Update--One tank has turned into THREE!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Lynn W.

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
12
Location
Middle Tennessee
I am coming up on the end of Week 3 with my 20 gallon tank. I have been cycling with fish and doing lots of water changes. The Ammonia is usually between 3 and 5 when I get homw from work, so I do a 50% PWC and test again. The NitrItes are 0 and the NitrAtes around 5. So far, so good--nobody has died. (I hope I didn't jinx my tank by saying that!) I have several live plants, a couple of pieces of driftwood from an established tank, and a bioball in my filter. That may be helping, along with daily water changes of 25 - 50 %.

I guess you could say I have been bitten by the aquarium bug. I have added a 29 gallon tank as well as a 10 gallon tank. (I got the 10 gallon for $10, with filter, heater, and aerator! I just had to buy a hood / light. I already had a couple of plastic plants on a resin base and some fake rocks.) I plan to use the 10 gallon as a quarantine tank, so no gravel needed there.

However, I am cycling the 29 and 10 gallon tanks without fish!

Thanks for all the good advice and encouragement! I am really enjoying getting back into this hobby!
 
I started with a 29 after researching tanks and what I wanted and got a 40 breeder about a month after my 29. I can't afford anymore tanks or I would love too, haha.
 
Oh and be careful with up to 50% water changes daily, don't want to effect too much of the good things you want in your tank (beneficial bacteria, etc)
 
Water Changes

Thanks for the advice. I only did a 25% today. Oh, and I DID jinx myself--my pleco was my first (and, so far, my ONLY) fishie fatality. :(
 
Oh and be careful with up to 50% water changes daily, don't want to effect too much of the good things you want in your tank (beneficial bacteria, etc)

Actually water changes won't harm the cycle and with fish you need to do them to keep the water safe for fish. Letting ammonia go up to 3+ is too high IMO. I'd say more water changes are needed to keep the ammonia from going over .5. What fish are in the tank? It could just be too heavily stocked for an uncycled tank if ammonia is rising that quickly. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia as well?
 
Fish Behavior

I love watching my fishy friends. Often when I am changing the water, I get little nibbles on my fingers (fish kisses? Ha ha!). I have been reading more about fish, in particular the mollies, platies, and algae eaters. I have also begun to recognize male versus female in the platies and mollies. My creamsicle lyretail molly is definitely a male--his gonopodia swivels like an antenna when the female black molly goes by. It reminds me of two planes trying to refuel in midair! I suspect that Molly finds him annoying at times (I am calling him Don Giovanni!), but he is only sexually agressive sometimes. And it is almost like watching a ballet the way they glide around together.

The little Chinese algae eater earned the name Weird Al, due to his manic antics. He (she?) reminds me of the squirrel in the Ice Age movies. I guess Al will become much larger and could become aggressive, but for now he is a nervous little guy that skitters by occasionally--the comic relief to the tango being danced by Don and Molly.

Questions:
Can the fish see their reflections in the glass? Their behavior makes me wonder if they not only see their relections but even mistake them for another fish. They will swim briskly up and down (trying to get at that other fish?).

Also, I notice my fish will gravitate toward the filter's output chute. I suspect they are riding the current it creates as though it were a roller coaster. Eventually, they swim to the other side of the tank and it is not the "up and down" they do in front of the filter.

Since I am trying to cycle with fish in the tank, I am watching for erratic behavior to warn me of distresssed fish. However, I think what I am observing is normal fishy behavior (is also somewhat comical).

Anyway, I am really enjoying watching them swim. I have a "reading nook" beside the tank, but I think I am doing more fish watching than reading lately.

P.S. Librarygirl, are you a librarian? I am.
 
Back
Top Bottom