adojavier

Hi everyone!

I'm new here, so i have a lot of questions..

I bought a 10 gal tank two months ago, brand new. It has lights, a millenium bio/carbon filter and some elodea plants. I lost one tetra serpae due to ammonia concentration. I did vacuum the gravel once to get rid of the excess waste. I'm using a liquid test. It reads .5 NH3 and NH4. I guess the cycle is not over yet. pH is 7,5. I also have a maternity/hospital tank, 1 gal, no filter (can't find one that fits), has an air pump and it's been set two weeks now. Problems starts here:
- The big tank has an ich problem. I just bought a heather and i'm keeping my tank at 28-29 C. It may be a stress problem. I have a little pleco (clown pleco btw) so i don't wanna use medications. A vendor in my lfs told me to use medication in lower doses so my pleco don't get affected by it (is he right?) (he told me to use a mixture of malachite green and formalin).
- The hospital / maternity tank is hosting a heavily pregnant swordtail. I had to mover there cause she has given birth like 2 times and ate her fry. She has no ich as far as I know. But she seems lethargic and even though she eats like crazy, she spends most of her time hovering around the gravel. I guess it must be stress and pregnancy. She hasn't given birth for a week now, but I can see little black dots in her stomach, near her anal fin. I'm changing 30-50% water a day, so ammonium levels are under control till it cycles (given the fact this tank doesn't have any filter).
How can I make sure she gives birth and don't eat her fry? Ther have a lot of algae to hide, so it shoudn't be a problem of places to hide. Will a filterless tank ever cycle?

I'm feeding both tanks once a day a varied diet of: spirulina tablets (they love it), freeze dried blood worms, freeze dried tubiflex worms, and tetra tropical fish flakes.

- I also have a pond snail outbreak, there are like five big ones (they look nice), but there also are like a hundred little baby ones. How do I get rid of these?

- I also don't have a nitrite/nitrate test. Here in Caracas, Venezuela they're are up to $100 each :-S

I would really appreciate some comments, advice, and some alternatives since this is the best webpage I found on the net. It's incredible how much Info i have gotten here. Would be nice to meet some fish fans too..

Thanks.

Blub

adojavier

Thanks! Wonder what would've happened if I had this info before buying so many fishes... I guess I'll have to save a little bit to get nitrite and nitrate tests.

About the overstocking situation, i guess you're right, there's so many fishes. Even though my gf is buying a 20 gal, so I guess I'm gonna give her the pleco, white tetras and the panda/tiger barbs...

Blub

sirdarksol

Unfortunately, a lot of fish stores seem to enjoy giving bad fishkeeping advice.

For ich, the best advice is to keep the temperature at around 83 degrees (F). I would not medicate (of course, you fish store will say you should, because they'll be getting money for you doing so).

I would get a little Tetra Whisper "i" series for the 1g tank. The tank won't really cycle without one (it just doesn't have enough surface area.
Good news is that hovering over the gravel is pretty common for a livebearer momma.
However, what do you plan on doing with the fry? Livebearers, if allowed to breed, will overstock all but the largest tanks in a few breeding cycles.

Excellent that the clown is going to a larger tank.
My opinion would be, for the 10g, to decide on one species (small tetras, such as the serpae or perhaps neons), and take everything else back.
For the 20g, I would suggest picking one species to go in with the pleco.
In both cases, you're likely to end up with fish that would prefer to be kept in groups of at least 6 (tetras like being in schools, as do barbs).

The "rule" that Hatchet refers to isn't a rule, but a guideline. The idea is to have no more than 1" of adult fish per gallon of tank. This doesn't work with some fish (such as plecos), due to the fact that they produce extra waste.
So let's say you were going with either Serpae or Neon Tetras in your 10g. Either one gets to be 1.5". You could then get six to seven of them for your tank.
Now let's say you were going to have tiger barbs in the 20g. Tigers get to be aggressive if kept in groups of less than six. They get to be 3" apiece, which gives us 18" of fish. The clown pleco adds quite a bit more waste, and so the tank will require extra water changes to maintain water quality (some plants will help this, as well).

However, nothing that any of us says is law. It is just suggestions based on what shared community knowledge (this community knowledge is pretty good, however). We want to see you succeed, and we want your fish to be happy and healthy, so consider what we say, do some reading on your own, and then make your own decisions.