Interested in info on a tank I've taken over.

[Amlyel]

Hello! Last Thursday I took a tank over from a friend. It's a 40g that has 5 fish. It has a Yoyo loach (5in), 2 pictus cats (3in), an upside down cat and an x-ray tetra. I'm not sure of the age of these fish although I can say over a year for all of them. I need to find that out. So the person I took them over from was kind of over having a tank so he hadn't been doing water changes as regularly as previously and he didn't use any water conditioners maybe ever. At least not for a long time. I did water changes and vacuuming when I got them thurs and again sat. I'm planning on doing a full change tomorrow to clean the tank and remove and replace the gravel. It's a very course white gravel. I have a smooth natural looking gravel to switch to from my goldfish tank. I'm dealing with some ammonia .50 and had some nitrites but that's now at 0. Also nitrates are at maybe 2.5. It's between 0 and 5. So far everyone but the loach is eating. He may be picking at food at night but before he came here he was always the first to eat and was at the top to get his food. I'm really unfamiliar with all of these fish although I've been researching since before I got them. I'd love any suggestions to make these guys happy, I've read the pictus cats should have a big tank but they've been in this tank a while and seem fine? I didn't want to get rid of any of these fish I'm just trying to make it work as best I can. I've got a new center piece to add tomorrow to give them more hiding places and I'm trying to figure which plants would be good for these guys. Any suggestions? Also I got catfish pellets and hikari sinking wafers but they show no interest in them. They were fed mostly flake food. They will eat brine shrimp and blood worms. Even the tetra turns its nose at the omega flake food I got. Seems the cats eat it though. Sorry this is so long! I'm tired so I probably rambled way too much. Thanks for any help!

 

[Amlyel]

Here are a couple pics of what I'm starting with.

 

[brennae]

If you clean the tank too well you might remove most of the BB (beneficial bacteria). Also if the fish are not used to clean water you may shock them. I would do smaller changes over a longer period of time.

I've never had a loach but my first thought when any fish won't eat is stress. Stress could come from rapidly changing water parameters.

If the fish are used to flakes keep feeding flakes and slowly introduce other foods. That is what I would do. I am sure others will have different opinions on all this.

Good Luck!

 

[Amlyel]

Well I went and did the big clean today. It was really the only time I had since I'm furloughed a few days his week. I was under the understanding that almost all of the BB was housed in the filter which I mostly left alone other than to clean all the algae off. Everyone seems pretty happy so far. I think the loach has been eating at night. I saw him get some blood worms last night from the top. It just seems he doesn't want to eat in front of me right now. Thanks for your opinions. Hopefully they will be feeling better everyday and are more comfortable. When I'm confident the tank is cycled properly I would like to add other fish. Any ideas on what will go with these guys? I'd like to have a somewhat peaceful tank. Here's what the tank looks like now. I just need to get a background on now.

 

[Jds1202]

Could get an angel, or a small African leaf fish both great looking and active. (The reason I said small is, you don't want to put a big one in that will dominate)

 

[Mebbid]

If you like the existing fish I would look into adding some more yoyo loaches. I would probably go with at least 3 more. I would keep the upside down cats in groups of 3 or more and the tetras in groups of 4 or more. I'm not sure about the pictus cats.

Other fish that would go good with that tank are praecox rainbows, 1 gourami, livebearers, harlequin rasbora, Bristle nose pleco.

 

[Amlyel]

If I'm totally honest these aren't fish I would have personally picked out, but they are mine now so I want to keep them happy! Now I'm used to goldfish at this point and a 10g with guppies and shrimp. So I've used aqadvisor and if I add all these fish to have them in proper groups I'll be at 80% on stocking level. Does this seem right? Also the loach is so big, it wouldn't be too much to have 4 of those big guys swimming around? Like I said, all new to me! I have baby guppies at work I'm growing out would a few of them be ok? I have to find homes for most of them but just wondering?

 

[Amlyel]

I'll start looking up the fish suggested. Never too early to research! My fiancé likes Bettas but I know nothing about them? Are they a possibility? Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Mebbid]

The loaches should be okay. I would probably suggest against a betta in a tank with mates that are this size though.

If you have a privately owned lfs nearby you can quite often trade the fish in for different ones and you will know they should be fairly well taken care of if you found other fish that you liked more.

 

[Amlyel]

Thanks, I thought a Betta probably wouldn't work but had to check. I assume when you talk about trading in fish you are talking about the ones I have and not my baby guppies. I'm a little undecided on that but the loach was my friends favorite so I def. can't get rid of him. Just curious and this may be a totally stupid question but a Yoyo loach would only want to shoal with other Yoyo loaches right?

 

[Mebbid]

There are quite a few similarly shaped loaches out there so they might shoal together but I can't give you a definite yes or no on it.

 

[Amlyel]

No problem! Thanks for the info! I've got some decisions to make in the near future!

 

[trolltek]

I would go for 2 more pictus cats. Ive always kept them in groups of 4 or more. Be very careful if you have to net them and take extreme caution. Really cool fish. Kind of miss keeping them.

 

[Amlyel]

I like them, they are so active but I'm not sure I'll be keeping them. I have to keep the loach so that means getting 3 more to make him happy. I'm thinking about only keeping the loach and tetra and bumping up their numbers so I can add a little more variety to the tank. Still open for tank mate suggestions too if anyone can think of anything else that would be good with loaches and tetras! I liked some of the Gourami's I saw online!

 

[BK Buttikoferi]

I like them, they are so active but I'm not sure I'll be keeping them. I have to keep the loach so that means getting 3 more to make him happy. I'm thinking about only keeping the loach and tetra and bumping up their numbers so I can add a little more variety to the tank. Still open for tank mate suggestions too if anyone can think of anything else that would be good with loaches and tetras! I liked some of the Gourami's I saw online!

I wouldnt add any more pictus unlees you upgrade to a 75 gallon. Pictus get 4-6" and have serated dorsal fins. Any fish that they can fit in their mouths is a goner.

 

[BK Buttikoferi]

I like them, they are so active but I'm not sure I'll be keeping them. I have to keep the loach so that means getting 3 more to make him happy. I'm thinking about only keeping the loach and tetra and bumping up their numbers so I can add a little more variety to the tank. Still open for tank mate suggestions too if anyone can think of anything else that would be good with loaches and tetras! I liked some of the Gourami's I saw online!

Like what youve done so far though.

 

[Amlyel]

Thanks! That's kind of why I'm thinking I'll rehome them. I read they need lots of space and it feels like there's a little too much competition on the bottom of the tank at times with just what I have right now. Everyone has definitely grown on me this past week (doesn't take long!) but I'm sure they would be happier with more space.

Also I found using a plastic pitcher works well for catching fish to move. I did with my Goldie's first and it went well. Definitely took some patience with the fast pictus' but worked out well!

 

[BK Buttikoferi]

Thanks! That's kind of why I'm thinking I'll rehome them. I read they need lots of space and it feels like there's a little too much competition on the bottom of the tank at times with just what I have right now. Everyone has definitely grown on me this past week (doesn't take long!) but I'm sure they would be happier with more space.

Also I found using a plastic pitcher works well for catching fish to move. I did with my Goldie's first and it went well. Definitely took some patience with the fast pictus' but worked out well!

Keep me posted.

 

[Amlyel]

Hello again, back for a little update. I rehomed the pictus cats and got 6 more pristella tetras. I had to wait for the tank to stabilize so its been about a week with the tetras. It's going well so far, though I do miss the activity with the pictus in there. I still plan on finding the other upside down cat a home and adding 3 more yoyo loaches. I was wondering if I should add any other fish I plan on adding before the loaches or does it not matter? I have to special order the loaches.

I like the gourami as a center piece fish but I like the dwarf flame the best and it only gets 2 in. Is there another fish that may get a little bigger that would work well with the DG and everyone else?

Also I have the baby guppies that are almost 6 mos and one of my boys is starting to show typical boy behavior. Anyone think it is too soon to add him to this tank?

Sorry for so many questions but there is just so much experience here for me to tap into!

 

[Amlyel]

Anyone with any thoughts, opinions? Or you can just tell me to shut up.