New tank

[Scruff]

Hey everyone, nice forums, really informative! Hopefull I can become a worthwile contributor! I wasn't sure where exaclty I should post this, so mods feel free to move!

At the moment I'm looking for abit of advice on my tank....

I'm pretty sure it's a 10 gallon tank or there abouts. Had it for about four weeks now. Anyway, the fish seem to get along pretty well, but during the last week or so I've noticed a few of them launching themselves off objects in the tank. I was told it was some sort of scale disease and did a heap of reading up about it, but all I found was contradictery information and opinions on how to treat them. We bought a bottle of meddy from the local shop (Wardley Promtheyasul its called) which says to only treat them once a week but what I read about the disease (ich its called) tells you you should medicate them for 2 weeks, im just a tad confused haha

Also one other thing, we have two male swordtails and a female. 1 male looks almost indenctical to female we have, I'm pretty sure their both marigolds, just like the ones on this page - http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/livebear.../mgoldsword.htm

I'm wondering if the female is pregnant. She's pretty big around the front of her and I read that they omit a hormone that drives the males wild when their pregnant, and well the male has been chasing her around the tank almost non-stop since we got her. Sometimes he'll just nip at her underbelly and other time's he'll do the most amazingly speedy darts around the tank to get at her. He's a determined little bugger!

Btw, my ph is fine! Havent got a ammonia testing kit yet tho, its amazing how much other stuff I've had to buy for this tank, something new comes up every couple of days lol! It is definetly next on my list though!


Thanks in advance for anyone opinions or tips! I hope I'm not doing too much wrong, I'd like to see them as happy and comfortable as possible!

 

[Scruff]

Oh and for the record in our tank we have...

3 swordtails (2 male, female),

Two mollies - I'm not sure of the sexes, but I'm pretty sure one is a gold dust molly he/she is the biggest and my favorite of them all, can be a little moody at times and nip the others, but generally a good fish...I think!

2 platys, ones a baby who snuck into the bag lol!

4 neon tetra's, one who has had his caduall fin nipped down to almost nothing in a previous tank. He has somewhow managed to survive against the odds!

And we also have a couple of catfish, a pleco and an albino which I cant find much info on at all, he is all white.

 

[WILDER]

Flicking and rubbing on objects can be a number of parasites, whitespot looks like they have been sprinkled in salt, velvet shine a torch on them to see if is a golden to yellowish dust on them, gills flukes and body flukes, red inflamed gills or pale, heavy breathing.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Looking at your list it seems like you've got rather a lot of fish for your size tank, particularly as it's a new tank. Did you do a fishless cycle first or is the tank still cycling? If the ammonia rates are high, this could cause health problems for your fish or make them more vulnerable to infections such as ich. It burns their gills for one thing. So, ammonia kit definitely needs to be the first purchase now, also a nitrites test.

(Fish produce ammonia which is bad for them but eventually will feed colony of friendly bacteria who turn it into nitrites=also bad for the fish, but will eventually produce colony of friendly bacteria who turn nitrites into less harmful nitrates. This is the cycle every new tank has to complete).

The best way to get ammonia rates down are partial water changes. Most fishkeepers do these as part of regular maintenance once a week or once a fortnight, but if there is a problem with ammonia or nitrites you may have to do them every day until you get it sorted.

Looking at your fish, you have a very heavy load there and some of them will certainly grow too big for that tank even if they are tiny now.

The pleco is the most obvious of these. He will have to rehomed, either given back to the shop (who should not have sold you a fish that size for that size tank) or bought a bigger tank (and I mean a lot bigger).

As for the other catfish, try to find out what he is. An albino bristlenose will grow to 4", so still big for that tank. An albino cory on the other hand is a schooling fish, so needs companions (but not with your present load!).

The swordtails, like other livebearers, should be in a ratio of 2 males to 1 female; otherwise the poor female will get constantly harassed, which could be particularly bad for her as she is pregnant. (the alternative is to keep only one sex). Normally I would advise buying 3 more females, but as your main problem is with overstocking, that is not going to be the route forward here. Can your ehome

The general rough stocking rule is that you should not exceed 1 inch per gallon for slimbodied fish; this is for the fullgrown size of your fish, so not how big they are now. So- that means 10 inches of fish, if yours is 10 gallons. Now looking at what you've got (not counting the catfish), that makes:

3 swordtails at 4"= 4x3= 12"

2 mollies at 3" = 2x3= 6"

2 platys at 2" (your baby will grow)= 2x2= 4"

4 neons at 1" = 4x1= 4"

I make that 26" which is the more than twice the load you should have, even after you have rehomed both catfish. Adding the catfish, we are probably talking 3 or 4 times the load. Admittedly, experienced fishkeepers will sometimes tell you that they are successfully exceeding the 1" rule, but that is in a mature tank (yours is new), with a lot of experience and not to the extent that is happening here.

The 1" rule unfortunately isn't everything when you're stocking. You can never stock a big fish in a tank where he hasn't got space to move around, even if the inches seem right. Some fish like plecos are great waste-producers and can only go in biggish tanks. Other fish need a lot of room, such as danios who are fast swimmers. One of my books counts swordtails in this category. Many need to be in schools (glad you have 4 neons). Some are territorial so have to be kept on their own (yours seem all right on that score). Female-male ratios we've already mentioned. Fish with long fins and known fin-nippers, such as tiger barbs, should not be kept together.

All very complicated- but interesting too.

In your case, you need to think about how you are going to deal with the overload. In the short run, you need to check the water stats and be prepared to do lots of water changes. Check the size of your tank and make alternative arrangements for surplus fish- otherwise you will lose some. Even if you manage to treat present problems medically, if your ecosystem is not sound, they will resurface.

Best of luck with your tank!