what peoples opinions were of keeping these fish in this tank. i cant believe people get away with such awful neglect just because they are fish :mad2: at least they will be properly cared for with me,i wont ever let them get into that state again.
 
It sounds as though you're doing most things right; I'd prefer not to have two silver dollars and a kissing gourami in a 3' tank, but as you inherited them see how you do. The Fluval 4+ is a pretty good filter (much better than the old Fluval 4; I use the 2+ and 3+ filters), and just changing half the filter media, and rinsing in tank water, was the right way to go. I'd recommend testing the water over the first couple of weeks and be ready to do water changes, but I wouldn't anticipate too many problems as even though you've lost over half your bacteria through changing the substrate and half the filter media, it should get back up to strength pretty quickly- certainly in under two weeks.
 
Yikes! :eek:

Well, first thank you for taking this on and saving these poor little guys ... :(

As for the tank maintenance, I would go slow. You will clearly have an Old-Tank Syndrom in that the fish have acclimated to those conditions as best they are able. As a result any sudden shift in the water conditions will result in firther stress.

Personally I like what you ahve done thus far, but I won't swap out the other filter for 2 weeks (to give the other filter time to colonize), especially given that you ahve taken out the largest bacterial colonies, which reside in the substrate.

Certainly don't add any fish, and keep your feedings to a minimum, all of which it sounds like you are doing.

I would also test once a day (as a minimum), and any WCs I would keep small, but do them more frequently. IE. It would be better to do 2 25-30% WCs twice a week vs. 1 50-60% WC once a week for the first month or so.
 
Wow, I read your other post as well. It is a good thing she couldn't take the tanks with her. :headshake2: You are a great person for saving these fish. The first thing I thought of was what her house must have smelled like. Couldn't she tell that her tanks stunk? Oh well at least you got them cleaned up and on the road to recovery. :grinyes:
 
How are the albino's whisker's? I'm surprised they survived in that mess. Give them some hiding spots until they adjust. I usually recommend lots of plants in a new set up which is really what this is right now but the silver dollars would likely eat the plants. You could try and float some cheap plants - in the time it takes the silver dollars to eat them they may have done their job in preventing a mini-cycle.

Whenever I introduce new fish I try and build them up. Small amounts of a variety of foods. I always give them pepso food for the first 2-3 days to clean them out.
 
right,so far so good,ive taken some of the filter media out of my established tank and put it in their tank to try to help boost the bacteria, the fish are all doing well still, the corys i dont think she had had for long as they are quite small, their whiskers look ok, and they are loving the sand, they are so active. i still havent changed the old filter media from the other side and wont do for at least another week. i wont be adding anymore fish to this tank,it will stay with the 1 kissing gourami, 2 silver dollars and 4 albino corys, i think the tank is full to capacity as it is. the smell of the tanks when i first got them home i think will stick with me for quite some time,i dont think i have ever smelt such an awful stench in a long long time, i know her house did smell odd but she also had lots of cats so it was probably a mix of them and the rotting tanks. im doing twice weekly 20-30% water changes, which i will reduce to once a week as i do with my other tank once its all stable and set up, and im feeding once a day at the moment,but will go to every other day the same as my other tank aswell,i didnt want to just go from more food than they could eat to going hungry over night so im more or less putting them on a diet! the silver dollars seem to get along very well with the gourami, and when it comes to food time they all get their fare share. fingers crossed it all stays this way and keep going in the right direction!
 
kelly82 said:
the smell of the tanks when i first got them home i think will stick with me for quite some time
Click to expand...
:thud:

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. :thumbsup:

Keep us posted
 
Great job. Sounds like things are going well!
 
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