Okay, this may get to be a bit long. There's a bit of a story behind how my fiance and I became impromptu fish parents. Almost a year ago, we were given a tiny little 5 gallon tank by a friend who was moving out of state, and could not take it with him. He had 2 black moors, 2 neon tetras, 3 platies, a rainbow shark, and a common pleco in this 5 gallon tank.
We rushed out as soon as we could, to at the very least, split up the rainbow shark, platies, and the black moors, because the shark was definitely the terror of the tank, and the poor moors were beside themselves trying to get away, along with the platies. All we could afford at the time was a 10 gallon. Not a massive improvement, but it held up long enough for us to save our money and get a 36 gallon. We did loose the platies, sadly, from very obvious ammonia poisoning, and the shark just disappeared from his tank one day (we found no body in or anywhere around the tank).
So far, everyone has been doing beautifully since we got the 36 gallon. We have an Aqueon QuietFlow 30, and Aqueon QuietFlow 55/75 for filtration, with black Nat Geo sand substrate. 1 green cory, 4 peppered cories, and 2 panda cories were added, at the advise of our LFS, who said they'd keep the tank cleaner than the pleco. We eventually plan to rehome him, as I know he has a pretty big bio-load and will definitely out grow the tank. 30% PWC are done weekly.
As far as we know, the parameters are "fine", according to the pet store - nitrites are a tiny bit elevated, but nothing to panic about, and ammonia is 0. Between getting the 10 gallon, and the 36 gallon, we are definitely short on cash (living on fixed income), so we have yet to be able to get the liquid test kit, especially now that we're having car troubles and that has become priority. Anyhow, they told us our water is a little hard, but using Prime would take care of that (we have well water, not city water).
The worry I have is that lately, the larger of the two moors has been randomly resting on the substrate, in one of the two back corners randomly. He definitely perks up as soon as food is offered (we feed every other day, and no more than the two moors can eat in a few minutes; the cories get their own special food tablets from the LFS), or if you go over and start wiggling your fingers at him, since he thinks he's being fed. He goes between moments of activity, exploring around the tank, in the log, nibbling the substrate, and then he just plops himself in the corner and doesn't move, sometimes for hours. Is this normal, or am I being paranoid?
I have taken a short video and uploaded it to Youtube, since I can't seem to upload it in this post -
We rushed out as soon as we could, to at the very least, split up the rainbow shark, platies, and the black moors, because the shark was definitely the terror of the tank, and the poor moors were beside themselves trying to get away, along with the platies. All we could afford at the time was a 10 gallon. Not a massive improvement, but it held up long enough for us to save our money and get a 36 gallon. We did loose the platies, sadly, from very obvious ammonia poisoning, and the shark just disappeared from his tank one day (we found no body in or anywhere around the tank).
So far, everyone has been doing beautifully since we got the 36 gallon. We have an Aqueon QuietFlow 30, and Aqueon QuietFlow 55/75 for filtration, with black Nat Geo sand substrate. 1 green cory, 4 peppered cories, and 2 panda cories were added, at the advise of our LFS, who said they'd keep the tank cleaner than the pleco. We eventually plan to rehome him, as I know he has a pretty big bio-load and will definitely out grow the tank. 30% PWC are done weekly.
As far as we know, the parameters are "fine", according to the pet store - nitrites are a tiny bit elevated, but nothing to panic about, and ammonia is 0. Between getting the 10 gallon, and the 36 gallon, we are definitely short on cash (living on fixed income), so we have yet to be able to get the liquid test kit, especially now that we're having car troubles and that has become priority. Anyhow, they told us our water is a little hard, but using Prime would take care of that (we have well water, not city water).
The worry I have is that lately, the larger of the two moors has been randomly resting on the substrate, in one of the two back corners randomly. He definitely perks up as soon as food is offered (we feed every other day, and no more than the two moors can eat in a few minutes; the cories get their own special food tablets from the LFS), or if you go over and start wiggling your fingers at him, since he thinks he's being fed. He goes between moments of activity, exploring around the tank, in the log, nibbling the substrate, and then he just plops himself in the corner and doesn't move, sometimes for hours. Is this normal, or am I being paranoid?
I have taken a short video and uploaded it to Youtube, since I can't seem to upload it in this post -
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