disappearing algae eaters

[gawdisme]

well, first of all.. hi everyone =). Im actualy wondering if somone would give me and idea of what is eating my algae eaters.. .. i have a 25 gallon thats a little overcrowded. .with a silver dollar, 3 medium sized angel, 3 balloon rams and a couple glowlights and a pair of male and female bettas. Before anyone criticizes me.. my tank has been set up for over half a year now.. and all the fish are perfect health and growing up nicely =). However.. i find that everytime i add any type of algae eaters in, whether it be siamese, or golden, it would just disappear after 2-3 weeks. It wouldn't display any symptoms of being sick.. it would just suddenly disappear.. ... i fully clean my tank every week taking EVERYTHING out... but i just cant find them anymore... does anyone know if silver dollars or angels may eat algae eaters o-o??

[mfdrookie516]

silver dollars and angels can both be aggressive, especially if the angels are breeding. a single angel needs a 30g tank at least to establish enough territory as to not kill everything else in the tank. 3 angels in a 25g tank is a disaster in the making imo. i almost guarantee theyre your culprit

[gawdisme]

but everything else is fine though.. even the little glowlights. I would have thought that they would go after the glowlights first since they're smaller than the algae eaters...

[FastFly67]

My guess is they're either dying from ammonia poisoning or nitrate poisoning. I'm leaning more toward ammonia poisoning because every time you remove everything and clean it, you're killing any good nitrifying bacteria. Please go read up on the nitrogen cycle.

Once you have a dead fish in the tank, the carcass is fair game. My guess is it's just getting eaten.

You really need to reconsider the well being of these fish. You're incredibly over stocked and the fish you have are not compatible. If that were my tank, I'd get rid of all the angels, the silver dollar and the rams. Then decide whether you want the male or female betta. If you want the male, remove the female and fill out the school of glowlights. If you want the female, remove the male add 2-3 more females for a nice sorority and again, fill out the glowlights. And as far as the algae eater, are you positive you're getting true SAEs? If you are, they will become quite large and fat for a 25. If you're getting the chinese algae eater (which the golden is), they'll become way too aggressive as they grow older and will start to try to attach themselves to their tank mates to suck off their slime coat.

Please stay on the forum and learn more about proper fish keeping.

[mfdrookie516]

oh wow i just saw the whole weekly cleaning thing. definitely not a good way to do things. i agree, probably ammonia poisoning. good catch fastfly! btw there is a link in my signature on fishless cycling. i would suggest you return all of your fish to your lfs, cycle the tank, then get some fish that are appropriate for your tank

[gawdisme]

mm ><? why isnt the weekly cleaning thing good? i only have plastic plants in there and i remove all of them and use gravel vacume to suck up all the crud on the bottom.. while removing around 1/3 of the water..... and use aqua plus when i put the water back in... if they're dying cause of water conditions shouldn't all my fish feel it and not just the algae eaters? the male and female betta are actually doing really well together haha.. they swim around together alot and if anyone gets bullied its actually the male one o-o... the balloon rams swim with the glowlights.. theyre all doing really welll also and have really nice colouring... theres absolutely no fin nipping among the angels at all... not even tentacle nipping .. i know my tank seems crazy to people going by the books.. but after u work at the fish a reptile section at a pet store and experiment with setting up tanks there.. alot of surprising combinations actually work out pretty well ...

[FastFly67]

Originally Posted by gawdisme

mm ><? why isnt the weekly cleaning thing good? i only have plastic plants in there and i remove all of them and use gravel vacume to suck up all the crud on the bottom.. while removing around 1/3 of the water..... and use aqua plus when i put the water back in... if they're dying cause of water conditions shouldn't all my fish feel it and not just the algae eaters? the male and female betta are actually doing really well together haha.. they swim around together alot and if anyone gets bullied its actually the male one o-o... the balloon rams swim with the glowlights.. theyre all doing really welll also and have really nice colouring... theres absolutely no fin nipping among the angels at all... not even tentacle nipping .. i know my tank seems crazy to people going by the books.. but after u work at the fish a reptile section at a pet store and experiment with setting up tanks there.. alot of surprising combinations actually work out pretty well ...

You asked for a reason as to why you have fish dying, we gave you some. Take it or leave it. If you think your tank is perfectly acceptable there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. It's your fish tank, it's your fish. You're getting sound advice from people who have probably been in this hobby for a lot longer than you have. What you do with that advice is entirely up to you.

[gawdisme]

sheeesh.. im just asking if anyones had the same problem.. and found an answerr to it.. ... and all i got was everyone saying my tanks overstocked...all im sayinnggggg~ to ppl criticizing my tank.....where do u think the info u get for fish size and corresponding aquarium size ultimately came from? a pet store.. and why would they have any reason to give u a way smaller "type of fish per galleon of water " rule?............... so u would run out of room really fast and buy a bigger tank.. -_-ll.. trust me.. my manager told me the secret and hes been doing this for 20 years. now.. has anyone had algae eaters disappear on them completely for no reason??? anyoneee???

[FastFly67]

Originally Posted by gawdisme

sheeesh.. im just asking if anyones had the same problem.. and found an answerr to it.. ... and all i got was everyone saying my tanks overstocked...all im sayinnggggg~ to ppl criticizing my tank.....where do u think the info u get for fish size and corresponding aquarium size ultimately came from? a pet store.. and why would they have any reason to give u a way smaller "type of fish per galleon of water " rule?............... so u would run out of room really fast and buy a bigger tank.. -_-ll.. trust me.. my manager told me the secret and hes been doing this for 20 years. now.. has anyone had algae eaters disappear on them completely for no reason??? anyoneee???

There's a reason. You just don't want to comprehend it. If your manager knows the "secret" to fish keeping, why don't you go ask him. And if he's so great at fish keeping and has taught you all the secrets, why are your new fish dying?
On edit: If you work for a fish store, I feel so sorry for your customers. You're probably the person that newbies come on here and complain about when they're laden with misinformation.

[gawdisme]

well.. they werent really the newest.... they were from before i had the rams and i thought id get some again but dont know how to solve the problem =(...... i dont work at the store anymore.. and i moved away.. thats why i cant ask that guy any more questions.. .. sigh.......so critical man.. u wouldn't know until u've triedd~~~ well.. then again.. by ur logic.. ur 29 bare koi tank is too small.. ull need to buy a pond.. im sry.. LOL

[FastFly67]

Originally Posted by gawdisme

well.. they werent really the newest.... they were from before i had the rams and i thought id get some again but dont know how to solve the problem =(...... i dont work at the store anymore.. and i moved away.. thats why i cant ask that guy any more questions.. .. sigh.......so critical man.. u wouldn't know until u've triedd~~~ well.. then again.. by ur logic.. ur 29 bare koi tank is too small.. ull need to buy a pond.. im sry.. LOL

Oh god, those koi are long gone. I eventually upgraded those babies into a 55 before they got sold to a lady who put them in her inground pool turned pond. I forgot I had that "my tanks" thing. Thanks for reminding me though. Off to update I go.

[Viper]

Originally Posted by gawdisme

where do u think the info u get for fish size and corresponding aquarium size ultimately came from? a pet store..

Seriously? You really think the best advice and information came from pet stores? Before the internet, books gave you the "best" information. Pet stores only gave you enough information to start up tanks such as yours. Also, its no "secret" to what these stores do, its just business, which is more or less common sense. If it is good for their pocket, that is what they are going to tell you, not what is good for your tank. So if you come to them asking "What fish can I put in my tank?" they are going to tell you what you ultimately want to hear which is that you can put this and that in your tank along with this at which point the tank will end up like yours.