Shawn P. Good
December 28th 03, 06:16 PM
Hello all :
I have a 55 gal which HAD 9 beautiful Malawi cichlids in it. The oldest 2
were 4 and 5 years old and 7 inches long. They were gorgeous. I went away
on a fishing trip for 5 days and when I came home they were all dead. Every
one of them. Even my pleco. My wife had bought 2 new baby cichlids, about
one inch long, and put them in the tank. Apparently, one of them was
carrying ICH, which spread to the other fish quickly and killed everything.
So - I'm sterilizing and starting over. First, I want to kill any remaining
protozoans in the tank, so I cranked up my heater and kept the water at 91F
for 7 days. Then I drained the water, completely out, and filled it back up
with fresh water, adding 1 cup of Clorox Bleach. I'm letting that run right
now. I'll probably let it run for about 2 days.
My question is ..... should I do anything else before restocking my tank ?
Of course, I will take out all rocks, gravel, and driftwood and clean those
in fresh water and clean and scrub the tank, then cycle it before putting in
new fish. But I'm wondering if I've missed anything. This is my first
complete and total kill in 6 years - which is when I first bought and set up
my tank. I can't believe I lost 2 of my ORIGINAL fish.
Anyways ...... another question. When I started out, I knew nothing about
cichlids. I had my tank planted with lots of lush plants which I loved.
But as I found out, the cichlids also loved them. I fought with the
cichlids for 2 years, but they finally won. I couldn't keep up with their
digged activities and their munching the plants, so I ended up going with
just rocks, slate and wood. But I miss the plants. So - I want to poll all
you out there about suggestions for my next tank setup.
1) Should I go back to cichlids and rocks ?
2) Are there specific cichlids that do well with plants ?
3) Should I abandon cichlids altogether and go with a planted community tank
?
I appreciate all advice, thoughts, comments, and suggestions.
Thanks - Shawn
I have a 55 gal which HAD 9 beautiful Malawi cichlids in it. The oldest 2
were 4 and 5 years old and 7 inches long. They were gorgeous. I went away
on a fishing trip for 5 days and when I came home they were all dead. Every
one of them. Even my pleco. My wife had bought 2 new baby cichlids, about
one inch long, and put them in the tank. Apparently, one of them was
carrying ICH, which spread to the other fish quickly and killed everything.
So - I'm sterilizing and starting over. First, I want to kill any remaining
protozoans in the tank, so I cranked up my heater and kept the water at 91F
for 7 days. Then I drained the water, completely out, and filled it back up
with fresh water, adding 1 cup of Clorox Bleach. I'm letting that run right
now. I'll probably let it run for about 2 days.
My question is ..... should I do anything else before restocking my tank ?
Of course, I will take out all rocks, gravel, and driftwood and clean those
in fresh water and clean and scrub the tank, then cycle it before putting in
new fish. But I'm wondering if I've missed anything. This is my first
complete and total kill in 6 years - which is when I first bought and set up
my tank. I can't believe I lost 2 of my ORIGINAL fish.
Anyways ...... another question. When I started out, I knew nothing about
cichlids. I had my tank planted with lots of lush plants which I loved.
But as I found out, the cichlids also loved them. I fought with the
cichlids for 2 years, but they finally won. I couldn't keep up with their
digged activities and their munching the plants, so I ended up going with
just rocks, slate and wood. But I miss the plants. So - I want to poll all
you out there about suggestions for my next tank setup.
1) Should I go back to cichlids and rocks ?
2) Are there specific cichlids that do well with plants ?
3) Should I abandon cichlids altogether and go with a planted community tank
?
I appreciate all advice, thoughts, comments, and suggestions.
Thanks - Shawn