Hoplo Catfish Meeting Swordtails.

[FishBlast]

Hello, I am a new member here and I wanted to ask a few things about introducing new fish in an aquarium that has had a lone male catfish for one year.

Story of the catfish: His name is Tzuppy and he used to live with not only another male of his kind, but several other species as you can see in the old pic I have attached. Tzuppy is the smaller Hoplo but now he's twice as big.
He and his companion Seadra used to be very friendly to the other fish and when they found fry, they would hide it under them so if I'd miss a fish brith, I'd still have a chance to pick them from under these if any survived.

Now, Tzuppy has been alone for over a year since Seadra died. He hasn't seen any other fish at all. The aquarium was empty.

Today, I have bought three swordtails (one black male, one black female and a red-albino female). At first, Tzuppy thought that the small male was food but then he got scared when he noticed that it moved so he just retreated to a corner. That fish can fit halfway up his mouth if he'd think about eating it.
Since that incident, the male runs away from the catfish, but the females seem to enjoy Tzuppy's company and he hides them under him just like he did with the fry. If people come near the aquarium, the Hoplo will hide the females. He also attacks people he doesn't know, I am the only one who can approach that tank and not get splashed in the face. Before I put the fish in, I was scared that he would attack the fish like he does with people.

What I am worried about is: Will Tzuppy think of trying to eat the male again? Or will they be friends just like the females are with the catfish?
The catfish seems to be a bit scared of the male sometimes. He rolls away his favorite ball to a corner. What should I do? He also has a lot of bloodworms so food isn't a problem, he can even eat the flakes.
And yeah, I know, the aquarium is quite empty, I'll buy some plants. But no more sand. I've had that and it collected too much junk.
Can anyone answer these questions, please? Thank you in advance.

 

[AquaJason]

Is that a black moor fish in the photo?

 

[FishBlast]

Is that a black moor fish in the photo?

Yes, and I don't know the name of the ones that moved too fast for the phone cam, but they looked like silver goldfish. Big one was a Crucian carp. Also you can see my female-turned-male swordtail and a normal male in background with Tzuppy. All dead except Tzuppy since 2 years ago. Will upload a pic of my current aquarium once I do some more water changes cause I've tested food on the tank to decide which is best.

Here's a picture of the mess that the Hoplo did in the water once I gave them both flakes and bloodworms. Certainly needs changing water, I just need to let the bottle of water warm up a bit.
I needed to convince the catfish that the swordtail male isn't food so I gave him extra bloodworms. Seems to act calm now, comes at the glass when I go there, but the swords are still scared.
Their aquarium is next to my salamander's aquarium.

 

[FishBlast]

Finally, exchanged the water, but for some reason there are some bubbles that started to appear on all the fish. Is that a bad thing? I haven't noticed this happening too often before...

The Hoplo seems to have calmed down. But now I'm worried about the swordtails, those bubbles are all over them and Tzuppy has some on his head.

 

[tribalbrit]

Some decor. plants and substrate would be a good start... empty tanks just stress fish out and is not good practice.

 

[FishBlast]

Some decor. plants and substrate would be a good start... empty tanks just stress fish out and is not good practice.

Plants - I am going to get some.
Decor: Hard to pick, as it has to meet the following requirements:
Allow fish enough space, especially the Hoplo, who likes to often zip around.
Must not be anything that would allow the fish to become trapped. Had snail shells, an old Berlin Swordtail of mine went in to explore it... and my catfishes turned the shell over and the fish remained trapped, found him dead in there the next day.
Should be easy to clean. I've had two types of substrate before:
- tiny white rocks, which were easy to clean but my hoplo would just not stop scattering them around, scaring the other fish.
- replaced that with sand... food just gathered in there and cleaning that soft sand was hard.

Both substrates made carrying the aquarium hard. The filters I have are not good at all, one of them made tons of bubbles and annoyed the fish + also was too loud. The other does... well... nothing except buzz. The water gets dirty just as fast.
The tank has 2.1 gallons of water (10 Litres) but can be raised to higher. So I have to plan on what plants to place there, as putting something on the bottom of the tank seems to anger the catfish (except his favorite ball, he plays with that). I had some kind of crystal rock, but if I'll put it back, Tzuppy will just attack it till it's tilted over and it may kill fish.

What kind of plants usually float besides lotus? I've had that, but was eaten by some fish. In fact they eat any plant, but I'd like to know more about floating plants. I think they would go well with the swords.

 

[Titchie]

the tank is 10L with those fish in its far to small and cruel

 

[Dieses Madchen]

That tank is way too small and in no way, shape or form suitable for anything you have in there. The fish will soon become stunted, expecially the black moor. I would rehome everything in there and get a snail or two.

 

[Titchie]

That tank is way too small and in no way, shape or form suitable for anything you have in there. The fish will soon become stunted, expecially the black moor. I would rehome everything in there and get a snail or two.

ditto

 

[FishBlast]

That tank is way too small and in no way, shape or form suitable for anything you have in there. The fish will soon become stunted, expecially the black moor. I would rehome everything in there and get a snail or two.

Those fish in the first pic here are long gone anyway, since 2 years ago. That tank was much bigger, probably a 40 L. Now I don't have that one.
They were given to me and I had no idea what to do with most of them, all I wanted were the swordtails with the catfish, but my dad got me those goldfish and someone gave me the carp.

What I have now are 3 small swordtails and a catfish.

 

[tribalbrit]

Still to small for the hoplo he needs at least a four foot tank if not bigger.

 

[FishBlast]

Still to small for the hoplo he needs at least a four foot tank if not bigger.

In width? I wish I could get the big tank back, but doubt my mom would agree.
She was the one who took my tank away in the first place when I was left with only 2 Hoplos.
Two of the goldfish died due to dad not feeding them while I was gone for a few weeks. (though he says he fed them).
The moore died after eating some stupid pellets dad bought, not even the catfish liked those.
Carp died one winter, no idea why but it shouldn't have been kept in the aquarium. It was supposed to be my meal but I turned him into a pet.
Swordtail female (or male, what ever it became) killed the other male and died (I don't know the reason, just found her/him dead one morning).
Oldest catfish died after turning upside down. Could be dropsy, no idea what happened, as it happened too fast.
And that's how I've ended up with only one Hoplo.

EDIT: Still can't convince mom to let me use the other tank. But I both can't find any home for the Hoplo and don't want to give him away, I raised him since he was a tiny fish... What can I do?

 

[coldcazzie]

I know you don't want to hear it but a 10L tank is in no way suitable for a hoplo. They're wonderful fish, very characterful and I can understand very well how you've become attached. But hoplos prefer groups, and they also get to around 6 inches long full grown, which means a nice group of them goes really well in a 4-5 foot tank. Really, a single one shouldn't be in a tank less than 3 foot long, so if you don't think your mum will let you keep a tank that size then you should try to find him a nice new home with some friends his own species you could keep the swordtails on their own in that tank for a while, but really they'd need the bigger tank you mentioned. Why does your mum not want you to set it up?

 

[FishBlast]

I know you don't want to hear it but a 10L tank is in no way suitable for a hoplo. They're wonderful fish, very characterful and I can understand very well how you've become attached. But hoplos prefer groups, and they also get to around 6 inches long full grown, which means a nice group of them goes really well in a 4-5 foot tank. Really, a single one shouldn't be in a tank less than 3 foot long, so if you don't think your mum will let you keep a tank that size then you should try to find him a nice new home with some friends his own species you could keep the swordtails on their own in that tank for a while, but really they'd need the bigger tank you mentioned. Why does your mum not want you to set it up?

The other tank is twice as big as the one in the other pictures with the 3 swords, but the problem is carrying it around when the tank needs its water changed and as you can see, it has some crack that someone covered with silicon, which makes me think it's not really secure. But it had no problem while it was here.

The fish is already 6 inches, I have him ever since 2005. But nobody I know would want Tzuppy (he splashes other people and scared my neighbor when he did that). Can't give him to strangers either, don't want him killed, I've given a friend some fry and she had them all die within a week. And my other friend isn't allowed to keep any pets at all... because she has to keep going between Romania and America every few months.

The tank is not just 10L, it has 10L of water at this time (though I wanted to add more but again comes the problem of moving it), I can fit even more in it, I think it will take 3 more of those bottles to fill it up if not 4. So that would be between 30-40L. Which means the other was around 80L if I'd fill it (but didn't, cause fish often jumped out of it).

However, mom said that she could let me use the bigger tank if I can manage to grow the swordtails and probably get fry from them. So there's still hope.
Also, another solution that could help me get that tank back: a good / noiseless filter. Preferably one that doesn't make as many bubbles.

What kind of filters would work though? And does that mean that I'll have to change water once every how many days/weeks? As water changing is the major problem with that huge tank. This one I can carry myself and wash it, it's not too heavy. But that one, even empty, it weighs so much that only dad can lift it... O_O

Here's the full size of the current tank.

 

[coldcazzie]

Right... I think we need to step back a little...

Firstly, where are you? There might be a local forum member who could help out.

Secondly, could you describe exactly what you do when you change water/clean the tank etc.

Thirdly, what stuff do you have ie, filter, heater, etc.

Once you've told us those things we can advise you properly sound ok?