First Aquarium: 20 G Tank Diary// Update: Aspen Is Dead...

[Aleydis]

20 Gallon Tank Diary
​

Info and notes:

I own (This info may change):


A 20 gallon tank with:
-Basic Filter
-Heater
-Air pump
-Gravel tubes
-Gravel
-Lighting
-Fake plants
-Thermometer

A 10 gallon misc. tank (AS OF NOW THIS TANK HAS NOT EVEN BEEN SET UP YET) with:
-Basic Filter
-Heater
-Gravel
-Lighting
-Fake plants
-Thermometer



A plain tank with:
-Nothing. It’s plain. Although I AM looking to get it a heater…

2 Betta keepers, one individual and one large with division.


Fish: (This list may change frequently)
Guppies (1 male, 1 female)
Cardinal Tetras (10)
Pleco (2) Sam and Emily
Red Platy (3)
Yellow/Black Platy (1)
Blue Crowntail Betta (1 male) Aspen Dawn
Red Crowntail Betta (1 male) Leviathan Drake

Fish Diet:
Mysis Flakes
Freeze-Dried Tubifex
Cucumbers
Peas
Romaine Lettuce
Tropical Flakes
Bloodworms
Micro-Wafers
Sinking Algae Wafers (For Sam and Emily)
Topfin/Hikari pellets (For Aspen and Levi)


After much consideration, I've decided... As you can see, to start a diary.
Notes: Since this diary was started before it got posted, you may have to read quite a bit before we get to the present time.


Glossary (More terms may be added):

Cassandra= My friend who keeps a 120gallon tank. She knows NOTHING about owning fish but miraculously all her fish are healthy…

The Parents= Self explanatory. I’m a young hobbyist.

Sam and Emily= My two Plecos. Just in case you get confused.




Major Milestones already accomplished before present (June 12):


-Bought tank
-Set up tank
-Balanced nitrogen cycle
-Got 6 guppies from Cassandra
-Got 3 guppies from Friend
-Bought 2 plecos
-Bought 5 platies (2 yellow and black, 3 red)
-Bought 12 cardinal tetras

Sad events before present (June 12):

-One guppy may have given birth when I was not looking. No fry are to be found and her stomach is flat. Oops.
-2 cardinals looked pale and had breathing problems upon arrival. They were stored in the small tank.
-1 cardinal died of internal injury… I wasn’t careful enough netting him out and accidentally pressed him against the glass. I wasn’t able to sleep well that day.
-Other cardinal died. Both cardinals had:
Strangely shaped stomach
Gasping symptoms
Pale color
A bad appetite
-Found out the size plecos could grow to. I was so scared that night that my plecos were going to die. I could not sleep well that night…
-Saw a small female guppy with clenched fins and breathing problems, as well as an unhealthily flat stomach. The Parents told me to stop stressing. They’re saying she’ll be fine, but I don’t think so. They refuse to let me buy any medication.




THE FOLLOWING BELOW ARE ENTRIES BEFORE PRESENT DAY TODAY (JUNE 16). IT'S NOT EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO READ THE FOLLOWING, BUT MAY HELP TO UNDERSTAND MY SITUATION BETTER.


June-12-08

Last night I used my gravel cleaner and performed a 5% water change + gravel cleaning. I wanted to do a 50% but I did not have enough water. I do not dechlorinate the water, but I let tap water sit in the room for 48 hours before I pour it into the tank. I don’t have water dechlorinators yet.

The cardinals, who had been beginning to become paler and paler, were vibrant in color today when I woke up, hopefully due to the water change. One cardinal still has pale color, but it was better than yesterday. I am somewhat worried about this cardinal. It has a stomach like a rounded triangle shape. My other cardinals have oval like bellies. I’m not sure if this cardinal is sick. It is displaying healthy behavior and is more of a daredevil- he actually eats more than the others, since he ventures to the top of the tank during feeding time, while the others attack food that sunk to around the mid-range of the tank.

I also decided to keep the lights off. I thought maybe the lack of light would be better for the cardinals. Would it, though? My lights are very bright and can’t be dimmed. Today I saw more cardinals venturing upwards during feeding. Maybe they were scared of the light before?

My main worry, however… Are the plecos. I have two unidentified plecos that can grow to who knows how long… The store I bought it from seems very organized. Its tanks are beautiful, clean, and the fish look healthy. The plecos I bought were 2” upon arrival. There were two pleco tanks in the store that caught my attention. One tank held plecos similar in color, shape, and size to mine, while the other thank held a larger version of the previous. The plecos seemed about a good 9” or more. I’m hopeful that I don’t have a pleco that grows to be 9 pounds, or 18 inches, like Cassandra’s. I only have a 20-gallon tank! I read somewhere that plecos will stop growing once their environment begins to get too small, but their organs will continue to grow. Eventually they will die of internal problems.

I started feeding some peas (2, FYI) to my fish. They seem to love it, though many pieces float to the bottom, never to be touched again. I netted out some of the pieces. I prepared the peas properly, but it feels sort of like I did it wrong. My fish seem to really love it.

Tonight at dinner I saw a plate of cooked cucumbers on the table. I told the Parents to reserve some of the cucumbers for me next time they buy them (For Sam and Emily). They looked at me like they were annoyed.

I thought fishkeeping was supposed to be relaxing…


Friday, June 13, 2008

I’m giddy right now! This morning I woke up to a breeding with fry! …No momma fish had been put in the tank, and when I saw the fry miraculously there, I literally shrieked!
I took a net and netted them out from the tank into a small bowl. I was at the time, thinking that the other fry had been eaten by the fish.

During dinner, I was arguing with the Parents. I proposed that our filter may suck in fry. The Parents freaked and said I was overreacting, but we did extend the filter sucker until it almost reached the ground. I was happy. A few minutes later, I was feeding my fish dinner when I saw two shiny things floating in the corner. To my great surprise, they turned out to be two more fry! I netted them out and put them in the bowl. Throughout the evening, more fry showed up. As I am writing this entry right now, I have 7 fry in the bowl.

I don’t even know who the momma is… Which sounds kind of pathetic. There IS one female guppy with a gigantic belly. I can’t see her gravid spot at all, though. Thus, I sorta doubt she’s pregnant in the first place. What really worries me is that some of her scales are sticking out of her belly, giving it a rough texture look. I’m not sure if this is dropsy or not. She does have a strangely shaped spine, like a mountain. Going up, and then dipping down from the middle. She is also avoiding the group and not showing interest in eating. Is she pregnant? Is she the momma?

When I netted out the fry, I turned on the lights for a while. After they were off, all the cardinals showed almost no color. I think this is due to the light. It will be left off from now on until I can get a replacement light that’s more suitable for the cardinals.

Sam and Emily are pooping all over the place! I can’t believe how much waste they produce! Their poop wraps around the aquarium plants and float around. Some poor cardinals were nipping at it today, thinking it was food. They were sorely disappointed.

Also, I just had word from one of the Parents that we MAY get a 120 Gallon tank in a few years! Of course, it’s a bit far off, but it’s still worth it to hope! I just hope my plecos last that long before they outgrow my 20g, though a little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me they won’t.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

Good news and bad news: Good news is, I dropped a smooshed pea in the tank today. My fish seem to love it. In fact, Sam and Emily love them more. They’ve been munching on the peas the entire day!

Bad news is: The guppy with the scales sticking out now has inflamed, pink insides. I don’t think she’s pregnant…! I think she’s constipated. I removed her from the tank and put her in a cup. (No more tanks available.) She’s not pooping, II just realized. I tried to feed her peas today (heard it helps) I guess it doesn’t work, since she didn’t even try to eat any. I think I’ll just starve her for a few days and then feed her the peas again. Then starve her again to see if it helps.

Today I had a huge argument with the Parents. I was trying to do a water change. They don’t think I need to. The argument was teeth and bones. I made my father angry the day before father’s day. I’m so ashamed of myself.
But I did the water change and gravel vac today anyways. There was just so much poop all over the place! Thanks, Sam and Emily. Your long, stringy poop annoys me to no end.

Father says he MAY be getting a tank, and keeping Angelfish, too! I honestly think he should start off small. Small dead fish can be easily netted out and forgotten. Large dead fish? Not so easy. Plus, he really has no idea how complicated fishkeeping is. I bet the angelfish will die within a month. He thinks he can cram 6 full grown angelfish in a 15 gallon tank!

I even made a fishkeeping contract. The Parents laughed. I don’t think they took as seriously as I’d wanted it.

12:39 AM-

The guppy with the scales sticking out was flushed down the toilet. I couldn’t save it. She had a bacterial infection. I saw the shape of her liver in her side. It had black holes in it. She looked like she was in so much pain- And I knew I couldn’t save her, no matter how hard I tried.
She was the first fish to die of illness in my tank. I think it’s dropsy. I hope this doesn’t happen again, though many of my other females also have a dropsy-like body. (No scales sticking out) I’ve been watching them. They look healthy- So far.

12:58 AM- The small female guppy with the clenched fins died today. I have no idea how and is too tired to explore further.

June 16, 2008 (TODAY)

I AM SO FREAKED OUT.
I got a test kit just yesterday and my water tested Ammonia as 2 PPM! Nitrite and Nitrate are 0! This definitely explains the sudden fish deaths, some unexplained.

I lost another fish today due to reasons unknown. It would swim up weakly with fins clamped, and then flat back down on its side. It had continued to do this until it fell and wouldn’t rise again. I flushed him down the toilet, since he was already dead.

Ivan, one of the prettiest male fish in my community tank, is showing signs of general illness. He is refusing the cucumber slice I prepared and put into the tank with a vegi clip, while the others were digging in. He also has slightly clamped fins, likes to stay either at the surface or in the middle, moves lethargically, and swims at an upwards angle.
I’m really scared, since I love Ivan to bits. He’s my favourite male guppy, since he doesn’t pick on the females as much.

What REALLY frustrates me is that yesterday I did a 50% water change in hopes of getting rid of some of the ammonia. Today I did another test and the results were THE SAME! 2 PPM AMMONIA! I don’t even know what I should do anymore.

A lot of my fish are going to extreme lengths to flash. I saw two female guppies swimming against each other continuously today. A male guppy had rubbed itself against Sam once!
Meanwhile, on the subject of Sam, Sam and Emily showed no interest in the cucumber, which surprised me. They seem to likes peas more.

I think I’m beginning to experience an illness outbreak. This is the foreshadowing.

Good thing is, I got my mom to realize the importance of water changes and tank maintenance. Now it’s just my dad I need to convince.

I won’t blame the Parents, but partially it was their fault. They didn’t allow me to make weekly water changes, clean the filters (It still hasn’t been cleaned for over a month!), or test the water. Now, it’s too late.

Most of the ammonia probably spiked when the Parents insisted on putting in 5 newly bought platies, 2 plecos and 12 cardinals at the same time. I’d disagreed, but they must’ve put them in anyways. And then they delayed in getting a gravel vac, and then delayed with the testing kit.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good diary Aleydis, hope you don't mind me asking but how old are you? Sometimes it helps us to know, we know what sort of level of information to give you and also we may be able to predict your parents reactions a little better if we know the context a bit more.

regarding the fish flashing, do you see any white spots on them, like grains of sand? They're certainly getting poorly through poor water quality, the ammonia is a serious issue I'm afraid, you'll need to do water changes every single day for the next few weeks to get that down. You've said you've got a few tanks, if you can then divide the fish up amongst the tanks, the less fish in each tank the less ammonia will be produced, should make things a bit easier than having them all in the same tank together. You'll still need to do water changes on both tanks however the water will be less toxic for the fish meaning they stand a better chance of survivng.

The illness's will be difficult to treat with poor water, if you can imagine if you were ill with the flu or something like that, and had to try to recover sat in a room full of car exhaust fumes, you can imagine how you wouldn't get better as quickly or easily in that environment. That's what your fish are going through. You need to diagnose what diseases are present in the tank, some of them you may be able to fix by getting the water clean, some may need medications, I appreciate you don't want to use them and want natural methods where possible, but that's not always going to be the case, there are some things which will be fatal if left untreated.

Now something which will help your water quality is if you ask your friend Cassandra for some media from her filter, if you can get some sponge or something from her filter, don't let it dry out (keep it in a bag of tank water) and put it into your filter within a day, then this will hopefully improve the ammonia levels in the tank which is the key to all this.

 

[orange shark]

please DONT flush fish down the toilet!

I agree with MW you will need to do water changes each day and attempt to get some of your friends filter media!

Good Luck

 

[rabbut]

Just skimming the start of the diary, and two issues are imediately obvious to me, that may caurse your issues. No tap water conditioner. This may or may not be relavant depending upon what the water board use to treat your tap water. If they use chloriene then there is no issue. If like most they use cloramine, then you have a big issue, as leaving water to stand for 48 hours won't remove it. This chemical will burn the fishes gills caursing breathing issues and flicking and rubbing. This can be rectifyed with water conditioner, and will stop the flicking. The gill damage it caurses though, is premanant

Ammonia in the tank is an issue. You are basically fish-in cycling, which is risky to the fish. The ammonia has the same affect as Chloramine, burning the gills and caursing flicking and rubbing. It can only be solved using waterchanges. You any detectable level needs a daily 25% waterchange. Anything over 0.25 needs a 50% daily waterchange, anything over 1 requires a 75% waterchange, and a water test 12 hours later.

Have a read of miss wiggles signature link "what's cycling" for more information.

Nice diary BTW
Rabbut

 

[Aleydis]

I definitely don't fancy giving out my age, but since everyone here sees me as someone capable of things beyond my reach...

I'm 12. Twelve years old.

For all of you who think 12 is too young to be handling an Aquarium- please keep it to yourself. I don't need any more people to rub it in my face right now. Neither do I need you all to treat me differently just because of my age- I can handle all the bad news you all have to throw at me.

12 is FAR too young to receive donation media from other people (Cassandra doesn't have a filter. Don't ask me how her fish survive. )

12 is FAR too young to just buy any medications I need- I'm relying on my allowance, which isn't much, by the way. I blew nearly $60 at Petsmart just buying testers, water conditioners, and a vegi clip.

FISH INFO:
Nope. No ich. Not yet. Today Ivan died, though. I'll include details in my next entry. I need to go somewhere right now.
I can't divide fish amongst the tanks yet. The 10 gallon hasn't been set up yet, and the other is a measly 4-litre tank.

BY THE WAY: I DO USE TAP WATER CONDITIONER NOW. Just bought a bottle recently.

 

[rabbut]

With regular water testing and changing, the issues you are having should go away If you don't have a firm diagnosis, the best course of action is to keep up with waterchanges, but take no further action. Waterchanges IMO are the best preventative medication out there Medicating blindly will give more issues than leaing things to run their course IME.

As for 12 being too youngh for a tank, tosh, I was breeding goldfish at your age without parental help, and managing to get some moey back on my investment.

Raising the temperature in the tank would speed up the cycle, but it will also speed the advance of any bacterial infections in the tank, so if you have had dropsy recently, I'd leave the temperature alone. If you are still here cycling in a weeks time, and no other fish are showing symptoms, raise the temperature to about 78f (upper 20's centigrade) and it should help things along. Don't raise the temperature anytime a bacterial issues is suspected though

Re; filter media.. Is Cassandra the only person you know with a fish tank. No relatives, friends, friends of family ETC that you know with a tank and a filter?

Our way of keeping fish is just one of many ways of doing things. I know someone whom, like Cassandra, has a tank with no filter that is over 30 years old. He hasn't got any ammonia or nitrite in his water, or nitrate for that matter, and hasn't waterchanged since the week after starting the tank... Though I wouldn't advise this method, it can be done.

Just goes to show, fish are hardier than we give them cradit for, and there is also more than one way to do things

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I definitely don't fancy giving out my age, but since everyone here sees me as someone capable of things beyond my reach...

I'm 12. Twelve years old.

For all of you who think 12 is too young to be handling an Aquarium- please keep it to yourself. I don't need any more people to rub it in my face right now. Neither do I need you all to treat me differently just because of my age- I can handle all the bad news you all have to throw at me.

12 is FAR too young to receive donation media from other people (Cassandra doesn't have a filter. Don't ask me how her fish survive. )

12 is FAR too young to just buy any medications I need- I'm relying on my allowance, which isn't much, by the way. I blew nearly $60 at Petsmart just buying testers, water conditioners, and a vegi clip.

FISH INFO:
Nope. No ich. Not yet. Today Ivan died, though. I'll include details in my next entry. I need to go somewhere right now.
I can't divide fish amongst the tanks yet. The 10 gallon hasn't been set up yet, and the other is a measly 4-litre tank.

BY THE WAY: I DO USE TAP WATER CONDITIONER NOW. Just bought a bottle recently.

Thats why I asked, sometimes if we know a little bit more about someone and their personal circumstances we can tailor advice that will be more suitable for them. Know we know, we can understand a little bit better exactly what you are up against and hopefully we will be able to help you better.

 

[ally86ozzy]

thats ok w/ me Aleydis. im 12 too and i hav an aquarium (of course my parents dont trust me but thats besides the point ) i hav a 10 gallon tho. but may i suggest to treat the water? or take your fish out and clean it thuroughly. thats wut my bro did to our tank that fish were dieing from, and it helped alot. i now hav 2 mosquito fish, one male and one preganant female, in the tank, and there doing fine!

 

[Aleydis]

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I woke up today and immediately ran up to my tank, even pressed my face against it to look for Ivan. My mom came over and told me he was fine, but I couldn't see him anywhere in the tank. I asked her where Ivan was, and she proceeded to point to an obvious female guppy.

She looked nothing like Ivan. Ivan had a neon green and yellow body with block patterns, and a shimmering yellow and blue tail. A strange pattern for a guppy, but I loved him most because of that.

Anyways, after convincing mom that this was NOT Ivan, I continued to search. My dad eventually found him in the corner, belly up. He seemed rather adamant while he tried to convince me that Ivan died since I changed the water. I think he just died of ammonia poisoning... R.I.P Ivan.

Today I did another 40-ish% water change. I read on Miss Wiggle's cycle articles that I should change the water every day for a while. My parents freaked out, and refuse to aid me. So today I was changing the water... The hose slipped several times and I got water everywhere. So I used a plastic hairband and tied a suction cup onto the hose. It sucked onto the bucket I was using for water changes, and saved my left land.

I used the gravel vac today, and cleaned out a few buckets of uneaten food and fish poop. Yup. I overfed. This also contributed to the ammonia levels as well, probably.

I put a new plant in. My dad bought it, so I took it when he wasn't looking. He said later it was for me anyways, since the fake plant that came with the tank looked REALLY ugly. I put it in the tank. It looks strange, since I was used to my tank without this new plant. I'm sure I'll grow used to it too.

While I was moving around the plants, all kinds of unvacced poop and food came up. I freaked, but I couldn't vac again. While I worked, my fish began, to my horror, TO EAT THE ROTTEN FOOD. I was so scared, so whenever a fish came near, I'd just brush it away. Though I guess they're hungry, since I hadn't fed them much today and yesterday. I hope they don't get some kind of internal infection after eating that junk... If any fish die after this water change, no doubt I won't be able to change the water again for a looooooooooong time.

After the water change, there was still tons of poop and stuff floating around... I think I need a better vac... But after it all settled my tank looked generally better.

I tested for ammonia today, and I tested 1.5-ish PPM! It wasn't a GIGANTIC breakthrough, but it was something. I feel great today because I cleaned the filter media for the first time in over a month! I DID clean it using old tank water, though. The filter bags were nearly BLACK. I'm so glad I cleaned it.
Dad, who doubted we needed to clean the filters, said nothing.

FISHY INFO:
Fish are still flashing, but are practically swimming over each other, pushing, when I brought up the food container... So I recognized this as perhaps a healthy sign?

CURRENTLY WONDERING:
What else do fry eat, besides fish food? I heard they eat egg yolk... Is this true?
Anyone have any idea why Ivan died, or was I right about ammonia poisoning?
Is 80F too high for my fish?

FISHY PICTURES:

-MY TANK/ PART OF MY TANK! (Don't worry- normally I keep the lights off for my cardinals)

- SAM AND EMILY!

- Some of my Cardinals

-The female guppy with the scales sticking out and pink stomach. RECAP: She died a few days ago. I think it's dropsy? Or internal bacterial infection?


NOTES:
I didn't mean to be rude to anyone in my last post. If any of you all helpful people took my message the wrong way, (Miss Wiggle) please excuse me... I didn't mean to be overly dramatic...
I suppose 12 isn't that young an age anyways.

orange shark- I mostly only flush them down when I see them dead. I need to pick up some olive oil, but before then, it's down the toilet goes the fish...
ally86ozzy- Congratz on your success! I would definitely take my fish out if I had a place to put them.
rabbut- Thanks on your advice. Yup, no one else I know owns fish.
My temperature right now is already at 80 degrees F. Normally it would be at 78 F, but since it's summer now it's a bit higher. Is 80 F too high?

 

[ALEXF]

Im sorry about your loss, i know losing fish sux as im still dealing with a bad tank situation ... on the age thing thou 12 actually isnt that young. there seems to be alot of people here between the ages of 12-15. The age does show some peoples maturity thou (not saying yours) Like kribinese (sp?) so spelt that wrong but i believe he or she is about 15 and frequents the forums and know quite a bit.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes I agree that Ivan will have gone from ammonia poisoning.

do some gravel vaccing every day when you change the water to get rid of the poop and uneaten food in the gravel, don't worry about the fish nibbling on what gets stirred up. Because you've got two plecs in the tank you will get a lot of poop so gravel vaccing will have to be a regular job.

Don't worry about the temp, it's fine.

You can buy fish food specially for fry, but I find most of them will manage perfectly well on fish food crushed up very small.

 

[orange shark]

May I ask, has your dad ever kept fish before?

Ivan. I know how you feel I did exactly the same thing as you in my first tank and felt awful when some of my fish died, but once its cycled happy days

oh btw your tank looks nice

 

[rabbut]

Things aren't going too bad at this stage, considering what you must be feeling like, after loosing one of your favorite fish

Flushing fish down the toilet can introduce disease caursing organisums into wild watercaurses, killing other fish that are beyond the help of medication. If you loose a fish, either bury it in the garden or bin the body This ensures that no wild fish suffer the same fate as one of yours

Yes, ammonia poisoning is likely the the caurse of death on the guppy I'd go with about 75-80% waterchange tomorrow to get the ammonia down.

It's a shame that you don't know anyone else with a tank that could donate some media. This leaves you in a sticky situation... Do you have any nitrite in the water? Just trying to establish how far into your cycle you are

As far as your dad goes, if he wants to put 6 adult angels into a 15g, let him without interupting. You have told him it won't work, and it is clear that he won't take your advise. When he has issues, politely point out that you told him so, and then offer help. Relaising that he made a mistake, may make him realise that you know more about fish than him. It's bad that this is likely the only way to get things to work, but it is clear that he won't let you help him untill it goes wrong at this stage As an LFS worker, I have grown to realise that some people just won't be told, untill it goes wrong, than as an LFS worker of caurse it's all your fault

The tank looks good, and the cabomba (fine leaved plant towards the back) is doing well. That is one plant that I never had much luck with, so I'm slightly envious of your success

All the best
Rabbut

 

[LionessN3cubs]

just a thought on the mature media.....


Do any of your docs offices have a fish tank? I found that one of our docs office had a super sweet nurse handling all of the aquarium needs so I didnt have to worry about too many hands being in the tank and no one knowing what the other hand was doing. The tank had never been medicated and all the fish looked healthy and fine...and the tank had been established for years. She looked at me a little funny when I asked for a slice of the filter media, but she was more than happy to oblige when I explained that I was setting up the tank for 3 kids and the the filter media would be helpful .

I wouldn't however, suggest getting the filter media from a source you dont trust.

 

[wackystarfish]

Don't let your age get you down!!! Im only 15 Luckily though, my mum and dad aren't that interested in what i do I had all the same problems as you did when i first started up (2 years ago) It will amaze you when your filter has matured Your fish will last Agggeeees lol. Happy fish keeping!
Fin