Fish stock 58 gallon | fish jumble game.{aka bug Menagerie}

[Menagerie]

just got back from 'river front' aquariums' and saw bumble bee gobies

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
It's not too late! The tank is just sitting with tetras in it!! What to do? I will have to go down there, but I don't want to set it up until after vacation. ACK!!!

My pleco has white spots with red/orange tipped fins.. What do your pleco's look like? Do you have brother/sisters to mine?

I'm a dork. My pleco does have orange tips--I just got a really good look at him.

They had a pleco chewing on a dead fish's head... the fish was half ate and still alive.. it wasn't a fun event.

That's gross. How were the tanks over all? How many bb gobies were there? We passed that place the other night coming home from the Calgary Aquarium Society meeting. Oh! My fiance said we could go look at the gobies Yea, Yea, Yea!

 

[webmoose]

They had 1 tank of gobies but had more tanks than Pisces. I asked about AxelRod Rainbows and the first guy didn't speak English and the second guy gave me attitude. The gobbies didn't look particularly spunky but probably no worse than the Badis at Pisces.

If you wait until after you holiday at least you will know that they've been there for a while..

It is a pretty interesting place they have many 'hard to find' fish that is for sure.

I saw threadfin Rainbows there.. I have to practice self control and not go back and pick them all up..

 

[Menagerie]

We went this evening in the snow/rain. They actually had two tanks with bb gobies, but some were dead and some just looked horrible. For $3 a piece, I have to think about it. Overall, I was not impressed with the way they kept their fish--I felt it should have been cleaner. There were way too many dead/dieing fish. The selection was impressive, but that's about the only positive thing I can say. I thought the average prices were high and no one even offerred to help :? Also, all the cory cats were very large. I want to buy my fish as juvies so I have as much time with them as possible--they aren't THAT long-lived!!
The 12" clown loach was impressive and scary all at the same time! I don't want my fish to get that big--ever! They also had a HUGE adult pleco (~18"). I will talk to my common pleco about it's growth from now on

 

[webmoose]

ya just so there is no confusion. I would not recommend that store and got the same sense as you. I have never bought anything from there I just go over once every few months to kill a lunch hour because it is walking distance from where I work. The clown loaches are amazing and I have to go in there once in a while just to see them....

The first time I went in there it seemed like they had at least 1 dead fish for each tank.

There wasn't that many when I went this time so maybe they had just finished a "lets go around with a bucket and get rid of all the dead fish." Interesting that you saw alot going in there shortly after I did.. (I am not suprised. just find that interesting.)

If not anything else you should go there once in a while to appreciate the better LFS's haha...

I also made it over to "Ocean's" on centre street. Mainly SW but a row or two of FW were there as well. Nothing spectacular. I am sure if I was into SW I would have liked it more.

 

[Menagerie]

Someone recently recommended Ocean's as the place I should be comparing all other LFS to, but I only keep FW. Plus, I still love Tanks A Lot, just wish there were more fish, but Gary is honest and really knows his cichlids (among other fish).

The clown loaches are amazing and I have to go in there once in a while just to see them....

We were pretty impressed too. They were so active!!

 

[webmoose]

Maybe if you tell Gary he needs to get me some AxelRod Rainbows he will. I don't have his full attention.. he is always too busy when I am there.. Maybe I will try phoning him sometime.

 

[Menagerie]

You should phone him--he has been busy lately!! Last time we were in, we were just killing time waiting for a pizza and picking up a pleco. 1/2 hour later we finally got the fish and ran out of there I need to talk to him also--I really want bb gobies and would like some more lace rock. My fish wist list never stops

 

[webmoose]

I looked at a bunch of different diagnosis charts to see if I have a problem with some of my fish but I guess I am still a newbie at the whole fish thing because I read thru the charts and determine that my fish could potentially have all the diseases.. (hypochondriac about my fish this week) Here is what my concern is:

In my 58 1 rainbow has a red dot in the middle towards the back of him. He is acting perfectly normal but I was concerned about it and keeping my eye on him. As I was watching him I was trying to determine if the color was behind a scale or not. I convinced myself that it has a single red dot. So now a second rainbow has a raised bump just above his mouth. It looks slightly raised like a cyst or pimple. Doesn't look like a grain of salt. So now I am paranoid.. I figured the red dot was from an injury on my driftwood or something like that until I saw this second bump/dot on my second rainbow.

Of my 5 cories 2 are less active. (not that I am over analizing and paranoid (twitch/twitch) or anything.. haha)

I did all my water params this morning and nothing has changed.. I am going to do them again and I will post if anything is out of the ordinary.. The only thing I was thinking might be out of wack was my temp is close to 80 right now.

 

[Menagerie]

I don't belive cories like the temp that high. I would keep the tank at 77F.
Can you get a pic of it??

 

[webmoose]

I will try to get a picture.. They swim so fast.. It is hard to even see what I saw..

I will keep a close eye on them.. I need a balance between not medicating too soon or too late..

I will adjust the temp down slowly to 77ish..

 

[webmoose]

all test came out the same as this morning no suprise amonia/nitrate/nitrite spikes all at or near zero. I adjusted the temp 1 degree down working my way to aprox. 77. The one rainbow that has the small red dot is still looking great. His dot isn't any bigger or smaller. I am even more convinced he bumped himself on the driftwood or something. The other rainbow does not have any bump on his nose. I can only assume that it was a flake of food or something. I did examine them during the morning feeding so hopefully that was what it was.

Thats the good news..

I was doing a small water change and 2 cories were not moving.... As I looked closer the 2 are kinda skinny looking so I put them into QT. Wish them luck.

 

[webmoose]

The 2 panda's did not make it thru the night... (the rainbows are all looking good) The red dot looks less red now.. hopefully that it is going to heal without medication.

 

[Menagerie]

I am so sorry to hear that . Take them back to Tanks and ask Gary if he is having problems with his (if you have time).

 

[webmoose]

Ya I won't find time to take them back to Gary's. The one looked pretty skinny. I can only assume that my pleco is stealing all their food. I've seen him come crashing into the group of cories as he knows they are around food. 3 Left out of the 7 I ended up getting.. Silly me.

Mooose

 

[Menagerie]

How do you feed the cories and pleco? I take an algae waffer and break it into fourths for my 50 gal and then drop the pieces into different parts of the tank. I see different groups of cories munching happily away and my white spotted pleco will come out and steal a piece and bring it back under the logs to eat, leaving the cories alone.

 

[webmoose]

Um ya my feeding is a little bit like this.. I start with some flakes for the rainbows. the I break algae tablet into 4 or more pieces and evenly distribute it to the corners in hopes of the cories finding some of there own.

So i sit down and watch and this is how it usually plays out.. all the cories find one of the pieces they share like nice friends.. everyones hanging out. then BAM! the pleco blasts in and knocks everyones socks off.. they are all blasted off the piece. He sits there and pigs out.. The cories wander off to find a second piece. Once pleco is done with his piece. BAM into the cories again.. (kinda like hey guys thanks for finding the food)..

I don't think this would be an issue if the Panda's were more mature and less sensitive.. (i would be stressed eating like this as well).. Once my pleco has his way with these panda's I might have to get a more assertive type of cory that isn't bothered by this type of behaviour. Either that or send my pleco to obedience school. Being that I am down to 3 of my 7 cories the pleco has won.. If It had been earlier I would have considered changing up the pleco...

Maybe I will make the pleco share a tank with some more agressive fish...

 

[Menagerie]

Wow!! That is an aggressive pleco! I have never seen mine do that. Try feeding a slice of zucchini or cucumber (secure it to a rock or something) and see if the pleco will eat that while the cories snack on the algae wafer. The veggie slice is bigger and should take longer to eat (hopefully :?).

 

[webmoose]

I am almost done my algea tabs so I will buy algea wafer's to replace.... Do you recommend a particular type/brand of algea wafer?

I've tried veggies and they so far have ignored them.. (guess I feed them too well with the other stuff)

The 2 original pigmies are doing great and the 3 remaining panda cories look good so hopefully the 5 are the strong ones that end up living for a long time.. (fingers crossed)

I also am thinking to myself that When the guppy's left from the top the rainbows have become more assertive and I have witnesses them trying to get in on the algea tabs as well.

They are all pigs except the cories..

 

[Menagerie]

The last time I bought algae wafers, they were bulk from Pisces (I think). If I'm not mistaken, the ones from Big Al's float. When I feed veggies that's all they get. The first time, veggies were ignored, but not any more!!

 

[webmoose]

I think I might not be feeding enough.. I feed once a day. I am not going to increase it but I might give just a touch more every other feeding for a few days or maybe try the veggy thing again.. .