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I hope it is an African Dwarf Frog that you have. If it is the African Claw Frog, take it back! It will grow to eat all your fish. Shedding of skin is normal for frogs. There is great variation in when this happens from frog to frog for no clear reason.

Considering the amount of filtration you have on this tank, I would say that you could add the loaches with no problem at all. On a side note, do your tiger barbs school with the gold barbs at all? You might also consider the clown loach, they have the added advantage of hanging out with tiger...

The amount of light is a very important consideration. Also, I would not worry about your fish, as you stated that it is a DIY solution. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to get enough CO2 out of a DIY to kill your fish.

As for doing water changes, you can't always tell if your fish are struggling or not, so I don't think that is a good rule to follow. As for how many, each tank cycles differently in terms of levels and times, so my best advice is to read through the threads on cycling a tank with fish to get a...

Increasing the size of the school is the best thing to do first. I keep tiger barbs, and if you keep them in a decent size group, they are fine with most other fish. You would however, still not want to temp fate by having long fin fish in with them.

It seems that he was sick. Doing the best you can with water and knowing how to detect and treat diseases are important. However, it is inevitable that you will loose fish. This can happen for no apparent reason sometimes. Just like with people, sometimes fish just die for no reason that you...

I have a financial interest in all of these, it is the interest in how much money I spend at each. :D :P :D :P

Ok, that makes more sense. However, a good test kit does not have to cost $25-$35. Good test kits can be had for about $15. I hate to say this, but try Wal-Mart and see what they have. I hate to say it because I don't like to recommend to anyone to get fish or fish related supplies there.

I like that answer. And I hate to be rude, but if you can't afford to buy the proper tests kits, what are you going to do when you have to buy medications or water treatments? Perhaps, under these circumstances, keeping fish is not a good hobby.

Like others have said before, finish the cycle of your tank and test the water often. Your initial fish deaths could very well have been the result of toxin build up.

The length of time people put fish in a quarantine tank varies depending on their level of paranoia. Some have fish in them for as little as a few days, while others have them in for as much as three weeks. I think that generally one week is a good amount of time. In this week, if the fish is...

Hey thanks, I did not know about that one. I found on another site that rosy barbs and golden barbs are also suppose to school with tiger barbs. I am interested in trying this out in my 120 gallon tank.

On the subject of lights, many of the ick medications will work better with the lights off. This is especially true with ones that have malachite green in them. The light breaks down the medication faster than it should be.

Timers are definitely a good thing to have on your lights, they give the fish some type of routine.

Great, now we are reduced to discussing alternative lifestyles for our fish? What a way to start the day. Seriously though, this is just too funny. Should we start a thread on fish AIDS next? Maybe there is a market for fish condoms for people with fish so inclined. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I assume you are using the Number 5 General Tonic? From what I have read, as long as you follow the directions on it, you should be fairly safe. Though a quarantine tank is still better.

What size tank do you have?

I believe that I was wrong about the cherry barbs and the tiger barbs schooling together. I know that one of the other barbs will school with tigers, can anyone help me out here and tell me which one it is? I can't find the page where I had read this at the moment.

They will all get along fine. As for the Tiger Barbs, they are a great fish and can get along with other fish if kept in schools. This means that you need to keep them in groups of at least six, and preferably more. There are four tiger bard varieties; the regular tiger bard, the green striped...

Never mind, I looked at your profile. Is it a sand tank, or a gravel tank and do you have places for them to hide? They might be tearing them up when they are using them to hide in.

How many clown loaches do you have and in how big a tank?

I am somewhat surprised that your neons are doing OK, they are not generally a good fish for cycling. However, you do have a decent size tank with only a few fish, so maybe it is going to work out for you.

Filters take out bad stuff, as well as good. They are generally better to have than not to have. As far as the PH, if you are doing a 25% water change, it will be a change, but one that most fish should be able to handle.

To explain a little more, you cycle a tank when it is new to get those good bacteria in it. If you don't have them, the waste from the fish will build up in the tank and kill them. As mentioned you quarantine things for sickness and prevention of sickness. When fish are sick, you separate them...

Filters are by design, meant to remove minerals among other things. The quality of the filter has a lot to do with what it will take out. My system is for particles all the way down to less than a micron. As for adding minerals, when ever you feed your fish, you are adding some. However, most...

It does add an extra layer of protection to your tank to have real plants. There is that much more of a buffer if things start to get out of whack. And some plants will root with clippings. Still, I'd start out with fake and get basic fish keeping down first.

As you have no fish yet, I would look at the fish descriptions on this page, as well as others to decide what kind of fish you want. Then you can see what temperature they prefer and match your setting to something that will work for all of them. I believe the most common temperature setting is...

Actually, tasting really bad might mean it is loaded with minerals that would be good for fish. The problem is that you don't know and it is hard to tell without a really good water test. This is much beyond what most water test kits can do. The other problem is that different fish sometimes...

I LOVE you signature picture, can I copy him?

That is a good point about the clown loaches, I am spoiled with the 120 gallon tank I am putting up. It would be a good pinned thread to make as well.

There are relatively simple, low need plants that you can use. However, as I said, I would wait until you have more experience with keeping fish and the tank going good.

On the subject of spring water, I would not use it. This is because you actually have no idea of where it actually comes from. Many "spring waters" are actually bottled municipal water that started out in a spring somewhere.

I'd go with the two suggestions above to change the filter media and add floss. They should take care of it. As for the lights, I would not have a gap in the middle, just run them ten hours straight. The gap would be confusing to the fish. I doubt the flow would stir anything up like that, but...

It is not really that the tank will not cycle, it is just that it will be in stages. When you do a fish cycle, the beneficial bacteria need to develop in the tank while there are fish there. This bacteria takes time to grow and you have to balance it's growth with the number of fish. Too many...

I am setting up a 120 gallon tank, so I know just what you mean about money being tight and having to wait on some things. B)

I'd rather stay with the standard python type vacuum. It makes it easy to do a water change at the same time.

How'd the experiment go with the two thermometers?

Clown loaches are great for snails, and they are just fun to watch too. Get at least three so they can be sociable.

Another thing that you can do is use the hospital tank as a fry tank and/or a plant growing tank when not in use as a hospital tank. This gets you more use out of it. I also agree that bigger is better.

If you are just starting in the hobby, as it appears from your post, I would go with the fake for now. You have to learn how to take care of the fish and the tank already, plants would just add more that you would have to learn at one time and more that you could mess up too. You can always add...