Ahhh! Help! I Had Baby Yellow Labs ... Now What?!?

Oh my goodness, you wore me out just reading about what you have gotten yourself into I actually applaud you. I couldn't do half of what you are doing and still hold on to my sanity. I do hope you have some time left to just sit and enjoy what you have accomplished in such a short period of time.

 

I'm no expert on stocking, I'll let someone else deal with all that A thought came to my mind actually and I figured I'd share it with you! One big long, custom built (possibly a DIY project for the future) fish tank with dividers for all of your bettas. If they were there for some time and known to be disease free then you could hook it all up to one big filtration unit and heating unit.

 

I'm no expert on stocking, I'll let someone else deal with all that A thought came to my mind actually and I figured I'd share it with you! One big long, custom built (possibly a DIY project for the future) fish tank with dividers for all of your bettas. If they were there for some time and known to be disease free then you could hook it all up to one big filtration unit and heating unit.

I had thought about this actually but you hit my one concern...if one got sick, then they could all get sick. I did actually try this out with a 10 gallon and the plastic mesh you use for sewing yarn things as a divider, there are tons of DIY instructions on creating dividers... so I made it, there was no room around the edges or under, and I had the water level an inch lower than the top of the divider and even lined plants along the divider on both sides to block line of sight...but apparently I didn’t do a good enough job because on day one within 30 minutes of setting it up, my red Betta I put on the left was now on the right and annoyed as heck and I couldn’t find the blue one. I had color coordinated...so red had black and red, and blue had mostly blue, and all blue gravel...so I frantically looked for his dead body as I scooped red back to his left side...then I saw blue, in the bottom back corner behind a blue plant saving himself!

I had NO clue how that happened. So I was checking to make sure the divider was flush, no room to squeeze through against a wall and WHILE I WAS WATCHING the red devil JUMPED over the top of the divider back to Blue’s side! With me right there! He didn’t care!

So the cheap DIY doesn’t work. I’m sure a nice long or tall and long Custom tank would be great, I was surprised I couldn’t find Betta “condos” for many Bettas online that were cramped spaces but there were none. So I kind of got stuck with everyone gets their own home.

Oh my goodness, you wore me out just reading about what you have gotten yourself into I actually applaud you. I couldn't do half of what you are doing and still hold on to my sanity. I do hope you have some time left to just sit and enjoy what you have accomplished in such a short period of time.

Sorry for tiring you out reading my diatribes or fish-ssues (fish + issues...

You know I do catch myself just staring, like I said in a much earlier post on page one probably, an hour in the morning and an hour at night at least, often more times a day. But that’s partially me worrying and looking for something, anything wrong...sick, pale, dark, aggression, anything... but it’s also hypnotic, and I just watch how they all interact and behave... and for as many fish that are in that 75 gallon... the fact that I know most of each one’s personality, where their “zone” is...who their buddy/buddies are if they have them (blue dwarf gourami loves a yellow cichlid, angel loves my pearl gourami, original femal German blue ram is a bad SS and takes no poop from the alpha male twice her size nor the yellow cichlids, etc.) I just kind of know them now from spending so much time enjoying watching so many different species interact with their own, and with other species and how they communicate (I learned what laying sideways and tail curling meant for some...”I’m sorry, I’m submissive!”). But it’s still a LOT of stress. But they are beautiful and I have done a lot of work ... and I’m proud of that even if I haven’t done it all perfectly, I’ve done a lot and lost few and they all appear happy but as some of you said...despite good intentions, I have some errors to fix and I’m willing to do that.

Green above



Hanging out with the horses I ride always makes me feel better! From your pics, hunter, jumper, or eventer? I do hunter/jumper myself

Well that makes me feel better about the Otos. I had read that they weren’t hardy on many sites and they will quickly starve due to stress which is what kept happening...there was algae, algae wafers, zucchini, I even put a piece of rock decor in the sun to grow lots of good algae and still out of roughly 12, just one little survivor with a nice belly! The rest all died within days, I just watched them lose all their weight in a matter of days (and they were shipped from CA). LiveAquaria told me that they are usually hardy and that the bare bones quarantine tank might have been the problem as they like hiding spots and plants. The odd thing is 1) I read a ton that bare bones quarantine tanks were a good idea because it’s easier to clean and not complete sanitization between fish if something dies in one and 2) one of the other reps at that company also recommended bare bones QTs...so I felt that what I read and what I was doing was validated, until the other rep said that was probably why my Otos were dying. Only the one ever made it past 2 weeks to go into my display tank

And I know I’m not “murdering” those babies if I let them loose, I’m just simulating what would happen naturally...but I feel responsible, if I had been better I would have made sure NO breeding occurred, but I only recognized 2 of the 3 males to remove so that’s my fault. (I completely forgot to release the babies before I went to the barn, so now it has to wait until tomorrow. I can’t sleep with that on my mind. I’ll sit here any watch it happen if I do it tonight.)

Oh I didn’t know there were battery operated filters and such!! I’ll google/amazon search! I have extra filters for all my tanks in general in case one breaks, but nothing for emergencies.

Also being mistaken for young isn’t so bad! I’d love for people to think I was 22 again! Ok, maybe 25/26, but still! At least you won’t look 60 when you are!

I have done a little of all horse riding. Grew up western pleasure and barrel racing, started hunt seat at 16 and haven’t looked back. I’ve done hunters, jumpers, cross country, dressage (but not all three in eventing), fox hunted for 4 years, tried polo, and retrained off track thoroughbreds for 7 years. So a little all over the place! Glad to meet someone who does horses and somehow makes time for other pets! Do you show? Or do we need to keep this fishy?? Like I’ve said, this was my first time posting, I’ve only lurked and read since last summer. So I don’t know all the rules!

 

Oh my...that might have been one of the saddest things I’ve ever watched ... I think at least 10 of the 12 were eaten in less than a minute even though I tried sneaking them down into a good plant base for cover where usually only 2-3 of my fish hang out... but it didn’t matter. They all know I feed out of the net often (to make it easy to catch them).

It was a massacre. The worst was a German Blue Ram that I watch spit out and re-eat one.

Well, what’s done is done. RIP little dudes and dudettes.

 

Oh my...that might have been one of the saddest things I’ve ever watched ... I think at least 10 of the 12 were eaten in less than a minute even though I tried sneaking them down into a good plant base for cover where usually only 2-3 of my fish hang out... but it didn’t matter. They all know I feed out of the net often (to make it easy to catch them).

It was a massacre. The worst was a German Blue Ram that I watch spit out and re-eat one.

Well, what’s done is done. RIP little dudes and dudettes.

I know it had to have been very hard and hopefully it will be the last time you will ever have to do it but please know that you did the responsible thing. Sadly this is one of the things all of us have to do at one time or another. Through the years I have had to euthanize fish and each time is just as hard as the last time.

BTW: Feeding out of the net is the greatest idea I have ever heard about. I can see where it would make catching them a breeze. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Okay as one person asked and I’m sure you will all chime in on, listing tanks, fish, media, water parameters (be gentle on me, I’m thick skinned but I get very defensive if I feel anyone ever thinks I would harm an animal intentional or not put their best interests first. Prime example, random ambulance trip from work to ER found an issue with my heart and recommended me to see a cardiologist sooner than later. However I found out from my general vet a month or two later that my dog has s heart murmur and needs to see a cardiologist. I’m spending thousands of dollars on her heart because I come second to her. So please, no one think that I put myself in this fishy situation on purpose.)

75 Gallon 20”x 48” footprint

Water filters: **1 HOB penguin emperor 400 dual bio wheel with 4 media slots for 2 premade filters and two containers to make your own filter mixes (for up to 80 gallons); **1 Top Fin (forget model) fully submersible that is rated for a 60 gallon; one filter at each end of tank

Aeration: **3 aerator/bubble bars, 2 along the complete backside of the tank and one that fits the entire short wall on the far side (I left one short side without a bubbler bar in case some fish didn’t want the bubbles but wanted so go up and down a wall); ** three rock walls with air pumps integrated; ** 2 decorations with integrated air pumps

Heaters: two programmable (200w I think but not sure...the box said adequate for the size of tank and while I keep every box to everything I have, don’t want to dig them out right now) one from 70-86 degrees, the other from 68-90 degrees! I have one at each far corner of the tank.

Thermometer: yes, digital

Substrate: fine sand (white-ish)

Temperature: between 78-80 (usually 79.4)

pH: Looks 7.0 (I know it looks possibly 6.8 too but pictures and light distort things as we all know).

Ammonia: 0 ( near looks clear but again, it’s yellow. my apartment in 90% glass from floor to ceiling...these aren’t windows, they are the actual WALLS, so the excessive light from outside again makes this look lighter

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 5-ish?? (Yes I shake these bottle especially hard, I beat them on my stone coffee table as I read that the nitrate chemical can settle an throw tests off if not shaken extremely well!

And finally... Fish! (Most of these I posted pictures of)

1 mature pearl gourami
1 juvenile (5 months but nowhere the size of my beautiful mature pearl)
1 flame dwarf gourami
1 neon blue striped dwarf gourami
7 bloodfins
5 cherry barbs
4 zebra danios (maybe 5, one is always hard to find)
6 (3/3) pink and purple glo tetras
1 white angel
3 cockatoo cichlids, 1 mature male w/gorgeous coloring and two are juvenile (there is supposed to be a 4th juvenile but I haven’t seen him in two days, but he also hides in the Cichlid rocks instead of where the others like to hide)
1 Bolivian ram
5 German blue rams
3 electric blue rams
7-9 cory cats (2 albino, 1 emerald, 4-6 peppered)
2 neon tetras
3 electric yellow lab cichlids (1M:2F, total of 6 but had to move some to other tanks).

I would be looking for homes for the electric yellow cichlids. They likely won't work long term with any of your other fish. For the other fish, what species are you top choices? We can help you stock around those

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20 gallon rectangular (don’t know dimension off the top of my head...my 75 is my focus (I know it shouldn’t be but it is)

Water filter: penguin biowheel 200 HOB for 50 gallon tanks

Aeration: one decor with air pumps integrated

Heater: 1 200w programmable heater from 58-93 degrees set at 78 (bounces between 78-80 because of the temp in the house)

Thermometer: yes, digital

Substrate: white fine sand

pH: 7+
Ammonia: 0-.25 (looks yellow/zero in person)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20

Fish:
1 female convict
1 female electric yellow cichlid
1 yellow tailed aceI (cannot sex , thinking female though)

I'd rehome all of these fish as well. They rift lake cichlids won't do well long term in this stocking (I would expect fighting in the next few months if you don't rehome them), and they won't get along with the community fish. Convicts aren't always good community fish as well. Once you rehome all of these, it'll open up this tank for some of the fish from the 75 gal.
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20 gallon hexagon

Water filter: penguin bio wheel 200 for up to 50gallons

Aeration: one decor with integrated air pump

Heater: 1 200w programmable from 58-93 set at 78 (flux 78-80 due to house temp)

Thermometer: yes, digital

Substrate: white fine sand

pH: over 7
Ammonia:.0-.25. In person it looks yellow/0... this picture looks .25-.5 but that would mean there should be some nitrites and there clearly aren’t)
Nitrite: o
Nitrate: 5-10, closet to 5

Fish:
1 mature male blue gourami (4 inches)
1 mature male opaline gourami (4 inches)
They are almost identical in size, if they didn’t have slight coloring/spot differences I couldn’t tell them apart.

Hex tanks are hard to work with, as they have a small footprint and aren't suitable for most fish. Once you rehome some of your other fish, we can work out a stocking so that these guys will go in the 75 (they need a bigger tank than this) and some of the fish from the 75 gal can move into here.

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Two temporary 5 gallon cube tanks

Water filter: not sure, it’s built into the tank...if they ever break I’m screwed and have to replace the whole tank I think because you can’t get into where the motor is.

Aeration: none addition, lots of water movement from water filter

Heater: 25watt non-programmable heater set at 78 automatically.

Thermometer: yes, digital

Substrate: white fine sand

Water tests: I did not test due to time constraints (supposed to be at barn 3 hours ago) but I pull water from their original 75 gallon with every change so it should be very close to the 75 gallon tears

Fish:

ONE AGGRESSIVE MALE YELLOW LAB IN EACH TANK. This is temporary, 5 gallons each is small, I know. they are 3-4 inches each. I took them out about a month ago due to terrorizing each other, all my 9 rams and cockatoos would NOT swim around for fear of being ran over. Now that I’ve taken them out, those rams and cockatoos love swimming at all levels even though they are bottom to mid level swimmers by the book.

As you know, rehome them - tank is much too small for them. Then you can sell these tanks and make a bit of money, or use them for your bettas.

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5 gallon for my “fairy fish” (leftovers from my first tank of fish that you find at every LFS)

Water filter: not sure, it’s built into the tank...if they ever break I’m screwed and have to replace the whole tank I think because you can’t get into where the motor is.

Aeration: none addition, lots of water movement from water filter

Heater: 25watt non-programmable heater set at 78 automatically.

Thermometer: yes, digital

Substrate: white fine sand

Water tests: I did not test due to time constraints (supposed to be at barn 3 hours ago)

Fish:

3 white clouds minnows
3 golden white cloud minnows
2 little <1” orange mollies
1 long finned leopard danio

These are the fish with the cherry blossom tree in the picture in my previous post. I was really hoping to give these to my friend with the 4 yr old daughter too but no luck.

If you can't give them to your friend, I'd go ahead and move the danio to the 75 gal so he can be with friends, and rehome the mollies and minnows (unless you can rehome the cichlids in the 20 gal soon, then the minnows can go into the 20 gal long. The mollies can go in the 75 gal now.

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12 2 gallon tanks with Bettas
2 2.5 gallon tanks with Bettas

Not testing another 14 tanks but I just did a water change yesterday (2 hours!) and I test the water from the 10 gallon garbage can I use to mix their water solution with prime and stability and stresscoat and live bacteria mixed in so I can change almost all the tanks at once with the same temperature and same water chemistry.

Save yourself some money - don't bother adding Stability, stress coat, or live bacteria to these tanks if they're already cycled. Prime is all you need for a cycled tank.


THAT’S IT!!! THATS ALL! I QUIT!! Even just listing that out and testing three tanks took me between 1-2 hours now right???

Ok, go ahead and tear me apart!

See green aboe!

I had thought about this actually but you hit my one concern...if one got sick, then they could all get sick. I did actually try this out with a 10 gallon and the plastic mesh you use for sewing yarn things as a divider, there are tons of DIY instructions on creating dividers... so I made it, there was no room around the edges or under, and I had the water level an inch lower than the top of the divider and even lined plants along the divider on both sides to block line of sight...but apparently I didn’t do a good enough job because on day one within 30 minutes of setting it up, my red Betta I put on the left was now on the right and **** as and I couldn’t find the blue one. I had color coordinated...so red had black and red, and blue had mostly blue, and all blue gravel...so I frantically looked for his dead body as I scooped red back to his left side...then I saw blue, in the bottom back corner behind a blue plant saving his own a$$!

I had NO clue how that happened. So I was checking to make sure the divider was flush, no room to squeeze through against a wall and WHILE I WAS WATCHING the red devil JUMPED over the top of the divider back to Blue’s side! With me right there! He didn’t care!

So the cheap DIY doesn’t work. I’m sure a nice long or tall and long Custom tank would be great, I was surprised I couldn’t find Betta “condos” for many Bettas online that were cramped spaces but there were none. So I kind of got stuck with everyone gets their own home.


Sorry for tiring you out reading my diatribes or fish-ssues (fish + issues... :emoji_laughing.

You know I do catch myself just staring, like I said in a much earlier post on page one probably, an hour in the morning and an hour at night at least, often more times a day. But that’s partially me worrying and looking for something, anything wrong...sick, pale, dark, aggression, anything... but it’s also hypnotic, and I just watch how they all interact and behave... and for as many fish that are in that 75 gallon... the fact that I know most of each one’s personality, where their “zone” is...who their buddy/buddies are if they have them (blue dwarf gourami loves a yellow cichlid, angel loves my pearl gourami, original femal German blue ram is a bad SS and takes no poop from the alpha male twice her size nor the yellow cichlids, etc.) I just kind of know them now from spending so much time enjoying watching so many different species interact with their own, and with other species and how they communicate (I learned what laying sideways and tail curling meant for some...”I’m sorry, I’m submissive!”). But it’s still a LOT of stress. But they are beautiful and I have done a lot of work ... and I’m proud of that even if I haven’t done it all perfectly, I’ve done a lot and lost few and they all appear happy but as some of you said...despite good intentions, I have some errors to fix and I’m willing to do that.



Well that makes me feel better about the Otos. I had read that they weren’t hardy on many sites and they will quickly starve due to stress which is what kept happening...there was algae, algae wafers, zucchini, I even put a piece of rock decor in the sun to grow lots of good algae and still out of roughly 12, just one little survivor with a nice belly! The rest all died within days, I just watched them lose all their weight in a matter of days (and they were shipped from CA). LiveAquaria told me that they are usually hardy and that the bare bones quarantine tank might have been the problem as they like hiding spots and plants. The odd thing is 1) I read a ton that bare bones quarantine tanks were a good idea because it’s easier to clean and not complete sanitization between fish if something dies in one and 2) one of the other reps at that company also recommended bare bones QTs...so I felt that what I read and what I was doing was validated, until the other rep said that was probably why my Otos were dying. Only the one ever made it past 2 weeks to go into my display tank

And I know I’m not “murdering” those babies if I let them loose, I’m just simulating what would happen naturally...but I feel responsible, if I had been better I would have made sure NO breeding occurred, but I only recognized 2 of the 3 males to remove so that’s my fault. (I completely forgot to release the babies before I went to the barn, so now it has to wait until tomorrow. I can’t sleep with that on my mind. I’ll sit here any watch it happen if I do it tonight.)

Oh I didn’t know there were battery operated filters and such!! I’ll google/amazon search! I have extra filters for all my tanks in general in case one breaks, but nothing for emergencies.

Also being mistaken for young isn’t so bad! I’d love for people to think I was 22 again! Ok, maybe 25/26, but still! At least you won’t look 60 when you are!

I have done a little of all horse riding. Grew up western pleasure and barrel racing, started hunt seat at 16 and haven’t looked back. I’ve done hunters, jumpers, cross country, dressage (but not all three in eventing), fox hunted for 4 years, tried polo, and retrained off track thoroughbreds for 7 years. So a little all over the place! Glad to meet someone who does horses and somehow makes time for other pets! Do you show? Or do we need to keep this fishy?? Like I’ve said, this was my first time posting, I’ve only lurked and read since last summer. So I don’t know all the rules!

I got a battery powered air pump from Walmart very cheaply. Amazon or Ebay might have some cheap options too!

It's your thread, so we can derail a bit if you want I rode growing up, but I didn't show or take consistent lessons until the last decade. I've shown hunter for around 9 years now, and jumper the past few years. As a graduate student, I don't make much money, I don't have a lot of free time, and I don't have my own horses, so that really limits how much I can do. My trainer is amazing - she has a few horses that I exercise and show for her, so it's a really nice workaround for me. I ride 3-6 times a week and show the occasional weekend (hunter or jumper, depending on the horse) for her. I school cross country occasionally, have shown a bit in dressage, and tried polo a few times - they're fun, but hunter/jumper really interests me.

 

I know it had to have been very hard and hopefully it will be the last time you will ever have to do it but please know that you did the responsible thing. Sadly this is one of the things all of us have to do at one time or another. Through the years I have had to euthanize fish and each time is just as hard as the last time.

BTW: Feeding out of the net is the greatest idea I have ever heard about. I can see where it would make catching them a breeze. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thank you. I guess this is where that saying that goes something like “sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do” applies.
In all honesty I would have likely killed most of them by not having room, them fighting or stressing getting ill or any number of things.

And yes!!! Feeding from a net started with just a way for me to get food at all levels. I would hand sprinkle flake on top for my top feeders and my fast feeders, then I would put food in my smallest net and dip it in just enough so the food got wet and would stick to the net, once it’s wet I pushed I’d down to the mid level and swished the food out of the net so my mid and bottom level swimmers as well as my slower swimmers could eat. The danios, bloodfins and cherry barbs (and yellow cichlids) are just too quick at the top for everyone else. Feeding at mid level works fine for bottom level because they will swim up and it floats downs so everyone is happy including the cory cats. I do this with flakes, sometimes I make a medley of garlic flakes, the spectrum cichlid pellets, and I take a hammer and paper towel put a few veggie wafers in, food the napkin over and whack it a few times so they break up small enough to eat (gotta eat your veggies fishies!) and finally, the freeze dried shrimp (I crush them between my fingers so they are evasively. Not a single fish eats them if I just toss a little shrimpy in there... this was an “upsale” from the pet store guy when I was new...luckily I found that this way doesn’t waste them). Whether it’s just flakes or the medley I do once a week, it helps ensure everyone eats. I had one Bolivian Ram that didn’t seem to be eating a lot, slow swimmer and very docile, love him, so I started feeding the frozen blood worms out of that too so I could SPECIFICALLY make sure he is getting protein and stays fluffy weight-wise.

This is when I decided to see if I could feed them out of the net directly instead of swishing it around and it worked!

Anywho - long story longer... the striped danios, barbs and tetras were the first to start swimming right in the net, Dory the angelfish (because I swear she is a she and swims around with that blank “what was I just doing” look on her face) loves swimming into the net even when it’s empty, the electric blue rams and Germans swim in in pairs or more at a time, the gouramis swim in, which only works in my big net and is funny as **** when they try in my little net, and I FINALLY, taught the yellow labs to trust it enough to swim in.

But, the Bolivian has learned, when there are bloodworms in there, he knows I am specifically coming to feed him. He’s adorable.

It’s kind of like crate training in my head. If you feed them there, let them sleep there, etc., then a bad thing becomes a good thing and not so stressful!

If anyone knows how to post video from an iPhone to this forum I’d love to post a net feeding video! I keep getting an error that “your file doesn’t have an extension” even though the extension is written right in the error message! It’s a .mov file!

 

See green aboe!

Can you tell me how to do the quote thing so I can reply in color to you guys?

I haven’t forgotten about my thread. I’ve just been thinking about your questions and my responses.

I also think my fish know I have been talking about them and rehoming... I’ve lost 5 in 2 days now all from the main tank. (One of the fish I think I must have lost a few days ago, it was destroyed beyond identification). The rest I guaranteed all died since I reported my fish count two days ago, and all died on the same day. I cursed myself. Water is still good. No visible injuries, fuzz, worms, ick. I treated with prazipro just in case somehow feeding those babies to the tank gave them some parasite...but I know realistically that couldn’t have killed them overnight like that.

I might be being paranoid, but I swear feeding those babies to the tank poisoned them or they are committing suicide rather than being rehomed.

So the numbers in that tank have now changed slightly. I’m down:

1 neon blue dwarf gourami (which was a species I wanted to keep)
1 cockatoo (which was a species I wanted to keep)
1 neon tetra (was fine with whatever since there were only two)
1 pepper cory cat, which is EXTREMELY ODD, I’ve never lost a single cory.

1 unknown - I found the remnants of something , I suspect died within 2-4 days, trapped in a thick plant; I couldn’t even come close to telling what it is. And I did a fish head count and it seems like all my favorites are definitely here and all the little barbs and tetras are here in the right numbers. I’m not sure what fish it was, I’ll figure it out today by head punting again.

Anyway if you can tell me how to quotevand reply in colors, I’ll answer your questions.

I can tell you the cockatoos are keepers and it REALLY upsets me that he died because he’s one I paid a lot to ship from LiveAquaria in California. We don’t have any kind of “exotic” (for a lack of a better word) fish stores here so my cockatoos are some of my prize little fishies.

It sounds mean and I do love my gouramis but the neon, honey and flame DG are easy to get and $3-$7 each. My Pearl, opaline and Blur can be a little harder to find in the condition I want to see them in as healthy. I’ve come to VERY easily recognize sickly gourami and I’ve actually talked with the manager at PetSmart about the shipments they are receiving. They come in very emaciated and with signs of DGI already and I won’t buy them plus I alert the manager.

And then of course neons are a dime a dozen and the cory cats are easy to find so while I’m sad they died abruptly, I can easily replace them, but won’t since we are working on my stocking issues anyway.

But the cockatoos are not going anywhere and when all is said and done and I hopefully receive the help I need from you all, I will likely replace him. RIP little guy!

 

Just click on reply at the bottom of the post you want to quote. If you want to reply to more than one post in the same reply just click on +Quote and it will quote however many post you want to reply to in the same reply box.

The breaking up of the text in a post so that you can answer one section at a times is accomplished by adding [ quote] with the space removed at the beginning of the text and [/ quote] at the end of it for each section of text you want to answer. Hit enter once and start your answer. The color can be changed by clicking on the A with a line under it at the top of the reply box. HTH

I am so sorry to hear that you have started losing some of your fish. I can't imagine feeding them the babies could have caused it though so please don't start second guessing your decision to do it. It really was the right thing to do.

 

My warrior German Blue Ram female I have had forever has suddenly completely changed her demeanor overnight and is swimming wobbly, I put her in my running quarantine tank with meds and she almost immediately got worse so I quickly put her in a different little tank with water I pulled straight from her big display tank.

She’s going to die. What happened in a matter of days?!? What is going on. She is my absolute favorite fish. Omg I think she died...

This is all happening right now. She is laying on the bottle then jerks to swim and it’s wobbly then she sinks to the bottom. Omg I’m so sad I can’t help her at all. What happened?!? I killed her... she is dying because of something I did

shes done. That’s it. She just died.

 

Oh no, I am so sorry to hear this.

I know from reading about all you do for your water pets that you are taking the best care possible of them. Is it possible that your water company has added something to the water. Can you contact them to find out?

 

Where are you located. I don't understand why forum members do not enter where they are located. Helps when your trying to rehome.

 

Where are you located. I don't understand why forum members do not enter where they are located. Helps when your trying to rehome.

Northern Va

 

Sorry to hear about your Ram. I didn't see that post. Do you have water parameters. I am not sure about how many fish you have in what tanks. Are you over stocked. I know your trying to rehome some of your fish and it is a really hard thing to do most of the time. What and how many fish are you trying to rehome

 

So sorry about your poor German Blue Ram! Please don't blame yourself... apparently GBRs are very sensitive creatures who will expire mysteriously even for experienced fishkeepers. I actually found your post because I have been reading up on them today while considering stocking them in a new tank. But earlier today I read many, many articles and forum postings discussing how difficult people find it to keep them alive. So you should be commended for keeping her alive so long, especially with all your other responsibilities!

Could you try to sell some of your extra fish on Aquabid? I've never ordered fish (only plants and inverts) online but if you have, maybe you could reuse some of your old packing materials? Or ask people here for pointers on shipping fish?

 

Just woke up to a perfectly healthy cherry barb dead. That’s 6 fish in what... 3 days?

I’m going to test the water but I think I need to do a water change too. I don’t want to go too dramatic at 90% but something is clearly very wrong. It’s like I should have knocked on wood when I kep saying I haven’t lost fish in months and months. Jesus what’s is happening to my tank all of a sudden...

Any suggestions on how much water I should change because I’m bouncing between a normal 25% and a 90%.

Losing my little German blue ram female yesterday really screwed with me. And I woke up just now knowing I would find at least one more dead and I’m not even done looking.

None of my other tanks are affected...

I think I lost another German blue ram, I can’t find him. All 5 plus the 3 blues are always front and center for breakfast. Myvone femalecdied yesterday and I’m pretty sure this is the female mate to my largest GBR that I can’t find.

I’m going to tear this tank apart looking for her.

How do I change the title so more people can help with what suddenly happened to my tank in 3 days where I’ve now lost 6 confirmed fish, and looking for my 4 GBR?

My flame gourami looks pail in the face and is not acting right either. He’s hiding. I know if it were just one fish I should quarantine, but something is wrong with my tank suddenly.

Fishlore folks (friends?). Please please help me. Do I get more people involved in helping? The title doesn’t match what is going on now and I’m literally in tears right now. This does not help with my depression. Keeping them alive and watching how pretty they are calms me, the same as my horse. Watching them die for an unknown reason and now feeling like every time I go look at my tank that I’m going to find something dead, it’s wrecking me this morning. I know they are just fish and replaceable but failure is a huge issue for me and a big trigger for anxiety attacks and makes my depression worse (yes I do see a therapist... I have major depressive disorder and anxiety along with a few other things, so when my life is out of order, all of this becomes much worse. And I can’t let this get the best of me. I was laid off 12/01 and have been working to control the anxiety and depression and have a second interview this afternoon and I have to pull it together, but all I want to do it take care of my pets, my horse who has become dangerous to handle because depression stopped me riding and handling him for 5 months, my dog with a heart murmur and and extremely horrific allergic reaction that the vets can’t diagnose yet, a cat that is suddenly losing weight and my fish ... that as someone else said, we control and create their whole little world...well I’ve screwed up their world in 3 days and I need your help on how to fix it.

Someone please help.

Do I create a new thread?
Do I just stay here because you all know what’s going on?
Do I do a small water change? Large change?
Do I treat with something? But what? Because the cory cats and I think the oto are very sensitive to medications...

Testing water now.

The only think I did in the past three days is release a pepper Cory that was always in that tank, I had taken him out for weeks because he had gorged himself to where he couldn’t even lay flat on the sand, and he finally seemed normal size again so I let him back in the tank.

Did that do it? Did I infect my tank somehow??

PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME. I’m so sorry that I even started this thread because now I feel like a crazy fish lady and I’m too young to be this broken and emotional about fish

What the heck happened?! I just tested this a few days ago and nothing has changed in terms of me doing anything to the water!!

ph dropped to 6.8
ammonia at .50
Nitrite at 0ppm still
Nitrates are through the roof at 80ppm

Here are the results from the th and the current picture of results

 

I am only a well read beginner like yourself, but I suggest a big water change and take some fish out of the tank with losses? From my reading, GBR can't tolerate even the smallest amount of ammonia. Also if you have a dead fish somewhere in that tank, you need to find and remove it so that it doesn't add to the load.

Starting a new thread sounds like a good idea. You can link to this thread in your first post for those who need background.

 

I agree with tellin about starting a new thread and linking this one to it. Just copy the url to this thread and paste that link in the first post of your new thread.

Something is definitely going on in your well established tank to cause the ammonia and nitrate spike.

Have you tested your source water to see if something has change with it? Does your filter media need to be cleaned? As in taken out and rinsed really well in either tank or treated water?

My first line of defense has always been...See a problem, do a water change. It looks like you need a big one 50-60% at least but check your source water first to make sure it doesn't have nitrates and/or ammonia in it for some reason.

 

I can tell you the cockatoos are keepers and it REALLY upsets me that he died because he’s one I paid a lot to ship from LiveAquaria in California. We don’t have any kind of “exotic” (for a lack of a better word) fish stores here so my cockatoos are some of my prize little fishies.

We

It sounds mean and I do love my gouramis but the neon, honey and flame DG are easy to get and $3-$7 each. My Pearl, opaline and Blur can be a little harder to find in the condition I want to see them in as healthy. I’ve come to VERY easily recognize sickly gourami and I’ve actually talked with the manager at PetSmart about the shipments they are receiving. They come in very emaciated and with signs of DGI already and I won’t buy them plus I alert the manager.

And then of course neons are a dime a dozen and the cory cats are easy to find so while I’m sad they died abruptly, I can easily replace them, but won’t since we are working on my stocking issues anyway.

But the cockatoos are not going anywhere and when all is said and done and I hopefully receive the help I need from you all, I will likely replace him. RIP little guy!

I would start with rehoming all of the rift lake cichlids (yellow lab and acei) and the convict - they are the most difficult to stock around and the most aggressive. Rehome neons, danios, pearl OR blue/opaline gouramis, one dwarf gourami (or euthanize the sick one), 2-3x German blue rams (I don't think you have room for all 8 with the cockatoo cichlids), and one cory species (either emerald or albino bronze).

Something like this should be fine:
20 gal hex:
6x White cloud minnows
6x Peppered cories
1x Dwarf gourami
Keep temp at 74 F

20 gal (is this a long or tall?):
6x Glo tetra
7x Bloodfins
1x Bolivian ram
Keep temp 74 - 75 F

75 gal:
2x Pearl gourami OR 2x blue/opaline gourami (don't keep together - will bully each other)
1x Angelfish
5x Cherry barbs (increase to 8 or so)
2x Mollies
3x Cockatoo cichlids
4-5x German blue rams
6-8x Cories (just one species, either albino bronze or emerald, add more of the same species so you have 6-8 of one species)
Keep temp at 79 - 80 F

The extra 5 gals can be used for QT tanks or keep one for QT and you can upgrade two of your bettas to the other two 5 gals.

I think I lost another German blue ram, I can’t find him. All 5 plus the 3 blues are always front and center for breakfast. Myvone femalecdied yesterday and I’m pretty sure this is the female mate to my largest GBR that I can’t find.

I’m going to tear this tank apart looking for her.

How do I change the title so more people can help with what suddenly happened to my tank in 3 days where I’ve now lost 6 confirmed fish, and looking for my 4 GBR?

My flame gourami looks pail in the face and is not acting right either. He’s hiding. I know if it were just one fish I should quarantine, but something is wrong with my tank suddenly.

Fishlore folks (friends?). Please please help me. Do I get more people involved in helping? The title doesn’t match what is going on now and I’m literally in tears right now. This does not help with my depression. Keeping them alive and watching how pretty they are calms me, the same as my horse. Watching them die for an unknown reason and now feeling like every time I go look at my tank that I’m going to find something dead, it’s wrecking me this morning. I know they are just fish and replaceable but failure is a huge issue for me and a big trigger for anxiety attacks and makes my depression worse (yes I do see a therapist... I have major depressive disorder and anxiety along with a few other things, so when my life is out of order, all of this becomes much worse. And I can’t let this get the best of me. I was laid off 12/01 and have been working to control the anxiety and depression and have a second interview this afternoon and I have to pull it together, but all I want to do it take care of my pets, my horse who has become dangerous to handle because depression stopped me riding and handling him for 5 months, my dog with a heart murmur and and extremely horrific allergic reaction that the vets can’t diagnose yet, a cat that is suddenly losing weight and my fish ... that as someone else said, we control and create their whole little world...well I’ve screwed up their world in 3 days and I need your help on how to fix it.

Someone please help.

Do I create a new thread?
Do I just stay here because you all know what’s going on?
Do I do a small water change? Large change?
Do I treat with something? But what? Because the cory cats and I think the oto are very sensitive to medications...

Testing water now.

The only think I did in the past three days is release a pepper Cory that was always in that tank, I had taken him out for weeks because he had gorged himself to where he couldn’t even lay flat on the sand, and he finally seemed normal size again so I let him back in the tank.

Did that do it? Did I infect my tank somehow??

PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME. I’m so sorry that I even started this thread because now I feel like a crazy fish lady and I’m too young to be this broken and emotional about fish

What the heck happened?! I just tested this a few days ago and nothing has changed in terms of me doing anything to the water!!

ph dropped to 6.8
ammonia at .50
Nitrite at 0ppm still
Nitrates are through the roof at 80ppm

Here are the results from the th and the current picture of results

I'm sorry you're losing fish. They could be dying from the sudden drop in pH and the loss of your cycle (ammonia and high nitrates can kill your fish). Reducing the stock of your tank will help reduce the amount of waste in the tank and help protect your fish. Large and frequent water changes will also help a lot.

Do you know the KH of your water? How often are you doing water changes now?

 

Test the Kh of your tap water and your aquarium water... I'd also run ammonia and nitrate tests on your tap water as well. Are you using any kind of ph up or down type products in your tank? That might have some sort of impact as well.

 

Found her. She’s not going to make it. She was fine yesterday just like the one before... now the same thing. Laying on bottom

I just made a dying fish post... here

She’s still breathing really fast and her color is super dark.

Test the Kh of your tap water and your aquarium water... I'd also run ammonia and nitrate tests on your tap water as well. Are you using any kind of ph up or down type products in your tank? That might have some sort of impact as well.

I only very occasionally have to use proper 7. My water out of the tap is actually really good last time I tested it maybe 6 weeks ago. I was shocked. And I actually use baking soda rather than the proper 7pH. The bottle seems to want you to use a LOT of that chemical to get the pH to 7, and I only have to use very little baking soda to get it to 7. I barely touch the pH.

As far as the hardness (kH right?, I don’t have a liquid test for that
I only have the little strips that have that reading but I know they aren’t very reliable. I still know the water is hard by the color indicator, but I do use peat to help soften the water, but all the fish lived in that water for 4-5 months without peat because it took me a long time to read about how to soften water and there arguments online about how drift wood killed some peoples fish, and a RO is way too expensive for me and I think I would screw something up, then I could peat pellets and not too many people argued about those except that they said it tinged the water a tea color.

Oh no, I am so sorry to hear this.

I know from reading about all you do for your water pets that you are taking the best care possible of them. Is it possible that your water company has added something to the water. Can you contact them to find out?

I can try. I don’t even know who my water company is. It’s all billed through my apartment. I’ll ask tomorrow. They are closed now.

I would start with rehoming all of the rift lake cichlids (yellow lab and acei) and the convict - they are the most difficult to stock around and the most aggressive. Rehome neons, danios, pearl OR blue/opaline gouramis, one dwarf gourami (or euthanize the sick one), 2-3x German blue rams (I don't think you have room for all 8 with the cockatoo cichlids), and one cory species (either emerald or albino bronze).

Something like this should be fine:
20 gal hex:
6x White cloud minnows
6x Peppered cories
1x Dwarf gourami
Keep temp at 74 F

20 gal (is this a long or tall?):
6x Glo tetra
7x Bloodfins
1x Bolivian ram
Keep temp 74 - 75 F

75 gal:
2x Pearl gourami OR 2x blue/opaline gourami (don't keep together - will bully each other)
1x Angelfish
5x Cherry barbs (increase to 8 or so)
2x Mollies
3x Cockatoo cichlids
4-5x German blue rams
6-8x Cories (just one species, either albino bronze or emerald, add more of the same species so you have 6-8 of one species)
Keep temp at 79 - 80 F

The extra 5 gals can be used for QT tanks or keep one for QT and you can upgrade two of your bettas to the other two 5 gals.





I'm sorry you're losing fish. They could be dying from the sudden drop in pH and the loss of your cycle (ammonia and high nitrates can kill your fish). Reducing the stock of your tank will help reduce the amount of waste in the tank and help protect your fish. Large and frequent water changes will also help a lot.

Do you know the KH of your water? How often are you doing water changes now?

As far as the hardness ( right?), I don’t have a liquid test for that I can go to Petsmart right now and get one if they have one... should I?

I only have the little strips that have that hardness reading but I know they aren’t very reliable. That’s why I bought the master kit. I still know the water is hard by the color indicator on the crappy strips, but I do use peat to help soften the water, but all the fish lived in that water for 4-5 months without peat because it took me a long time to read about how to soften water and there arguments online about how killed some peoples fish, and a is way too expensive for me and I think I would screw something up, then I could peat pellets and not too many people argued about those exceptthat they said it tinged the water a tea color.

 

Low kh readings can make your ph swing, which can make your cycle crash in your tank. If your tap water is below 7 for Ph, then I suggest stop using the baking soda, the (everything really) and go get a bag of crushed coral or aragonite to add to your filter to make your kh higher (this will help buffer your water and keep your tank from crashing).
The ph from my tap water runs 8.2-8.4, I don't use anything to lower it at all!
Kh is carbonite hardness
Gh is general hardness

Kh is what keeps the tank from crashing

 

Are yellow labs a kind of cichlid?

 

I can’t get a good picture yet the best you can see is the biggest fuzzy at the top of his back near his dorsal fin

Are yellow labs a kind of cichlid?

Yes... and yes I know most everyone thinks they don’t go in this tank. We were discussing that in another thread but sickness overtook that discussion when I suddenly lost 7 fish in a few days.

And they have been fine at pH7 even though everything says higher ph for them. They aren’t killing anyone and they have thrived for 6 months like this so having them in the tank is my second priority right now. We will continue discussing rehoming, rearranging and stocking after my fish stop dying.

I can’t get a good picture yet the best you can see is the biggest fuzzy at the top of his back near his dorsal fin

Are yellow labs a kind of cichlid?

sorry!!! I have two threads going! Thoughtyou were responding on my sick fish thread!