The Beginning of my 80g

[the_fish_man]

Following. I love it so far!

 

[DragonFish71]

Gotta have room first

 

[Aquarium1]

and money hahaha

 

[DragonFish71]

Ugh yeah, try starting up 2 new tanks, re-building a trebuchet and planning a wedding

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

thank you everyone, and it is being cycled as freshwater, once we get all the fish in for awhile, we'll start adding salt

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

so we bought some "stability" by "seachem", we checked all the levels of amonia, nitrates and nitrites, and everything was good to go. we put 12 guppies in last night. we're going to hold off on my dragon goby until friday just in case something happens. Once dragon is in there, we're going to pick up some bumblebee gobies and mollies (not all at once) and eventually we are thinking about finding another dragon.

We're also in the process of starting up 2-10gal breeder tanks. Last night I was watching my 20 gal and watched one of my barbs drop some eggs (i only saw 3 eggs). I dont think they'll survive, but i saw them fall into the gravel. And with the guppies going i know there will be lots of babies lol

 

[DragonFish71]

I wouldn't suggest putting the dragon in that soon. They are very sensitive to the water parameters. Let the tank become stable first.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

thanks for the advice!

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

so after running the tank with that "stability" all the parameters are good, we had 13 guppies, and lost two of them. not sure where my snail is, havent seen him since the day we got the java fern.
but due to the fact that my truck got broken into on wednsday, the project is being put on hold. were going to wait til the end of the month and see how everything is going and we come back from our camping trip, hopefully we'll be able to get the rest of the fish started in it.

We've narrowed our possible fish list to:
bumble bee gobies
mollies
1 green spotted puffer
killi fish
maybe a knight goby, but we heard they are territorial, not to sure about that one

I'm currently looking for some more snails, not sure what kind to go with
and we're still trying to figure out if there are any brackish algae eaters.

 

[DragonFish71]

The greens potted puffer is questionable as far as attitude, they may attack the dragon and nip at all his fins or they may not.

The knight goby is about as territorial as the dragon or the bumblee bees. What I found that worked was adding a few shells for the bumblebees to claim as their own. (still trying to find some knights myself, but from researching them, same territory attitude)

I have MTS and ramshorn snails in our BW tank and they are doing just fine.

As for BW algae eaters, I have yet to come across any my research, other than Amano shrimp and ghost shrimp. I have a swarm of ghosts (cheaper than Amanos) and between them and the mollies the algae is kept to a minimum.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

snail eggs? or bad news?

i was looking at some ghost shrimp in one of my lfs, but the guy said they can't be brackish...weird. you proved that guy wrong lol.

but now i have an issue. in splotches all over the sand are white fuzzy things...one looks like a sack so i was thinking snail eggs. but i was hoping someone could confirm that for me.

 

[DragonFish71]

*lol* Hey, it shocked my LFS when I told them the ghosts were doing fine in BW too.

Any chance you can get a pic of those splotches?

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

i tried getting a few, but because the sand is lighter it's hard to get a pic of it. but this is one it's not as big as some of the other spots
the 1st pic you can kind of see a white spot right against the front of the tank

the 2nd pic theres a white spot on the left side of the pic in the middle and theres a "sack" its hard to see, but its in the shadow of the wood. its kind of yellowish green in the middle but around its like white fuzz. i dont know how to explain it

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

since i was on here i figured i'd post a new full pic of the tank with the guppies in it. we actually had 13, the girl miscounted i guess, but we've lost 3 females. don't know why, the water parameters are good and everything, i was thinking the white fuzz had something to do with it, but not sure...










the third pic is of my fave guppy, he's absolutely beautiful. theres so many different colors smashed together on his tail. just gorgeous, i love it.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

so after losing 2 more guppies last night, i'm bringing the rest of them back to my LFS. We're going to start over. Empty out all the water, wash the sand, re-cure the drift wood and clean everything, I think we lost 5 guppies in a week, and they are supposed to be really hearty. Don't know if they were sick at the lfs or if theres some kind of bad bacteria in the tank that isnt being read on the test kit. All the parameters are good to this date. So the project is def. being postponed til after august now. I have too much other stuff going on right now. (i keep having truck problems, first it gets broken into and then towed last night)
I will post anything new as we go.
Thanks for everyone's advice and help through our journey.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

and of course, my boyfriend disagrees with us returning the guppies. not sure why we are losing them...and it's only the females. the project is still ongoing, i did another test today and the parameters are perfect. We have 9 guppies left out of 13. We're going to wait it out and see what happens.

 

[Aquarium1]

I know you say parameters are perfect, but I'm just curious, what are the #s of the params?

 

[krap101]

And are there any signs of distress in the dying fish? Clamped fins, staying near the bottom of the tank, awkward swimming, hyperventilating/gasping, red gills, strange spots/bumps?

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

I know you say parameters are perfect, but I'm just curious, what are the #s of the params?

amonia - 0
nitrite - .03
nitrate - 21ppm
ph - 7.2

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

And are there any signs of distress in the dying fish? Clamped fins, staying near the bottom of the tank, awkward swimming, hyperventilating/gasping, red gills, strange spots/bumps?

The fish that dyed, would just kind of float behind current of the filter, if another fish would come up to them, they'd swim away. But we didn't notice anything else. I know the first one we lost would stay on the bottom beside a piece of drift wood. But the others were at the top.