Hello, I'm new to this forum.
I've kept tropical fish for around 15 years now. Prior to that I had goldfish. At one point I had 4 tanks set up, but I've downsized to just the one 26 US gallon tank for now (the hobby became too much work). It's 31 inches long and 12 inches wide (80cm x 30cm).
I have 1 rosy barb (left over from a group of 6) and 3 glowlight danios (the last 3 in the shop). I had 2 panda garras for a while with them, but they caught some kind of fungus / cotton wool disease and died one by one. A rosy barb died in between the 2 garras so I wonder if he also caught the same thing? I also have loads of mts and some assassin snails which have been breeding (I saw a baby assassin recently and there's eggs all over the plants and driftwood).
My water is moderately soft and neutral out of the tap, tank water is 6.5 pH and negligible KH. The tank has driftwood and loads of plants. Tank is currently unheated and drops as low as 18 / 19C (that's the coldest it gets in winter indoors as I live in a subtropical region). Water temp is usually around 25 / 26C in spring, summer and autumn, but it can peak in summer at 29 / 30C (I have lost barbs at this temperature).
I'm debating whether or not to get more rosy barbs, given that they don't seem to survive the summer heat. The glowlights were added last autumn so I don't know if they can take it either. I'm also wondering if I should keep the tank subtropical or go back to tropical temps so I can keep a wider range of species (which hopefully won't suffer in the summer).
Any advice or suggestions would be welcome as I'm not really sure what I want to do with it right now and it seems kind of empty with the few inhabitants that are left (the glowlights swim around in the moss and under the driftwood most of the time the lights are on).
Thanks for reading if you got this far!
I've kept tropical fish for around 15 years now. Prior to that I had goldfish. At one point I had 4 tanks set up, but I've downsized to just the one 26 US gallon tank for now (the hobby became too much work). It's 31 inches long and 12 inches wide (80cm x 30cm).
I have 1 rosy barb (left over from a group of 6) and 3 glowlight danios (the last 3 in the shop). I had 2 panda garras for a while with them, but they caught some kind of fungus / cotton wool disease and died one by one. A rosy barb died in between the 2 garras so I wonder if he also caught the same thing? I also have loads of mts and some assassin snails which have been breeding (I saw a baby assassin recently and there's eggs all over the plants and driftwood).
My water is moderately soft and neutral out of the tap, tank water is 6.5 pH and negligible KH. The tank has driftwood and loads of plants. Tank is currently unheated and drops as low as 18 / 19C (that's the coldest it gets in winter indoors as I live in a subtropical region). Water temp is usually around 25 / 26C in spring, summer and autumn, but it can peak in summer at 29 / 30C (I have lost barbs at this temperature).
I'm debating whether or not to get more rosy barbs, given that they don't seem to survive the summer heat. The glowlights were added last autumn so I don't know if they can take it either. I'm also wondering if I should keep the tank subtropical or go back to tropical temps so I can keep a wider range of species (which hopefully won't suffer in the summer).
Any advice or suggestions would be welcome as I'm not really sure what I want to do with it right now and it seems kind of empty with the few inhabitants that are left (the glowlights swim around in the moss and under the driftwood most of the time the lights are on).
Thanks for reading if you got this far!