Elderhaus
- #1
HI everyone!
Some background: I started working in an adult day program facility a few months back, and quickly realized the fish tank was in a miserable state. It was routinely dirty, the water evaporated literally half out several times in the space of a few months, and the only person cleaning it was an employee's husband who came on the weekend every month (or two) to clean it. Meaning the filters were changed at the same time as a full clean, if even that often. When I asked who fed the fish each day, most people gave me the name of someone who hadn't attended the program in two months. Eventually I was told they were fed "a few times a week" in really small amounts. No one knew exactly what kind of fish they were, either, though someone was eventually able to tell me there was a cichlid and some plecos. They were being fed a cichlid pellet and some non species-specific floating pellet.
With some digging, I was able to get species identifications for most of the fish. There is one Heros severum cichlid, who was a dull gray when I started, he's pale green and orange now. Two common plecos, 10 and 5 inches roughly. One Agamyxis pectinifrons pleco at about 4 inches. One 10 inch pimelodus blochiI catfish, one 4 inch synodontis possible hybrid catfish. His coloring is weird, so I don't have an exact ID. They're all pretty hardy, thankfully. They were aggressive and dull colored when I took over the tank, as they were underfed and the water was in poor condition.
For the past few months, I've been doing a partial water change (about 15% of the water) every two weeks and a deep clean once a month, removing about 30% of the water, scraping the walls, etc. I change the filter the following week, leaving the mesh part in. The heater that was in the tank burnt out and cooked the tank warmer than skin temperature when I was gone for a few days, but thankfully the fish recovered even from that stress. There are now thermometers and a new heater in the tank. I did a couple extra water changes that week and added clarifier and conditioner for a couple days. The tank is steady at about 78* F. I recently started feeding a bottom feeder pellet and algae discs, as the floating pellets weren't really getting down to the bottom. The catfish ate so much the first couple days of the new foods he's developed a visible belly. I just got a master test kit so I can track the water conditions, especially with the increase in their feeding, now that the plecos and catfish aren't living off scraps. I can post the results once I test it today or tomorrow if anyone is interested.
What I want to know is: is there anything else y'all would recommend be done for the tank? Will the large catfish hurt himself eating so much? He's been hungry for a while, I think, enough so that he and the plecos started coming up to the surface to try and get the floating pellets. I know I need to make sure there isn't an excess of waste being produced, but will his feeding drop off once he's had a week or two of sufficient food? I've had small tanks before personally, but never had catfish like this guy, or plecos so big. I'm going to be looking for a future placement for the common plecos, so that when I leave for grad school in a year or two I know they have a place to go when they outgrow this tank. Thanks in advance for any information you can offer.
Some background: I started working in an adult day program facility a few months back, and quickly realized the fish tank was in a miserable state. It was routinely dirty, the water evaporated literally half out several times in the space of a few months, and the only person cleaning it was an employee's husband who came on the weekend every month (or two) to clean it. Meaning the filters were changed at the same time as a full clean, if even that often. When I asked who fed the fish each day, most people gave me the name of someone who hadn't attended the program in two months. Eventually I was told they were fed "a few times a week" in really small amounts. No one knew exactly what kind of fish they were, either, though someone was eventually able to tell me there was a cichlid and some plecos. They were being fed a cichlid pellet and some non species-specific floating pellet.
With some digging, I was able to get species identifications for most of the fish. There is one Heros severum cichlid, who was a dull gray when I started, he's pale green and orange now. Two common plecos, 10 and 5 inches roughly. One Agamyxis pectinifrons pleco at about 4 inches. One 10 inch pimelodus blochiI catfish, one 4 inch synodontis possible hybrid catfish. His coloring is weird, so I don't have an exact ID. They're all pretty hardy, thankfully. They were aggressive and dull colored when I took over the tank, as they were underfed and the water was in poor condition.
For the past few months, I've been doing a partial water change (about 15% of the water) every two weeks and a deep clean once a month, removing about 30% of the water, scraping the walls, etc. I change the filter the following week, leaving the mesh part in. The heater that was in the tank burnt out and cooked the tank warmer than skin temperature when I was gone for a few days, but thankfully the fish recovered even from that stress. There are now thermometers and a new heater in the tank. I did a couple extra water changes that week and added clarifier and conditioner for a couple days. The tank is steady at about 78* F. I recently started feeding a bottom feeder pellet and algae discs, as the floating pellets weren't really getting down to the bottom. The catfish ate so much the first couple days of the new foods he's developed a visible belly. I just got a master test kit so I can track the water conditions, especially with the increase in their feeding, now that the plecos and catfish aren't living off scraps. I can post the results once I test it today or tomorrow if anyone is interested.
What I want to know is: is there anything else y'all would recommend be done for the tank? Will the large catfish hurt himself eating so much? He's been hungry for a while, I think, enough so that he and the plecos started coming up to the surface to try and get the floating pellets. I know I need to make sure there isn't an excess of waste being produced, but will his feeding drop off once he's had a week or two of sufficient food? I've had small tanks before personally, but never had catfish like this guy, or plecos so big. I'm going to be looking for a future placement for the common plecos, so that when I leave for grad school in a year or two I know they have a place to go when they outgrow this tank. Thanks in advance for any information you can offer.