11g & 7.5g Projects

[Little-AL]

Hi Guys,

New on here and still very new to 'properly' keeping fish (2 months ago i'd never owned a filter!) - i've been keeping common gold's for years in a small plastic bowl and only recently started to use a filter LOL. Just after christmas I treated myself to a nice Clear-Seal corner tank (petite pentagon - approx 7.5g) but in less than a fortnight ended up buying an 11g tank instead.
I had a couple of common golds sharing with some Oranda (not ideal but they were all very well behaved! I bought the Oranda without really doing any research - I just liked the black ones ) - so having bought a new TV so that I could accommodate both tanks I now have my common gold's in the 7.5g tank and a load of other fish in my 11gal...

Apologies for picture quality at present... only using my blackberry so not the best - will get my Canon out soon!

The 7.5 before I set up the 11g:

The 11g in place - running a clear seal under gravel filter but now also running a foam type filter in the tank - at this stage had 3 x common gold's and 3 x oranda:

With the 7.5g set up and my two larger gold's moved over (left the smallest one in there for now as he is no bother) I added a nice piece of bogwood:

Really need to get a proper lighting setup - my trusty LED lamp is the only way to illuminate the tank during the evening at present!

Today I purchased what were advertised as common plec's but thanks to this forum have been id'd as Hillstream Loaches so should grow to no more than 3" in length and will be find in my tank!

So the present count in my tank:
1 Common Gold
5 x Orange (2 x Black, 1 x Chocolate, 2 x Orange/Black)
4 x White Cloud Mountain Minnow
4 x Gold Cloud Mountain Minnow
2 x Hillstream Roaches

My intention is to either upgrade to a larger tank (again) or donate some of the fish to my local doctor's surgery (they have a 65g+ tank in their reception) once they have gotten bigger...
Immediate plans are a nice lighting setup and possibly a small 50w heater to try and maintain a sensible temp as it has been really cold here the last few weeks!

Comments/crit/suggestions welcome! I am still a newbie at this and am aware that I might have a touch too much stock in my tank...

 

[eja206]

i think you will find that ur little pleco is actually a hillstream loach, sometimes sold as a butterfly plec, or borneo sucker, or about a million other names!
the good news is they are for cold water (common plecs are tropical), and stay very small and grow slowly. so overall much more ideal for your tank!
i have a similar one in my goldfish tank with white cloud mountain minnows.

 

[Little-AL]

i think you will find that ur little pleco is actually a hillstream loach, sometimes sold as a butterfly plec, or borneo sucker, or about a million other names!
the good news is they are for cold water (common plecs are tropical), and stay very small and grow slowly. so overall much more ideal for your tank!
i have a similar one in my goldfish tank with white cloud mountain minnows.

Oh! They were advertised as common plec's at my lfs!

Thanks for the gen!

 

[mfdrookie516]

I think you have the right idea. That tank is too small for goldfish, especially the common goldfish. If i were you, i would go ahead and find homes for the golds and maybe add a few more minnows.

 

[Little-AL]

I better get my first post updated! Have been and bought some Hikari sinking food pellets for them today which my greedy oranda have taken a shine to quite quickly! Also added a new filter - green foam thing with the air outlet creating a nice bit of circulation in the tank - its very effective! Left the old filter in there for the time being
Also got some more bogwood pieces soaking so can re-scape the tank next weekend hopefully!

All 3 of my golds have now moved back in to the 7.5g - the larger two are only 3" in body length (+ tail) so will be fine in that size tank for now!

 

[Little-AL]

OK then a bit of a big update...although no pictures at present!

It turns out I hadn't soaked my bogwood for long enough, coupled with a bit of overfeeding my water went a touch murky and wasn't clearing! So I went and got some new substrate tonight after work and managed to get it all changed over as soon as I got home!
The new stuff is meant to be good for live plants (can't remember name of it) and have added a thin layer of my black gravel over the top to stop the hillstream's from stirring it up!

Bogwood is back in a bucket soaking with my other two pieces and I have transferred a live plant in to the tank to see how I get on - I suspect a lack of light/CO2 will kill it off but fingers crossed!

For now just the minnows and the hillstream's have gone back in - the Oranda are having to share with the gold's in my 7.5g for a few days until I can re-introduce them (I re-used as much of the water as I could but don't want to take any chances with a nitrogen cycle) - will get my camera out and get some pics ASAP - it looks a LOT better though