All of a sudden...3 tanks!

[Jenn.S]

Hi all, I'm Jenn. My husband and I joined the forum last week. We're in our early 30's and live in Florida. I was playing around on my smart phone and saw this forum had an app and decided to jump on my laptop, sign on, and get a better view. It's great!
I'll make this short and sweet, because I have a three-year-old who's potty training...well, let's save that for a different forum. If he pees in the fish tank, I'll post about it here.

We have three tanks: A tall 15 gallon, housing one rather large, territorial golden (?) gourami and last night, I added three bloodfin tetras. Originally, I kept two long-fin black skirt tetras in with the gourami (added one, but he died within a week but we moved them.) Oh, there's a good sized pleco in there, too. That tank is in my son's room, which is quiet most of the day.

After a couple months, I wanted a small tank of my own in my bedroom for ambiance. I slowly, but not slow enough, stocked it with four guppies and two platys. It's a 14 gallon BioCube I got for an awesome price at PetSmart.

I fell in love with these fish! The wag platys were so cute, and I loved watching the guppies dart all over the place. I knew I wanted more, and they looked like they needed more swimming space, so I bought a 36 gallon Bow Front. We moved these guys over, doing water changes daily, within a week.

We took the two black-skirt tetras and put them in the BioCube with a new, bigger guy who doesn't have such a long skirt, looks the same though, and they are having a blast. Last night, I added two small lamp eye tetras. They're not schooling with the others yet. They seem a bit in shock.

Since Mr. Big Boss gourami and the pleco were alone, I added three blood-fin tetras. So far, so good as of this morning.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from my husband that one of the yellow guppies died. He was really skinny, I had noticed previously, and didn't take the transition too well.

When the guppies and platys moved to the 36 gallon, the platys (with the addition of two mickey-mouse wag platys) didn't seem to take the transition as well. They're not as lively, and they sit at the bottom of the tank a lot. When it's feeding time, they come out and swim around for food, but most of the time they stick together up in the corner or sitting on the gravel. Now I'm concerned that one of the mickeys has ick! Last night I noticed its tail and fins have that salted look. Now, I've never dealt with ick, so I can't be for sure, but none of the others are showing symptoms. I may have to quarantine it, or bring it up to the pet shop so they can tell me for sure. I DON'T want to lose a whole tank

Now, I was wondering how you all get such wonderful photos of your aquarium? Are you using professional equipment, regular digital cameras, or something else altogether? I can't get a decent shot of anyone because it comes out blurry and with the tank reflection.

Alright, now that's a mouthful of information. Feel free to comment, scold, help and give advice as you wish (but be nice to this noob.... )


Thanks!
Jenn.S.

 

[Scalare]

Hi Jenn, Welcome to AA. there are lots of people here who will answer any question you care to throw at them, hope you get the ick problem sorted out. by the way keep your boy from peeing in the fishtank or it'll cause a heck of an ammonia spike lol!!. all the members will be nice to you, won't you guys??. this is a very friendly forum. Enjoy!!. get yourself a tripod to take pics of your tanks, you won't get camera shake then.

Pete

PS: I envy you your sunshine lol!!.

 

[Jenn.S]

Hi Jenn, Welcome to AA. there are lots of people here who will answer any question you care to throw at them, hope you get the ick problem sorted out. by the way keep your boy from peeing in the fishtank or it'll cause a heck of an ammonia spike lol!!. all the members will be nice to you, won't you guys??. this is a very friendly forum. Enjoy!!. get yourself a tripod to take pics of your tanks, you won't get camera shake then.

Pete

PS: I envy you your sunshine lol!!.

Thanks for your kind welcome! That's exactly what I was thinking: ammonia overload if he pees in the tank, lol!

I'm wondering if I should ask my specific questions in the forum. I will lurk around whenever I have a moment to sit down.

Again, thanks for welcoming to AA

 

[cmor1701d]

Use the Macro setting on your camera along with the tripod.
Takes LOTS of pics and delete 99% of them.

 

[siva]

Ok well first of all welcome!! Potty training is no picnic..good luck

Lots of things to talk about here. First off on the ich issue, I would post about that in the unhealthy fish section or general discussion to get more attention from the folks that have dealt with ich and know how to cure it!

Your 15 gal has some issues. First of all what kind of pleco is it, do you know? No pleco stays small enough for a 15 gal but it may be a kind that stays small enough to go into your 36 gal, once your ich has cleared up of course. Next with tetras, you'll want to watch carefully that your gourami doesn't get harrased..tetras will often get nippy if not in a propery size school, you'll want to up the number of them to 7 when you can. I think 20+ gals is a good rule of thumb for most tetras, but some may disagree and say they are fine in a 15. I haven't owned those paticular tetras so I won't say. Some gourami's are fine in a 15 but some get much too large. Can you describe his look or post a pic of him? Even if it's blurry I can help try to indetify him

Also a couple important starter questions: Do you know about the nitrogen cycle/cycling your tank? Do you have a master test kit for testing your water?

 

[Jenn.S]

Although I can't quite explain, I bought five different books on keeping Freshwater aquariums (probably one reason why I'm so confused) but I'm a beginner when it comes to cycling the tank. For example, we used two very hardy guppies to get the cycle going in the 36 gallon, and my husband has been doing partial water changes daily. He's the one keeping up with the technical aspect of it all.

Oh, yes, I just bought a master test kit this week. We were using various testing strips, i.e. a all-in-one and a ammonia test strip. I have those suction-cup alert things - one for pH and one for ammonia, in every tank I have to alert me of a sudden spike so I can further test and treat. They really only come in handy when I've been out of the house all day long and go to the tanks to feed. If I see the ammonia gauge sky high I know it's the first thing I tend to instead of say, returning a casual phone call or flopping down on the couch. Even so, either I test, or my husband does, every day.

My area of expertise is fish compatibility (in a beginner's sense.) I should have trusted my gut and kept those tetras OUT of the tank with the gourami. But no, the woman at the pet store assured me the blood fin tetras were tough. She hasn't met "Big Boss."

While I was out today running errands, I heard that we lost one of the new tetras we got last night, most likely because of that stupid gourami. I'm hating myself for this.

My husband is asleep now and I'm too short to reach in to rescue the other two tetras and put them with the others in the 14-gallon BioCube (for now.) I'm in an apartment complex, so I'm going to see if one of the maintenance men can bring over a small ladder. Scott, my hubby, said he'll have to drain half the tank and take out the coral/decor to catch them with the net or scooper because they're so fast. Is that really true, or is he just being lazy?


Can I put the blood fin tetras in a tank full of guppies and platys?

I think my head is going to fly off, because I did this out of my love for watching the fish for relaxation, now I'm stressing out over the whole situation. This makes fish number 4 that gourami has killed. 2 gouramis, one skirt tetra, and now the new blood fin tetra. It's odd that he shared that tank with two long-fin black skirt tetras for about two months and mostly stayed out of their way. However, I moved them to their own tetra-only tank and I've seen a change in their mood, they seem a lot happier.

Now I'm going to cross my fingers that the tetras last over night. and the one sunburst wag platy who is hiding on the gravel floor snaps out of this. Sigh.

Almost forgot - in my 14 gallon, I got a bristlenosed pleco. I heard they don't get too big. The other two I'm not sure of their specifics. I'll try to get pics. I'm going to try to attach a pic of the gourami.

 

[Khalix]

Yeah, looks like the typical Gold Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus. The problem I have with them is they tend to be fairly aggressive fish in general. They usually need minimum of 20 gallons, and would probably fare better if that 20 was a little on the longer side to try to kind of spread the territoriality out a bit. I usually don't even recommend them to customers that have anything under 30 because we tend to get a lot of return customers saying they go on rampages more frequently in anything smaller. Granted, it also depends on the fish.

Have you considered moving him into the larger tank when you finish cycling? You'd have to stick with more semi-aggressive fish, though, and move the others. Otherwise it may be best to just leave the little booger alone. See, this kind of thing is why I have multiple tank syndrome, too. I end up wanting something different and end up with a new tank stuck somewhere.

Good luck on the potty training and welcome to AA.

 

[siva]

Although I can't quite explain, I bought five different books on keeping Freshwater aquariums (probably one reason why I'm so confused) but I'm a beginner when it comes to cycling the tank. For example, we used two very hardy guppies to get the cycle going in the 36 gallon, and my husband has been doing partial water changes daily. He's the one keeping up with the technical aspect of it all.

Oh, yes, I just bought a master test kit this week. We were using various testing strips, i.e. a all-in-one and a ammonia test strip. I have those suction-cup alert things - one for pH and one for ammonia, in every tank I have to alert me of a sudden spike so I can further test and treat. They really only come in handy when I've been out of the house all day long and go to the tanks to feed. If I see the ammonia gauge sky high I know it's the first thing I tend to instead of say, returning a casual phone call or flopping down on the couch. Even so, either I test, or my husband does, every day.

My area of expertise is fish compatibility (in a beginner's sense.) I should have trusted my gut and kept those tetras OUT of the tank with the gourami. But no, the woman at the pet store assured me the blood fin tetras were tough. She hasn't met "Big Boss."

While I was out today running errands, I heard that we lost one of the new tetras we got last night, most likely because of that stupid gourami. I'm hating myself for this.

My husband is asleep now and I'm too short to reach in to rescue the other two tetras and put them with the others in the 14-gallon BioCube (for now.) I'm in an apartment complex, so I'm going to see if one of the maintenance men can bring over a small ladder. Scott, my hubby, said he'll have to drain half the tank and take out the coral/decor to catch them with the net or scooper because they're so fast. Is that really true, or is he just being lazy?


Can I put the blood fin tetras in a tank full of guppies and platys?

I think my head is going to fly off, because I did this out of my love for watching the fish for relaxation, now I'm stressing out over the whole situation. This makes fish number 4 that gourami has killed. 2 gouramis, one skirt tetra, and now the new blood fin tetra. It's odd that he shared that tank with two long-fin black skirt tetras for about two months and mostly stayed out of their way. However, I moved them to their own tetra-only tank and I've seen a change in their mood, they seem a lot happier.

Now I'm going to cross my fingers that the tetras last over night. and the one sunburst wag platy who is hiding on the gravel floor snaps out of this. Sigh.

Almost forgot - in my 14 gallon, I got a bristlenosed pleco. I heard they don't get too big. The other two I'm not sure of their specifics. I'll try to get pics. I'm going to try to attach a pic of the gourami.

I'm sorry I didn't see this reply the other night. My husband gets a little stressed trying to net some of the fast ones too. He shouldn't need to drain the tank, sounds like he just need to work on technique

The tetras might work with the guppies and platties but they may be nippy if not in a proper school size, I'd go with 7..then they should be fine.

Your bristlenose is still probably too big for a 14. Maybe he'd be okay in there if you keep it really understocked.

Your gourami IMO belongs in a 55 gal semi aggresive tank. You might want to try and rehome him or take him back to the lfs.

 

[Jenn.S]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! So much has happened with our aquariums this past week. We lost almost the entire 36 gallon livebearer tank to ich. I found out, from a very honest employee, that the two mickey mouse platys I brought home came from a shipment with ich. They didn't find out until it was too late. I was pretty upset, but in a way, I guess it's a lesson learned on our part. We're down two yellow guppies and one red guppy. Funny, all the platys survived, even the mickey mouses that apparently infested the tank to begin with.

We've decided to keep the Golden Gourami in the tank by himself after hearing much advice from a couple pet shops and you all. Thanks for confirming that "Bolt" is indeed a Golden Gourami. My husband thought he bought a dwarf! He's in a 15 gallon with a pleco; the pleco (named Mittens by our son) is HUGE and will most likely be transferred to the 36 gallon then to our future larger tank. You know this is addictive an only a matter of time.

Since this is only an intro area of the forum, I'll take my further inquiries to the appropriate spots. Thanks for the kind welcome.