Community Paranoia

I am really enjoying having new fish for my community tank, but it can bring me some paranoia. When you have a large school of smaller fish, it’s harder to count them when they move around so rapidly.

I bought twelve Cherry Barbs last Saturday, and they have been really nice for these past few days. I have a trouble counting them to know if I have all of them. I lost one the day after I bought them. I would like to see how these barbs will behave once they reach a larger size, at least to an inch in length. Currently, they are no longer than about 3/4 of an inch.

Now I can only count ten, not eleven.
I counted them all just today, but that may or may not have been a double count of one specific fish.

What do you guys do when you need to count the fish?

 

Settle down with a cold beverage and stare intently at the tank, sometimes they don't cooperate sometimes they do.

It's not unusually for individual fish to disappear for a while to reappear weeks later, my bristlenose plec is the main culprit. Equally counting my panda corys or black skirt tetras is difficult as they play amongst the plants.

 

Take a picture of the tank then count

 

What I do is
Step 1. Look in obvious spots
Step 2. Look around the tank
Step 3. Look In the Filter
Step 4. Look in decor
Step 5. Look In Plants
Step 6. look in substrate
Step 7. Scream as you have a teloporting fish and you missed out on all the money you could have made from selling it.
Step 8. Cry yourself to sleep

 

What I do is
Step 1. Look in obvious spots
Step 2. Look around the tank
Step 3. Look In the Filter
Step 4. Look in decor
Step 5. Look In Plants
Step 6. look in substrate
Step 7. Scream as you have a teloporting fish and you missed out on all the money you could have made from selling it.
Step 8. Cry yourself to sleep

For step 8 I find drinking myself into a stupor, then crying myself to sleep is equally beneficial lol

I also find staring at the tank with a beer very helpful. Somtimes my rummynose pause long enough for me to count, but its not often. Antsrule had a fantastic idea; take a picture and count from there

 

Settle down with a cold beverage and stare intently at the tank, sometimes they don't cooperate sometimes they do.

It's not unusually for individual fish to disappear for a while to reappear weeks later, my bristlenose plec is the main culprit. Equally counting my panda corys or black skirt tetras is difficult as they play amongst the plants.

If was only old enough, I could do that!

Take a picture of the tank then count

I'll try this!

What I do is
Step 1. Look in obvious spots
Step 2. Look around the tank
Step 3. Look In the Filter
Step 4. Look in decor
Step 5. Look In Plants
Step 6. look in substrate
Step 7. Scream as you have a teloporting fish and you missed out on all the money you could have made from selling it.
Step 8. Cry yourself to sleep

That works for me, except I always think if the fish had sunk, the bristlenose I have might have eaten the fish already.
I have a canister, which they cannot fit into the intake, and an HOB covered with a prefilter sponge.

 

if you can settle down with a cold beer. Settle down with a cold Kool-aid!

 

if you can settle down with a cold beer. Settle down with a cold Kool-aid!

I'd much prefer a Sprite or a sweet tea!
I'm sixteen, not quite old enough for beer.

 

Anyone still able to reply here?
Aqua Hands

The cherries are really acting better, frolicking and chasing each other.
They are trying to spawn, I have eight females, and two males.

 

This sounds like a nightmare... Counting fish in your sleep...1,2,3,4,.... head rolling back and forth, eyes revolving in their sockets behind eyelids ..5,6,7,8.... moaning no, no, ones missing... waking up screaming, in a cold sweat....

 

This sounds like a nightmare... Counting fish in your sleep...1,2,3,4,.... head rolling back and forth, eyes revolving in their sockets behind eyelids ..5,6,7,8.... moaning no, no, ones missing... waking up screaming, in a cold sweat....

Yikes! I managed to only count ten, can’t find eleven if he’s there.

 

What about trying to count them during feeding time or just after. At least they won't be hiding.

 

I agree with Sleepinghorse , you might have better luck with food drawing them to one place.

I have a school of 15 tiny tiny boraras maculata in with some other nano fish and I just don't bother with counting, it's impossible. I figure any dead ones will be spotted soon enough on the floor of the tank or in the filter intake where I've generally found dead fish in the past. Bigger schools of busy fish are HARD!

 

Anyone still able to reply here?
Aqua Hands

The cherries are really acting better, frolicking and chasing each other.
They are trying to spawn, I have eight females, and two males.

I don't see how they could have died. Just watch for them honestly. I have lost a whole blood parrot but found them later in decor half the size of them. They were living it up.

 

I have learned to take your time and look everywhere.

 

My Pleco usually beats me to any dead fish. As thick as my tank is its hard even to count the bettas and their different colors. Last time I counted my glowlights I have between 8 and 12 depending on which time I counted them.