Help! Please! 1st Visit To This Website.

[vinylman]

Blimey, Loopy, you've had an awful introduction to fishkeeping. Lousy LFS advice, too; but be assured -you're not the first and you definitely won't be the last. You're in the right place now. Even if some of the things you've been told here might sound harsh, that's not the way it's intended - you've come for help and you'll get plenty of it. I'm afraid your BiOrb stocking was a disaster waiting to happen. Just step back a bit, read through the pinned threads here; one of the most important things to remember when stocking any kind of tank is the mix (and eventual adult size) of fish. When you're sorted with your current problems, you might want to start again with your choice of fish. BiOrbs are the choice for people with little space for a tank, but the choice of fish is vital for such a small container of water. Many fish need swimming space in a tank (lengthwise) and a BiOrb can't offer that. Just spend some time reading as much as you can here, just to see the common mistakes and how to avoid them. Ask anything you like, anytime; there are people here from around the world, there's always someone awake somewhere!!. Don't be afraid to ask ANYTHING. If you're given any more advice by the LFS don't act on it straight away, come here and check with us. The shop is there to take your money - no one here wants a single penny from you.

 

[loopy1]

Blimey, Loopy, you've had an awful introduction to fishkeeping. Lousy LFS advice, too; but be assured -you're not the first and you definitely won't be the last. You're in the right place now. Even if some of the things you've been told here might sound harsh, that's not the way it's intended - you've come for help and you'll get plenty of it. I'm afraid your BiOrb stocking was a disaster waiting to happen. Just step back a bit, read through the pinned threads here; one of the most important things to remember when stocking any kind of tank is the mix (and eventual adult size) of fish. When you're sorted with your current problems, you might want to start again with your choice of fish. BiOrbs are the choice for people with little space for a tank, but the choice of fish is vital for such a small container of water. Many fish need swimming space in a tank (lengthwise) and a BiOrb can't offer that. Just spend some time reading as much as you can here, just to see the common mistakes and how to avoid them. Ask anything you like, anytime; there are people here from around the world, there's always someone awake somewhere!!. Don't be afraid to ask ANYTHING. If you're given any more advice by the LFS don't act on it straight away, come here and check with us. The shop is there to take your money - no one here wants a single penny from you.

ah thanks, that is really nice of you! To be honest this fish tank has had me in tears more times than i can remember. I am a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and at the moment i feel like a murderer!! I can't believe all the different advice i keep getting from everywhere and it is really confusing - i just don't know what to do for the best!
I just hope that the fighters are not too stressed!! Do you think the high pH that i can't seem to sort out is a real problem?? The guppies and tetras have been in the tank at that pH for about 9 months, and they seem really, really happy. It just seems to be the more fancy fish that i can't keep!! I am not sure if a Biorb is a very good tank to have - i keep getting mixed reviews about them aswell - esp. re: the small surface area? I only got the Biorb because i thought they looked really good - wish i had just got a normal tank now!!! I have put the female back in the main tank - therefore i have got 1 female fighter, 5 x silver tipped tetras and 6 x guppies (all male i think) in the 60L biorb. Do you think that will be ok?? I am not going to get any more fish for a while - need to see if these are ok first! Have left male fighter in the hosp tank, and will buy a small proper tank for him on payday. Do you think he will be ok on his own???

Thanks Confused!!!

 

[vinylman]

TBH, to make the best of things at the moment I'd try to leave the Betta in the BiOrb, but you can't have the Guppies in there too. Is there any way you could take them and the silver tips back to the shop - I'm afraid you need to re-think the types of fish you want to keep. As I said in my previous post, the mix is all wrong. Do you have the space and (if you'll forgive me for asking) the money for a decent-sized tank?. The irony for me with the BiOrbs is that for the same money, you could get a good plain 2ft tank (something like a ClearSeal), a heater and a filter (and probably a hood plus light) for about the same outlay. If you want to keep the BiOrb too, just keep one of the Bettas in there. I'm nearly ready for home now (only online at work) but I'm sure someone will post something of use to you. If you want to PM me, feel free, and I'll read it when I swap over to nights tomorrow.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to say i totally agree with everything vinylman has said.

The bi-orbs are not the best tank to start with, they're OK but you have to be very careful with fish selection. If you've got the space and money I would definatley advise upgrading to a larger 'standard' tank. If money's an issue then have a look on ebay, fishtanks loose their value very quickly so you can usually pick up some of the pretty juwel/rena tanks second hand with all the equipment you need for a fraction of the price they would be new.

As a general guide for stocking you should aim for 1" of fish per US Gallon of water (divide litres by 3.7 for a rough idea of US Gallons). So you're tank is around 16 gallons, so that's 16" of fish, because it's a bi-orb you need to have a bit less than that, something like 13/14". You need to work it out on the adult size of the fish, so you're current stocking is as follows

5 x silver tipped tetras - 2" EA so 10" total
6 x guppies - 1" EA so 6" total
2 x fighters - 3" EA so 6" total

So that's 22" of fish already. So you can see you already have far too many fish for the tank without even thinking of adding anymore.

Move the female fighter back into the main tank straight away, treat that tank with Myaxin.

Keep the male fighter in the hospital tank, if you can get a small filter (should be able to get one for £5 or so) then add this to the hospital tank for now, put some mature media from the bi-orb into the filter for the new tank.

And as vinylman said, pop over to the 'new to the hobby' forum and have a good real of all the pinned topics there, you'll be able to pick up loads of helpful info.

Regarding the conflicting info, why I think this forum is so good is because we've around 25,000 members. Any topic you raise you should get a handful of people replying, and while you may get differences of opinion, it's usually easy enough to see the consensus and if anyone posts utter rubbish one of us will usually say so!!

 

[loopy1]

just to say i totally agree with everything vinylman has said.

The bi-orbs are not the best tank to start with, they're OK but you have to be very careful with fish selection. If you've got the space and money I would definatley advise upgrading to a larger 'standard' tank. If money's an issue then have a look on ebay, fishtanks loose their value very quickly so you can usually pick up some of the pretty juwel/rena tanks second hand with all the equipment you need for a fraction of the price they would be new.

As a general guide for stocking you should aim for 1" of fish per US Gallon of water (divide litres by 3.7 for a rough idea of US Gallons). So you're tank is around 16 gallons, so that's 16" of fish, because it's a bi-orb you need to have a bit less than that, something like 13/14". You need to work it out on the adult size of the fish, so you're current stocking is as follows

5 x silver tipped tetras - 2" EA so 10" total
6 x guppies - 1" EA so 6" total
2 x fighters - 3" EA so 6" total

So that's 22" of fish already. So you can see you already have far too many fish for the tank without even thinking of adding anymore.

Move the female fighter back into the main tank straight away, treat that tank with Myaxin.

Keep the male fighter in the hospital tank, if you can get a small filter (should be able to get one for £5 or so) then add this to the hospital tank for now, put some mature media from the bi-orb into the filter for the new tank.

And as vinylman said, pop over to the 'new to the hobby' forum and have a good real of all the pinned topics there, you'll be able to pick up loads of helpful info.

Regarding the conflicting info, why I think this forum is so good is because we've around 25,000 members. Any topic you raise you should get a handful of people replying, and while you may get differences of opinion, it's usually easy enough to see the consensus and if anyone posts utter rubbish one of us will usually say so!!

Thank you all so much for your help and advice - really appreciate it. It's really bad because the book you get with a biorb indicates that i can have many more fish that i have currently got!!!!!I will take your advice and let you all know how i get on - put the female back in last night and she seems perfectly happy, although she seems to have developed 2 stripes down either side??? It is so annoying because we could have brought a bigger tank for the same money, or less, than we paid for the biorb, but we went for the biorb because i thought they looked really nice - mistake!!! To be honest i think the biorb people are mis-selling their product? They also advise changing the whole filter every 6 weeks, which i was doing religiously, until someone told me that it was like starting a new tank each time!!! I am not very happy with the advice they give in the book you get when you buy one!!!!

 

[Cooper2085]

Hi and welcome to the forums

Great advice from everyone again, hope you have everything sorted now ^^

The thing when buying tanks is to ignore most of what the shop tells you. The big chains (Pets at home etc) just want to sell you something and alot of the FS are ran by people who have been keeping fish for 30+ years and have never changed from the original way of doing it.

Find yourself a decent LFS and keep visiting here and you should do fine

 

[ryanp15]

Have you tried posting in the betta section about the bettas? They were really useful for me
My lfs told me that a male and female betta would be fine, I added them to my community tank and they just hid at the bottom. Whenever they moved they got fin nipped.

I think the best thing for bettas is a seperate tank, I have a 10 gallon divided for the two. They seem much better in this. And they don't appear to be bothered about being alone, they can see each other through the divider. I say this because even the female in my community tank was getting fin nipped

It would help to buy a standard tank, but we havn't all got the money So if you can't afford a new tank you can easily make the biorb work, as people have already advised you. Good luck! but definately ask the 'experts' about the bettas in the betta section!

 

[loopy1]

Have you tried posting in the betta section about the bettas? They were really useful for me
My lfs told me that a male and female betta would be fine, I added them to my community tank and they just hid at the bottom. Whenever they moved they got fin nipped.

I think the best thing for bettas is a seperate tank, I have a 10 gallon divided for the two. They seem much better in this. And they don't appear to be bothered about being alone, they can see each other through the divider. I say this because even the female in my community tank was getting fin nipped

It would help to buy a standard tank, but we havn't all got the money So if you can't afford a new tank you can easily make the biorb work, as people have already advised you. Good luck! but definately ask the 'experts' about the bettas in the betta section!

Thanks!! My Husband decided to put the male back in the biorb last night! He decided that the hosp tank was too small and he didn't want another tank - he's had enough of the biorb!! Therefore i have got the male and female Betta in there, 6 x guppies (all male) and 5 x silver tipped tetras. Anyway... I am keeping a very, very close eye on them at the moment. To be honest they do both seem absolutely fine and happy - they are swimming around fine and eating, and they have been in there together for about 4 months (although as i have recently lost the 2 other females, this is the first time they have been in there as a pair only). I haven't seen any sign of aggression between them or the other fish - yet! It would be fantastic if i could keep them together, so i am going to keep a close eye. I purhased a book called 'What Fish'. It states in there that you can keep either a pair, or one male to 2 - 3 females? I don't know if anyone else has kept a male and female together successfully, but would be great to hear if they have. Fingers very crossed that this works out - if i do see any sign of a prob then i will put my foot down and buy him a seperate tank!! Any thoughts???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The stripes on the female are to do with breeding/stress.... can't remember which! Best bet is to put a post in the betta's section explain the situation and put a link to this thread so they can see the full history. They're the betta experts and can advise you best on what to do with yours.

you're right, the bi-orb instructions are worse than useless, very bad advice. It's unfortunate that a lot of people are drawn in by the prettieness of the tanks.

 

[loopy1]

The stripes on the female are to do with breeding/stress.... can't remember which! Best bet is to put a post in the betta's section explain the situation and put a link to this thread so they can see the full history. They're the betta experts and can advise you best on what to do with yours.

you're right, the bi-orb instructions are worse than useless, very bad advice. It's unfortunate that a lot of people are drawn in by the prettieness of the tanks.

I know, and i was one of them - thought the biorb would look really lovely in my lounge. Never mind - will just have to try and make the best of it!!! I hope the stripes are to do with breeding! I will put a post in the Betta section - i don't know how to put a link to this thread though - could you please tell me?

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

with this topic open go to the web address bar, select the test written there, right click and select copy.

Then go into the betta forum, start a new topic, write what you want, then in the test box wherever you want the link just right click and choose paste, it'll then put the web address in for you and when you post the topic it'll convert that to a link and other people will be able to follow it back to this topic.

easy peasy

 

[moll]

The stripes on the female are to do with breeding/stress.... can't remember which! Best bet is to put a post in the betta's section explain the situation and put a link to this thread so they can see the full history. They're the betta experts and can advise you best on what to do with yours.

you're right, the bi-orb instructions are worse than useless, very bad advice. It's unfortunate that a lot of people are drawn in by the prettieness of the tanks.

I know, and i was one of them - thought the biorb would look really lovely in my lounge. Never mind - will just have to try and make the best of it!!! I hope the stripes are to do with breeding! I will put a post in the Betta section - i don't know how to put a link to this thread though - could you please tell me?

Thanks

Bettas are hard work when it comes to breeding they need serface area to blow a bubble nest they can have up to 100 eggs so you bio orb will become over full the fry then need the males seperating out please do post in the betta section as if your husband does not want another tank then you honestly don't want them to breed as you could be looking at 50 jars of bettas, the male would be fine on his own in anything 1.5 gal up

 

[loopy1]

The stripes on the female are to do with breeding/stress.... can't remember which! Best bet is to put a post in the betta's section explain the situation and put a link to this thread so they can see the full history. They're the betta experts and can advise you best on what to do with yours.

you're right, the bi-orb instructions are worse than useless, very bad advice. It's unfortunate that a lot of people are drawn in by the prettieness of the tanks.

I know, and i was one of them - thought the biorb would look really lovely in my lounge. Never mind - will just have to try and make the best of it!!! I hope the stripes are to do with breeding! I will put a post in the Betta section - i don't know how to put a link to this thread though - could you please tell me?

Thanks

Bettas are hard work when it comes to breeding they need serface area to blow a bubble nest they can have up to 100 eggs so you bio orb will become over full the fry then need the males seperating out please do post in the betta section as if your husband does not want another tank then you honestly don't want them to breed as you could be looking at 50 jars of bettas, the male would be fine on his own in anything 1.5 gal up

Thanks! It is weird because they have been in the biorb for about 4 months and never showed any signs of breeding, they were alone in the hosp tank for a couple of days and then did the mating!!! I am hopeful that they will not do it in the biorb, as they didn't before and there is not a hugh surface area in there. If they do it again i will have a re-think. Am going to post the history onto the betta section now, thanks

 

[loopy1]

with this topic open go to the web address bar, select the test written there, right click and select copy.

Then go into the betta forum, start a new topic, write what you want, then in the test box wherever you want the link just right click and choose paste, it'll then put the web address in for you and when you post the topic it'll convert that to a link and other people will be able to follow it back to this topic.

easy peasy

Thanks!! Think i have done it!!!!

 

[Egmel]

Just to pick up on something I haven't seen answered here, you were worrying about your pH and trying to buffer it to be the 'holy grail of 7ish' the answer is not to bother.

The change between what comes out of your tap and what is in your tank is probably down to dissolved gasses and nothing to worry about. What most fish benefit from is stable pH, with out too much bother about where it sits. The only time you need to worry about pH is when you're acclimatising new fish (pH shock causes stress so you acclimatise them gently by adding tank water to the bag they came in over a period of time, have a search for more details) or if you have fish which have specific pH requirements.

So your pH is fine, it's similar to my rock hard water, it's something to be aware of when choosing fish but not something to worry about for fish such as tetras and guppies.