jhawk127
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I'm here - Hi everyone!
I've lurked for a while and have found a lot of insight from the posts here. I'm looking forward to some interesting dialog - not only getting help, but offering a few suggestions from my experiences over the past 10 years.
I started fishkeeping over 20 years ago, but stopped for a while due to life changes. When my oldest child was about 2, we bought some feeder goldfish and started again with a 10 gallon tank. The last of those fish died about 3 months ago.
However, in the last 10 years, I've accumulated several fish. and tanks. and fish. and tanks.... you get the picture.
Craigslist has been my best source for finding healthy, affordable fish and equipment.
I've joined the forum because my most recent situation has me dumbfounded. :
After maintaining a healthy tank of 8 Red Zebra cichlids for over a year, I now have none. I lost one during a tank upgrade about a month ago, but the remaining 7 died this past weekend. Water quality tested out fine. (PH, Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia were all within acceptable tolerances- even with dead fish floating) I CANNOT FIGURE IT OUT - and I'm very hesitant now to restock until I'm confident the tank is fine.
The only thing I've done differently in the last week is add a moss ball from another one of my healthy community tanks. From everything I've found since, mbunas will tear up moss balls, but nothing toxic about them. My Red Zebras didn't seem to bother the moss ball much although I did have a few random fragments shortly after adding it, which I attributed to the moss ball just not settling yet.
I love mbunas and am planning to get several back in the tank once I'm comfortable knowing they will be healthy.
I appreciate any insight or opinions to what might have gone wrong.
I've lurked for a while and have found a lot of insight from the posts here. I'm looking forward to some interesting dialog - not only getting help, but offering a few suggestions from my experiences over the past 10 years.
I started fishkeeping over 20 years ago, but stopped for a while due to life changes. When my oldest child was about 2, we bought some feeder goldfish and started again with a 10 gallon tank. The last of those fish died about 3 months ago.
However, in the last 10 years, I've accumulated several fish. and tanks. and fish. and tanks.... you get the picture.
Craigslist has been my best source for finding healthy, affordable fish and equipment.
I've joined the forum because my most recent situation has me dumbfounded. :
After maintaining a healthy tank of 8 Red Zebra cichlids for over a year, I now have none. I lost one during a tank upgrade about a month ago, but the remaining 7 died this past weekend. Water quality tested out fine. (PH, Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia were all within acceptable tolerances- even with dead fish floating) I CANNOT FIGURE IT OUT - and I'm very hesitant now to restock until I'm confident the tank is fine.
The only thing I've done differently in the last week is add a moss ball from another one of my healthy community tanks. From everything I've found since, mbunas will tear up moss balls, but nothing toxic about them. My Red Zebras didn't seem to bother the moss ball much although I did have a few random fragments shortly after adding it, which I attributed to the moss ball just not settling yet.
I love mbunas and am planning to get several back in the tank once I'm comfortable knowing they will be healthy.
I appreciate any insight or opinions to what might have gone wrong.