Unhappy fish

[thomkat]

Hi there,

I have a 30"x12"x14" tank - 18 gallons? I have an angel, a silver dollar, two clown loaches and a pleco.

The angel (4"), the oldest, is bullying the silver dollar (4") to the extent that it now hides in the corner of the tank all the time. As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of an amateur, but I was wondering if removing the angel from the tank might help. I only have one tank however so am not sure how to do this, I have heard that aquarium might take fish back on exchange, but I'm worried it might be a bit old for that - how long do angel fish live for? Mine is nearly three years old.

The pleco and clown loaches spend 95% of their time hiding too. I thought this was fairly normal until I saw a friend's clown loaches, who are quite active in their tank. The pleco comes out at night as normal, but is not as active as when it was smaller. It is now about 8" nose to tail.

Really what I'm after is just some general advice about fish keeping. I'm worried about the happiness of the larger fish and if exchanging for smaller fish would be better for all, then I will do that. If there are steps I can take to make the present ones happier then I will galdly follow those.

Many thanks in advance

 

[knashash]

The answers to your questions are kind of obvious. An 8'' Pleco in an 18 gallon is not gonna be happy. Loaches get fairly large to. And its probobly because of lack of space that your Angle is picking on the dollar. So I would say A) Upgrade to a much larger tank(over 100 gallon) and spend a lot of money doing it or B) take the Pleco, Loaches and Dollar back to the store. That is if you want to Keep the Angle. I think the angle will be ok in there and then you could get some smaller fish...but be very careful on what fish as Angles are aggressive and some fish will nip the Angles Fins. You really need to revamp your whole tank set-up to be honest...but like I said you could keep the Angle and maybe some other things like Ottos, Shrimp, Corys(maybe?)....Or keep the Dollar who is a very peacful fish and then you could start going the community tank route...which has a lot of options...just dont over crowd your tank....and do research on what fish your thinking about getting to see how big they get.....good luck

 

[thomkat]

As I thought, but needed to hear it from more experienced aquarium keepers! I'll give the shop a call. May be back on here soon for advice on how to catch and move them!

Cheers

 

[Dangerdoll]

Actually, 18 is pretty tight for the Angel, which is why the Angel is pushing the others around. As a cichlid, it is fighting for territory..... and the ultimate size aquarium for an angel is 20 gallons (which is pushing it even, IMO) per Angel, and they like to be in groups...... so I would change the whole set-up you've got.... all of your fish will be too big for that size at maturity.

 

[thomkat]

Rehomed

You'll be pleased to hear the angel, pleco and silver dollar have now all new homes with a nice chap with three much larger tanks (2 x 4 foot and 1 x 7 foot). Sad to see them go, but know it's for the best. Cheers for all the advice - will be on again soon probably for advice on how to restock (with small fish that don't grow!)

 

[ineedabox]

....i dont think 30X12X14 is an 18....im pretty sure that that's a 29.