What breed?

[SAChichlidLover]

Haha.. No!.. it’s great information, thank you so much for taking the time to reply and for the reassurance. By the way I just read through the cycling process on here and now feel I need a PHD in fish keeping before I even attempt another water change let alone a full tank construct ??. My mind is blown, who knew!? I have a water testing kit which is now my main focus after reading the cycling info.. so I’m going to start there with the current tank before I even attempt anything else. Once again thanks so much for all the great info! Hopefully I can follow through with your advice Have a great Sunday!! I’m off to blow my own mind with this testing kit ?

Haha I’m glad I could help! And it is isnt it, it feels like rocket science at first and degrees in biology ? But it does get easier and very rewarding so don’t worry you’re on the right path! Glad I could help! If you ever want anymore advice or want to ask me anything you could always use the @SAChichlidLover to let me know if you have any questions or need advice! Have a great day I hope it all goes well and I’m off to try and sell things for even more tanks ?

 

[Essjay]

For reference the tank i inherited is a classic 30L Biorb.

Are they still in the 30 litre tank? That size is way too small for any of these fish; if they are still in the biorb you need to get a bigger tank (or two) as soon as possible.

 

[Josiebatch]

Are they still in the 30 litre tank? That size is way too small for any of these fish; if they are still in the biorb you need to get a bigger tank (or two) as soon as possible.

Yes they are. Ok... so you would think the lady at the pet store could have told me that yesterday since I told her and showed her the exact size and model!??... instead she tells me the peacock is a ram and to introduce another mollie to sort out some sort of hierarchy issue ?. My head hurts! Test kit shows all is well ? except for GH and PH which is between Hard and very hard... not sure how I can change my water supply... bottled water???

I’m sorry for keep asking questions, please feel free to get on with your day instead!

 

[Josiebatch]

The grey fish is another peacock cichlid (Aulonocara sp). It could be a female but might be a young male that is trying to colour up. Females are normally grey all over and that fish has a small amount of colour on its side, which would suggest a young male. However, some females are appearing with a small amount of colour.

Normally males have egg spots (yellow dots) on the anal (bottom) fin but neither of your fish have them.

Thank you for that. I’m so worried about him, he has some colour back now but a few days ago he appeared very pale and stressed. I agree, I think he’s a younger male from what you have said. It seems that I need to remove the older larger peacock ASAP and see how that goes. Thanks!

 

[Essjay]

The first lesson of fish keeping is never believe anything a store tells you. There are good store workers but they are few and far between. Most of them know nothing about fish and are only trained in how to sell things.

There are a few different types of molly, this is one of the smallest - the care is the same for all of them

Poecilia sphenops – Short-finned Molly/Black Molly — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

These profiles give info on the various Aulonocara species (and many Rift Lake fish sold in stores are hybrids)

Search Results aulonocara — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Josiebatch]

Thank you for that. I’m so worried about him, he has some colour back now but a few days ago he appeared very pale and stressed. I agree, I think he’s a younger male from what you have said. It seems that I need to remove the older larger peacock ASAP and see how that goes. Thanks!

However... if he is in fact a she... could the other peacocks interest/bullying behaviour be an attempt to mate with her??

 

[Josiebatch]

The first lesson of fish keeping is never believe anything a store tells you. There are good store workers but they are few and far between. Most of them know nothing about fish and are only trained in how to sell things.

There are a few different types of molly, this is one of the smallest - the care is the same for all of them

Poecilia sphenops – Short-finned Molly/Black Molly — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

These profiles give info on the various Aulonocara species (and many Rift Lake fish sold in stores are hybrids)

Search Results aulonocara — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Thank you!? this forum is amazing!

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Yes they are. Ok... so you would think the lady at the pet store could have told me that yesterday since I told her and showed her the exact size and model!??... instead she tells me the peacock is a ram and to introduce another mollie to sort out some sort of hierarchy issue ?. My head hurts! Test kit shows all is well ? except for GH and PH which is between Hard and very hard... not sure how I can change my water supply... bottled water???

I’m sorry for keep asking questions, please feel free to get on with your day instead!

God most fish store employee's will try to sell you anything and everything! When I was a kid I had a 30 gal and a dude there told me "oh yes I think you should add a blood parrot, an oscar and a third cichlid of you're choice to stop you're angelfish aggression" Thank god I went for tetras ?

 

[Colin_T]

When I was a kid I had a 30 gal and a dude there told me "oh yes I think you should add a blood parrot, an oscar and a third cichlid of you're choice to stop you're angelfish aggression"

That would have stopped the angelfish aggression. The other fishes would have grown up bigger and meaner and beat the crap out of the angelfish, then eaten it. ergo, no more angelfish aggression.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

That would have stopped the angelfish aggression. The other fishes would have grown up bigger and meaner and beat the crap out of the angelfish, then eaten it. ergo, no more angelfish aggression.

That fish store employee sure knew what he was doing

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi!
Welcome to the forums, and the hobby, I'm sorry you've been given such bad advice by the store and a rough start to the hobby! It's awesome that you're willing to learn and looking to have a peaceful tank though!

Personally, I'd suggest rehoming the cichlids - they need way too big a tank and are way too aggressive. You could advertise the fish on Gumtree, or look for any nearby fish stores that would be willing to take them. I know my local fish store will take in any unwanted fish that need a new home!

Cichlid tanks need a lot of knowledge and experience to handle aggression, and big tanks - not ideal for someone who just wants their first, peaceful community tank!

Mollies make for a nice, peaceful community fish, but essjay is right that they need a much bigger tank than a biorb has to offer. I know the Biorb tanks are popular for the look of them, I see them on Gumtree often, but I personally really dislike them as habitats for fish. They don't offer much horizontal swimming room, which is what the fish really want, and there are very few fish which can be happy in 30 litres of water. There's a reason the rectangular tank is still the most common fish tank shape - it's the best for the fish, while still giving us a good view

A lot of people get Biorbs hoping for a nice, decorative, little beginner tank, but as you've discovered from reading the cycling thread, smaller quantities of water are much harder to keep clean and stable than a larger quantity of water! Fish eat, pee and poop, and pollute their water. We cycle tanks to process that waste, and dilute it through water changes - but a tiny tank gets polluted much faster, making it a harder job for a beginner to maintain!

The mollies will need a bigger tank than the 30 L, and there might be another issue very soon - the large black molly is a female... many female livebearers are carrying sperm packets from previous matings, so you could have fry appear... and there definitely isn't room in there for fry too! I'm a bit concerned the white molly might be a male as well, it's hard to tell from the photo. Would you be able to get a photo of him from the side, clearly showing the anal fin so we can check if it's a male or female please?

So you really have two options going forward, whether to upgrade and get a larger tank for the mollies and build community around them, or to rehome the mollies and decide what kind of fish you can keep in the Biorb

If you keep the Biorb, there isn't a huge amount of choice for what you can keep in it I'm afraid, but there are a few options! Off the top of my head, you could keep a betta and some snails in there quite happily, it would be great for a single betta. Or you could keep a few male Endler's livebearers, and they are stunningly pretty, with a nice backdrop of live plants, and very active. Could keep some freshwater shrimp with endlers too. Perhaps even with a betta, but that depends on the betta's personality. Some won't bother shrimp, some would eat them, so snails are a safer bet with a betta.

Hope this info helps, and isn't too overwhelming! Feel free to ask as many questions as you'd like, people are here to help

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Yes they are. Ok... so you would think the lady at the pet store could have told me that yesterday since I told her and showed her the exact size and model!??... instead she tells me the peacock is a ram and to introduce another mollie to sort out some sort of hierarchy issue ?. My head hurts! Test kit shows all is well ? except for GH and PH which is between Hard and very hard... not sure how I can change my water supply... bottled water???

I’m sorry for keep asking questions, please feel free to get on with your day instead!

The mollies and cichlids will be happy with a hard GH, don't worry about those numbers. Would suit Endlers too! Not so much a betta.

Ignore the test kit labels that say GH or pH is "good, bad, okay" or whatever. GH being low or high is neither good nor bad. Some fish like a high GH, some species like it low, so it's good or bad depending on species, not on the what the test strips say

I'm sorry for the overwhelming amount of info coming at you! You don't need a PHD, don't worry, but the learning curve with fishkeeping is pretty steep for the first year or so. Lots of reading around and watching youtube videos helps! Aquarium Co Op is a great youtube resource, if you're the type to learn that way. I had their videos as background all the time while cooking and cleaning when I first got into the hobby, learned a lot that way!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Yes they are. Ok... so you would think the lady at the pet store could have told me that yesterday since I told her and showed her the exact size and model!??... instead she tells me the peacock is a ram and to introduce another mollie to sort out some sort of hierarchy issue ?. My head hurts! Test kit shows all is well ? except for GH and PH which is between Hard and very hard... not sure how I can change my water supply... bottled water???

I’m sorry for keep asking questions, please feel free to get on with your day instead!

Definitely don't go to that store for advice anymore! Yikes, they really did you a disservice! I wish more would be willing to say, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know the answer" rather than talking rubbish and making your problems worse by selling you even more fish! Bad fish identification, and bad advice to add yet more fish to an over-stocked tank, and bad advice that adding another molly would fix the aggression! Not to mention if the molly is male, your current one is female, and all the fry they could produce...). Really, that person couldn't have made things much worse if they tried! Better to admit they don't know, rather than making your life worse. A lot of people get overwhelmed when they get told stuff like this, the fish die, and then they give up and leave the hobby, which sucks for everyone.

now feel I need a PHD in fish keeping before I even attempt another water change let alone a full tank construct ??.I’m off to blow my own mind with this testing kit ?

You can do a water change! All you need to worry about is having a water conditioner that declorinates tapwater, and temperature matching the new, declorinated water to the tank temperature before you put it in the tank. If you do that, then you can water change as much of the water as you want, when you want!

When you test the water, what are the results? In numbers, please. Especially for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.

Last piece of advice before I stop bombarding you with info - the filter! If you clean it, then only use old tank water you've removed, or water that you'v declorinated, to rinse the filter media out in. Never rinse it under the tap,or you'll kill the beneficial bacteria growing on there that process the fish waste, crashing your tanks cycle. Filter media only needs rinsing every couple of weeks usually, depending on stocking etc.

So! Avoid chlorine, for the fish, for the tank equipment, and for filter media, since chlorine kills fish and good,helpful bacteria. Declorinated and temperature matched water is good, and water changes are good to keep the water clean and fish healthy

 

[Essjay]

We use terms like filter media without explaining what we mean. The media is the stuff inside the filter - but the Biorb is a bit different.

In a biorb there are two parts to the filter - 2 different media.
The one you'll probably think of a filter media is that little box that goes in the bottom on the tank. That contains filter wool/floss to catch bits, and a mixture of black and white granules which are carbon (black) and zeolite (white). These are chemical media, which we don't really need, but they do get full which is why the instructions tell you to put a new one in every few weeks. But you don't need to change this box, just give it a good swooshing in water that you take out during a water change. It doesn't matter if the carbon & zeolite get full as you don't need them, but they do make a home for the filter bacteria to live.
The less obvious medium is the rocks on the bottom of the tank. These are the biomedium and is where most of the filter bacteria live. The rocks are cleaned by pushing the siphon tube right down among the rocks to suck stuff out. Biorb filters are a type of filter called undergravel filters; the water is sucked right through the rocks taking food (ammonia and nitrite) to the filter bacteria.

Undergravel filters were popular a few decades ago. Nowadays different types of filter are more common: internal filters which are attached to the inside of the tank wall, HOB filters which sit over the edge of a tank and external or canister filters which sit underneath the tank.
You'll find a lot of people don't realise what type of filter a Biorb uses.