Are My Fish Fighting?

[Louiseness]

OH MY... Betta splendens look awesome!
And what do you think about Golden Wonder Killifish?

Again, they'll be too big for this tank, and they're fish eaters.

Bettas are great though, but bear in mind if you don't know already you can only keep one male (and DEFINITELY not with golden wonders or cichlids!)

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm more worried about these poor mbuna right now. Klona; how often do you change your water and how do you do it?

 

[Klona]

I put them in a big bowl for 30 minutes until i clean the tank and refill it, then i take the net and put them one by one.
Actually i took a very hard time trying to get them out of the water before i cleaned the tank.
EDIT : And i only change water if the water color changes, which happened once so far.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes; see fish tanks don't need cleaning like that. You should syphon out some of the water using a gravel cleaner, and refill with warmed, dechlorinated water. You should change somwhere between 25 and 50% a week.

How do you clean out the filter?

 

[Klona]

How do you clean the filter?
Didn't know about that, but when i took out the filter, I shook it a bit from all sides until there was no water left in it.

Yes; see fish tanks don't need cleaning like that. You should syphon out some of the water using a gravel cleaner, and refill with warmed, dechlorinated water. You should change somwhere between 25 and 50% a week.

Didn't get what you said there.

 

[Louiseness]

You don't need to remove the fish or all the water.

You use a gravel cleaner/siphon (basically a plastic tube) to suck out about half the water. Then you replace the water with warm water that's been treated with a dechlorinating product.

You need to do this every week, DEFINITELY not 'when the water changes colour'.

 

[fluttermoth]

Well it's either a fluke or an infection, if it's gone really hard then I'm betting my money on an infection.

You don't catch the fish out and totally empty the tank; ever, really. You use a tube to suck some of the water and any left over food or fish poo out into a bucket. Then you refill the tank with warm water that has been dechlorinated with 'tap safe' or something like that.

The stuff inside the filter (probably sponges from looking at it) should be gently rinsed in some of the old tank water.

Fish produce ammonia in their urine, which is toxic and can kill the fish, but there are bacteria that eat the ammonia and turn into nitrite, which is lees poisonous tha ammonia, and then another type of bacteria eat the nitrIte and turn it into nitrAte that is only dangerous at very high levels. The bacteria live in your filter.

 

[Klona]

where can i find this 'dechlorinating product' or how does it look like?

 

[Louiseness]

where can i find this 'dechlorinating product' or how does it look like?

It's just a bottle of liquid. It might be called something like tapsafe or aquasafe or something similar.

You can get it at fish shops, or some pet shops like Pets at Home/Petsmart etc. It's easy to find.

 

[Klona]

The blue drops thing?

 

[fluttermoth]

Could be; what does it say on the bottle?

 

[Louiseness]

The blue drops thing?

Maybe! Can't really say yes or no just based on 'blue drops'! Do you have some? If you do, what's the name on the bottle?

EDIT: Fluttermoth - obviously great minds think alike

 

[fluttermoth]

The blue drops thing?

Maybe! Can't really say yes or no just based on 'blue drops'! Do you have some? If you do, what's the name on the bottle?

EDIT: Fluttermoth - obviously great minds think alike

 

[Klona]

I don't have one right now...

 

[fluttermoth]

You must get some; you should never, ever put water that hasn't been dechlorinated in your tank; it can paralyse the fish's gills and leave them unable to breathe properly, and it will kill the good bacteria in your filter.

Mbuna are remarkably tough fish, which is why they've survived through this; a lot of the other fish you're looking at won't, I'm afarid.

Click on the 'beginner's resource centre' in my sig and have a quick read of some of the articles in there; epspecially the one's on 'fish-in cycling' and 'the nitrogen cycle'.