New aquarium diary

Froglet

Firefox,perhaps she is keeping a diary of all her animals just to prove you CAN keep creatures alive by spending as little time and money as possible.

Yes it can be done,but is that a life? i just cannot get my head round why she has so many if they are obviously too much trouble.

Froglet

Careful_with_that_Axe wrote: »

I understand why this has provoked strong feelings but I would be interested to read a diary like this as I have just taken over a mature, established aquarium and acquired a real interest in this.
Anyone happy to share their knowledge in this way?

If you join this happy band of fishkeepers you will get every bit of help and advice you could ever need. http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/

Gingham_Ribbon

Dead fry, brown algae everywhere, filter not cycled before fish went in and aggressive, oversized fish in there now too? The loaches will attach themselves to the sides of your other fish when they're bigger and damage them. They will also grow to over a foot long between them. How big is your tank?

ixwood

OP, the water can look crystal clear, but still be toxic. It's the pollutants in the water you can't see that you have to consider. In a closed system like a fish tank, every bit of food you put in ends up as waste in the water. The fish are basically swimming in there own poo and pee.

The filter turns the very toxic Ammonia and Nitrites into less toxic Nitrates, but these still build up to toxic levels over time.

At least you have plants. To complete the Nitrogen cycle you need plants. They use the nitrate as food and turn break it down. With healthy thriving plants, the need to do water changes can be almost eliminated. The problem you'll likely have though is that your plants will be getting their nutrients from their roots in the gravel, not the water.

There are also things like hormones the fish have in there pee to contend with too, which naturally stop fish growing when they're in a confined area, but that's a lot less of an issue than you potentially slowly poisoning your fish.

You seem to have reacted to 1 extreme by going to another. People aren't saying buy all the expensive chemicals, medications, treatments, gadgets etc and spend 8 hours a week looking after them. They're saying don't poison your fish.

I keep fish in very low maintenance tanks, so it possible, but you have to know the problems before you can alleviate them. Read up and get a better understanding on everything involved, then you'll be better placed to make your own decisions about these things.

Good luck with the fish!

Abcynthia

OK
I know you PM'd me about fish selection due to my messages on your last thread.

But please do listen to the advice given. Ixwood has it down to a T about pollutants. It used to drive me crazy when people used to come to us to get their water tested saying fish were dying. Then I would come out and inform them the levels were off the scale and the first thing they would say "They can't be because my water is clear"

I always compared it to us lying in a bath of our own poo and pee for weeks on end and seeing how we feel.

I think the thing that upset me most was we had a lot of people in our aquatic shop that seem to treat fish like a non living creature. They might as an extreme example get an oscar ( A VERY big fish when adult) and keep it in a 100 litre tank. However I bet if that person heard of someone buying a large dog, keeping it in a crate 24/7, never letting it out and letting it pee and poo in cage they would be appalled.

One woman we had in wanted to buy 100 goldfish and admitted they were to put on tables at a wedding in a little bowl as a decoration. We refused to sell to her and then she turned on us and said "What has this world come to when even goldfish have rights?!" :mad:

Just please take some of the advice on board.

Edited to add: Oh and I think Gingham Ribbon is assuming you have Plecs (Plecostomus) and if this is correct they are right about them growing far too big! I have a rescue one in my 400 litre tank and he is about 11 inches. However if they are the siamese algae eaters type what I told you about growing aggressiveness with maturity may still apply.

Gingham_Ribbon

Abcynthia wrote: »

Edited to add: Oh and I think Gingham Ribbon is assuming you have Plecs (Plecostomus) and if this is correct they are right about them growing far too big! I have a rescue one in my 400 litre tank and he is about 11 inches. However if they are the siamese algae eaters type what I told you about growing aggressiveness with maturity may still apply.

Excellent post. Actually, I meant sucking loaches. At over 6" each, 2 of them will take up a lot of oxygen and produce a fair amount of waste, so increasing the problems that caused the algae in the first place.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/algeater.htm:beer:

Siamese algae eaters are beautiful and much less aggressive.

Plecs can get huge, but there are some lovely small ones. I have 3 bristlenose plecs and I adore them. SO much character. One of them belly flops any fish who tries to get to 'his' algae wafer and another swims off with it in her mouth back to her cave. :rotfl:

Gingham_Ribbon

Careful with that axe, I'd be very interested to hear about your tank and fish! Why don't you start your own diary for advice or to tell us about it?

Abcynthia

Im sure the op told me their tank was 60 litres (don't quote me on this!)

I forgot about bristlenoses! I think its because in our shop they were always v expensive and when I spent ages trying to talk people out of common plecs because of their size I would always point out bristlenoses, this would be followed by a lot of 'no chance at that price!' I think bristlenoses are actually a very cute type of plec!

I also rescued what i was informed was a siamese algae eater for my 240 tank but it must be one of these sucking loaches you mention because he is a bossy git and was rehomed due to chasing and latching on to fish.

I don't know if you meant me keeping a diary about my tank. To honest it isn't that exciting. Its got a few rescues in it and then 2 fish I bought myself. 1 silver shark - he had outgrown his tank and i would love to get him some company but it isnt easy to find places selling 8 inch silver sharks lol a couple of 5 inch parrot fish - bought naively even though warned they'd eat their tetras! My big plec who is 15 odd years old and had outgrown his original owners tank. Lastly my 2 red head cichlids (veija synspilum) - I love large cichlids and this is originally what I'd got this tank for.

Gingham_Ribbon

My bristlenoses were tiny when I bought them so really cheap. They're expensive if they're wild caught or L1s but fairly cheap from breeders.

Who wouldn't fall in love with this little ugly mug!



Sucking loaches aren't so cute. You can see the sucker mouth reasonably clearly on this one:



The confusion is because they sometimes get called Chinese algae eater. Their 'proper' name is gyrinocheilus aymonieri.

This is a Siamese algae eater, or crossocheilus siamensis:


These don't have the sucker mouth and, as I understand it, are fairly peaceful and much more suited to the community aquarium.

Abcynthia

Its definitely a sucking loach I aquired then. Hes fully mature, but lives with my salvini cichlids and my synodontis so Im not worried about him being a bully.And he definitely didnt deserve the flushing that was threatened.

To be honest gingham our bristle noses were small and not wild caught. Our shop was over priced because there is very little choice in our area and my boss took advantage of this. One of the many reasons I dont work there anymore!






T