armadillo

Ah haaa! That's not fish aliens. Your fish simply kept stumbling in a rip in the aquarium's space-time continuum. I'll bet he kept coming in and out of the middle ages.

armadillo

Do others have precious lessons to share? I find so interesting to read about the things that happened to your fish in the past. I hope that way my little guys can avoid some well-known pitfalls.

armadillo

Oh nooo. My ambitious thread falls in the pits of oubli! :

No matter, I will keep attempting to drag it back from the dead!

So, any stupid mistakes like... Giving them chocolate biscuits as a treat?

COBettaCouple

You can put down leaving algae wafers in the water too long. A friend did that and the whole 29g tank died of nitrite poisoning. The effect is amplified in a tank of distilled (rather than treated tap) water, like she was using.

armadillo

Thanks, BettaCouple!!!

OMG, really? Too long as in 2 days or 2 months?

COBettaCouple

a few days is enough to start the deadly spike, maybe even as little as one. That's why the package says remove uneaten portions after 12 hours. In treated tap water, they seem to grow hair and the effect isn't as bad, but in distilled water, they swelled to mammoth size and killed everything.

Mike

Nice post armadillo - worthy of a sticky. There, stickied at the top of this board.

Thanks,
Mike

armadillo

Thanks, Mike. I'll keep it nicely maintained.

darkwolf29a

EXCELLENT article. Thank you for this one.

I'd like to add...I've come to the realization, one heater isn't enough...buy two smaller ones. If one goes crazy, the other will, pretty much, quit working so you won't roast fish. Boiled fish is bad.

Unreadable thermometer....no, no, no....Spend the extra money and go digital. I bought one, recently, for my 55, and I'll never own another type of thermometer....these things ROCK!!!!

armadillo

Thanks for your really good suggestions. Just added them to the first post.

Any other stuff you've learned from experience, and you know where to find me to share it!

Thanks again for that: here's hoping you've just saved 1000s of fish from frying with your suggestion!

tan.b

I've just stumbled across this thread from your signiture! what an excellent idea and even more excellent having it in your sig AND stickied!! not seen anything on the importance of acclimation (i may have missed it as multitasking at the mo!) but if not just to note how vital acclimation is. i lost 2 out of 5 male guppies in one batch then i bought anothr 5 and lost 4 of them. both times they died off within a week. i think it must've been too fast acclimation. the first time i was quite careful, but maybe not slow enough, 2nd time i floated the bag and asked my sister to add about a cupful of water to the bag and she accidently tipped the fish into the tank! too late then to do anything so just hoped for the best. what i learned....dont get someone else to do it for you (especially a clumsy sis ) and do it s-l-o-w-l-y. what i do is float the bag for about half an hour, then add a cupful of water every 20-30 mins until the bag is full THEN release the fish. since the guppy incidents i havent lost any more fish in the first week, but i'm always nervous for them during that first week . if not acclimated slowly the fish get stressed which inevitably leads to disease which can not always be cured despite our best efforts .

tan.b

would you mind if i printed this off and gave it out when i sell my fish? i was going to try and write something like this up as i want to make sure they go to a good home and get looked after! but if i can just pinch yours...all the better!!

armadillo

You're kidding? I'd be honoured!

Just entered your acclimation note in the first post. Thanks a lot for that!

armadillo

DarkWolf, I've bought digital thermometers and ... THANK YOU! They are accurate, quick, cheap and I can read them from meters away. Another step in my fish world, thanks a lot for the suggestion.

COBettaCouple

Yea, they're the best! and a great way to monitor the temp of tap water that you'll be treating and adding to the tanks.

tan.b

thanks, you're a star! yours is better than what i'd do anyway!! as well as my email i'll put fishlores website on it too, so if they have any probs with my fish or their tank they can get information and advice.

armadillo

You have a shop or you breed from home? Do you do it on a large scale?

tan.b

i wish !! i have 9 guppies (4 boys and 5 girls-wrong ratio i know.....cos the acclimation lost a few, so need to sort that out! no rush as they are all fine) and they have just started producing fry. my first batch of 15 are a month old and tetra sized and so i guess ready to flee the nest, but i'm struggling to part with them :. i cant possibly keep them as i have no space, and have about another 40 or so in the fry tank growing up :P. so if i give the new owners plenty of info i'll hope they'll get looked after!! i'm like a nerotic mother protecting her young!! they are on ebay, so should be re-homed next week. if not they'll be off to the LFS and exchanged for galaxies?!