New fish....

[jtruswell]

Yesterday, my fiance came home with a ropefish. Decided he was in love with her and named her Elenor. All my danios and minnows went to the ten gallon along with my frogs (apparently ropefish have the taste for frog legs...).

She's a little snakey which freaks me out a bit but she didn't escape last night, which is good. I have to admit she's very pretty but very interested in finding the exit! lol

Anybody got any tips for working with this fish? We know she likes frozen bloodworms and she's in with three bosemanis, a columbian tetra (~1.5" long), and a three inch bala (finally recovered from the fin rot and starting the long road to recovery) and a small pleco.

Jade

 

[UncaBret]

Errrr, does your fiance realize that ropefish are supposed to get over 30"? I hope he plans to get a bigger tank than the 25 and 10 you list in your sig.
When I was much younger I had a rope fish in a 15 gallon!!! It got out three times, then it killed my glass knife. It went back to the store.

 

[budrecki]

25 Gal Tank : 1 balas, 1 small pleco, 1 Columbian Tetra, 1 Ropefish

(Elenor)

Jade,

Sorry to be the one to tell you, but you have a real problem in the making.
Please read the species profiles on the fish in you 25g. The pleco, the ropefish, and the bala CANNOT, under any circumstances live in a 25g. Balas and tetras are both social fish that need to be kept in schools of 6+ for optimum health/well-being. It is always tempting to bring home a new fish, but you have to do the research first.

Joanna

 

[jtruswell]

Well, the stupid part is the guy at the pet store told my fiance that they (the ropefish) would be perfectly happy in a 20gal for their lifespan. I did research and found out this isn't true....very not true.. Good news is that we're going to be getting a 55 gal in a week or so and an long 100gal in the next month or two (and since both Elenor, Al and Quicksilver (ropefish, pleco and bala) are still fairly small, they can easily live for a month or so in a 55gal.)

As for why we have the configuration we have:

We received Quicksilver from a friend with another Bala named Mercury about 2 months ago. They were very small (for Balas.., about 2") and they were in rough shape. She had them in a 12 gal and found out how big they'd get so turned them over to us when she learned we planned on getting the 55gal. We lost Mercury and Quicksilver developped a bad case of fin rot, which he is only now beginning to fully recover from. He's a bit bigger now and I think looking forward to the larger tank and new friends that we plan to get upon setting up the larger tanks.

As for the tetra, he had two others of his kind in the tank with him a while ago, but they died (not entirely sure why still...) I was worried about him until we introduced him to the Bosemani tank. He (believe it or not) schools with the Bosemanis like he's one of them. It's the strangest thing to see--believe me--but the columbian is a larger tetra and so I guess he thinks he's a Bosemani? Or maybe that my Bosemanis are columbians? lol

The pleco I have is only 2" long (he was very small when I rescued him from a pet store in my area) and quite happy to be where he is for the time being but will be move to the larger tank when they are established (ie with algae).

Anyway, no worries about the fish sizes. We know all about the fish and are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that these fish live happy and healthy lives.

But thank you all for your concern!

Jade