Trying Curviceps

[FoundMoney]

I haven't been here in a long time and I just posted in the tropical fish emergencies forum. I thought it would be rude to come and ask for advice and not say hello.

The truth of the matter is that I lost some of my enthusiasm over the past several months. I first started my fishtank over a year ago. My original idea was to set up a tank with a few apistogrammas. Unfortunately, I had very bad luck with them and my last lone mail died almost two months ago. I had several cockatoos and a pair of agazzizi. None of them lived for more than a few months and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. My water chemistry was always good and I changed my water at least once a week.

Once the last cockatoo died my tank I got bored with my tank and frankly it didn't have anything exciting going on. My tetras basically just sat in the back waiting for the food to be dropped. My otos were still cool but after a while I got bored watching them. I still maintained the tank but without much enthusiasm, which is why I haven't posted here in a while.

Last week I went to my lfs and decided I would buy some new fish. I bought three curviceps, hoping two of them would form a pair. Although they're young and difficult to sex, I believe two of them have already paired up. they're almost constantly together and one has more pronounced markings and a rounder head. I'm excited about fish again.

However, disappointment seems like it's always around the corner. The third fish does not seem to be doing well and I have removed him to a hospital tank. I hope that the other two do well because I really want to be excited about fish again. So far, it has been really fun to watch the curviceps.

I'm wondering though, why do I have so much trouble with fish? I'm always dilligent about water changes and my tests always show water with perfect parameters, 0,0,5, pH 6.6-6.8. There must be some kind of parasite in my tank that only effects certain fish, when they get stressed out, I guess.

Anyway, it's good to be back. See you soon!

 

[cometcattle]

Welcome back.

It's good to here you're keeping up with maintenance.

Your sig says it's a 30g, so I'm assuming your tank is no longer than 3'. You said you had "several cockatoos and a pair of agazzizi". I'd say that is too many cichlids in that tank. Personally, I'd go with 1 pair of apistos it the tank, like you are doing now with the curviceps.

 

[FoundMoney]

Welcome back.

It's good to here you're keeping up with maintenance.

Your sig says it's a 30g, so I'm assuming your tank is no longer than 3'. You said you had "several cockatoos and a pair of agazzizi". I'd say that is too many cichlids in that tank. Personally, I'd go with 1 pair of apistos it the tank, like you are doing now with the curviceps.

I did have all those fish but not at one time. Unfortunately, I had them die over the couse of the year and replaced them. At first I had 3 cockatoos - 1 male and 2 females. The male and one female died after about a month. I replaced the male and female with a pair of agasizzis. They seemed to thrive for about 3 months but the female cockatoo developed an eye problem and went blind. I brought her back to the lfs because at the time I didn't have a hospital tank and they told me they could try to medicate her. Unfortunately, she lasted about a week there and died also. Of course, I'm not so sure how well she was cared for and in hindsight that may not have been the best thing to do. Soon after the female cockatoo died the female agazizzi died. About 2 months later the male agazizzi died. That brought me to about July or August of last year.

After the agazizzis died, I got another pair of cockatoos. The female did not last more than two weeks but the male lived for about 6 months. He looked great for most of that time and was the king of the tank. Then in the last two weeks of his life he just stopped eating, hid all the time and eventually died. So all in all, I never had more than three cichlids in the tank at once.

As you can see, I have had terrible luck with the dwarf cichlids. I'm not quite sure what the problem is because I regularly change the water and test to make sure there are no problems. I have several other fish that I've had since I first started the tank, including 3 otos, which I had always thought were difficult to keep.

Anyway, it's good to be back. Let's hope the curviceps do well. I hate being responsible for all these fish deaths!