What to do??

[xxshatteredsoul]

Well recently when cleaning out my tank my fish decided to comite suicide . I had them in a bowl while i was cleaning the tank and within the time i went downstairs to do something for my mom and came back up they jumped out've the bowl and they died. It was very sad but all I have left now is my plecostomus. It is a 30 gallon tank and I used to have 4 corys, 1 plecostomus which i still have, 3 tiger barbs and 3 red eyed tetras. The tigers and tetras didn't get along very well because the barbs would usually go after them and I read if you had more tiger barbs they'd stay togeather so i got 2 more and it didn't seem to help. Anywho I am thinking of restarting my tank over again so any ideas on some new fish I could get. I'm not really that much of a newbie on things seeing i've had fish for years now but I ain't that great either so any suggestions would help thanks!

 

[heresmike]

Well first of all, I'm surprised they all decided to end it all at once! Sorry to hear about that !

Secondly, I wonder why you had them in a bowl while you were cleaning out the tank. I usually just do the weekly maint, ie. partial water changes, vacuum, clean the glass, etc. with the fish remaining in the tank. Too much of a cleaning upsets the biological balance.

And lastly, I think you SHOULD repopulate your tank ... fishkeeping is great!

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

Well first of all, I'm surprised they all decided to end it all at once! Sorry to hear about that !

Secondly, I wonder why you had them in a bowl while you were cleaning out the tank. I usually just do the weekly maint, ie. partial water changes, vacuum, clean the glass, etc. with the fish remaining in the tank. Too much of a cleaning upsets the biological balance.

And lastly, I think you SHOULD repopulate your tank ... fishkeeping is great!

Oh maybe that was a problem I've been doing. Taking the fish out and cleaning it. Thanks for the tip I'll keep that in mind next time I clean it to just vaccum the gravel ect with them in there. Any recomendations on fish though? And yes I looooove fish

 

[heresmike]

Any recomendations on fish though?

It really depends on what kind of fish you like! I love the combo of fish I have in my tank (see my sig). They all get along wonderfully. My next tank is going to have congo tetras (beautiful fish!) and maybe some dwarf rainbows, and I don't know what else. I tend to shy away from fish that are overly agressive or troublemakers (like tiger barbs for one). Active community fish are maybe the way to go. Rainbows are wonderful... cories are great too!


Good luck with your next setup!

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

Yeah I do agree with you there about the tiger barbs being very aggresive, however, I do really like tiger barbs so do you have any suggestions of fish that can be in the same tank with these fish without any trouble? I am thinking of starting up another 10 or 20 gallon tank that because I have 2 10 gal and 2 20 gal in the basement that are empty along with my 30 if there are fish that can get along with the barbs.

 

[handsomeboy]

tiger barbs should go with fast swimming fish, like bala sharks, rainbow sharks, and other such fish.

i put ghost cats in with and they seem to be doing fine, too.

 

[heresmike]

I also heard that if you keep them in larger groups, like 6 or more, they pay more attention to their own kind and don't bother the others.

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

Thanks, so mostly sharks and fast moving fish like that they get along with? Will they be ok with some catfish and bottom feeders? Also mike, I did try to get a group of tigers going in my last tank before they commited suicide and for some reason I still had one routy tigerbarb that always wanted to nip at fish even in a group of 5 tigers. Maybe I needed more for them to stay with there own kind which I also read and was trying to do in my tank but I didn't have the space in there becasue it was already kind've getting crowded.

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

I also have another question. What kind've fish would be a good algae eater. My plecostomus doesn't seem to really be doing his job, I don't know he just seems to suck onto the top under this little cave and never really sucks any algae or anything off the sides of the tank or in any other areas. Help?

 

[handsomeboy]

i have 5 tigers, and they chase the crap outta each other, then my rainbow shark chases the crap outta them all.
algae eaters...if you dont have plants i'd recommend 2 snails. cause then they will reproduce like mad and pretty soon you have 2 million...

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

I dunno if i really want 2 million snails lol . ANything else that doesn't produce like crzy and I can control and get rid of. I mean i've read bad things about snails that you can't really get rid of them after a while. Can someone clear this up for me.

 

[scott1000]

I dunno if i really want 2 million snails lol . ANything else that doesn't produce like crzy and I can control and get rid of. I mean i've read bad things about snails that you can't really get rid of them after a while. Can someone clear this up for me.

If you're having problems getting rid of snails just buy a puffer. Have 2 dwarf puffers and over the past couple months I've put 100+ snails (free from lfs) in and there's not one alive now .

You could get the whole food chain going (alage eats bacteria (or whatever they eat) -> snails eat alage -> puffers eat snails -> um, don't know what's next )

 

[xxshatteredsoul]

that'd be crazy ...I think I'll just go without the snails for now lol.