Machete
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
So 2 years ago my wife had started a 6 gallon tank with a handful of very colorful guppies and a snail. These guppies multiplied like crazy, quickly 8 turned in to a dozen, then older ones died off, the younger ones reproduced, and next thing you know we had 6 generations of fish in there. Eventually they were all so inbred that each one was just brown. Then one week we had a snail explosion, and one snail turned into about 50. One day while cleaning out snails I decided it was time for an upgrade.
We got a TopFin 37 gallon tank (30"W x 12"D x 22"H) with over the back filter and heater, rinsed off all the gravel and decorations, filled it up with clean water, de-chlorinated, and let it run for a couple weeks. It got a little cloudy at the end of the first week, and after some research decided it was a bacteria bloom. That research led me to learn about nitrogen cycle, ammonia, and good bacteria and where it lives (now I know I should have saved filter media from the old tank).
Tank was still slightly cloudy, but according to what I was reading, nothing out of the normal for a new startup, so we started by stocking with 6 tiger barbs, 4 were about 1.25" or so, 2 were about 3/4" long. They appeared good and happy and healthy for few weeks. One morning I only counted 5, so looked around and found one of the smaller one lying at the bottom. a few days later we found the other smaller hanging out a the top of tank, facing downward. Seemed odd. Next day found it lying in almost the same spot as the first small one. Did some more reading and decided that the larger ones basically bullied and stressed out the smaller ones.
Few days later found one of the larger ones lying on the bottom. WTH? Water conditions tested fine, no ammonia, no chlorine. Water temp was 77.5F. Had reently added some API quick start to instigate some good bacteria, but don't think that was an issue. The filter was backed up a bit, clogged up with some solids, so rinsed it out so it would flow better, added some more bacteria start up after the rinse. Also have a bag of fluval biomax tucked in the filter box.
Few days later observed another tiger barb doing some weird stuff, like barrel rolls, swimming sideways, occasional goofy swimming. Did some more research and found this was likely caused by digestive blockage and pressure on swim bladder, maybe dropsy? That one lasted about another day and sank to the bottom as well. So found some advice that said cooler waters could impede digestion, and should increase the water temp a little. Was running about 77.5F, so slowly upped the heater towards 80. The remaining two still seemed fine, not acting weird like the others, but lonely now.
So the water still checked out ok, slight cloudiness still, and temp was staying stable at 80.5 at the top, so we stocked some more fish. Got 4 silver dollars, 4 green barbs, and 4 phantom barbs, so a total of 14 barbs altogether. Made sure they were all similar in size to the tigers. This got the tiger barbs very active again. One even appears to be going Alpha on the all the other fish, seems constantly on the tail of somebody, but has plenty to go around, so no one fish is getting too much stress, definitely keeps them all on their toes. So far so good with the new tenants. Will be doing 10% water changes every few days to see if I can't clear up the bacteria bloom.
So if you made it this far thanks for reading. I'm sure I'll be searching for more advice soon.
Tony
We got a TopFin 37 gallon tank (30"W x 12"D x 22"H) with over the back filter and heater, rinsed off all the gravel and decorations, filled it up with clean water, de-chlorinated, and let it run for a couple weeks. It got a little cloudy at the end of the first week, and after some research decided it was a bacteria bloom. That research led me to learn about nitrogen cycle, ammonia, and good bacteria and where it lives (now I know I should have saved filter media from the old tank).
Tank was still slightly cloudy, but according to what I was reading, nothing out of the normal for a new startup, so we started by stocking with 6 tiger barbs, 4 were about 1.25" or so, 2 were about 3/4" long. They appeared good and happy and healthy for few weeks. One morning I only counted 5, so looked around and found one of the smaller one lying at the bottom. a few days later we found the other smaller hanging out a the top of tank, facing downward. Seemed odd. Next day found it lying in almost the same spot as the first small one. Did some more reading and decided that the larger ones basically bullied and stressed out the smaller ones.
Few days later found one of the larger ones lying on the bottom. WTH? Water conditions tested fine, no ammonia, no chlorine. Water temp was 77.5F. Had reently added some API quick start to instigate some good bacteria, but don't think that was an issue. The filter was backed up a bit, clogged up with some solids, so rinsed it out so it would flow better, added some more bacteria start up after the rinse. Also have a bag of fluval biomax tucked in the filter box.
Few days later observed another tiger barb doing some weird stuff, like barrel rolls, swimming sideways, occasional goofy swimming. Did some more research and found this was likely caused by digestive blockage and pressure on swim bladder, maybe dropsy? That one lasted about another day and sank to the bottom as well. So found some advice that said cooler waters could impede digestion, and should increase the water temp a little. Was running about 77.5F, so slowly upped the heater towards 80. The remaining two still seemed fine, not acting weird like the others, but lonely now.
So the water still checked out ok, slight cloudiness still, and temp was staying stable at 80.5 at the top, so we stocked some more fish. Got 4 silver dollars, 4 green barbs, and 4 phantom barbs, so a total of 14 barbs altogether. Made sure they were all similar in size to the tigers. This got the tiger barbs very active again. One even appears to be going Alpha on the all the other fish, seems constantly on the tail of somebody, but has plenty to go around, so no one fish is getting too much stress, definitely keeps them all on their toes. So far so good with the new tenants. Will be doing 10% water changes every few days to see if I can't clear up the bacteria bloom.
So if you made it this far thanks for reading. I'm sure I'll be searching for more advice soon.
Tony
