Fox46
Fish Fanatic
I have two tanks, one is 132l, the other 166, and I've been fishkeeping for just about 3 years - so no expert. In my 166l tank I've noticed the mortality rate is drastically higher than in the smaller one. It's not been a drastic sudden loss, it's just that fish in that tank, while not generally displaying any overt signs of disease, have never seemed to achieve their expected life span. For instance, of 9 dwarf rainbows acquired in October 2020, only one remains. I've lost around 8 guppies over this period, and now am in the underoing a more dramatic attrition where I had a group of 9 Platys, acquired in February this year and am now down to 4 (2 deaths this month and a third looking decidedy dodgy.) I lost 2 of my 6 Pearl Gouramis that have been with me since the beginning three years ago.
Here's the techie bit: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0. pH 8.2 kH 9. Incoming tapwater is pH 7.8, kH 14.
I clean the tanks every week, hoovering the substrate, clean the walls if necessary, clean the filters every 4/5 weeks, scrub the tank paraphernalia and the water change is in the region of 40% each time. I have a limited number of plants (never seem to be successful with them). The water is well filtered as I keep a spare filter running in that tank and also have a small spray bar filter running for oxygenation purposes. The lights are on 4 hours a day. I feed a varied diet, alternating between Fish Science Tropical Granules, Sera Veggie Flakes, Fluval Bug Bites and NTL Probiotic granules. I tried frozen food cubes but found the waste rate a bit high. The substrate is sand over a black gravelly type of plant substrate.
The same regime is applied in the smaller, successful tank, where the only difference is there are fewer plants, and the substrate is just sand. In this smaller tank I had only one unexplained death (a gold Gourami) and two accidentals where a Black Widow Tetra jumped out of the tank, and a Cory got stuck between some rocks.
I feed twice a day, two small pinches which disappears promptly.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
Here's the techie bit: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0. pH 8.2 kH 9. Incoming tapwater is pH 7.8, kH 14.
I clean the tanks every week, hoovering the substrate, clean the walls if necessary, clean the filters every 4/5 weeks, scrub the tank paraphernalia and the water change is in the region of 40% each time. I have a limited number of plants (never seem to be successful with them). The water is well filtered as I keep a spare filter running in that tank and also have a small spray bar filter running for oxygenation purposes. The lights are on 4 hours a day. I feed a varied diet, alternating between Fish Science Tropical Granules, Sera Veggie Flakes, Fluval Bug Bites and NTL Probiotic granules. I tried frozen food cubes but found the waste rate a bit high. The substrate is sand over a black gravelly type of plant substrate.
The same regime is applied in the smaller, successful tank, where the only difference is there are fewer plants, and the substrate is just sand. In this smaller tank I had only one unexplained death (a gold Gourami) and two accidentals where a Black Widow Tetra jumped out of the tank, and a Cory got stuck between some rocks.
I feed twice a day, two small pinches which disappears promptly.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?