Hoplo Catfish Meeting Swordtails.

Got a wooden lid with about 16 holes on top. It covers the tank perfectly. Now I can fill it to its max capacity (leaving like 2 cm of air) and lift the filter up, giving Tzuppy more space at the bottom and room for plants.
But I STILL don't have dechlorinator because dad refused to go all the way to the pet shop to buy it due to snow. Am I going to be in trouble soon if I don't get that? Because I've heard that there will be ammonia spikes from day 10 onward.

And that black swordtail is still not eating/pooping and sitting mostly at the top of the tank. She is the only one displaying weird behavior. Other fish are active / stuffing themselves on the bloodworms that my catfish eats.

FishBlast said:

Got a wooden lid with about 16 holes on top. It covers the tank perfectly. Now I can fill it to its max capacity (leaving like 2 cm of air) and lift the filter up, giving Tzuppy more space at the bottom and room for plants.
But I STILL don't have dechlorinator because dad refused to go all the way to the pet shop to buy it due to snow. Am I going to be in trouble soon if I don't get that? Because I've heard that there will be ammonia spikes from day 10 onward.

And that black swordtail is still not eating/pooping and sitting mostly at the top of the tank. She is the only one displaying weird behavior. Other fish are active / stuffing themselves on the bloodworms that my catfish eats.

Click to expand...

ammonia will build from day 1. if you don't get dechlorinator you have to do 90% water changes everyday.

Whitey_144 said:

FishBlast said:

Got a wooden lid with about 16 holes on top. It covers the tank perfectly. Now I can fill it to its max capacity (leaving like 2 cm of air) and lift the filter up, giving Tzuppy more space at the bottom and room for plants.
But I STILL don't have dechlorinator because dad refused to go all the way to the pet shop to buy it due to snow. Am I going to be in trouble soon if I don't get that? Because I've heard that there will be ammonia spikes from day 10 onward.

And that black swordtail is still not eating/pooping and sitting mostly at the top of the tank. She is the only one displaying weird behavior. Other fish are active / stuffing themselves on the bloodworms that my catfish eats.

Click to expand...

ammonia will build from day 1. if you don't get dechlorinator you have to do 90% water changes everyday.

Click to expand...

I already do huge water changes daily (mom started to think I went nuts because of that).
And I still don't understand what's wrong with that swordtail of mine. Did research on it, doesn't present symptoms that will show a sure cause. Water changing won't get her to eat, she spends a lot of time near but not exactly at water surface. She swims like a zombie (as if she doesn't care what's in her path, like a robot fish or something).
She looks normal, no clamped fins, just appears to be roaming aimlessly through the tank. I thought she's blind but she can see when stuff is near the aquarium so she's not blind. Then what could be wrong with her?

I have separated the fish to monitor her closely. She's currently in a plastic bowl though. I'm sorry that I have to do this, but it's better than to let her in there like that. I'll keep her in until I find out if she's capable of eating (2 days maybe). She still stays near the water surface / roams aimlessly.

The swordtail still doesn't bother to eat, no fish poop either. She sits at the bottom of the bowl (it is a cylindrical bowl, kind of like a bucket).
She isn't very active but her fins look normal, what worries me the most is that she has two types of food and won't eat either one. Flakes and bloodworms. And I noticed that she liked bloodworms in the beginning, as she was the one to eat the most of those while the others barely took a bite.

It's been six days now and the swordtail's still not eating nor pooping. All she does is breathe fast and sit at the bottom of the bowl, only coming up occasionally. I'm wondering if this is gill flukes.
Tried three types of food: flakes, defrosted bloodworms and boiled egg yolk. All were ignored.

No other sign besides not eating and rapid breathing. All I have at the moment is sea salt so I am not sure if that's of any use, might be even dangerous to fish. I didn't use it by the way.

Dia died 1 hour ago. Refused to eat till the end and looked very thin. I hope the rest didn't get it from her.
So far they seem to be eating normally.

I checked Dia's gills, no white stuff in it, the gills were brownish. I don't know if that's a normal color for them, but what ever it was, it definitely had to do with the gills. Her rapid breathing and lately frequent yawning point to that.

Sorry for your loss. I hope you can get some dechlorinater soon. Maybe that will help the rest stay strong.

Fish Fanny said:

Sorry for your loss. I hope you can get some dechlorinater soon. Maybe that will help the rest stay strong.

Click to expand...

That's the first thing I'll get when I get paid. Though I hate waiting.
Got to clean the filter today again, seems like it has fish poo in it again, I see black dots (catfish poop surely) in it.
My catfish looks dark brown now, is that ok for a hoplo? He usually was a lighter color. But he seems to be more active and eats even out of my hand now. So does my red swordtail, she's the bravest non-catfish I ever had.

I think that Dia got stressed because Bee wanted payback for getting picked on, which would have caused her to catch a gill parasite or something. But aside from rapid breathing and yawning, gills were not white nor red, but brown.
Another odd thing was the giant white poop that appeared only once in the water in their first day in the aquarium. That might explain the refusing to eat and going extremely thin.

Did an extra 30% water change so that I could clean the filter. Got some weird junk out of it again. At least now it's running at full power again.

Will feed the fish some bloodworms in the evening.
One question about Hoplo would be: How much food do they actually need? As Tzuppy seems to eat most of the food, but the Xiphos are quick enough to grab a few bites too, but I sometimes feed them flakes.
How can I tell if I'm overfeeding? I only give a pinch of bloodworms and sometimes flakes and the Xiphos will eat out of both types of food, but catfish prefers bloodworms.

After today's 80% water change, I noticed that my female swordtail rubbed her head only once on the floor of the tank. She then resumed eating bloodworms.
I hope that's not going to mean a start of Ich or some gill parasite...

Could Bee actually be a late developing male?
Looks like a female, but something's not right.
The seller said it's a female...