Chinese Algae Eaters and Paradise Fish?

[mhoward1999]

Hi all. I have recently gone through a major plague in my tank. I had five rasboras, a pair of blue paradise fish, one kissing gourami, and a raphael catfish. They had what perfectly fit the description for ich, but did not respond to treatment. I used rid-ich for 6 days, then switched to Mardel's general fungus treatment for three days. Everything died except for the pair of paradise fish. This is a classroom aquarium that has been established for two and a half years. Friday of last week was the last day anything died in the tank. I did an extreme cleaning on Friday because I have read that ich exists in cysts that float around in the water. I took everything out of the tank except for the fish and the gravel and did about an 80% water change. I know this is not generally a "good idea," but I feel that desperate times call for desperate measures. I steralized all the decorations with bleach and rinsed them thoroughly. I don't intend to put them back in the tank until a week has passed. I intended to let the tank sit for a week, and then if my paradise fish seemed fine then decide what to restock the tank with. One of my students came in today with two chinese algae eaters. I would never have bought these in a million years. Frankly, I despise them, but I thanked him and told him I would have to see if they could go with our fish because our fish are aggressive. What should I do? Also, Do you have suggestions of what I could put with the paradise fish? It's a 29 gallon tank with UGF only. TIA!

 

[mhoward1999]

bump...anybody out there?

 

[wuvmybetta]

hmmm, the cae's would probably be ok for awhile. They get to about 4.5" and can become territorial towards each other as they age (plus they have a max lifetime of 10 years!)

Just so you know....ich is always in the water. I hate to say that all of your scrubbing was done in vain but... It's only when a fish becomes stressed that they become susceptible to ich. They could very well have another outbreak when you put them back in. So to keep your fish healthy,you must first figure out what it was that was stressing them.

Also...did you save some of the cycled gravel? Or are you going to re-cycle? Does anybody have a tank that you can have some well established gravel out of? If not, I'm afraid you'll be re-cycling and not able to add anymore fish until you're done.

 

[mhoward1999]

Thanks, wuvmybetta. So will I just need to relocate one of the cae when they start getting territorial? About what age do you think that will happen?

The only reason my tank will have to re-cycle is if all the meds nuked my biological filter, which it very well may have... I never took the gravel or the fish out, only the plants and ornaments. I have two other tanks, but I am probably just going to let it cycle naturally. 11 or 12 inches of fish isn't a lot in a 29 gallon tank, so I don't think it will be a terribly drastic cycle, if it does happen. I will be keeping a close eye on the water parameters for a while.

I think the stressor may have been my students bumping the desk the tank sits on. It is on an extremely heavy, well made antique desk. In years past, I never had a chair at the desk. This summer I found one that looked nice with it, so I put it there. This school year I have allowed fish-watching to be one of my "centers." I think the kids were bumping the desk as they pulled the chair in and out. Now thery are not allowed to touch the desk at all. (It was already a rule not to touch the tank.) I hope it will be as simple as eliminating that stressor.