rbeland
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have a 20 gallon tall tank that has mainly been a community tank (my first). It's been up and running over a year with mainly various tetras such as black skirts, neons, red eyes, and over the months I've mixed in corys, a blue flame gourami, some african dwarf frogs, maybe a couple more different fish. Ultimately the black skirts seemed to rule the tank. Most recently (currently) I have two black skirts. I had one red eye along with them that was being bullied so I just added two more red eyes and now the red eyes seem ok.
I also just added three swordtails. After the first night one ST was gone (eaten I presume), the next night one was killed but not eaten, and this morning the last remaining sword tail has cottonmouth. I don't have a quarantine tank so I just took it out and flushed it. It's all leading me back to the black skirts which I believe killed the blue flame gourami a while back also.
(EDIT - AFTER WRITING THIS I HAPPENED TO FIND THE MISSING SWORDTAIL ON THE GROUND UNDER THE COUCH. IT MUST HAVE JUMPED OUT. PROBABLY SCARED AWAY.)
The tank has a few fake plants, a small castle fish can hide in, and a round rock like structure that they can hide in. Water parameters are fine, ph is around 6.5-6.8. I also have a bunch of zebra snails that help keep the place clean.
So I want to add more fish but I don't want to keep having them die.
Any thoughts? Am I missing something or doing something wrong like mixing the wrong type of fish?
Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.
I also just added three swordtails. After the first night one ST was gone (eaten I presume), the next night one was killed but not eaten, and this morning the last remaining sword tail has cottonmouth. I don't have a quarantine tank so I just took it out and flushed it. It's all leading me back to the black skirts which I believe killed the blue flame gourami a while back also.
(EDIT - AFTER WRITING THIS I HAPPENED TO FIND THE MISSING SWORDTAIL ON THE GROUND UNDER THE COUCH. IT MUST HAVE JUMPED OUT. PROBABLY SCARED AWAY.)
The tank has a few fake plants, a small castle fish can hide in, and a round rock like structure that they can hide in. Water parameters are fine, ph is around 6.5-6.8. I also have a bunch of zebra snails that help keep the place clean.
So I want to add more fish but I don't want to keep having them die.
Any thoughts? Am I missing something or doing something wrong like mixing the wrong type of fish?
Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.
Last edited: