New with questions ;)

Okay, so I found a really neat fish store and the lady raises them herself and has some beautiful fish so I went with her word but let me start with why I went for more fish in the first place... I bought a 55 gallon tank for my kiddos, it came with two bigger kissing fish, I'd say just smaler than my hand. One died in the move from one house to the other. I went to Petsmart and bought 4 black finned sharks and a pleco. Then, I found myself a really neat electric blue crawfish on Ebay, really pretty BTW. Everything went fine until I went to change part of the water. In our town, they do a monthly dump of chorine into the water supply and I hit that time of the month. I watched my four sharks die right in front of me . The kissing fish was fine and so were the pleco and crawdad. So I found out about this woman and how wonderful her fish store is and went. I came home with two irrodecent sharks, two goramis(sp?), and a massive huge Oscar. I informed her of what I already had in the tank and she said the only thing to watch for was the crawdad nipping at the Oscar since he likes the bottom. The Oscar ATE half of each of the sharks and ate my expensive crawdad. I took him back and she sent me home with more fish. I wanted to list what I currently have in there to make sure I'm okay with what I have, if I could get more or what. I have... the (now large) pleco, the big kissing fish, the med. two goramis, three tiger barbs, three green barbs, two long finned rosy barbs, and a male and female crab. The barbs have all been swimming together except for the rosy ones who swim all over the place independently and they have all been together about a week now and no misshaps yet or picking or anything. The tank has air stones, roman collumns, a pirate ship, lots of fake and real plants, and both sand AND gravel. Anything I should be worried about? Could I add more? What should I add if so? Never had this big of a tank and after all these misshaps, devestated BTW- my sharks were getting really big an I LOVED my crawdad-I really do not need to make any more mistakes. Any suggestions?

 

I think the lady should of warnded you about the oscars size they get huge I think your pretty stocked and I would add any more fish plecos growe about 20 inches I believe I wouldtake it back when fully grown could u post some picks?

have u got a test kit?

if u do what were ur readings?

if u don't have one u need one

that's about it for the moment

Peace Out Callum!

 

Do you know about the nitrogen cycle? What is the pH, Temperature, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? Have you put chlorine remover in your water? What are your current fish? You may be way overstocked.

Beeboy

 

I'm getting some immages uploaded, might take a while because my camera's kind of high pixel... sometimes I wish a had a dinky one lol. Anyway, I did use the stuff in the tank to take the chlorine out... ACE brand... says it eliminates Ammonia, Chloramine, and chlorine. I also have a PH tester and it says it's within the 6-7 range. The tank's temp is set at 77 degrees. That's all I can tell you about that. It's a 55 gallon tank so it's pretty big, by my standards lol. Also, the fish will only be in there for another 9 months.. we are moving accross country by then, hubby has orders. I have homes for the fish then so I am thinking they won't get huge huge by the time we leave? Most, I was told will stay smaller... here's some picks...

 

Some more pics...

In these two you can see the pleco a little...






And my other two gouramis...

 

the last pic looks like an electric blue and another malwaI chiclid which need a much higher Ph 8 is ideal for malwaI chiclids

Peace Out Callum!

 

Thanks Callum, I wasn't even sure what I had... she gave the fish to me for returning the Oscar... Am I right with calling this fish a long finned rosy barb?




This is my pleco...




And My whole tank...(ignore the St. Bernard Drool on the right hand side lol...)

 

yep ur right a long-fiied rosy barb

if u want colour u can't get any better than malwaI chiclids they are goergues red blue yellow orange all diffrent colours and a 55 gall could hold about 6 malwaI chilids in it if u decid to take back the fish and get malwais check this site out



Peace Out Callum!

 

Thanks Callum, I ried to click the link but it wouldn't take me anywhere, it said it was an unknown something or other. Do you think I'm over capacity? I actually do like the barbs, they give a lot of movement to the tank where as the blue guy with the orange fins likes to hang in the back, the electric blue one liks the crevice of the ship and the pink kissing fish likes the one side, as you can see in the pics... the barbs are all over the place and eating frenzy when my kids fead them... that was the other thing, the lady at the fish shop said I over feed them, I let the kids feed three or four times a day and we've cut that to one or two times a day. They are getting frozen brine, flake, and a sinking pellet for the crabs too... the pink guy likes the sinking stuff as well lol...

 

opps spelling mistake heres the link again

I would take the pink kissing gourami and the barbs back and put in some malwaI chiclids they really have lovely colour

if u took them back u could add an electric yellow, Otopharynx lithobates, Pseudotropheus demasonI but u browse see what u think

but I highly recommend taking them back because malwais like a much more alkaline PH

Peace Out Callum!

 

Plecos actually grow to be 3 feet big and in my opinion needs to be in tank no smaller than 100 gallons (though it will be fine until gets larger). Also I'm shocked at the fish lady who raises the fish and doesn't realize oscars will eat just about anything in their path.

 

they actually need about 55 gall and grow 20 inches

Peace Out Callum!