10 Tank's fish and tanks

[10 Tanks]

Thursday additional post. Texted the government office and the Tetra was eating normally this morning. Go figure. This is a really unusual hobby. Just about when you think you've seen about everything, nature throws you a curve. We'll never know what happened, but we're glad the fish has apparently recovered. You know, I never remove a fish from its tank no matter what has happened to it. I keep an eye on it and I allow it to pass on in the tank. Once I can confirm it has died, only then do I remove it. In the case of this apparently dying Tetra, it for some reason has recovered. I'm glad I decided to leave it alone.

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[10 Tanks]

Friday morning and the heat continues here in northern Colorado. Upper 90s to low 100s for us again today. Garden is suffering a little, but we're keeping up with the watering. Outdoor fish tank is fine. Fish have no problem with 60 degree water. Thankfully, there's the pergola over the tank. So, today, we have a couple of tanks to work on. We'll change out half the tank water in the 55 gallon government tank and the 300 gallon trough in our back yard. The water changes will make sure the oxygen is at a safe level and the any fish and plant waste material will be removed.

I learned something interesting about Bettas. Although I've never kept them, I think they're beautiful. I did read that people who keep them shouldn't be upset if they only have the fish for a few months. These fish are normally more than six months old by the time the fish store gets them. Apparently, they're shipped from Southeast Asia and are pretty old by the time they get to their final destination. These fish only live a year or even two at best. So, if you have a Betta that's more than a year old, you've got an old fish!

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[gwand]

So true. I had a beautiful betta that just about made it for a year.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello gwand. That's quite an accomplishment from what I've read. That fish obviously received good care!

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[10 Tanks]

Saturday morning and we'll work on a couple of tank this morning. Specifically, a 50 gallon with roughly 20 Buenos Aires Tetras and a 55 gallon with some White Skirt and Black Skirt Tetras, some Platys, a Red Eyed Tetra, some Red Tailed Rasboras and some Guppies. We'll remove and replace half the water and clean the filters.

We checked on the Glofish at the government office yesterday and it has completely recovered from its injury. Guess it injured itself chasing some of the other fish. The Rainbow Sharks are getting along very well. Two have paired up in a cave. We'll see what goes on there.

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[10 Tanks]

More Saturday postings. The two tanks are finished. The Fluval C2 filter is nicely put together. Very easy to take apart and clean. The Buenos Aires Tetras have increased in population from the original 12 that were used to cycle the tank, to 20. I think. There's a large Chinese Evergreen immersed in this tank and so the water should be nearly nitrogen free, but since we remove and replace so much water, there's little need to test it. At least the fish like the way things are being done with their tank. This tank was set up and ran for just two days before we put the Tetras in it. We just removed and replaced most of the water every few days and used a bacteria starter. Most wouldn't go along with this method and would recommend waiting the four weeks or more for the bacteria to mature naturally. Which is fine. But, even after you've waited the four, plus weeks, you'll still need to remove and replace most of the tank water every few days to maintain optimum water conditions for your fish.

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[10 Tanks]

Sunday morning. Got a little, well needed rain last night. Really cooled things off. So, today, we'll change out half the tank water on a couple of 55 gallon tanks and clean the filtration. These tanks have mostly Guppies and some Buenos Aires Tetras. This Tetra is one of the largest and can thrive in water between 64 and 82 degrees. That's quite a substantial temperature range. I keep the tank water at around 72 degrees. The cooler water has more oxygen and the fish are more active at this temperature. I think they're hardier than Guppies. They certainly get a lot bigger.

Yesterday, there was talk about nitrate. Nitrate doesn't need to be as low as most believe. It can be difficult to nearly impossible to keep this form of nitrogen below 40 parts per million (ppm). I say don't worry about keeping a specific water chemistry, it's very difficult and you can certainly fail to do it. I say, just remove and replace most of the tank water every week and keep the food you feed your fish to a little about every other day. Keep things simple and you'll be more successful.

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[10 Tanks]

Tomorrow being Monday, we'll be doing three tanks. We'll work on the government tank. We change half the tank water in this one twice a week. By doing this, we know the water conditions are as close to pristine as we can humanly get them. The fish are all healthy, but we've yet to have any fry. We'll also work on a 60 and a 75 gallon tank. We're removing and replacing the water so often at this point, that the nitrates must be low as well. We don't know this for sure, because we don't test the tank water. But, when you change out a lot of water, testing it just seems like a total waste of time. We know the water conditions are well within the limits to keep the fish healthy.

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[10 Tanks]

Monday morning and it's "Coffee Time". So, yesterday there was talk about nitrates in tank water. Nitrates are the end result of the nitrogen cycle, so they're not going to affect your fish as long as you keep the level below 40 parts per million (ppm). I do understand that shrimp are much more sensitive to nitrates than fish. So, if you have nitrates in your tap water, which most public water supplies do, you need to use aquarium plants that take in this form of nitrogen through their leaves, have larger root systems and you want plants with a lot of leaves. So, I would recommend putting Anacharis and Dwarf Water Lettuce into the tank. And, put in a lot of plants. There are some others, like Hornwort, Pennywort Duckweed, Frogbit and Red Root.

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[10 Tanks]

More postings for a Monday. I really like this journal. I can communicate and pass along something new that I've picked up in my reading and research. Let's talk more about Platy fish. There are at least a dozen different patterns of these fish and countless different species. These are likely at the top of the list of "easy to keep fish". I have around 40 in several tanks and just have to keep their water clean. I don't heat the water, I don't have to feed much and when I do, the food is just some flakes. The key to keeping these fish is removing and replacing most of the water frequently and I like to add just a handful of standard aquarium salt to the new, treated tap water. I read once several years ago, that fish with scales benefit from a little salt. I know this is old information, but I think it's good advice.

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[10 Tanks]

Another thing for Monday. We haven't touched on the water chemistry for our Platy fish. Basically, we're talking about the pH (acidity or hardness). My water, here in Colorado, is a little acidic. Last time I tested it, it came to 6.8, which is really near neutral. This is good. But, Platy fish will do well in most tap water conditions as long as the chemistry is constant. Constant means, removing and replacing a lot of tank water and doing this every few days. I change half or a bit more every five to six days. As long as I do this, I know the water chemistry is going to be stable all the time. These fish don't require a particular water chemistry, just a stable one.

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[10 Tanks]

More Platy fish information for today, Monday. Okay, since the water is near pristine and the fish are being fed a good flaked food, we need to talk about all the fry we'll be seeing in the tank in a few weeks. As the fry are born, they'll immediately look for a hiding place, so we'll have lots and lots of floating plants already in place. Anacharis and Water Lettuce are two of the best. These plants grow quickly and provide good cover for all our fry. Shortly after the fry are born, they'll swim up to the surface for a quick breath of air before heading for cover. When we see the fry, we'll start feeding a little more and more often. If the adult fish are well fed, they'll show a little less interest in the fry. We don't want all the fry to survive, but we want quite a few. The fry will start eating right away, so the added food will welcome.

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[10 Tanks]

Tuesday morning. We're taking a break from the tank work today. We have some errands to run and we're really ahead of schedule anyway. We're doing some reading/research in our fish books and it doesn't hurt to review old resources to refresh our memory on certain areas of the "water keeping" hobby. I will definitely pass on any points of interest I come across in my reading.

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[GaryE]

I learned something interesting about Bettas. Although I've never kept them, I think they're beautiful. I did read that people who keep them shouldn't be upset if they only have the fish for a few months. These fish are normally more than six months old by the time the fish store gets them. Apparently, they're shipped from Southeast Asia and are pretty old by the time they get to their final destination. These fish only live a year or even two at best. So, if you have a Betta that's more than a year old, you've got an old fish!

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If you start with a healthy Betta splendens, 2 to 3 years is sort of successful. My Mother had a little blue one that beat 5 years. I always considered one year of life for a well cared for Betta to be a fish that arrived with a problem that developed.

There was a thread here a couple of years ago about betta longevity, and I was surpised at how many people had had very long lived pets. It's bad you missed that one. Some of the threads on this site are really worth a good read.

 

[10 Tanks]

Whoa! Am trying to find some information about Rainbow Sharks that would allow a tank keeper to keep them with peaceful fish, but there's not much. The government tank has three of these fish in it and for the last 14 months, everything has been very peaceful. So far so good! These fish have been in with a fairly large Pleco and some Barbs and Tetras. There are also some Pristellas and everything is living in 55 gallons of water. The Sharks were under two inches originally and two have grow to over three inches and another is a bit more than two. From what I've seen, you can keep these semi-aggressive sharks in a larger tank that provides plenty of hiding places for them. The sharks seem to spend most of their time cruising along the bottom, so that seems to work well, because the other fish are generally swimming in the middle to upper part of the tank. There may be more on this a little later.

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