Feeding & Overstocked

[dannym]

Hello all

Firstly id like to say this is a great forum, i dont know what i would of done without it

Can someone give me some advice on what to feed my 2 plecs?...

I bought some Algae wafers but both of them dont seem too interested..

Also as i have 13 fish in a 60 litre tank i only found out after asking questions on this forum that i am wayyy overstocked, the tit in the shop did not tell me!

2 plecs

2 blue rainbows

2 silver sharks

2 Angels

And 5 other fish not sure what they are all are small in size

Anyway when i get paid next month im going to buy a bigger tank, but what size would be sufficent for the amount of fish that i have?..

Im now also concerned that because of my overstocked tank, my fish wont last till payday next month, the members who i have spoke to on here say 40-50% water change every other day, Is there anything else i can do to help my fish along till i get my bigger tank?..

Oh and how do these fish that are 20 to a small tank in the fish shops survive?

There was a plec that was the same size as the tank as well, seems very cruel to me?

Also i bought a test kit but im not sure what my readings should be if anyone could tell me if its good or bad i would appreciate it

Thankyou very much..

 

[Angel_Queen]

Did the test kit not come witrh instructions?
Ideally you should have a liquid test kit. The strips just aren't accurate enough.

EDIT. Looks like the three squares at the top could represent AMmonia, NitrIte & NitrAte is this correct?

 

[The-Wolf]

the fish in the shop will not be in the tanks very long, a few months at most.
if it is anything like the two shops I've worked in that is more like 3 weeks tops.

what plecs do you have and what algae wafers did you get?
when are you feeding the wafers (lights on or off)?

the test strips are well known for being inaccurate
yours looks to be terrible on the pH (what is red on the bottle?)

I would suggest exchanging
the angels and silver sharks for some plants or food, even better still cash
possibly the plecs depending on species too

then once the tank has cycled and the pH is sorted out upping the rainbow school to at least 5.

if you post pics of your plecos and the other unknown fish we will try to ID them for you.

 

[dannym]

Errr no instructions in the box theres a chart on the back of the tin, but i have no idea what the boxes represent the top 2 are NO2 & NO3 whatever they are???

The 2nd set of boxes are GH

The 2 bottom boxes are KH & PH

My god this is confusing me

Does this pic help you at all???

 

[Angel_Queen]

Well the good sign is that you are showing 0 nitrItes (NO2) however your nitrAtes (the top square) looks extremely high! Too high. Although nitrAtes (NO3) are not as toxic, mainly people would recommend keeping the level below 40ppm (yours looks well over that). Do you have a seperate testing kit for Ammonia?

EDIT: Check out this link for information on cycling. It's excellent. Really helped me.