My Gosh, How Do Ya'll Keep Up With Them?

I'm use to goldfish. I check their tank...1,2,3,4 ok, they're all there and happy. Breeding season, no baby fry to worry about. If they lay eggs, they eat them. Take a look at them for any strange disease while they slowly wiggle by me...just so cute! Then came the bright idea to start a tropical tank after listening to you all talk about all the different fish. What did you guys do to me? Now that I set up this tropical tank it's baffling. How do you keep up with 12 tetras, 7 guppies, 3 platy's, etc? Everytime I try to count tetra's, I can't find one or two. Yesterday I was sure a guppy had jumped out of the tank because he was nowhere to be found. Later on, he was back. I thought I saw a spot of ich on one tetra and tried chasing it around the tank with my eyes until I got dizzy. I swear, I sat for 45 minutes looking at every tetra that came by. It's impossible to watch them all. How do you guys do it? I'm afraid I'm gonna have a dead fish somewhere and not even know it. These fish are work! Then on top of that, you have to watch the livebearer females to be sure they aren't laying fry somewhere. When's a person suppose to sleep! My hat is off to all of you. ops:

 

we are all insane!

as in trying the same thing over and over again. Also, we are not used to the slow moving goldfish.

 

Well, move over because here I come!

 

Come on in to the tropical world! Don't try to justify it, just sit back and enjoy the show.

 

I can count and recount and never come up with the same number. Lol

 

I know what you mean. I try and count my chilI rasboras and I can never find them all .

 

Lots of recounting smaller fish. Also with my 9 bettas I look at each 2 minutes twice a day to look for anything wrong with them. And smaller fish like my minnows, guppys and snails are always fun to search for.... My crested gecko is easier to fin then the snails! (And that's saying alot!) When you have 7 tanks it gets interesting

 

you have 9 bettas? I only have 1

 

you have 9 bettas? I only have 1

lol and I still beg for more. It started with one then I wanted a friend for him (IN a separate tank) Then I had a extra tank, then I divided that tank for anther betta. Then I found 2 koi bettas which I have been looking for since I started. And then mom mom let me get 3 rescue betta. She told me when I had two that I could never have more. WELP she gave in and bought herself a fish too. 2/3 of my bettas are female though for a future sorority. #JustKeepBegging

 

If your tanks not overly crowded with décor just snap a quick pic then count

 

I have one 10 gallon with a male betta who likes to hide, a fat mystery snail whom I have no trouble finding, and 2 nerites who hide almost always. I'm planning on another ten with chillis and pygmy cories plus shrimp. Then a huge 55 that I'm keeping slightly overstocked. Yeah... thatll be fun...

 

I know what you mean. I try and count my chilI rasboras and I can never find them all .

Oh man, counting chilis is especially hard! Between how small they are and how heavily planted their tanks is, if I can count 50% to 80% of them I just assume the rest are fine! XD

 

I can count and recount and never come up with the same number. Lol

Me too!
Especially with nano schoolers in a large tank!

I spent 30 minutes counting them once!

 

I personally just assume that I have them all, and mine is Cherry Barbs at a young age.

 

They're often easier to inspect/count at feeding time when everybody is out and up.

You can also inspect them after a couple of hours of dark when they're asleep. It takes a few minutes for them to wake up after you turn the light on, or you can use a small flashlight- not so easy to count with a flashlight, but good for studying individual fish.

 

Glad to hear everyone deals with the same issues at least! Thanks for the tips too.

 

I don't really have a problem counting fish in my older tank. It's just like oh there's the betta, there's 8 rasboras, and there's 8 active corys. Of course those are all single digits numbers, and it's only a 20 long. Now my new 10 gallon build, I never know how many minnows (feeders) to look for because my crayfish is eating them at an alarming rate. Lol. Oh and of course nerite snails can only be found if they want to be.

 

Our rummy noses are super helpful the way they school and because we got them over time at different ages - the easiest to count! KuhlI loaches, however, are impossible because they hide behind or in the giant cave like decoration. we have 11 and have only managed to count to 10 once before we were uncertain if we already counted "that one." LOL if we see 7 out and about, we assume the rest are in there somewhere. and they do the happy dance during water changes so even when we move the decoration once a month to vac, they're too fast.

we do 28 day QT periods and watch them closely in those sparse tanks for any signs of disease. so by the time we add them, we are relatively certain they aren't sick. then we rely on our parameters to keep them all healthy because we have accepted that we can't count them all once they're in their home tanks.

I can totally relate to making yourself dizzy trying to count! we have 15 odessas in a heavily decorated tank. it looks like we have 30 during feeding time. we use the stick on the inside glass JBL novo feeding tabs. so they come right up and we should be able to count them. nope. they "share" taking nibbles of the tab and swim around in circles for their turn so that's when i've made myself dizzy.

 

If it makes you feel better I have 2 dozen shrimp who I never see lol. And my cories I can never seem to find either

 

Some of mine are easier to count because they number 5-6 and come forward in the tank when they see me (some still hide but they are new), my entire school of neons follows me when they see me, there are 11 or 12 of them (it is al ittle weird because most people have them slated as shy? but they all swim to the front of the tank and wiggle just like the ram pair in the tank).