Advice

[Justikanz]

Hi all! I have 4 tanks at home and they are giving me some problems. I would need some advice. Please feel free to comment and advise. You can also send the replies etc to my email address: [email protected]

The first tank is 4’x 2’x 2’ (about 430l), and is heavily planted mainly with amazon swords, dwarf swords, Vallisneria sp., Java Moss and some stemmed plants, including Hygrophilla species. I inject CO2 for the plants and the water is kept at a temperature of 26.5 to 27.9 degrees Celsius with evaporative cooling using a fan. The tank is being filtered by an Ehiem external filter and I perform about 5% water changes almost daily.

There is a large population of fish in the tank and they include about 60 Cardinal Tetras, about 12 to 15 Cherry Barbs, 10 Golden Pencils, 10 Black Skirt Tetras, 4 Neon Rainbows, 5 Yoyo (Pakistan) Loaches, 4 Otocinclus cats, 2 Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE), 2 dwarf chiclids (looks like Apistogramma borelli but I cannot really identify them) and 1 female Betta splendens. The black skirts are more than 3 years old and had spawned several times in the tank (much to the delight of their tank mates). Thus, I assume that the water’s fine and no tests had been done for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Invertebrates include some Yamato (Amano) shrimps and snails (include red ramshorns, brown zebra and some urchin-like snails). These inverts do a great job with the algae control.

The black skirts and getting old and very often need to go up to the surface to gasp. No other fish has such problems. But is this normal?

I am having some problems re-establishing the Yamato shrimp population. I used Vermex in an earlier attempt to get rid of some 'worms' and the shrimps are having difficulty staying alive in the tank ever since, even when I do water changes and use carbon.

Now, when the black skirts 'go', I would like to keep Chilodus punctatus, the spotted headstander as I find them very interesting. However, I realised that they seem to like to snack on plant leaves when I kept some previously. Are they herbivorous? Would my plants be safe if I introduce them?

I would also like to have a couple of bigger fish in the tank, preferably cichlids, as centerpieces. Can I keep the very beautiful Mesonauta festiva? Would it be safe for the smaller fish? I witnessed in my previous setups that discus and angels will hunt down Neon Tetras to munch on and I do not wish to witness the same thing again. I am worried about the tetras and the cheeries...

Thanks!

[vinz]

I would also like to have a couple of bigger fish in the tank, preferably cichlids, as centerpieces. Can I keep the very beautiful Mesonauta festiva? Would it be safe for the smaller fish? I witnessed in my previous setups that discus and angels will hunt down Neon Tetras to munch on and I do not wish to witness the same thing again. I am worried about the tetras and the cheeries...

Thanks!

General rule, if the smaller fish can fit in the mouth of a bigger fish, the bigger fish will probably eat it, especially if the bigger fish is carnivorous. Even goldfish will eat neon tetras.

[vinz]

Justikanz... I'm going to split your thread into 4. It's going to be confusing keeping track of what reply is for which tank. I'll lock it for a few minutes while i'm doing that.

[Justikanz]

Thanks!! And so sorry for the trouble... Perhaps I shall wait till the passing on of my cardinals and pencils before trying bigger fish...