My teacher quit and left his fish!

Hi, recently my science teacher quit and left behind 4 tanks.

Tank 1 is a 10-15 gallon tank with 4 or 5 tiger barbs, 2 bronze cory cats, 2 emerald cory cats ,2 koi angelfish originally 4, 3 or 4 red eyed tetras, and I think some hatchet fish and one pleco. 71 avg. temp and ph is 6.9-7.0 with a 10 gall. filter

Tank 2 is a large 55-65 gall tank with 3 three spotted gorami ,6-7 cichlids, 2 pictus cats with some red stuff one their pectoral fins, a large 1 3/4 feet long pleco that is turning white. I've tried to find what it is, but there is no fungus on him. Temp is kinda low at 69.9 we have two ten gallon heaters in it, and a great large 120 gallon filtration system

Tank 3 has calico, 1 oranda, 1 black moor telescope goldfish, and a pleco

Tank 4 is a turtle tank but we are giving them away to a nature center

All tanks were never well taken care of when we cleaned them we wore masks. Dead fish and stuff had settled to the bottom.

We don't want to spend two much money. We would really like some good advice.
Thanks, cooper

 

I take it your brining these tanks home?
First thing would be to drastically reduce the live stock. That ten gallon in very overstocked. The 55 gallon seems fine, minus that huge pleco.
How large is tank 3?

 

If you're keeping the tank at home or school, first thing I'd suggest is taking out the fish and putting them in a bucket. Save the water in the bucket (do one tank at a time) and thoroughly clean everything. Siphon the bottom of the tank, clean the filter and replace any media in there.

Now, you'll want to reduce the stock in the 10 gallon. I can't even imagine having that many fish in there. Raise the temp in tank #2, get rid of that pleco (take him to a fish store, mine in my town do adoptions), and put some of the fish from your 10 gallon into that tank.

You may want to split the 10 gallon stock between the 10 gallon, tank #2, and the turtle tank. Use to get a rough idea of what's an ideal range.

 

If you're keeping the tank at home or school, first thing I'd suggest is taking out the fish and putting them in a bucket. Save the water in the bucket (do one tank at a time) and thoroughly clean everything. Siphon the bottom of the tank, clean the filter and replace any media in there.

Now, you'll want to reduce the stock in the 10 gallon. I can't even imagine having that many fish in there. Raise the temp in tank #2, get rid of that pleco (take him to a fish store, mine in my town do adoptions), and put some of the fish from your 10 gallon into that tank.

You may want to split the 10 gallon stock between the 10 gallon, tank #2, and the turtle tank. Use to get a rough idea of what's an ideal range.

Maybe I don't understand, but under no circumstance should clean all the filters at the same time, nor the filter media unless it is for mechanical filtration, and at this point is sounds as as that is the worst. If you clean every thing with tap water, you will kill all the good bacteria and the tanks will have to cycle all over again.

 

Maybe I don't understand, but under no circumstance should clean all the filters at the same time, nor the filter media unless it is for mechanical filtration, and at this point is sounds as as that is the worst. If you clean every thing with tap water, you will kill all the good bacteria and the tanks will have to cycle all over again.

Pardon me, my mistake. I'm currently at work and multiple things are happening (don't tell my boss!). I generally take out the filter media THEN clean any excess gunk from the inside of the mechanical filter system. If there are dead fish/rotting food at the bottom of the tank, I bet the inside of the tank is filthy as well. After you do that, look at the media and remove any access gunk. Then replace it and let your tank's biological colony grow for a couple weeks. Then I would look at replacing that media.

This is how I've cleaned tanks that friends/family have let get out of hand and we've experience no mini-cycles or fish deaths in this time!

 

HA! I won't tell your boss if you don't tell mine! I do the same, the important thing is to keep the established filter media in clean dechlorinated water!

 

I would get rid of all of the plecos. Chances are that they are all common which grow over 2feet and will eventually suck the fishes slime coats off.

I would move the Angels and tiger barbs in your 10 gallon to the bigger tank and figure out a larger tank for the cories as well(if it's a 15 gallon it may be okay but bigger is better). Raise the temp in the large cichlids tank to 76-80 slowly over several days.

Depending on what size of goldfish tank, you may need to get rid of a couple as well. With 5 Goldie's you'll want atleast a 55 gallon if not larger.

If the turtle tank is larger than 10-15g, I would move the 10-15g fish into it.

I'm not sure how much you know on fish either, but you'll want to know the nitrogen cycle if you don't already. Good for you for taking over these tanks and coming here for some help!

 

Welcome to the forum.


What an irresponsible man he is. Good riddance. Good advice so far regarding stocking - the 10 gal is in turmoil, but can be saved. As for the bigger ones, a few minor alterations and all should be well. Good luck!

 

Thanks we have cleaned the tanks all ready. But we don't have all the right filters so we just rinse them instead of replacing them. Also what are some good fish to help clean up the tanks. I don't have time to clean tanks often with band and choir. Ps they are in a middle and high school class room and need to be easy to take care of. Thanks again

 

I think there are more pressing issues at hand than "what fish to add in".

In my humble opinion, if there is no-one who can donate a proper amount of time and effort to the tanks and their inhabitants upkeep, I would suggest they be relocated to a more suitable home. Just my thoughts.

 

Adding fish will only make it harder to clean. If you want an easier tank to care for, decrease the bioload by getting rid of some fish.

If there is algae, use a scraper or scrubber brush. If there's poop buildup, do a gravel vacuume water change.

 

I'm surprised that no one said has this already, but it's a shame that a science teacher didn't do his research to make sure the fish he was keeping were in appropriately-sized tanks and at appropriate stocking levels.

 

^agreed. I have a teacher with a tank that looks about 20 gallon wih gravel 3-4inches deep and several African cichlids in it that are always chasing eachother around. Atleast 6-10 of them and what looks like an upside down cat or something and a few other random fish. The tank decor is covered with brown algae and I'm pretty sure he went from August until Christmas break without cleaning it(just refilling once and a while) the filter barely trickles water and it's just dirty. I feel bad for them:/

 

As someone said earlier in this thread, I can't even fathom that many fish squeezed into a 10 gallon tank. I think the best option would be to rehome all or nearly all of the fish, scrub the tanks down with algae scrubbers and/or distilled white vinegar and start over.

I don't think they would be well taken care of in a busy school environment where everyone generally has other things on their minds and a multitude of different people with little knowledge of fish are likely to be left in charge of their upkeep.

As I said, surely a man with a background in science who knows the importance of research should have known better than to leave his fish in that state and behave so irresponsibly.

 

In my opinion, the fish need to be all re-homed. Sell the tanks and filters and donate the money to the student or parent council. In a school setting it can often be very difficult to provide the proper time and effort for the fish to live an optimal life. Fish tanks are great to use as a tool for teaching but it is something that requires time, effort and money. All of which an administrator at the school is not going to be willing to provide. For the sake of the fish and the staff of the school, the tanks should be dismantled.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

Agreed. I'd rehome all the fish and dismantle the tanks. You said yourself you don't have time for tank maintenance. If you REALLY want a fish, maybe try the ten gal with a betta (with filter and heater). If you can keep up with that, then think about stocking the other tanks.

 

Me and three others meet once a week. We clean talk about the issues and continue research. Our new teacher does a great job of taking care of them. We feed them every morning and night.

Also we can not keep the tank the turtles are in.
Ps we got rid of the large pleco it measured 2.1 ft. The classes do not want to get rid of the other two.




Oops forgot...the school wants to use the tanks for ' educational propose' how can I do this I know a little about fish but not that much.

 

if the school really wants a tank for educational purposes, I would have them get rid of all but the largest tank with the cichlids. Give away or sell the 10 gallon and the goldfish tank with its fish and get a better heater for the large tank. Then you can reevaluate the stocking level for that tank and it will be a lot easier to care for than 3 separate tanks.

With that many fish in those tanks, feeding them once a day or even every other day will help keep the nitrate levels down which will help minimize cleaning responsibilities.

If the other two plecos are common plecos, they will get just as big as that one did and will begin to attack the other fish by sucking on their slime coats. This can kill the others. If your friends want a pleco, I would suggest a bristle nose or a rubber lip. Though, the 10 gallon is too small for either in my opinion.

If your school wants to keep the 10g, maybe look into rehoming all of those fish(or moving some to the big tank) and restocking it with either a single betta, or several male guppies. Either of these are colorful, fun to watch, have good personalities and are generally hardy and easy to care for.

For educational purposes, you could make a sign about the nitrogen cycle and have everyone learn it or something, and teach them that fish can not live in bowls and why this is. (Fish poop, create toxic ammonia, and kills fish in bowls. With tanks, the filter grows good bacteria that turns the ammonia to less toxic nitrite which then turns into safe nitrate.) you could also get an API liquid test kit and measure the tanks chemistry levels.

Good luck! Hope this all helps!

 

Love all those ideas thanks so much

 

For educational purposes, you could make a sign about the nitrogen cycle and have everyone learn it or something, and teach them that fish can not live in bowls and why this is. (Fish poop, create toxic ammonia, and kills fish in bowls. With tanks, the filter grows good bacteria that turns the ammonia to less toxic nitrite which then turns into safe nitrate.) you could also get an API liquid test kit and measure the tanks chemistry levels.

I think this would be a great idea for a high school chemistry class. I wish I had something like that when I was in high school.

 

For educational purposes, you could make a sign about the nitrogen cycle and have everyone learn it or something, and teach them that fish can not live in bowls and why this is. (Fish poop, create toxic ammonia, and kills fish in bowls. With tanks, the filter grows good bacteria that turns the ammonia to less toxic nitrite which then turns into safe nitrate.) you could also get an API liquid test kit and measure the tanks chemistry levels.

Good luck! Hope this all helps!

This is a great idea. I was just discussing this with my 11 grade son, and he started telling me about the cycle as he learned in in class!

 

I just wanted to say welcome to the forum and glad you're here. Alison

 

thanks!