Angelika

I posted this yesterday but havent been answered.

I posted last week that I had to go out of town and would it be oK to not feed my fish for a day... I was told yes it was fine...

So they got fed Fri AM... I came home Sunday eve and fed them then.... I had hungry fish and one of my glo fish had disappeared....

I have not had any problems in my 12 gal tank with my group of fish ... and they have been all together for about 2 months atleast...

I had:
1 pleco
3 platy
2 glo fish
1 angel fish

Anyway since I have been back I have noticed my angel fish who used to be teeny tiny 2 months ago and he is now much much bigger since I bought him, prob 3" ... anyway, he has been chasing the platy... and bumping them around... this morning I got up and found my pregnant little platy half eaten and floating at the top of my tank... she was completely fine when I went to bed...

Now my 2 remaining platy and glo fish are kind of hanging around in the plants....

what do I do..? is my Angel fish terrorizing them now he has gotten much bigger.... my catfish who is a chunky little guy seems to be un perturbed...

Shawnie

sorry for the loss of your fish but angel fish can be territorial and theres not enough room in a 12 gal tank for what you have stocked ....If you can, upgrade asap and if not, you might have to take your angel back ...as your angel grows, his fins will be stunted if theres not enough room to grow...the tall tanks are best for them...

sirdarksol

Angels can get violent if they don't have enough space. To have the room that they need to grow, angels should have a tank at least 29g (preferably the 29tall rather than 29long). Plecos actually need 55g or more to have room to grow. They produce a large quantity of waste for their size. This is likely stressing the other fish out even more, and likely is upsetting the angel even more.

The general guideline for stocking a tank is 1" of adult fish per gallon of water. The platies and glofish alone would pretty much stock the tank.
Many fish don't fit the guideline (angels and plecos are among these) because they are bulkier, or produce more waste. Other fish don't completely fit it just because they need swimming room (angels also are like this).

sgould

I agree...angels need a lot more room than a 12 gallon, for the reasons Shawnie stated. Also...what kind of pleco? If it is a standard pleco, they get HUGE, and definately should not be in a 12 gallon (55 minimum...75 would be better).

Angelika

thankyou everyone!!!!!!! now I will go get a bigger tank today... however what do I do in the meantime.... while a new tank goes through its cycle, can I speed it up?? will they be OK for another month while a new tank does its thing?

sgould

Do you have a power filter on the small tank that you could just move over to a new tank? Most of the bacterial colonization will be in the filter media, so by moving the filter you should be able to cycle the new tank very quickly. Another option would be to look for bio-spira to instantly cycle the tank...I believe it is now sold under the name Tetra Safe Start.

Angelika

my filter system is a sponge, then the water goes through a section of spikey black balls, then there are 2 bags of these white cylinder tubes, in teh middle of these bags is a bag of carbon, and then the water flows through all of this, then filters via a tube that aerates the tank.... could I get a tank, fill it up with water then move the fish, sponge, all the bags, plus spikey black balls.... I just dont want to kill my fish, especially my pleco and the angel fish...

COBettaCouple

I believe that you can get a water conditioner there called "Prime". It would be a great help with a new tank.

Until the new tank is cycled, you could do 50% daily water changes and treat all water with Prime. This should keep the fish safe while cycling. You could put extra filter sponges in your 12 gallon tank's filter for a week or so, then move them to the filter in the 29 gallon tank to speed up the process.