couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
lol, its ok, as long as its hockey and not WNBA or whatever other gay sports there are! lol, sorry to all you WNBA fans, but god, you need to get a damn life
new tank, less than a week old, too many fish
- Thread starter couplescaddy
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
youronlysin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
thanks from youronlysin, i have a 6 gallon eclipse system with the 3 stage filtration system. 10 lbs of green i think its epoxy gravel, 5 plants, a rock, and a house in there. all the fish seem happy at the moment, but im scared about what MIGHT happen later down the road. i wish i could spend like $20 bucks and just buy the stupid bacteria thats already colonized, u know???, i think that what im gonna do is set up a 20 gallon tank in my sister's room and take the 4 big fish over there, let that cycle with them, and let the babies just keep the bacteria growin in my room. because i think the large fish will work better in cycling the 20 gallon tank and the small fish will help my small tank. thanks for the help everybody! and im trying to watch my language!!!
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
one thing that i wanted to ask everybody. is if i accidently overfeed the fishies, and it all goes to the bottom, should i just feed them a tiny bit the next feeding so theyll eat the stuff off the bottom, and will that reduce ammonia??? or should i just change the water a couple days later and watch the prescense of junk in the water???
youronlysin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Depends on the type of fish you have in there. If the stuff touches the bottom of the tank, some fish just wont eat it, so not feeding them the next day will only deprive them. My Neon Tetras will eat food as it falls through the tank, but once it hits the bottom thats it; they wont touch it no matter how long it sits there. What you may have to do is get a gravel vacuum and instead of just changing some of the water, vacuum a portion of the gravel to clean out the uneaten food. In a new tank, I wouldnt vac the entire gravel bed, only a small portion at a time. That uneaten food WILL cause a rise in ammonia levels as it decays. Keep in mind that doing this will also increase the amount of time it takes for the bacteria to grow, but since you already have fish in the tank it may be best to nurse the tank over time to keep the fish alive. One good thing you have going for you is, you have an Eclipse tank with a bio-wheel filter in the hood. Bacteria will colonize on the bio-wheel, and gravel vacuuming wont affect that so much. Once the tank is cycled, you should be able to clean the gravel regularly without having to worry about losing too much bacteria.
In the future, you may think about keeping the number of fish in the tank to a respectable number and try adding a Corycat to help clean the bottom of the gravel. A Plecostamus will get too big too fast for that size of tank, and the Cory cats can do a more thorough job of picking stuff from the gravel anyway. Don't let the people at the fish store tell you that all you need is a Plecostamus or "algae" eater to do the cleanup work (This seems to be a common thought with fish store clerks). They get too big and dont clean the gravel as well as you might think.
In the future, you may think about keeping the number of fish in the tank to a respectable number and try adding a Corycat to help clean the bottom of the gravel. A Plecostamus will get too big too fast for that size of tank, and the Cory cats can do a more thorough job of picking stuff from the gravel anyway. Don't let the people at the fish store tell you that all you need is a Plecostamus or "algae" eater to do the cleanup work (This seems to be a common thought with fish store clerks). They get too big and dont clean the gravel as well as you might think.
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
alright, thanks a lot, do cory cats eat algea too or should i get both? cuz my room has quite a bit of sunlight during the day as 2 walls are all windows, so i dont really have a choice about keeping it out of the sunlight all day. so i need SOMETHING to help me keep the algea down. thanks, oh and i have 3 platys and a molly. the babies are all molies. and they do seem to eat the stuff off the bottom. especially the babies, they have to wait till it gets gooey and soft b4 they can eat. thanks
youronlysin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Sunlight isnt at all a bad thing so long as you keep the Direct sunlight from beating down on the tank.
Cory cats are not algae eaters, but are omnivores. They are scavengers and eat bits of food in the bottom of the tank, but you wont find them sucking algae off of the glass. They like meaty foods like bloodworms, or even beef heart if you chop it finely. They also eat vegetable matter like bits of lettuce, soft peas and zuchini. Normal fish flake should be fine, but you can sure supplement their diet with the other foods to keep them at optimal health. They can get up to about 3 inches long, but they stay small for quite a while. If algae becomes an issue, you might look into some of the freshwater inverts such as some snails or shrimp. Ghost shrimp and snails are omnivores but also eat algae. Ghost shrimp should also work well with Platys and Mollys. There are also some dwarf species of Plecostamus that dont get very large, but they are hard to find in most stores. The ghost shrimp are relatively easy to find and cheap (depending on your location. They are about 20 cents each here). They get about an inch long, but they like to have babies too. Most of the fry get eaten unless you have a good hiding place for them or remove them from the main tank. If you chose freshwater snails, keep in mind that some of those get real big as well, 3 inches on some of those monsters.
Youve really got a handfull. Mollies and Platys in the same tank. Those are probably the two easiest to breed fish. Both fish give birth to live young, they dont lay eggs, but Mollies can give birth even after being seperated from a male fish for months! When they get older, they can birth a hundred or more babies!!! Hopefully you have all females and they wont continue to do that on a regular basis.
Cory cats are not algae eaters, but are omnivores. They are scavengers and eat bits of food in the bottom of the tank, but you wont find them sucking algae off of the glass. They like meaty foods like bloodworms, or even beef heart if you chop it finely. They also eat vegetable matter like bits of lettuce, soft peas and zuchini. Normal fish flake should be fine, but you can sure supplement their diet with the other foods to keep them at optimal health. They can get up to about 3 inches long, but they stay small for quite a while. If algae becomes an issue, you might look into some of the freshwater inverts such as some snails or shrimp. Ghost shrimp and snails are omnivores but also eat algae. Ghost shrimp should also work well with Platys and Mollys. There are also some dwarf species of Plecostamus that dont get very large, but they are hard to find in most stores. The ghost shrimp are relatively easy to find and cheap (depending on your location. They are about 20 cents each here). They get about an inch long, but they like to have babies too. Most of the fry get eaten unless you have a good hiding place for them or remove them from the main tank. If you chose freshwater snails, keep in mind that some of those get real big as well, 3 inches on some of those monsters.
Youve really got a handfull. Mollies and Platys in the same tank. Those are probably the two easiest to breed fish. Both fish give birth to live young, they dont lay eggs, but Mollies can give birth even after being seperated from a male fish for months! When they get older, they can birth a hundred or more babies!!! Hopefully you have all females and they wont continue to do that on a regular basis.
Lukosmith22
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Mollies and Platy's like warm temps. like 75-82 degrees. Most mollies can live in salt like Brackish Water or even Pure Saltwater if acclimated to it slowly!!!! 8)
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
everybody, hello once again. i have had my tank like almost 4 days now with 4 medium sized fish and 23 babies, but i got an ammonia tester today and it shows that the ammonia is at 0. is this normal, or is the tester bad??? i was freaking out last night hoping they wouldn't die, but i didn't expect for there to be 0 ammonia, the only thing i did was a 10% water change this morning and yesterday. is this right???
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
Did you purchase a liquid test? 4 days with 27 fish, I would except the ammonia to start going up. Double check by bringing a water sample to the LFS and have them test it. Most LFS do not charge for this service.
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
yeah, i bought an ammonia detector, one that stays in the tank and constantly tells the level, but there wasnt anybody at petco who was working the fish dept because its the 4th. but i will DEF tomorrow
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
yeah, guys, my ammonia detector was detecting some ammonia late last night, but now its back to safe. i dont understand how this is happening. isn't the ammonia supposed to get dangerous before it gets better?
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have found that the liquid tests are the most reliable.
couplescaddy
Aquarium Advice Regular
alright, thanks
Aquafriend
Aquarium Advice Regular
Cancel this post-I added a reply to the end of 'page one', not realizing there were three more pages! 
