Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

[lmw80]

Ok! This post is for freshwater news! Stories - good or bad, bloopers, bargains, rip-offs....what-have-you! Anything goes!

 

[lmw80]

I guess I'll start, lol.

This story is called The Little Neon That Could

Many of you may have been reading about my boyfriend's and my 46 gal tank and all the problems we have had. We got the tank and fish for free...did a live fish transfer...an hour away! Set up the tank....we got a school of neons a little while later...they were all eaten except one! A little later on, we decided to try jumbo neons. They were all eated except the same little one! Well, we have sworn off neons for that tank, however, this one neon survived. We then had an outbreak of ich....which he had, and survived through too. Then we recently had a lot of fish dying....bad water perameters of ph and nitrates. My boyfriend.....althoug he regrets it now....added a whole bottle of PH up cause the PH wasn't going up. All those chemicals in the water....so, he did a 50% water change as an emergency. So, all the chemicals all the stress...lol, and this little neon has still survived. Well, we recently realized that our plastic plants were doing harm to our bettas fins, so we have put him in a quarantine tank...we decided to put this poor neon in with him so he wouldn't be all alone in that 46 gallon tank as the only neon! Well...we have since named him Clark (as in Clark Kent). Whew! And that is my story!

 

[harleychick]

We have a 70 gal community tank, with a 7" koi in it. Whenever we'd go to the LFS, DH would always see me looking at the schools of neons. I told him I always wanted a large school of neons. DH, who just recently married me and knows nothing of fish, decided to surprise me with 8 neons. Just came home and said "Look honey, see what I bought you." The instant they were let loose in the tank, the koi got a gleam in his eye and chased them into hiding in the plants. Needless to say, we only have 3 neons left now. Hubby knows a little more about fish compatability now.

 

[Oscar]

I have a 500 gallon FW tank in my small LFS. I have 3 8" Oscars, 1 24" Arrowana, a 9' Leporanus, 4 Very large plecos and a pair of large Blood Parrots. (Oh, and a very lare albino aquatic frog). I also have a gold Gourami and a medium Pink kissing gourami in there. (customers bring me "bully" fish or fish that are too large for their tanks.) One customer brought me a pair of convict cichclids which went into the tank. They have since had five broods. Amazingly, there are now three pair of breeding convicts in the tank. The parents keep the Oscars at bay as well as the Arrowana.
I think the key to everyones survival and seemingly peaceful co-existance is the size of the tank as well as the numerous hiding and breeding spots. The Blood Parrots have laid several batches of eggs, but no viable fry have been spotted to date.
One other point is that neither the Oscars or the Arrowana will accept live feeder fish as food. They both eat Cichlid pellets and live crickets. I put a bunch of feeders in the tank in January and had to take them out this summer to sell as large pond comets.

 

[SoCal]

I once had a jewel fish that jumped out of the tank and flopped around on the carpet until he was dry on one side, sticky on the other, and was no longer gilling for air. I don't remember why, but I decided to see if the fish could be saved, so I filled the bathroom sink with water added dechlore and began slowly pushing the fish back and forth in the water. After what seemed forever the fish started gilling on his own but laid on the bottom of the sink motionless. A quick trip to the pet store was needed to get something to help his slime coat, as he had lost ALL his slime because it was covered in lint and dried up. I put the fish in one of those separator cages that hang on the side of the tank and there he stayed for a month laying on his side only moving to get something to eat. The fish made a full recovery and was reintroduced into the tank. Ironically he was killed a few months later by a tank mate.

True Story

 

[Scott1980]

My first wierd experience consisted of adding 3 Tiger Barbs to my 10 gallon fw tank. Not a good idea. They ganged up on my African Dwarf Frog and ate the top fin completly of my Cory Dora. I finnally removed them and life is returning to normal and my frog quit hiding under the rock.

Scott

 

[lmw80]

OMG! Did the fin grow back on your cory!? I didn't know tiger barbs were mean.....I have never kept them.

 

[fishstixs05]

This is something very strange that I have yet to the solutiuon to. I have 4 tanks on a 10ft wall of so, a 29 gallon at one end, and a six at the other. I put in several neon tetras into my 29 gallon a few months ago, and they all did well. However the other day, i was cleaning my six gallon guppy breeders, and i saw a glint of something. I looked closer, and saw a neon tetra swimming around. I moved him back to the 29 gallon, and hes been fine. This thing really confuses me, the distance is too far for hime to jump, i dont transfer water between tanks. Also, none of my family knows enough about fish to do play a practical joke like this, theyd think they would accidently kill the neon. This is completely true, and ill give 20 kudos to anyone who can give a good explanation to this.

 

[Scott1980]

When was last time you bought plants. A friend of mine got a few free guppies one time when he bought some plants. They were tangled up in the leaves when the plant was taken out and put in the bag. He didn't discover it until he took the plant out of the bad and the guppies fell out.
By the way, it's only been a week since I took the tiger barbs out, but I'm sure the fin will heal nicely

Scott

 

[fishstixs05]

Thats possible, but the most recent plants ive bought havent had neons in the same tank, and others ive bought may have, but i would think i would notice the tera earlier. Also, its the same size as my other neons, and ive been missing some (thought they all died cuz of heatstroke).

 

[Spooky]

I just wanted to share my story of my fish Maxx. I bought 3 medium comets from petcetera afew years back, overnight two of them died ( I've never had much luck with fish from there) Maxx lived in a fish bowl, which I did water changes in every 2-3 days and would use a manual air pump to airate the water every night. I kept him for 3 months (during winter) then I moved cities. It was a long move, one full day of driving. Since I could not keep Maxx in his fish bowl for the drive, I took an empty glass bottle filled it with clean water and stuck him in the cup holder( quit looking at me like that, he was happy darn it ). On the way down, I blew bubbles in his water with a straw, and stopped every couple of hours to replace his water with clean river water. He survived the trip down and after we had settled in, I rewarded him by buying him a friend to play with. He lived happily for many months after that. He was such a tough fish *sniff* Now I have a proper 30 gal set up with 5 goldfish but I still have a soft spot for comets.