38G freshwater aquarium

[Marvin4o9]

Hello everyone my name is Marvin and I currently have a 38G Freshwater tank, with some plants but not a lot, so far in this tank I have some glofish tetras, swordtails, and platies. Recently added substrate for plants and some rocks me and my gf found to add to the tank. My first fish were the tetras, I really thought they were cool because they came in many different types of colors and many different forms. But recently I have gotten tired of them because they don't seem to have much energy compared to the swordtails and platies who will spend all day swimming around and savaging for left over food that's stuck in the gravel, but they do poop a lot more than the tetras for sure. So I bought some substrate from petco that they said would help turn the fish waste into food for the plants, I was wondering what's the best way to remove fish waste since they really do poop a lot :c Now I also have two ghost shrimps and a red cherry shrimp and two long fin rosy barbs who get a lot and savage with the swordtails and platies. I also have a common pleco and a very shy ralphael catfish. I had a very nicely colored Bettafish who recently died, he was doing just fine during the night swimming around, but once I woke up he was dead laying there. Anyone might have any ideas why that could have happened? Thinking about removing the tetras and just having a group of platies and swords, but anyway I think that's all for now. Now to spam some pictures!

My tank



The rock that Ralph likes to hide under



Alittle cave for the fish and shrimps to hide and sleep



This big rock we thought wouldn't fit but now makes for a nice cave and hill



My red cherry shrimp along with my two ghost




Located in Groves Texas

 

[icydeath]

Ooh nice koi sword! Anyways, do you plan on planting your tank more densely? I would do some Anubias, Java Fern, and maybe some Crypts...

Since your tank is planted you don't need to take the poop out. One method of removing it is to gravel vacuum but people with planted tanks usually don't do that. You could use a turkey baster for more bothersome ones.

 

[icydeath]

I noticed you said you have a common pleco, I would rehome or return it. They get huge and have a larger waste output than both of your live bearer. As for the betta, did you acclimate it? Also for your Raph, you should feed it shrimp pellets and algae tabs at night. They are nocturnal so the shyness makes sense. Eventually they come around but it could be a while. If you add more cherry shrimp you could start a colony.

Regardless, glad to habe you in the community and it was nice meeting you.

 

[Marvin4o9]

Yeah I got a really big one that I had to remove from this tank and put into a 30 gallon because he kept up rooting my staurogyne repens :/


Located in Groves Texas

 

[Marvin4o9]

I noticed you said you have a common pleco, I would rehome or return it. They get huge and have a larger waste output than both of your live bearer. As for the betta, did you acclimate it? Also for your Raph, you should feed it shrimp pellets and algae tabs at night. They are nocturnal so the shyness makes sense. Eventually they come around but it could be a while. If you add more cherry shrimp you could start a colony.

Regardless, glad to habe you in the community and it was nice meeting you.

Yeah he was alive for more than a week and he just randomly died, I've had an orange shrimp, a crystal red shrimp and more ghost shrimps but they randomly disappeared on me


Located in Groves Texas

 

[icydeath]

Your other fish might be eating them, it happens more than you would think. To counter this I would add a bunch of hiding places and plants and buy like 7 cherry shrimp and let the colony establish. Then when other fish eat the shrimp, it won't have as much an impact on the shrimp.

 

[Marvin4o9]

Your other fish might be eating them, it happens more than you would think. To counter this I would add a bunch of hiding places and plants and buy like 7 cherry shrimp and let the colony establish. Then when other fish eat the shrimp, it won't have as much an impact on the shrimp.

Yeah it was most likely the tetras or maybe my water quality was bad? At that time I didn't have substrate to take care of the fish waste so it got bad and well I'm guessing that's why some of the shrimps died except these three fighters, but I also can't really buy RFC here since they hardly ever carry them and they are like 5-6 bucks each when they do, so most likely I'm just gonna wait to have a shrimp only tank so I won't throw away so much money on shrimps lol


Check out my introduction to view my tank!

 

[icydeath]

Yeah that makes sense haha.

The good thing about shrimp tanks is they can be relatively small (think 5-10 gallons)

 

[Marvin4o9]

Yeah that makes sense haha.



The good thing about shrimp tanks is they can be relatively small (think 5-10 gallons)

Yeah lol once petco has their dollar per gallon tanks on sale I'll be sure to buy some


Check out my introduction to view my tank!

 

[icydeath]

They last had it in January so I think it will be... April or May by the time the next one comes around.

 

[Autumnsky]

Hi, Welcome.

It sounds like you need to learn about your water. Have you read about cycling your filter and have you learned what BB (beneficial bacteria) are?

There is a link in my signature to start otherwise go to the articles section in the top bar of the website and start reading through the articles for getting started and Fish-In Cycling by Jetajockey since you already have fish.

I would start doing some research about the compatibility of fish and invertebrates.

You can to a good place to start learning more about keeping fish and Inverts safely.

Please go to the appropriate sub forum to ask questions so that people will be able to see them specifically and answer better for you.