in need of pro help! stocking options..?!

[thedarkstar]

Sounds like quite the haul.

Once you move the algae eaters, go with a few more Otos they tend to do the cleanup job fairly well.

[MrsFard]

Sounds like quite the haul.

Once you move the algae eaters, go with a few more Otos they tend to do the cleanup job fairly well.

yeah, i think i will. i didn't like them at first...pics online... but he has character :thumbs: , are they schoolers?

[thedarkstar]

Sounds like quite the haul.

Once you move the algae eaters, go with a few more Otos they tend to do the cleanup job fairly well.

yeah, i think i will. i didn't like them at first...pics online... but he has character :thumbs: , are they schoolers?

I don't know that they school, but I do believe they like the company of friends quite a bit.

You can get some nice variations of the regular Otos too sometimes

[MrsFard]

Sounds like quite the haul.

Once you move the algae eaters, go with a few more Otos they tend to do the cleanup job fairly well.

yeah, i think i will. i didn't like them at first...pics online... but he has character :thumbs: , are they schoolers?

I don't know that they school, but I do believe they like the company of friends quite a bit.

You can get some nice variations of the regular Otos too sometimes

cool...oh, one of my chinese algae eaters died today while I was out...I don't get what i am doing wrong! the ph and nitrates and whatnot are good, temps good..... i hate it when they die! :tongue:

[thedarkstar]

Deaths are never nice...

Granted all catfish kinda die at random sometimes, the dreaded mystery death

[Vallisneria]

Did you add all those fish at once? Did you do a fishless cycle first? Adding lots of fish at once is going to raise your ammonia and nitrites. They need to be added slowly a couple at a time, or if you fishless cycled then you can add a large group.

Can you post all your water test results(ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). If you have any detectable ammonia or nitrites you need to do water changes to bring it down ASAP. That could be why the fish are dying, that and they are from big als, lol.

I"ve seen pygmy cories at Nature's cornerstore. Never heard of a pygmy platies.

[soliver]

you guys are soo insightful! thank you, I know i would've regretted that one...what can you tell me about zebra snails? are they fairly easy to find? i read somewhere its basically impossible to breed them...so, how long is their lifespan? i have one small species of snail..the most 'generic' one ever :I

I have heard its hard to breed them as well, but i never had a problem. Bought 2 from the LFS and i am now overrun with babies. I didn't have any snails in the tank or plants so i know they didn't come from somewhere else. But i can't get rid of them.

[Vallisneria]

you guys are soo insightful! thank you, I know i would've regretted that one...what can you tell me about zebra snails? are they fairly easy to find? i read somewhere its basically impossible to breed them...so, how long is their lifespan? i have one small species of snail..the most 'generic' one ever :I

I have heard its hard to breed them as well, but i never had a problem. Bought 2 from the LFS and i am now overrun with babies. I didn't have any snails in the tank or plants so i know they didn't come from somewhere else. But i can't get rid of them.

I doubt they are actually zebra snails. Zebra snails eggs need salt water to hatch. They also go through a larval stage before becoming little snails. They aren't like breeding other snails, were 1+1=millions. From my research on it, there seems to be only a few people that have reported being successful doing it and there is very little info out there about their breeding and what setups to use.

Do you have any pics of your baby snails?

[MrsFard]

Did you add all those fish at once? Did you do a fishless cycle first? Adding lots of fish at once is going to raise your ammonia and nitrites. They need to be added slowly a couple at a time, or if you fishless cycled then you can add a large group.

Can you post all your water test results(ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). If you have any detectable ammonia or nitrites you need to do water changes to bring it down ASAP. That could be why the fish are dying, that and they are from big als, lol.

I"ve seen pygmy cories at Nature's cornerstore. Never heard of a pygmy platies.

sorry, I've been internet-less for a little while.... i did add them all at once...but, i had goldfish in there before...i removed them (to a lovely big blue plastic tub where they awaited their 'transfer'), that morning and left about half of their water in the aquarium and topped it off. but i checked with those little dropper kits (not super high-tech or anything...): the ammonia/nitrates/nitrates where barely existant (it was a faded yellow ) the ph and it was about 7-ish...maybe a bit less.....oh, and it was actually the oto that died, not the chinese algae eaters (my bad)...and three of my pygmy cories died within hours of me being gone christmas eve (like maybe 2-3hrs).... and one of them had barely anything left on it... (ewww.... ) and we (being me, my pappie, and bro), figure it was the chinese algae eaters..they're bullies! grrr.... I gave them away tonight and already all the fish are covering alot more tank 'area' and they're more outgoing(...stupid evil fish...) so hopefully all is well. I called al's and they are still willing to do the partial refund the next time i am in the city...thats over ten casualties....

oh, and the pygmy platties are actually called sunset coral dwarf platties..sorry about that... theres a link with some pics(hopefully it works..the pics are down the page a bit):

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...GLJ:en%26sa%3DX

[thedarkstar]

Yeah, Otos and Pygmy cories are both really sensitive to changes in water condition.

I picked up a swarm of the Habrosus cories on friday and already have 3/10 kick the bucket but all my Otos survived. Also picked up a test kit and nothing there that would have caused deaths so I suppose its just chance with those little fish.

[MrsFard]

Yeah, Otos and Pygmy cories are both really sensitive to changes in water condition.

I picked up a swarm of the Habrosus cories on friday and already have 3/10 kick the bucket but all my Otos survived. Also picked up a test kit and nothing there that would have caused deaths so I suppose its just chance with those little fish.

thats too bad... they are certainly cute enough to take the risk!

[jvision]

Pygmy cories (any of the species) almost never last long in unestablished tanks. For whatever reason, they just can't handle any kind of fluctuation in the nitrogen cycle. It's really best to wait 'til the tank has been going for a few month. You can get them, and a few may survive, but my experience has been that they do best in an established tank.

Ottos, too, are sensitive to ammonia and nitrIte... and Chinese Algae Eater should not be kept - period! I know quite a few people that won't even shop at stores that carry those fish. They're not good at eating algae, even when young, are really pushy and down right nasty when older. Plus they get too big for the average tank (smaller than 90gal).

If you want a good algae eater for the tank (and every planted tank should have some kind of algae crew), a clown pleco or 2... or 3... would be great. Or, just 1 BN pleco. Ottos are great, and will do a number on the brown algae that will show up if it hasn't already; but, again, you have to keep the nitrites and ammonia at ZERO.

Ammano shrimp are also good at taking care of filimentous algae.

HTH. Have plants, have fun! :thumbs:

[MrsFard]

Pygmy cories (any of the species) almost never last long in unestablished tanks. For whatever reason, they just can't handle any kind of fluctuation in the nitrogen cycle. It's really best to wait 'til the tank has been going for a few month. You can get them, and a few may survive, but my experience has been that they do best in an established tank.

Ottos, too, are sensitive to ammonia and nitrIte... and Chinese Algae Eater should not be kept - period! I know quite a few people that won't even shop at stores that carry those fish. They're not good at eating algae, even when young, are really pushy and down right nasty when older. Plus they get too big for the average tank (smaller than 90gal).

If you want a good algae eater for the tank (and every planted tank should have some kind of algae crew), a clown pleco or 2... or 3... would be great. Or, just 1 BN pleco. Ottos are great, and will do a number on the brown algae that will show up if it hasn't already; but, again, you have to keep the nitrites and ammonia at ZERO.

Ammano shrimp are also good at taking care of filimentous algae.

HTH. Have plants, have fun! :thumbs:

I'll have to tell my brother that..he has serpae tetras and the chinese algae eaters don't dare get smart with them..as for the clean up crew there are misc. little snails...(i seen an albino one today actually...he was about 5mm from every angle), the two zebra snails, the 2 cherry shrimpies, and the whiptail...do cories eat much algae? if i did get otos do you think there would be too many bottom feeders? and with the cories..there are only three of them and i keep reading they do better in a min. group of 4-6....

[thedarkstar]

Cories don't eat algae, they just forage for food like little sand vacuums. If I throw a pinch of flake food in you see them start hoovering around in the sand for the pieces that fall.

As for the Otos, they aren't bottom feeders, they're catfish, they basically attach themselves anywhere in the tank and suck. And I like them alot better than plecos, although not as hardy they're definitely less waste-producing than the plecos.

Cories do like groups better, I'd probably try to boost your pygmy/pepper groups to atleast 6 each. so maybe adding 5-7 of the pygmys will get you there. They stress out very easily, especially going from a plastic bag to pristine water (I learnt the hard way).

As for my waste cleaning crew, I've tried to limit the number of fish who eat shrimp currently "zero". I'm sure the baby shrimp disappear but I'd say most of my adults are surviving. 10 cherrys and 10 green shrimp.

[MrsFard]

Cories don't eat algae, they just forage for food like little sand vacuums. If I throw a pinch of flake food in you see them start hoovering around in the sand for the pieces that fall.

As for the Otos, they aren't bottom feeders, they're catfish, they basically attach themselves anywhere in the tank and suck. And I like them alot better than plecos, although not as hardy they're definitely less waste-producing than the plecos.

Cories do like groups better, I'd probably try to boost your pygmy/pepper groups to atleast 6 each. so maybe adding 5-7 of the pygmys will get you there. They stress out very easily, especially going from a plastic bag to pristine water (I learnt the hard way).

As for my waste cleaning crew, I've tried to limit the number of fish who eat shrimp currently "zero". I'm sure the baby shrimp disappear but I'd say most of my adults are surviving. 10 cherrys and 10 green shrimp.

yeah, there is just something sooo unattractive about fish who devour other ones. and thats what I was thinking with cories but then i thought maybe they would nibble a bit of the top of the algae or something...either way, my rasboras seem to think they are too good to eat off the bottom of the tank so, the cories are nice that way too.

if I did get the otos (how many do you figure?) and upped my cories...and with what I've already got....i donno, doesn't that sound like a lot? can i comforably pull it off? keeping in mind I and thinking about getting 8 more brigette rasboras and, if i can ever find them, 6-10 ember tetras. Or up the rasboras schools instead of the tetras (although I reallly like the look of those tetras and it'd be nice to offset the mega rasboras school).

too many choices! its funny, I have a fair count of fish in ther already but when you look at the tank it seems bare.