Alien Anna
Fish Gatherer
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2002
- Messages
- 2,087
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi Everyone,
I've been away from this forum for a while - other creatures in my life needed attention (kids).
Anyway, here's the sad story:I went away for 2 weeks during one of the worst heatwaves in recent UK history and when I got back my tanks were in a right mess. My neighbour had done her best, but she'd misunderstood my instructions and over-fed them, and she didn't know what to do about the soaring temperatures (my tanks were regularly up to 86F and a couple of times, up to 90F). She turned the lights off in order to try to cool things off a bit, but
that's caused my plants to die off. Three of my internal pump-filters
failed (got blocked with gunk from the decaying plants and dead fish)
and the electrics in my small integrated tank system have blown.
I've lost tons of stock - 2 lyretail mollies, 5 guppies, a pearl
gourami, several tetras, a bristle-nosed plec, a betta and a very sick pencilfish in my hospital tank. The pencilfish has dropsy.
My LFS advised me to do daily, 30% w/c's, add extra salt to the
livebearer tank and make sure I vacuumed my gravel thoroughly. I've also
rinsed out my filters in some tank water (just to remove the worst of
the gunk and get them running again) and I'm feeding frozen and live
food with a fish vitamin supplement/tonic. Once everyone is happy again,
and fish have stopped dying, I'm looking to restock. So I have a few
questions:
1. I need to re-home my 8 black neon tetra because their tank's
electrics have blown. I've got a hood for an 18" tank on order. They can't go in my 3' livebearer tank due to the salt, and they can't go in my "Amazon" tank due to over-crowding. They used to live with my betta but they turned rogue against him when he got sick and attacked his fins. What could I put them with? One LFS says another, healthy betta would be fine since my previous fish lived with them for over a year without incident but the way he was talking gave me the impression he thought bettas were aggressive to other fish, rather than the other way around.
2. What sort of fish could I add to my livebearer tank? It's a large 3'
Juwel tank with a Fluval 3 and a Fluval 2, some giant vallis, dwarf
anubias and I put a little salt in it. Currently surviving are a pair of
small mollies (one white, one dalmation), a pair of largish sailfin
mollies and 4 fancy male guppies.
3. No one has any SAEs in stock (actually only one LFS knows what an SAE is, to be honest) but I was wondering, how tolerant are SAEs of salt? I have one lone SAE in my "Amazon" tank (a 25 gallon Juwel tank with Juwel column filter system and several plants) and I'd like to get him a companion or two but am worried about space. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe his tankmates are:
3x Hemigrammus bleheri (Rummy-nosed Tetras)
3x Petitella georgiae (False Rummy-nosed Tetras) 6x Barbus titteya
(Cherry Barbs) 5F 1M 1x Nannostomus Beckfordii (Beckford's pencilfish) -
very elderly.
Pair Trichogaster leeri (Pearl Gouramis)
5x Paracheirodon axelrodi (Cardinal Tetras)
4. Should I replace my bristle-nosed plec in my "Amazon" tank? He didn't actually eat much algae or do anything particularly useful, but the kids were fond of him. I wouldn't mind one in my livebearers tank, but everyone seems to think they don't tolerate salt well.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
I've been away from this forum for a while - other creatures in my life needed attention (kids).
Anyway, here's the sad story:I went away for 2 weeks during one of the worst heatwaves in recent UK history and when I got back my tanks were in a right mess. My neighbour had done her best, but she'd misunderstood my instructions and over-fed them, and she didn't know what to do about the soaring temperatures (my tanks were regularly up to 86F and a couple of times, up to 90F). She turned the lights off in order to try to cool things off a bit, but
that's caused my plants to die off. Three of my internal pump-filters
failed (got blocked with gunk from the decaying plants and dead fish)
and the electrics in my small integrated tank system have blown.
I've lost tons of stock - 2 lyretail mollies, 5 guppies, a pearl
gourami, several tetras, a bristle-nosed plec, a betta and a very sick pencilfish in my hospital tank. The pencilfish has dropsy.
My LFS advised me to do daily, 30% w/c's, add extra salt to the
livebearer tank and make sure I vacuumed my gravel thoroughly. I've also
rinsed out my filters in some tank water (just to remove the worst of
the gunk and get them running again) and I'm feeding frozen and live
food with a fish vitamin supplement/tonic. Once everyone is happy again,
and fish have stopped dying, I'm looking to restock. So I have a few
questions:
1. I need to re-home my 8 black neon tetra because their tank's
electrics have blown. I've got a hood for an 18" tank on order. They can't go in my 3' livebearer tank due to the salt, and they can't go in my "Amazon" tank due to over-crowding. They used to live with my betta but they turned rogue against him when he got sick and attacked his fins. What could I put them with? One LFS says another, healthy betta would be fine since my previous fish lived with them for over a year without incident but the way he was talking gave me the impression he thought bettas were aggressive to other fish, rather than the other way around.
2. What sort of fish could I add to my livebearer tank? It's a large 3'
Juwel tank with a Fluval 3 and a Fluval 2, some giant vallis, dwarf
anubias and I put a little salt in it. Currently surviving are a pair of
small mollies (one white, one dalmation), a pair of largish sailfin
mollies and 4 fancy male guppies.
3. No one has any SAEs in stock (actually only one LFS knows what an SAE is, to be honest) but I was wondering, how tolerant are SAEs of salt? I have one lone SAE in my "Amazon" tank (a 25 gallon Juwel tank with Juwel column filter system and several plants) and I'd like to get him a companion or two but am worried about space. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe his tankmates are:
3x Hemigrammus bleheri (Rummy-nosed Tetras)
3x Petitella georgiae (False Rummy-nosed Tetras) 6x Barbus titteya
(Cherry Barbs) 5F 1M 1x Nannostomus Beckfordii (Beckford's pencilfish) -
very elderly.
Pair Trichogaster leeri (Pearl Gouramis)
5x Paracheirodon axelrodi (Cardinal Tetras)
4. Should I replace my bristle-nosed plec in my "Amazon" tank? He didn't actually eat much algae or do anything particularly useful, but the kids were fond of him. I wouldn't mind one in my livebearers tank, but everyone seems to think they don't tolerate salt well.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
