Saltair
Aquarium Advice Freak
I am looking for a little help with my tank. I have a 30gal planted, but the plants at local stores have proven to be a problem for my low light set up and I am currently down to a healthy Java fern, and some sickly looking swords that really never should have been in there. The tank has been set up for about eight months and is cycled. Water parameters are 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and aprox. 10 Nitrate. Water temp is about 79. I am running an AquaClear 30 and a Quiet Flow10. I don’t change the filter media I just rinse them out from time to time in a bucket of tank water. The fish population is very low (see below) and water changes have been every 10 -14 days.
Three or four months ago the tank population was two female swords, Two Mickey Mouse Platies, Two Oto Cats, Two Bronze Cories, and a Clown Pleco. The first casualty was a tiny oto. The fish vanished in the tank, and I figured the remains fell victim to the Pleco. In September one of the swords was found dead one morning with her insides all eaten out, again I blamed the Pleco for the damage to the body. She had shown no indication of illness. In October the older of the Platies began to get really skinny then her breathing became heavy. I moved her to a QT and she developed a white mass around her gills before she passed. I began to worry at this point, but she had been with me for a year or so and had cycled my first tank, before I knew about the fishless cycle, as well as having been harassed relentlessly by a male platy, I eventually separated them, and giving birth to one batch of fry. She had had a rough run and I never expected to get a full life span out of her. Things went well until Christmas Eve when one of my Cories began to breath heavy and not move around much. I moved him to a QT where he died yesterday. The only symptom other than the rapid breathing was some eye pop just before the end.
So after the holidays the plan has been to rebuild the tank with some proper plants and new fish. I am concerned that there is a disease floating around the tank. The only common symptom from the last two fatalities was the rapid breathing and pop eye. The Cory was also an “original” and survived a tank cycle. There was also nearly two months between the deaths. The reason for the delay in doing anything with the tank has been the cost, and I don’t want to invest a lot of money into the tank if there is a problem. Is there anything to worry about here? Also does anybody have suggestions for an interesting and easy combination of fish? I am not interested in maxing out the tanks capacity, but I want it to be interesting.
Three or four months ago the tank population was two female swords, Two Mickey Mouse Platies, Two Oto Cats, Two Bronze Cories, and a Clown Pleco. The first casualty was a tiny oto. The fish vanished in the tank, and I figured the remains fell victim to the Pleco. In September one of the swords was found dead one morning with her insides all eaten out, again I blamed the Pleco for the damage to the body. She had shown no indication of illness. In October the older of the Platies began to get really skinny then her breathing became heavy. I moved her to a QT and she developed a white mass around her gills before she passed. I began to worry at this point, but she had been with me for a year or so and had cycled my first tank, before I knew about the fishless cycle, as well as having been harassed relentlessly by a male platy, I eventually separated them, and giving birth to one batch of fry. She had had a rough run and I never expected to get a full life span out of her. Things went well until Christmas Eve when one of my Cories began to breath heavy and not move around much. I moved him to a QT where he died yesterday. The only symptom other than the rapid breathing was some eye pop just before the end.
So after the holidays the plan has been to rebuild the tank with some proper plants and new fish. I am concerned that there is a disease floating around the tank. The only common symptom from the last two fatalities was the rapid breathing and pop eye. The Cory was also an “original” and survived a tank cycle. There was also nearly two months between the deaths. The reason for the delay in doing anything with the tank has been the cost, and I don’t want to invest a lot of money into the tank if there is a problem. Is there anything to worry about here? Also does anybody have suggestions for an interesting and easy combination of fish? I am not interested in maxing out the tanks capacity, but I want it to be interesting.
To be safe you could wait a couple of weeks and observe the fish you have now and if none develop issues then you can try adding more fish. What kind of Corys do you have? They like to be in groups of their own kind so first I'd add at least 3 more Corys. A shoal of fish would look nice as well; are there any schooling fish that you like? A group of Tetras maybe?
