Newcomer About To Stock Is Tank

[b3cca]

Mollies will handle the extra salt easily wheras the cherries won't be so happy with it but obviously the ich is main thing so they'll just have to put up with for a bit.
 
Which Rasboras are you thinking ? My Harlequin Rasboras are adorbs and yes they love my soft acidic water but I believe they're fairly adaptable and would be fine in your "mildly hard water" what is your PH ?
 
 

 

[Klonoa50]

Hey all!
 
In retrospect, I prolly shoulda come up with that on my own. 

  Thanks Blondie!  *laughs*
 
The fish are doing much better the last few days.  I've gotten 'em both to eat regularly-ish now, and they're back to swimming around the tank again (though they do spend more time then they did before just "floating" so I don't think they're 100% yet).  One of them still has 2 ich spots on her fin, the other appears to be ich-free. My plan is to keep treating for 3-4 days after the other one is spotless, then I'll slowly start dropping the temp back to normal (and eliminate the salt entirely).  Gonna keep doing daily water changes at least until that point too.  Figure they can't hurt anything.
 
The only Rasboras I've seen locally are Harlequins.  I've looked on the internet a bit at other species, but not much.  : )
 
My PH is roughly 8.0, which I understand is even a tad higher then what my mollies prefer, and on the "high but fine" end of Cherry Barbs (assuming my quick internet search is trustworthy).
 
Overall it looks like things are getting back to normal in the aquarium, and that both of the cherries will make it through in more or less one piece.  Thanks for all the help thus far everyone!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

You may have trouble with the rasboras, as they're mostly soft water fish. As long as you buy them locally, they should be adapted though.
 
Your pH isn't too bad, its the same as mine
 
Your ICH plan looks good, though I'd continue treating for a week after all of the spots are gone. It depends on what the instructions say though.

 

[Klonoa50]

I'll keep that in mind.  A large part of the reason I didn't get tetras and similar fish was because I knew they liked softer water, and my understanding is my water isn't that.  One of the reasons I'm on the fence about getting a Pearl Gourami as well... general internet consensus seems to be they like soft-ish water.
 
At the moment I'm just using salt, heat, and water changes to treat, so no real "instructions".  The general consensus on the internet seems to be that ich has a 3-4 day life cycle in the tank at 80 degrees, hence me thinking I'd start pulling the salt out around then.  No point risking another outbreak though... maybe I'll wait an extra couple days.  More internet researching!  *laughs*

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Whoops, sorry, I forgot you were doing salt. I'd still continue treating for a week though, just to be sure.
 
As long as you buy them locally it shouldn't be a problem, you could always add lots of driftwood to slowly lower the pH.

 

[Klonoa50]

Hey all!

Realized I hadn't written on here in a couple days, thought I'd check in real quick.  Everything is good in the tank.  The cherries appear to be back to normal, and are much less skittish overall.  They do seem fairly stressed compared to the mollies (constantly darting around if they're alone or hiding in the plants), but I think that has more to do with them being schooling fish with no school.  As long as they're with each other or the mollies they behave normal. 
 
The ich's been gone for two days now, and I'm thinking I'll start dropping things back to normal on Saturday or Sunday.  The reason I'm doing it a bit early is that some research I've seen online suggests you don't want to leave freshwater fish in heavily salted water for more then 10-12 days, because it starts causing problems after that.  On Sunday it'll have been 12 days since I first started dumping in salt, and my understanding is ich at 80 degrees should live roughly 4 days, so I should be well into the safe zone when I began dropping things back to normal.
 
Thanks again for all the advice, and hopefully in another two or three weeks I can start stocking this tank up again.  : )

 

[Ninjouzata]

So glad to hear everything is getting better. Hopefully they get more comfortable once you're able to add some buddies for them
 
I havn't heard of that but also havn't researched it at all, so that's interesting. Do what you feel is best!
 
Looking forward to more updates ^.^

 

[Klonoa50]

Hey all!
 
Today I stopped putting salt into the daily water changes, and started dropping the temperature back down.  I'll keep an eye on the fish to make sure nobody reacts badly to the water changes, but so far so good!  Everybody appears to be happy n' healthy.  I notice one of the cherries tends to swim a bit an angle (occasionally rotates about 45 degrees to her side for a second or two then rights herself).  I'd say it's a swim bladder problem, but I've only heard of fish angling up or down with swim bladder, never "left" or "right".  It doesn't seem to bug her at all, and only happens once every hour or so as far as I can tell, so I'm not worrying much about it.
 
The cherries don't seem to mind much that they're the only 2 of their kind anymore, and have largely stopped schooling and do their own thing.  If they see another fish they'll swim with 'em a bit, but tend to break off after a couple seconds and meander the tank again.  They spend their days grazing on the rocks and staring at me.  They've even started pecking at my gravel vac in the tank when I put it in (then fleeing for their lives whenever I move it).  Also their fins are almost 100% healed, one of 'em is missing a tiny piece from her back fin still.
 
My current plan is to keep up the daily water changes for another couple days (3-5) then drop back to my regular twice a week schedule.  If everything stays good, may try to get some more cherries either next Friday or the Friday after.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I hope she stops swimming that way, it hasn't been a good sign for some of my fish before, although some have had it and then returned to normal. It was happening to mine much more than once an hour though.
I've got no idea on the swim bladder stuff..sigh I wish I knew more
 
Sounds like they're getting comfortable!
That is hilarious about the gravel vac. My fish do that too.
Actually my gertrude rainbows are even more interested and one went inside it, luckily he was able to get out but I hope he doesn't try that again!
 
Sounds like a good plan to me

 

[Klonoa50]

Hey all!
 
Not much to report, all is well within the aquarium!  The fish that was tilting at weird angles before has stopped as far as I can tell (I always see her swimmin' normally now), so I figure that's a good thing.    The fish have set up a definite hierarchy at this point... My balloon molly pretty well rules the roost, with one of the cherries (she's quite a bit smaller then the other, so can tell her apart) chasin' the other one around every now and then too. 
 
For the most part everybody gets along, but come meal time the larger cherry and Nitro (the golden lyretail molly) get harassed a fair amount.  They don't seem to mind it much (nobody hides at the bottom or starts breathing heavy or anything), so I don't think there's any real issue.  I imagine the chasing will drop quite a bit once I get more fihs as well, since I intend to get more of the cherries(and probably the lyretails too).
 
All my water stats are good, and everything appears to be goin' great.  Now I just gotta get the filter to stop rattling. 

 
Edit:  Sheesh, so many typos.  That's what I get for typin' tired.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Glad to hear all is well! I imagine it'll settle down once you get more fish as well.
Everyone is getting something to eat, right?
 
Not sure on the filter..you may want to check the impeller, I think?

 

[Klonoa50]

Yep!  Everyone gets food.  Oddly, they don't bully during the feeding (what I'd expect), but right after.  They all eat and then the chasing starts.  I'd say its just play, but the lyretail at least clearly tries to avoid it.
 
Overall though looks like all is well.  Nobody acts stress, the tank params are good, and everything's nice n' calm.  : )  I feel like I owe you ppl pictures... I'll tweak with my phone some more, see if I can't figure it out. 

 

[Klonoa50]

Hey all!
 
I added two more cherry barbs to the tank today (a male and a female).  They adapted to the tank a lot quicker then the other two... were out of the plants n' swimming within an hour.  Otherwise everything's still goin' well in the tank.  One of the bigger females is harrassing the male cherry a bit, but I've yet to see any fin nipping (just chases him into the plants and then leaves him alone every once and a while).  Will keep an eye on that.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Glad these ones seem to have adapted quite well! After you get everything established, maybe it would help to rearrange the decor?
I'm not sure if cherry barbs set up a territory that could be destroyed by redecorating but it's worth a shot.

 

[Klonoa50]

Hello all!
 
Sorry I disappeared for so long.  My computer died a horrible, painful death and I decided I would try and build a new one for the first time ever, which resulted in a month before I had anything working again.  But I'm back up and running, so I thought I'd post an update on here again (I really oughta move this to the journal section).  : P
 
My fish are all doing quite well!  The two mollies are still patrolling the tank happily, and their aggression issues are a thing of the past.  I have 6 cherries now (4 females and 2 males) and they're all quite happy and healthy.  One of them may have minor swim bladder issues (she appears to have a hard time swimming down for about 5 minutes after feeding), but overall they all do quite well and spend their days chasing each other all over the tank.  I've recently decided to go ahead and try to raise some Cory Cats (since I think they're adorable and after a LOT of research I think they'll do just fine in my tank), so I have 3 false juliis that are acclimating to the tank.  I've only had 'em a day, so hard to say how they're doing thus far, but so far so good! 

  I still don't have anything to take pictures with (though I'm hoping that'll get fixed soon-ish), so no photos for ya'll yet.
 
My current plan is to wait until new years ish (when I'm done with all my travelling) and see how the 3 cories are doing.  If everything's still OK I'll round out their school,and try to find one last "centerpiece" fish to put in the tank.  I'd like to get a pearl gourami, but I can't find any in the city I'm in. 

 
Actually, I might as well ask since I'm writing on here again, if I will be gone for 6 days around Christmastime, should I use an automatic feeder or just let the fish be for 6 days?  I have an automatic I used to use on my old 10-gallon (a Hagen feeder that works pretty well), but I imagine it'll result in some overfeeding.  I know fish can go 4 days without food no problem, but wasn't sure if 6 was pushing it.