Hi~

[Kiatsu]

Hi~

I got reffered here by bryancatfish (from pjspet). I heard this forum is quite informative and very helpful. I'm still fairly new to the hobby, only a little less than a year and still looking for more knowledge and information about everything.

I started off with a 5 gallon tank and it was really hard. I didn't know any better, listened and took the advice of some LFS people (who doesn't know any better than me... lol) and killed off quite a few fish because of it (T_T).... Learned from mistake... and never trust most of them now and always double check/research online what I needed to know first before I do anything. Found out the hard way that smaller tank is harder than the bigger ones~ lol Upgraded to 10 gal a few months later and then... well, that didn't last very long either before we upgraded to a 29gal~ I think we're sticking with that for now... (

Still looking for a centerpiece fish for it~ We have... 4 guppies, 1 platy, 2 otos, 5 tetras, 1 dwarf gourami, and 1 left panda cory (will be getting more soon)... used to have more, and unfortunately we had no idea we have ammonia in our tap water and that might've been the case why a couple of them died... We are kind set of getting a couple rams, hopefully they'll get along with our peaceful community tank.

Currently we're dealing with ich... again (~,~) just with the tetras, they're the newest one added to the tank. Everyone else is fine... Trying out that nox-ich that bryancatfish recommended. Hopefully it'll work out and kill off that annoying ich. Only using half a dose because of the catfish so it might take longer~ Wish me luck~

~ Kiatsu (Kat)

[hackerberry]

Hello Kiatsu and welcome! You have a really nice setup going on there.

hb

[GIJester]

Welcome, sounds like you found somebody with some good advice eventually, your start sounds like a few I know of - but atleast you stuck to it and its great to hear your doing well. your Tank looks great - hope that Ich wanders off quickly for you..

Jesse

[DragonNeko]

Welcome to the site! Your tank looks lovely. I hope the ich goes away soon. I used Nox-Ich when I got it in my tank, it works great. I don't know if you have shrimp or snails, but in case you weren't aware some meds have certain chemicals that can kill them. I can't remember if Nox-Ich has one of the ones that would kill them or not. You should learn about quarentine if you don't know already, it can really save you a lot of trouble. Like having to cure an entire tank of Ich...or in my case 3 tanks with Camallanus Worms (not something you ever wanna get). You learn so much in your first year (I started last summer)

[AvianAquatics]

Welcome

And good luck with Ich! In my experience the only fish that have actually died of it are my Chocolate Gouramis, most of the fish you have are fairly hardy so I'd say they would pull through just fine

[Kiatsu]

Hello Kiatsu and welcome! You have a really nice setup going on there.

hb

Thanks~! I think it needs a little more plant too before I added a couple rams~

Welcome, sounds like you found somebody with some good advice eventually, your start sounds like a few I know of - but atleast you stuck to it and its great to hear your doing well. your Tank looks great - hope that Ich wanders off quickly for you..

Jesse

Yeah, I'm not one to quit halfway and once I get into a hobby... it's so hard to break it. I think I'll be doing this for a long time. and thanks, I really hope so too. My fishes are a little stressed out because of it...

Welcome to the site! Your tank looks lovely. I hope the ich goes away soon. I used Nox-Ich when I got it in my tank, it works great. I don't know if you have shrimp or snails, but in case you weren't aware some meds have certain chemicals that can kill them. I can't remember if Nox-Ich has one of the ones that would kill them or not. You should learn about quarentine if you don't know already, it can really save you a lot of trouble. Like having to cure an entire tank of Ich...or in my case 3 tanks with Camallanus Worms (not something you ever wanna get). You learn so much in your first year (I started last summer)

Thank you. *crosses fingers* Yeah, me too... I hope that ich will go away asap... I used to have snails on my 10 gal but they just overpopulated my tank and they kept reproducing so I removed them before I transferred all my substrate from that tank to the next. If I have one or two that got away from that, I hope that nox-ich will actually take them out. I really don't want anymore "pest" in our tank~ I was relluctant on removing them before when it was still countable and I regretted it so much. (>.<) About that quarantine tank, I was thinking of using our 10 gal as one, but we're kinda busy atm especially we have to move in a couple months. To set up another tank or at least keep 2 tanks running at the same time right now is a bit too much for us. I'm still in the process of reading some information about it though and hopefully soon enough, we'll have one running as well.

Welcome

And good luck with Ich! In my experience the only fish that have actually died of it are my Chocolate Gouramis, most of the fish you have are fairly hardy so I'd say they would pull through just fine

Thank you. I don't think I remember lossing any fish from ich yet either. This is the 2nd time dealing with it, and I guess I didn't really killed it off last time. Hopefully, I'll do better this time around~

~Kiatsu

Edited May 5, 2011 by Kiatsu

[DragonNeko]

Apparently you can use filter media from a well established tank and get a really quick cycle in the smaller quarantine tank. After the fish is good to go in the big tank, you just shut down the quarantine until you need it again. It's always a good option. I'm going to use my 5 gallon for a quarantine when I get some more Corydoras. I've got lot's of those snails in my tanks. I find that as long as I keep the tank clean and don't overfeed the fish, their numbers stay reasonable. My trumpet snails are my favorites, and they're reproducing really slow. They're nice to have since they go through the gravel and clean it and shuffle the gravel so you have less air bubbles or something. My 10 gallon had a bit of an outbreak of snails, cause the tetras in it barely ate the food I put in. Now I only feed them once a day, and the snails are laying less eggs. They can be tricky to keep, but I think they're a nice addition to a tank. The babies are so cute too^^ Shrimp are really nice to have. After I got some Cherry Shrimp I became hooked. I've been itching to get more, but I have to wait til' the worm treatment is completely over. Though I did get a little mystery baby shrimp with my moss balls that a friend got for me. Oh, also, there are snails that don't breed in freshwater (Nerites) and ones that need the opposite sex to breed (Mystery/Apple snails). The Nerites will devour algae and the Mystery snails are just cool, lol.

[Kiatsu]

Apparently you can use filter media from a well established tank and get a really quick cycle in the smaller quarantine tank. After the fish is good to go in the big tank, you just shut down the quarantine until you need it again. It's always a good option. I'm going to use my 5 gallon for a quarantine when I get some more Corydoras. I've got lot's of those snails in my tanks. I find that as long as I keep the tank clean and don't overfeed the fish, their numbers stay reasonable. My trumpet snails are my favorites, and they're reproducing really slow. They're nice to have since they go through the gravel and clean it and shuffle the gravel so you have less air bubbles or something. My 10 gallon had a bit of an outbreak of snails, cause the tetras in it barely ate the food I put in. Now I only feed them once a day, and the snails are laying less eggs. They can be tricky to keep, but I think they're a nice addition to a tank. The babies are so cute too^^ Shrimp are really nice to have. After I got some Cherry Shrimp I became hooked. I've been itching to get more, but I have to wait til' the worm treatment is completely over. Though I did get a little mystery baby shrimp with my moss balls that a friend got for me. Oh, also, there are snails that don't breed in freshwater (Nerites) and ones that need the opposite sex to breed (Mystery/Apple snails). The Nerites will devour algae and the Mystery snails are just cool, lol.

Yes, that's what I did to cycle my new 29 gal tank. Seeded substrates, plants, decos and the old filter media into the new one. Only took me about week to fully cycle it. Thumbs up for Prime~ I'm a fan of corydoras too, they are so adorable and looking forward to getting more panda corys soon. As for the snails, I had the same kind, it's just so hard to deal with after it got out of hand. so that's why we decided not to keep them. We gave a few of them away as well, and even tried to give them away to a couple stores but no one seems to wanna take them, so we have to put them down. I really sucks, because I really like them. And yes, whenever I see those baby snails, I can't help but to think they are sooo cute. I really wanna keep but, oh well. We don't want anymore complications in our tank. Lol~ I used to feed them twice a day when they were on our 10 gal tank but now, I feed them only once a day too. I figure it'll be okay with just that. Also, for those snails that doesn't reproduce by themselves, we thought of getting them but since we already have 2 otos as my algea eaters, it should be ok. I'll just have to work extra hard whenever we're doing PWC to removed extra algea. I scrub and rinse our decos at least once a month, sometimes twice.

Edited May 5, 2011 by Kiatsu

[BettaFishMommy]

Welcome to the forum!!

for all three cases of ich i've had to deal with, i've used 'Ich Guard' with really good results.

and i don't think you'll stop at the 29 gallon....... lol! this forum is known to induce severe cases of MTS (multiple tank syndrome). we are not enablers, i swear! :rofl:

[Kiatsu]

Welcome to the forum!!

for all three cases of ich i've had to deal with, i've used 'Ich Guard' with really good results.

and i don't think you'll stop at the 29 gallon....... lol! this forum is known to induce severe cases of MTS (multiple tank syndrome). we are not enablers, i swear! :rofl:

Thank you~

I saw Ick Guard on our LFS but I heard they're not meant for scaleless fish like catfish. I was looking for Ick Guard II but I couldn't seem to find them on any of the stores nearby, so I just went for nox-ich which was recommended to us.

And no, I don't plan on stopping at 29 gal~ lol. As I said before, I will be sticking with 29 gal "for now"~ :P We gotta move soon, and so it'll be hard to have a bigger tank with us. We're planning on getting at least 55gal tank when we move to a bigger place, maybe a house (hopefully late this year or early next year).

Edited May 5, 2011 by Kiatsu

[DragonNeko]

I feel sad when snails get put down cause they get outta hand...but sometimes theres just no other option. I wish I had a bigger tank, but like you I plan to move within a year (hopefully...). I don't wanna set up a 55gallon and then have to try and move it. I want to have a big school of 2-3 different types of Corydoras. Maybe even try to breed them. I was so bad about cleaning the decor in the tank. I moved most of it out though. I'm gonna focus on having plants, some wood, and clay pots. Simple and nice XD I'll also be switching the gravel in my 20 gallon to sand for the Corydoras and Oto Cats, since they prefer it.

[Kiatsu]

I feel sad when snails get put down cause they get outta hand...but sometimes theres just no other option. I wish I had a bigger tank, but like you I plan to move within a year (hopefully...). I don't wanna set up a 55gallon and then have to try and move it. I want to have a big school of 2-3 different types of Corydoras. Maybe even try to breed them. I was so bad about cleaning the decor in the tank. I moved most of it out though. I'm gonna focus on having plants, some wood, and clay pots. Simple and nice XD I'll also be switching the gravel in my 20 gallon to sand for the Corydoras and Oto Cats, since they prefer it.

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I want to have at least a couple types/shoals of corys when we get the big tank and maybe even try of breeding them. Also having one side/part of the tank topped with sand for the corys. Never really had any experience in breeding though so I might have some trouble with it. Never really hurts to try. (^,^) Also, we're in the process of adding more live plants in our tank, but I think the light that we have is just too low to have more. We're thinking of upgrading to LED... but I have no idea what to get yet.

[DragonNeko]

I've got experience with livebearers, which is really easy, and I'm just getting into breeding Cherry Shrimp. So far I have about 15 babies in my 10 leader, they're so cute!^^ As for the lights, just go into a store and right on the packaging for the lights it should say "good for plants" or have a picture of plants or something. I don't know what kind of lights I'm using, but most of the plants I have seem to be doing well. Right now I have an Amazon Sword, Vallis something, Pygmy Swords, Java Moss, Najas Grass, Hornwort (i think), and 2 Japanese Moss Balls. Most of the plants I got were free from a friend who needed to get rid of some to make room in his tanks...actually they're technically all from him, but the Moss Balls I'm paying him back for XD If you want plants, there's a forum on the site just for that. You can either buy some or theres usually someone giving away free trimmings or spare plants they don't want/need. Here's the link: http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showforum=79

[Kiatsu]

I've got experience with livebearers, which is really easy, and I'm just getting into breeding Cherry Shrimp. So far I have about 15 babies in my 10 leader, they're so cute!^^ As for the lights, just go into a store and right on the packaging for the lights it should say "good for plants" or have a picture of plants or something. I don't know what kind of lights I'm using, but most of the plants I have seem to be doing well. Right now I have an Amazon Sword, Vallis something, Pygmy Swords, Java Moss, Najas Grass, Hornwort (i think), and 2 Japanese Moss Balls. Most of the plants I got were free from a friend who needed to get rid of some to make room in his tanks...actually they're technically all from him, but the Moss Balls I'm paying him back for XD If you want plants, there's a forum on the site just for that. You can either buy some or theres usually someone giving away free trimmings or spare plants they don't want/need. Here's the link: http://albertaaquati...hp?showforum=79

Cool~ shrimps are really cute, but I think we'll stick to fishes for now~ lol~ We had a pregy platy before when we first started... but since we're new, doesn't know anything yet... we only asked the people from a pet store and we lost her~ As for the lighting, I'll have to go look one of these days. I haven't had the chance to do so lately.

I didn't know we can get plants for free, that's awesome. I had to buy my plants from petsmart... they didn't seem healthy at all, but it seems to be ok with our tank for now. We only have a mondo grass and a couple sword. I don't know if our lighting is good enough because we only have a 20 watt flourecent for a 29gal... I'm using the hood from my other tank (30 watts) to add a little bit of light for a few hours just to make sure they're getting enough. And thanks for the link, I'll check that soon.

[DragonNeko]

When I bought my first Molly, she was pregnant. I didn't even know until I found some babies swimming around the bottom of the tank, just a few days after putting her in the tank! The stress of the move must have made her have them. She was so small back then. My daughter decided to call her Slurpie, lol. I screwed up and didn't turn the lights off at all for awhile...the stress did permanent damage to the female black molly. I felt so bad. I forgot that the lights shouldn't be on too much. I had set my 20 gallon tank up after it being in storage for 10 years. I was starting from scratch all over again...and I realized just how little I did when the tank was set up years ago when I lived with my parents. I was clueless, and my husband was even more clueless. We made so many mistakes, but we're doing lot's better now...well mostly me. I do everything with the tanks now XD

I just started with plants about...a month. Huh...it feels longer than that. I kept thinking about buying a plant from the store, but I was so worried about killing it. It was really nice to get free plants. Since they would've just been thrown out otherwise, I don't feel so bad if I screw up. I think the only one that's not doing too well is the vallis. It's likely dying cause I trimmed it...kinda violently, lol. Poor, poor plant. I might get lucky and have them bounce back, especially after I add some fertilizer I'm not very good with plants. My best experience is with Cacti. I found a few packets of flower seeds the other day. I threw them in an old tuppaware with some dirt. They're actually growing...I was shocked. I put no care whatsoever into planting them, lol