Anna Hayward
August 19th 03, 09:56 AM
Hi Everyone,
I went away for 2 weeks during one of the worst heatwaves in recent UK
history and when I got back my tanks were in a right mess. My neighbour
had done her best, but she'd misunderstood my instructions and over-fed
them, and she didn't know what to do about the soaring temperatures (my
tanks were regularly up to 86F and a couple of times, up to 90F). She
turned the lights off in order to try to cool things off a bit, but
that's caused my plants to die off. Three of my internal pump-filters
failed (got blocked with gunk from the decaying plants and dead fish)
and the electrics in my small integrated tank system have blown.
I've lost tons of stock - 2 lyretail mollies, 5 guppies, a pearl
gourami, several tetras, a bristle-nosed plec and I've got a very sick
betta and a very sick pencilfish in my hospital tank. The pencilfish has
dropsy and the betta is swimming on his side and has lost a lot of his
finnage, having been attacked by his tankmates (the LFS said the high
temperatures can make some fish more aggressive than usual - he'd been
with them over a year without a problem).
My LFS advised me to do daily, 30% w/c's, add extra salt to the
livebearer tank and make sure I vacuumed my gravel thoroughly. I've also
rinsed out my filters in some tank water (just to remove the worst of
the gunk and get them running again) and I'm feeding frozen and live
food with a fish vitamin supplement/tonic. Once everyone is happy again,
and fish have stopped dying, I'm looking to restock. So I have a few
questions:
1. I need to re-home my 8 black neon tetra because their tank's
electrics have blown. They can't go in my 3' livebearer tank due to the
salt, and they can't go in my "Amazon" tank due to over-crowding. They
used to live with my betta but they've turned rogue against him. What
could I put them with? I'm thinking of "upgrading" my 18" quarantine
tank. If my betta survives, I'll get him a bowl.
2. What sort of fish could I add to my livebearer tank? It's a large 3'
Juwel tank with a Fluval 3 and a Fluval 2, some giant vallis, dwarf
anubias and I put a little salt in it. Currently surviving are a pair of
small mollies (one white, one dalmation), a pair of largish sailfin
mollies and 4 fancy male guppies.
3. I've posted before but received no response: how tolerant are SAEs of
salt? I have one lone SAE in my "Amazon" tank (a 25 gallon Juwel tank
with Juwel column filter system and several plants) and I'd like to get
him a companion or two but am worried about space. I'm not 100% sure,
but I believe his tankmates are:
3x Hemigrammus bleheri (Rummy-nosed Tetras)
3x Petitella georgiae (False Rummy-nosed Tetras)
6x Barbus titteya (Cherry Barbs) 5F 1M
1x Nannostomus Beckfordii (Beckford's pencilfish) - very elderly.
Pair Trichogaster leeri (Pearl Gouramis)
5x Paracheirodon axelrodi (Cardinal Tetras)
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
--
Anna Hayward
Email me at: alienvisitor AT ratbag DOT demon DOT co DOT uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Everybody is somebody else's wierdo" - Dilbert (by Scott Adams)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I went away for 2 weeks during one of the worst heatwaves in recent UK
history and when I got back my tanks were in a right mess. My neighbour
had done her best, but she'd misunderstood my instructions and over-fed
them, and she didn't know what to do about the soaring temperatures (my
tanks were regularly up to 86F and a couple of times, up to 90F). She
turned the lights off in order to try to cool things off a bit, but
that's caused my plants to die off. Three of my internal pump-filters
failed (got blocked with gunk from the decaying plants and dead fish)
and the electrics in my small integrated tank system have blown.
I've lost tons of stock - 2 lyretail mollies, 5 guppies, a pearl
gourami, several tetras, a bristle-nosed plec and I've got a very sick
betta and a very sick pencilfish in my hospital tank. The pencilfish has
dropsy and the betta is swimming on his side and has lost a lot of his
finnage, having been attacked by his tankmates (the LFS said the high
temperatures can make some fish more aggressive than usual - he'd been
with them over a year without a problem).
My LFS advised me to do daily, 30% w/c's, add extra salt to the
livebearer tank and make sure I vacuumed my gravel thoroughly. I've also
rinsed out my filters in some tank water (just to remove the worst of
the gunk and get them running again) and I'm feeding frozen and live
food with a fish vitamin supplement/tonic. Once everyone is happy again,
and fish have stopped dying, I'm looking to restock. So I have a few
questions:
1. I need to re-home my 8 black neon tetra because their tank's
electrics have blown. They can't go in my 3' livebearer tank due to the
salt, and they can't go in my "Amazon" tank due to over-crowding. They
used to live with my betta but they've turned rogue against him. What
could I put them with? I'm thinking of "upgrading" my 18" quarantine
tank. If my betta survives, I'll get him a bowl.
2. What sort of fish could I add to my livebearer tank? It's a large 3'
Juwel tank with a Fluval 3 and a Fluval 2, some giant vallis, dwarf
anubias and I put a little salt in it. Currently surviving are a pair of
small mollies (one white, one dalmation), a pair of largish sailfin
mollies and 4 fancy male guppies.
3. I've posted before but received no response: how tolerant are SAEs of
salt? I have one lone SAE in my "Amazon" tank (a 25 gallon Juwel tank
with Juwel column filter system and several plants) and I'd like to get
him a companion or two but am worried about space. I'm not 100% sure,
but I believe his tankmates are:
3x Hemigrammus bleheri (Rummy-nosed Tetras)
3x Petitella georgiae (False Rummy-nosed Tetras)
6x Barbus titteya (Cherry Barbs) 5F 1M
1x Nannostomus Beckfordii (Beckford's pencilfish) - very elderly.
Pair Trichogaster leeri (Pearl Gouramis)
5x Paracheirodon axelrodi (Cardinal Tetras)
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
--
Anna Hayward
Email me at: alienvisitor AT ratbag DOT demon DOT co DOT uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Everybody is somebody else's wierdo" - Dilbert (by Scott Adams)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------