LilMooCow
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello fish lovers, I'm sure I'm one of these people that annoy more advanced fishkeepers! I didn't mean to, I just accidentally jumped into the deep end unfortunately and I've tried my hardest to rectify the problems but have so far failed. All I can say is I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge!, and I'm desperate, and if you have the time to read my epic problem post and offer me any advice I'd be so grateful. I think I should tell the story so people understand...
May 2009
It all started out very innocently last year - I was working as a support worker for 5 young adults with learning disabilities - I was supporting one of the guys working at a charity shop and we came across a little plastic hexagonal start-up tank for £1. He told me he wanted to call my fish 'Mister Golding!', so I thought why not? My mum used to own a pet shop, though I only worked with the non-aquatic pets, so I didn't know a great deal but enough for a couple of fish I thought.
I set up the tank with a combined pump and filter, the usual gravel and ornaments, left it 3 weeks and bought 2 tri-tail Orandas; one was gold, the other had the colouring of a Shubumpkin so I called him Mister Bumpkin (pictured below - he used to have more black on him than he does now I swear!):
Mister Bumpkin proceeded to bully Mister Golding to his death - he seemingly died of stress from being chased constantly. So then I bought a slightly larger Oranda and the guy I worked for told me to call him Mister Scotsmere! Mister Scotsmere was also bullied to death by Mister Bumpkin - or a side effect of it I'd assumed; he had swimbladder. I couldn't hate him though, he is a cool fish..! So Bumpkin's been living on his own happily with a tiny plec since.
November
My mum came to see me with a gift - a 25 gallon fish tank she didn't want anymore with a matching stand. How could I say no? It even came with a massive internal Fluval filter and pump - only thing is I've never had a tank this big before. We filled it, put in the filter, the underwater pump above it to circulate the water, then mum told me to leave it for a few weeks before getting fish for it. So on the 17th November, after 2 weeks and too much excitement to wait any longer I bought 2 Orandas that were a similar size to Mister Bumpkin, reasoning that he was less likely to be dominant in a tank he didn't know. They were fine and dandy for 3 or 4 days, so then I put Mister Bumpkin in. He proceeded to bully immediately, then after 3 hours I put him in a fish bag in the tank (I'd stupidly emptied out the water from my old tank so couldn't put him back in that and didn't have dividers and desperately didn't want him to kill Ugly or Lil my new fish!). I'd cut loads of holes in the big fish bag to get some water flow through it, I know it seems cruel but I didn't know what else to do.
So I fill up the old tank again for a backup, adding water conditioner and the same combined pump filter (I hadn't cleaned the filter which from what I read was a good thing). It's set up and ready to use if I need it.
November 22nd
My dad comes to visit, finding the situation with Mister Bumpkin strange and amusing, we go to Pets At Home for a tank divider - having been made redundant recently he offers to get me one - yes bad time to have a new tank when I'm skint. We go there and they don't have one, naturally I have a wander and I look at the fish longingly, and I see the most GORGEOUS bubblehead Oranda (that's probably not its proper name) - it's pretty **** big, fairly expensive and with the most stunning colouring. Dad immediately offers to buy her (it had lipstick-type markings so I decided it was a girl!), reasoning it'd sort out Mister Bumpkin. So he gets me the fish, I called her Fatty. We got in, let out Mister Bumpkin and floated Fatty's bag in the tank then put her in after 10 minutes to allow for temperature adjustment. Fatty seems happy. Mister Bumpkin immediately starts bullying AGAIN! Dad used to sell fish, mostly koi carp, some smaller ones for a while and insists they should have Malachite Green in there to do with some whitespot theory he explained to me, I can't really remember. Out of the treatments mum has given me with the tank, dad uses Aquarium Doctor WSP - Anti Whitespot Treatment. The back of the bottle says to use over 48 hours. Dad gave me a list of days to put in 5 or 10 ml (can't remember) - Day 1, Day 3, then like day 5 and 8 or something. I trust his advice, though looking back I wonder if this is why the problems started?
Dad leaves a few hours later after we put in the first water treatment. I stood in front of the tank for about 20 mins watching Mister Bumpkin push Fatty by her tail, chasing, tormenting, pushing her into the jagged rock and worryingly at the bottom of the tank pushing her up against the tank wall by her gill, seeming shutting both of them by doing this. I immediately put Mister Bumpkin in the old tank. Fatty seems fine, Ugly and Lil are happy too.
December
The usual scene - at the bottom of the tank hiding. She used to hide at the front of the tank, now she hides at the back
After the treatments, I'd say a few days after day 8 of treating with WSP, Fatty is seriously unhappy sat at the bottom-right at the front of the tank - I moved the gravel in this area so she doesn't damage her belly. Two days later I treat the tank for Swimbladder following the instructions - I'd seen it before and it certainly looked like she had it. No change. She looks so unhappy, only moving for food. I purchase some expensive floating fish pellets specifically for orandas as the other pellets I had sunk and she never got a chance to find them. She's eating fine but still sat at the bottom. I speak to my mum about it and she asks about the air supply - I say the underwater pump on top of the filter. Mum is probably shaking her head and tells me this isn't an air supply, there are no bubbles. Crap. So I search my spare supplies, find a pump and airline and put that right at the bottom of the tank. Searching the web I read that daily water changes are a good idea, then elsewhere that doing water changes daily are a bad idea! So I do approx 40% water changes every other day for a week using my long tube with gravel skimmer at the end of it. Fatty moves, but only cos I'm in the way. No change in Fatty occurs, Lil and Ugly are still fine. Each time I change the water I use Stress Coat. I speak to dad, he tells me I'm putting too may chemicals in the water - to only use kettle-boiled hot water and cold water mixed and to put a tablespoon of dissolved rock salt in instead of Stress Coat conditioner with the water change. I do this on the last day of the week of on-off water changes. No change in the fish. I have a bout of excessive algae, I read online to do a 3 day darkness with no food to treat it - I do this, the agae goes. Another water change. I buy frozen Daphnia cos I read that's good for the fish, i feed them every few days with that aswell as the posh Oranda food pellets. Still nothing. Before Christmas day in a desperate bid to fix things, unable to afford a new pump, I steal the pump from Mister Bumpkin's tank and place the airline at the bottom of the Sad Tank in the hope it'll help. Nothing. The only thing I can think of now is that I've noticed it's a bit warmer at the bottom of the tank than the top when my arm is all the way in - surely this can't be it though?
Picture of Fatty going for food - the only time she seems to move, and it's very irratic
Today
Today I feel like giving up - the past 2 days Lil is hovering near the base of the tank not moving much. A few hours ago I looked in and Lil is nowhere to be seen...she is either stuck or searching inbetween rocks at the base of the tank - on purpose? I'm not sure but feel I need to move them as a precaution. So I pull the rocks away and she appears damaged - missing scales, red marks at the bottom of her body, a dent in her gill and white marks on the dorsal fin, but I assume it's just damage from being stuck? The fin looks grated, but there's a possibility it could be whitespot I suppose, however I've not noticed until now and Fatty and Ugly definitely don't have it.
The tank set-up, taken just now
Lil looking worse for wear after I assume from being trapped in rocks, this is the good side. Base of tail, mark on gill, white weirdness on dorsal fin, not clear on the small photo
Ugly looking fine
I just feel like giving up on it - I've given these fish an obviously crap existence and since December the tank depresses me. 2 days ago I got a job offer and I start in a week, but I'll still have little money for a while as I'll be paid a month in arrears - I'm pretty much surving on selling on eBay at the moment. I realise a water testing kit would be useful, though treatment for nitrite and ammonia problems that I've read so far consists of water changes from what I've read and I have been doing that. Looking in the filter from above the white filter pad is brown, but mum says I shouldn't clean it yet - I wouldn't know how to anyway to be honest with you. I don't know what to do next. If you have read this far, god bless you!, and if you have any advice I'd be extremely grateful! Sorry for the length of this.
May 2009
It all started out very innocently last year - I was working as a support worker for 5 young adults with learning disabilities - I was supporting one of the guys working at a charity shop and we came across a little plastic hexagonal start-up tank for £1. He told me he wanted to call my fish 'Mister Golding!', so I thought why not? My mum used to own a pet shop, though I only worked with the non-aquatic pets, so I didn't know a great deal but enough for a couple of fish I thought.
I set up the tank with a combined pump and filter, the usual gravel and ornaments, left it 3 weeks and bought 2 tri-tail Orandas; one was gold, the other had the colouring of a Shubumpkin so I called him Mister Bumpkin (pictured below - he used to have more black on him than he does now I swear!):
Mister Bumpkin proceeded to bully Mister Golding to his death - he seemingly died of stress from being chased constantly. So then I bought a slightly larger Oranda and the guy I worked for told me to call him Mister Scotsmere! Mister Scotsmere was also bullied to death by Mister Bumpkin - or a side effect of it I'd assumed; he had swimbladder. I couldn't hate him though, he is a cool fish..! So Bumpkin's been living on his own happily with a tiny plec since.
November
My mum came to see me with a gift - a 25 gallon fish tank she didn't want anymore with a matching stand. How could I say no? It even came with a massive internal Fluval filter and pump - only thing is I've never had a tank this big before. We filled it, put in the filter, the underwater pump above it to circulate the water, then mum told me to leave it for a few weeks before getting fish for it. So on the 17th November, after 2 weeks and too much excitement to wait any longer I bought 2 Orandas that were a similar size to Mister Bumpkin, reasoning that he was less likely to be dominant in a tank he didn't know. They were fine and dandy for 3 or 4 days, so then I put Mister Bumpkin in. He proceeded to bully immediately, then after 3 hours I put him in a fish bag in the tank (I'd stupidly emptied out the water from my old tank so couldn't put him back in that and didn't have dividers and desperately didn't want him to kill Ugly or Lil my new fish!). I'd cut loads of holes in the big fish bag to get some water flow through it, I know it seems cruel but I didn't know what else to do.
So I fill up the old tank again for a backup, adding water conditioner and the same combined pump filter (I hadn't cleaned the filter which from what I read was a good thing). It's set up and ready to use if I need it.
November 22nd
My dad comes to visit, finding the situation with Mister Bumpkin strange and amusing, we go to Pets At Home for a tank divider - having been made redundant recently he offers to get me one - yes bad time to have a new tank when I'm skint. We go there and they don't have one, naturally I have a wander and I look at the fish longingly, and I see the most GORGEOUS bubblehead Oranda (that's probably not its proper name) - it's pretty **** big, fairly expensive and with the most stunning colouring. Dad immediately offers to buy her (it had lipstick-type markings so I decided it was a girl!), reasoning it'd sort out Mister Bumpkin. So he gets me the fish, I called her Fatty. We got in, let out Mister Bumpkin and floated Fatty's bag in the tank then put her in after 10 minutes to allow for temperature adjustment. Fatty seems happy. Mister Bumpkin immediately starts bullying AGAIN! Dad used to sell fish, mostly koi carp, some smaller ones for a while and insists they should have Malachite Green in there to do with some whitespot theory he explained to me, I can't really remember. Out of the treatments mum has given me with the tank, dad uses Aquarium Doctor WSP - Anti Whitespot Treatment. The back of the bottle says to use over 48 hours. Dad gave me a list of days to put in 5 or 10 ml (can't remember) - Day 1, Day 3, then like day 5 and 8 or something. I trust his advice, though looking back I wonder if this is why the problems started?
Dad leaves a few hours later after we put in the first water treatment. I stood in front of the tank for about 20 mins watching Mister Bumpkin push Fatty by her tail, chasing, tormenting, pushing her into the jagged rock and worryingly at the bottom of the tank pushing her up against the tank wall by her gill, seeming shutting both of them by doing this. I immediately put Mister Bumpkin in the old tank. Fatty seems fine, Ugly and Lil are happy too.
December
The usual scene - at the bottom of the tank hiding. She used to hide at the front of the tank, now she hides at the back
After the treatments, I'd say a few days after day 8 of treating with WSP, Fatty is seriously unhappy sat at the bottom-right at the front of the tank - I moved the gravel in this area so she doesn't damage her belly. Two days later I treat the tank for Swimbladder following the instructions - I'd seen it before and it certainly looked like she had it. No change. She looks so unhappy, only moving for food. I purchase some expensive floating fish pellets specifically for orandas as the other pellets I had sunk and she never got a chance to find them. She's eating fine but still sat at the bottom. I speak to my mum about it and she asks about the air supply - I say the underwater pump on top of the filter. Mum is probably shaking her head and tells me this isn't an air supply, there are no bubbles. Crap. So I search my spare supplies, find a pump and airline and put that right at the bottom of the tank. Searching the web I read that daily water changes are a good idea, then elsewhere that doing water changes daily are a bad idea! So I do approx 40% water changes every other day for a week using my long tube with gravel skimmer at the end of it. Fatty moves, but only cos I'm in the way. No change in Fatty occurs, Lil and Ugly are still fine. Each time I change the water I use Stress Coat. I speak to dad, he tells me I'm putting too may chemicals in the water - to only use kettle-boiled hot water and cold water mixed and to put a tablespoon of dissolved rock salt in instead of Stress Coat conditioner with the water change. I do this on the last day of the week of on-off water changes. No change in the fish. I have a bout of excessive algae, I read online to do a 3 day darkness with no food to treat it - I do this, the agae goes. Another water change. I buy frozen Daphnia cos I read that's good for the fish, i feed them every few days with that aswell as the posh Oranda food pellets. Still nothing. Before Christmas day in a desperate bid to fix things, unable to afford a new pump, I steal the pump from Mister Bumpkin's tank and place the airline at the bottom of the Sad Tank in the hope it'll help. Nothing. The only thing I can think of now is that I've noticed it's a bit warmer at the bottom of the tank than the top when my arm is all the way in - surely this can't be it though?
Picture of Fatty going for food - the only time she seems to move, and it's very irratic
Today
Today I feel like giving up - the past 2 days Lil is hovering near the base of the tank not moving much. A few hours ago I looked in and Lil is nowhere to be seen...she is either stuck or searching inbetween rocks at the base of the tank - on purpose? I'm not sure but feel I need to move them as a precaution. So I pull the rocks away and she appears damaged - missing scales, red marks at the bottom of her body, a dent in her gill and white marks on the dorsal fin, but I assume it's just damage from being stuck? The fin looks grated, but there's a possibility it could be whitespot I suppose, however I've not noticed until now and Fatty and Ugly definitely don't have it.
The tank set-up, taken just now
Lil looking worse for wear after I assume from being trapped in rocks, this is the good side. Base of tail, mark on gill, white weirdness on dorsal fin, not clear on the small photo
Ugly looking fine
I just feel like giving up on it - I've given these fish an obviously crap existence and since December the tank depresses me. 2 days ago I got a job offer and I start in a week, but I'll still have little money for a while as I'll be paid a month in arrears - I'm pretty much surving on selling on eBay at the moment. I realise a water testing kit would be useful, though treatment for nitrite and ammonia problems that I've read so far consists of water changes from what I've read and I have been doing that. Looking in the filter from above the white filter pad is brown, but mum says I shouldn't clean it yet - I wouldn't know how to anyway to be honest with you. I don't know what to do next. If you have read this far, god bless you!, and if you have any advice I'd be extremely grateful! Sorry for the length of this.
