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im going over to my parents place tonight to get my childhood tank (my very fist tank, O the memories). so im going to take out the dwarf, the cat fish and the two snails and put them in there. And i think im going to add a bunch of penquin tetras.

Last edited by Judz at 04-Aug-2005 06:13

sneaky pete, maybe im miss reading ur post. u said any time the dwarfs are alone they die but when they are together the one getting picked on dies due to stress. so they cant be alone or together?

Sneaky Pete, what is wrong with what i have said?


"I may be repeating things so sorry if i am

Clown loaches are excellent at getting rid of snails esp mayalasian trumpet snails.

Clown loaches need to be in groups of six at least although other sources of info say three is ok, but generally the more there are the happier they are the more you see them.

i don't think you have the room"


I have given accurate information about a type of fish that was asked for and I have said I don't think he has the room....... which is true

GFG

Last edited by goldfishgeek at 04-Aug-2005 08:06

_______________________________________
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey S. Firestone

I think the number of gouramis depends on the individual fish (nothing you can do about that but cross your fingers when you pick them out) and how many hiding spaces there are in the tank. If there are alot of plants and caves for the fish to retreat to if threatened, the gouramis would bully to the point of death. But if the fish is being bullied 24/7, you have a problem. I suggest getting a male/female pair. However, females are very rarely sold because their color is dull. So, 2 males with hiding places could work too.

thats what i have now is lots of hidding spots

but i think im still going to move the one to the other tank

Judz, what I mean is any time I have more than 1 dwarf gourami together (2-3 dwarf gouramis) they die. They usually kill each other. My only success with these fish has been keeping 1 male alone, or 1 male with 1-2 females.

Goldfishgeek,
The only thing that concerns me is
that you didnt mention how big clowns get (over 1 foot)
nor the fact they require a bare minimum of 75Gs but I wouldnt put them in my 75- i wouldnt even put them in a 90.
Other than that your info is correct.

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well im thinking of trading in the one for a female too. maybe have some fry.

You can't just throw a female in there and expect fry. Gouramis need no current to spawn, the current will destroy the bubble nest if they even think about spawning. the other fish would probably have a ball with all the fry.

just saying, don't go trade for a female and expect fry, they would be happy probably, but might not even attempt to breed in this set up.

Stick to keeping one male gourami, the powder blue, dwarf, or the sparkling gourami.

Last edited by Tetra Fan at 04-Aug-2005 21:31

i said that instead of going out right out and saying getting it on. more of a joke.

60 posts woohoo

i know that was completely unnessasary. however, just noticed it.

woohoo

thanks for the input and advice

and i havnt thought about baiting the snails ill try that
is there any other thing i should try

one thing ive noticed since posting this if i smush the snails against the glass and let them float down the fish tend to eat them

what size tank? so far i counted over 50in of fish

o ya i forgot to add taht its a 29 gallon

yes, its way over stocked, and no, get NO MORE fish

ive had that many for a while
and ive watched the ph and amm. very carefully and so far they have stayed very consistent the ph stays around 7.3 and the amm. never goes over 1.2

maybe im just lucky or just looking at the wrong things

Ammonia should be 0 as ammonia is a toxic chemical.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

true but at going to 1.2 once and a while shouldnt hurt anything i find it goes up when i am moving something and stir the gravel

Last edited by judz at 29-Jul-2005 19:55

well, it still shouldent be there in a healthy tank, there should only be nitrAtes and those have to be taken out with water changes

is there any good way to prevent them

The way to prevent Ammonia is by not overstocking the tank. There really isn't a trick to it

-Josh

but there is only amm rarely

and i was lying i meant to say it only goes up to .1 not 1.2 at most .3 mg/l



Last edited by judz at 29-Jul-2005 20:45

but could i saftly add the clown loach


Last edited by judz at 29-Jul-2005 21:01

I think your question has alrady been answered...Not to mention the fact that clown loaches can get really big and prefer to be in groups. It's really not wise to consider adding one. Maybe for your snail problem you could consider alternative options like baiting them with a piece of lettuce or something and taking the piece of lettuce out when they congregate on it.

Hi,
I understand that you might not like the answer however
it is the truth.
1st... Your tank is way over stocked. Trying to cram more
fish into it is not going to help and could result in some
deaths, and a tank that will soon become a nightmare to
own.
2nd... In a tank that is fully cycled, there should be NO
AMMONIA present... PERIOD.
That being said if you are using a chemical called
ammonia lock, it converts ammonia to a non toxic form and
will cause you to always read some ammonia in the tank.
The other possibility is that you recently added fish to
the tank (within the last couple of days) and the bacteria
colonies have not grown large enough to handle the output
of the new fish.

You need to take some fish back to the LFS, or get another
tank, you also need to get that ammonia down to zero.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

i know i need a bigger tank
but right now i have

1 gold and 1 black mystery snail
5 neons
5 glowlights
5 harlequin rasbora
1 dwarf gouramis
1 power blue gouramis
1 pearl gouramis
2 dwarf frogs
1 villavo pleco (L147)

and im thinking of getting a clown loach
to help in my massive common snail problem i must get rid of like 10-20 every couple of days

i have two filters and a nice amount of plants
change 20% of the water every week

will my tank be able to hold the extra fish?

Yeah, fish will eat the snails. However, just smashing them and leaving the bodies for the fish to maybe eat them isn't a great idea. If the fish don't eat all of the organic snail bits, then they will start to decompose, adding more ammonia to your water. Since you're going to have to lower your ammonia levels, indiscriminately smushing snails would be a phoolish thing to do.

Last edited by sirbooks at 29-Jul-2005 22:18

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

you really are way overstocked to say the least and yes ur ammonia should be 0 but i understand wanting more fish.... maybe you should think of gettin a biggertank if u really wanted to get the loaches as they would get bigger and want to be in groups then u could balance out ur overstocked tank n have 2 complete tanks!!!

Im looking at a bowed 155 gal tank so more then enough room. Then taking the 29 gal and trying salt water.
but the trace amm might be there cause i havnt vac the gravel in forever which i know is dumb. Im about to do it now, and i didnt think of the bodies of the snails ill start taking them out. Im going to try that baiting idea

there u go looks like ur on the right track... good luck

i remember why i havent vac in ages cause it does nothing other then muk up my tank i hope the filters take out the &nbsp; i just put in the water

thanks

judz,
if you gravel vac when you do a water change once a week,
eventually your gravel will be so clean it wont muck up your tank.
Do a water change/gravel vac today, then again in 6 days time. Lessen feeding to once a day in a small amount, for the next couple of weeks. This will help to both eliminate ammonia if overfeeding is the problem, and will help to get your gravel nice and clean.
Clean your filter once a month, but not when you do a gravel vac or water change. do it on an odd day a few days from a water change at least.
Dont replace all the filter media, just like say you have 2 sponges, replace 1, or if you have sponge and carbon, do sponge one month, carbon the next etc.
Keep doing those gravel vacs. Not only does muck build up, but aeromonas, or bad anerobic bacteria that can kill fish.
Bait the snails with a piece of cucumber or zuchinni on a small saucer, remove when full and repeat.

Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

I think it would be better when you get the 155 gallon bowfront, to leave your 29 FW. SW tank are a little harder to maintain and a 55 really should be the minimum starting out size tank. It will be more forgiving of mistakes than a 29 gallon would be. Plus why tear down an established FW tank when you can turn it into a beautiful planted tank without the wait for cycling?

Good luck and I'm glad you are taking the advice posted by the other members

so i should change the two filters on opposite sides of the month like the whipser on the 15th and the penquin on the 30th kind of thing

plus i never filled the tank to the top. I always had it about 1/2 inch below the top fringe so now its to the top making it a true 29 gal so more water should lower the amm too. on the good note it quites my filters and surface distrubance so my C02 should work better plants grow and amm goes down.

However .1 or .3 really shouldnt be anything to worry about should it? Yes its not great but not bad.

If there is any ammonia in your tank (like said quite a few times earlier) there is something wrong. Even .1ppm or .3ppm is bad and you need to try to figure out the problem, which is probably overstocking.

when i do the salt water tank trust me ill be harrassing all of you for help. you guys have been great!!

Hi,
When you clean your gravel, do not, clean it all at once.
Besides the filter and surfaces within the tank, the gravel
houses the biggest colonies of bacteria that run the
nitrogen cycle. If you do a wholesale cleaning of the
gravel, then you will damage or kill off the bulk of the
bacteria colonies and your tank will have to recycle all
over again.

Instead, mentally divide the tank into quarters. Then clean
the tank, one quarter, each month. That will give the
freshly cleaned gravel and the tank time to recover before
you start another quarter. In the weekly water changes
simply swirl your hand over the open areas of gravel and
syphon off the detritus that you raise up into the water
column.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

If you are doing things right and have a healthy tank there should be no ammonia at all ever. Ammonia is a sign things could go really bad very quickly if you don't fix something. Even a small level of ammonia stresses some fish enough to bring on a case of ich or other infection. A little ammonia means your bacteria are at their limit and if a fish were to die, you overfeed a few times, or your fish miss a piece of food and it rots you'd probably have so much ammonia you'd lose at least 1 fish if not all of them.