55 gal community questions

[jbimflyer]

Hello all… I have a 55 Gal aquarium that has been established and running for about 3 months now. It started a bit rough with the loss of a few fish but i got a handle on it quickly. Anyway over the last week I have noticed a few things that have caught my attention and I couldn't answer myself, so I'm looking for a bit of help in understanding what I see. For one, the tank is stocked with 4 silver dollars, 1 red-tailed shark, 1 chinese algae eater, 1 danio(green), 1 pleco, 1 kuhli loach, and 7 tiger barbs. I noticed a few days ago one of my kuhli loaches had died I don't know the cause, but the other one seems fine and is growing nicely. The Red-tailed shark doesn't look like it's grown much at all, and it was very small when I stocked it. The biggest silver dollar of the 4 which consist of a small one that has grown nicely since i 1st stocked it and 2 medium small ones that are bigger, and the largest one which is the biggest for a small Silver dollar(about the size of a keyboard mouse) has some nicks in its fins, but none of the smaller ones do. I don't understand why, unless it was like that when I stocked it and I hadn't noticed. They are semi aggressive and no other fish bother them as I can see, so I don't get it? Can anyone explain these observations… The dead kuhli loach, the red-tailed shark not growing a lot yet, and the silver dollar looks like it was sparring. Thanks

 

[Cynic]

A scarred silver dollar isn't unusual as they are an incredibly neurotic fish prone to darting fanatically and squishing themselves against/under anything they can to hide if they are startled.

A slow growing RTS isn't anything to stress about just yet as your tank size seems fine, are your nitrAte levels ok and are you keeping up with your water changes?

Kuhli loaches cope better in groups so the sole one may have stressed to death or simply been victim to poor water conditions, impossible to know now though.

 

[jbimflyer]

A scarred silver dollar isn't unusual as they are an incredibly neurotic fish prone to darting fanatically and squishing themselves against/under anything they can to hide if they are startled.

A slow growing RTS isn't anything to stress about just yet as your tank size seems fine, are your nitrAte levels ok and are you keeping up with your water changes?

Kuhli loaches cope better in groups so the sole one may have stressed to death or simply been victim to poor water conditions, impossible to know now though.

Yes I've been doing water changes every 2 weeks on that one and every week on my 20 Gal, b/c it has a goldfish. The 55 in the OP had 2 Kuhli loaches, one of the 2 died that's why I was asking b/c the one that remains seems to be doing well. I guess it's time to test the water.