keeping track of fish in 40 gallon planted

[olddollar95]

Any ideas about getting better visual coverage of hard to reach areas of my 40 breeder? Is there a lens or tube devise that would give better visual coverage from the top of the water. With the wood, rocks and plants, I can't tell if I have dead or missing fish or hidden deposits of fish waste, etc. this is a small problem, I know, but I can't account for three of my fish and don't want to dismantle to find them. Anyone?

 

[Mebbid]

something like this would be your best bet. But really I've seen them made with glass from picture frames and silicone. Super simple to make a glass box.

 

[treemanone2003]

If you have a SW store that has frags, they use a small square plexiglass "box" for viewing the frags. It's four sides and one bottom pane to look thru. You can also use a specimen container like this http://www.amazon.com/Lees-Specimen-Container-Aquarium-Wide-1-Inch/dp/B0002APRLK Or if you wanna go really cheap like I do when I can't find my container, a regular clear drinking glass does the job. The image is a little distorted from the bevel, but it does work.


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[Brookster123]

Put a mirror up as a background?

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[aqua_holic]

If you have enough filtration (filters+plants), and the fish are small, then a couple missing, dead fish in the tank is not a big deal. They'll break down to just a few bones pretty quickly, especially if there are snails to help.

Give the water a sniff - if it smells bad then there's something to get out I the tank. If not, I wouldn't worry.

 

[olddollar95]

thanks for the help. I now have some ideas for solving the problem.

 

[trennamw]

If you have enough filtration (filters+plants), and the fish are small, then a couple missing, dead fish in the tank is not a big deal. They'll break down to just a few bones pretty quickly, especially if there are snails to help.

Give the water a sniff - if it smells bad then there's something to get out I the tank. If not, I wouldn't worry.

Yup.

And sometimes you just won't ever know. I thought I'd lost two of six Otos because, for months, I could only ever see four even when I pulled the tank apart. So I got four more, presuming I'd have a total of 8 ... And suddenly there were 10 Otos out in the open.

I've persistently worried I'm losing fish and don't know it, and when I most concerned and start looking for them I never find them.

But once I lost an Oto to a filter, and thanks to snails and shrimp ... Well, nature took it's course before I knew there was a problem.


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[olddollar95]

fish viewer

thanks for the input. I've only been back in the hobby about 5 months and I still struggle with cloudy water, etc. I will test water tonight and try to move on. At this time, it is more work than it was in the 70's.

 

[Brookster123]

If you lose a fish you'll smell it, take a whiff of the open top tank,.if it smells fishy than.you probably have a casualty in there..

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[Fishfur]

If you have any snails or shrimp, you won't likely ever see a dead fish unless it's very newly dead and out in the open. They are quite efficient scavengers, and in fact that's one reason I have them in most tanks.

If I can't have shrimp, I will certainly have snails. Though I like them and would have them anyway, they do prevent water problems in the case of a death. I've never had a spike due to anything dying in a tank, not even clams.