75G Planted For Beginners. Haha.

[gregswimm]

I don't have a good fish keeping resource here and after a MONTH of searching for help, I have nothing but this forum. Any kind of autopsy/necropsy...not happening unless I do it, and I don't have the tools.

Your skills are fine, you have the common sense to know what to do with your fish. You just had some bad luck.
Edit: next time quarantine

 

[FishFanatic04]

Thanks. I am, trust me. I bought new fish today even, knowing I plan to QT for up to a month. My other tanks should be sorted out by then. It was so fun getting new fish! Pics to come! I have to start a thread to help sex them.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Here's a thread with a bunch of pics of my new guys. I had wanted Bolivian Rams before I went with the Apistogrammas. Another Apisto died this morning leaving only one. I decided if I can save him to try and get another 2 female apistos and put them in my 46g later. So When I saw the Bolivians at the store today I grabbed them up! We were planning on getting my gouramis for the 46g today and QT them until that tank is ready. It was a fun trip!


I ordered a medication for the apistos yesterday, I hope it is here in time to save the final one. But I will be putting it in the food of all of my fish for a few days anyway, because I am not sure if all of my tanks have been contaminated. I bought a platy with the apistos, and they had shared a tank for the first few days {she's in my 46g now. SO medicated food for everyone.

 

[gregswimm]

Did you not learn from the apistos? Those rams could catch whatever the apiso had. Also, rams do better in pairs. A 10g QT tank will suffice, makes water changes easier and you don;t have to pour as much meds in a small tank. I would also copper the tank just in case there are any parasites in the water (remember copper is a poison and will kill inverts at low doses).

 

[FishFanatic04]

Can't copper with plants. how would the rams get what the apistos have? Separate tanks..i thoroughly cleaned this one and I ran this tank at 90 degrees all night with no fish. My tap has ammonia which kept my filter cycled. I won't cross contaminate them from my other tanks. Whenever the apisto is taken out of the other QT tank...I will use copper there maybe.

 

[FishFanatic04]

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[gregswimm]

Can't copper with plants. how would the rams get what the apistos have? Separate tanks..i thoroughly cleaned this one and I ran this tAnk at 90 degrees all night with no fish. My tap has ammonia wwhich kept my filter cycle. I won't cross contaminate them from my other tanks. whenever the apisto is takent out of the other QT tank...ill copper with it. No plants there.

14 day return policy on fish. So i can return them if they seem sick.

They are both cichlids so it possible it could spread. Also, I have plants and I copper. The only plant I have found that cannot take copper is elodea.

I bought the 5 rAms that looked good. We saw another and plan to get it to have 6. The 10g will be bursting at the seams, but I'll do some pretty frequent water changes and keep the tank pristine.

Edit: don't but any more fish for a month or 2 lol. Let that #106### chill for a bit. Also, too many water changes aren't good for your fish.

 

[FishFanatic04]

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[FishFanatic04]

I just wiped out my whole exchange with you. I was typing on my phone and I wasn't getting my point across very well. There's no reason to argue or be rude which is where I was heading.

 

[FishFanatic04]

My water sprite has reached the surface and I am unsure what to really do with it. It doesn't look as nice as it did before being this tall. The leaves on this one are thin, where my other plant has wider, broader leaves. I am planning on doing some reading about how to prune it today.

My lily bulb has been shooting up leaves! Bad news is that in my inexperience, I placed it in a bad spot and the leaves will be slightly shaded by a branch until they grow taller. I think it's causing them to be brown in color instead of red.

I had a great find!! hygrophila corymbosa. I had ordered some before and even after floating them they just died out, I think they were too damaged and they kept getting caught everywhere. I found these THREE stems in my local petco, The girl didn't even know that they were full aquatic. That's all they had ...I hope it will fill out.

 

[FishFanatic04]

My purple cabomba that is shaded a little is growing nice and bushy, but my regular one is growing leggy. I don't think there is anything I can do about it, so I may need to try a different background plant there.

 

[FishFanatic04]

This is today

I see a rescape in my future now that I have some growth and can see what the plants are doing. I have everything where I originally placed it, and other then pruning, I have left them alone. Buying a large package of plants was nice because it gave me a chance to learn about a variety of different plants. I need to weed out some.
The water sprite looked lovely about 2 weeks ago. Now it is an ugly hot mess. I still need to figure out what to do with it since I want to keep it. I also need to map out the background better and remove the jumble of plants. There are 9 plants right now that are growing to the surface and its a cluster ####.

I am not really sure what to keep and what to toss. I know for a fact I need a cleaner look through the whole tank. I am a very organized person and the plants thrown everywhere is starting to drive me crazy. Then again. Everything about this hobby is driving me crazy and I am on the verge of quitting. I would love to delete this journal even, but there is not a delete button. If I make it another month without selling everything, I might be glad I updated. It's nice to be able to flip back through and see my progress.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I think my problem with looking at the back is that there are no broad leaved plants. When I plan the new layout, I need to include some of the swords that grow tall.

Any suggestions on the background would be great.

 

[gregswimm]

-For the water sprite you can chop it back to whatever depth you prefer and replant the cuttings.
-For the lily, you can move some low light plants under it and put the highlight plants where you took the low light plants
-A 'leggy' plant is one that is 'stretching' for light, you can either float it for a short period of time for it to get some mass then re-plant it OR move it somewhere where it gets more light. (I would give it more light)
-Try planting your hygro next time.
-Don't throw away your plants yet, they are competing with algae for resources. You tank plants out you will get more algae. Water sprite is a great plant, I regret tossing mine.
-For the background, some Vallisneria spiralis would look great.

Don't quit! Your tank is still very new. Once you get your CO2 levels right and your tank starts to age it will get easier. It only gets easier from here. Algae growth is expected and necessary to the health of your tank and fish. You should slow down with your stocking, adding large numbers of fish at a time can lead to nutrient fluctuations which encourages undesirable algae grown. Large water changes also encourage algae growth by causing drastic changes in water chemistry (I wouldn't do more than 20%, even that is a lot imo). After adding fish and you have to change the water due to ammo/nitrites you have added too many fish. It might take you a year to fully stock your tank but that is how things go with aquariums, slow and steady wins the race. Although if you are adding lots of cichlids it is advantageous to add them all at once so they can have an equal chance to set up proper territories. If you are doing this, it is best to do a fish-less cycle where you dose liquid ammonia to the tank for a period of time and let it run through the tank to build a sufficient bacteria colony.
Edit: Also don't feed your fish more then they can eat in 1min.

I apologize if I was rude in my earlier post. I was a bit frustrated, and I was stressed from real life stuff.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Thank you. I have been in tears everyday over these sick fish and I was too sensitive. I very, very carefully cleaned the QT for the new Rams, and the apistogrammas had never been in that tank. I bought them knowing I have to QT them, and I needed a tank with new healthy fish desperatly or I was going to end up giving up. My 2 big tanks are sick and the last apisto doesn't have long. The meds are on the way.

I wasn't going to toss out any plants, just take them out as I replace them. I like having the tank nice and full, even if it isn't right just yet, bedies I have 6 tanks and they could all use some plants, so I'll be moving things around more then getting rid of anything {I can't do anything like that until I have all my fish healed, or I'll contaminate everything}

-Water sprite cuttings....DO you treat it like a stem plant?
-Lily, I feel liek that will be hard to move since it was from a bulb and it's randomly sending up leaves all around it...I will see how it goes...maybe it will regain some color as it hits the light? Or is it too late for those leaves?
-The cabomba that is stretching is in full light...even the bottoms. I have cut them again today and it it more densely planted. Maybe the light was driving it's growth too fast and it wasn't producing many leaves as a result.
-The hygro bottoms melted away the first time I planted it, but they had been in the mail for 2-3 days wrapped in dirty newspaper and in hot texas...
The new ones that I just planted look great, I just hope the grow out nicely.

I did fish-less cycle this tank and planned to mostly stock it right away, but my lfs let me down and only ordered 1/3 of the fish, and the apistos in that group had the parasites that have contaminated my two large tanks. It's been a disaster. That's why I bought all of the Bolivian Rams at once. After treating my 75g and Quarantining the Rams for a month, I will introduce them all at once to the tank so the can grab their territories and settle in. I'm taking the four cories out at that point which will help with the bio-load. I do 50% water changes a week because I dose Estimative Index.

Thank you for the response. I am very discouraged and grasping to any positivity. I have spent so much money on this stuff in a very short amount of time and it could be really disappointing for my family if I completely fail.