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Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Only time will tell - it sure has. I cannot seem to be able to keep my
nitrites down any more and the silver dollars were breathing/gilling hard before my latest water change (1 hour ago) and the fancy guppies are dieing off approximately one every 2 days (unfortunately females - maybe because they are large and need more oxygen which their gills are unable to provide enough of because of the nitrite inhibiting their gill action) occasional a male passes away, and today the silver dollars aren't eating and the fancy guppies aren't eating nearly as much as they used to. I talked to my lfs representative (don't worry about my choice of words - my lfs has been family (not my family) run for over a decade) and he agrees with my plan to buy an oscar for $9.00 to eat the fancy guppies (all of them) and raise it in this 55 gallon tank (the silver dollar tank), and he agrees I could use other large fish like other cichlids. His bottom line is that he says he is confident he can sell me a function fish to take care of this problem for sure. I consider this idea a humane way to deal with the situation (it doesn't bother me and unfortunately it is the only reasonable way I can think of about how to deal with this overpopulation problem) especially considering what the humane society of america does with higher animals (dogs, cats). Of course I am open for recommendations and the oscar or other large fish (the oscar would be sold to me at a 2 or 3 inch size which I worry might not be hardy enough to grow through the initial high nitrites that would be in the silver dollar tank ultimately with the silver dollars and the one large cichlid type of fish and the tank is a 55 gallon tank - would that be o.k. guys/gals and including those of you who are experts? Even with the function fish I will have fancy guppies in 2 other tanks that can be used to hopefully humanely feed as live food to the function fish later after the silver dollar tank is "cleaned out". The other tanks have no problems right now because one of them has 3 turtles in it that keep the fancy guppy population under control and the other tank has only just re-started a population of fancy guppies in it. Thanks for reading this and please give me advice?! Thanks, good luck and later! P.s. I am looking at a 2 or 3 or less week timeframe to get the new "big" fish and I hope it works! I will never burry any fish alive so to speak, because I consider that inhumane so I won't throw the fish out with the garbage or anything like that so to speak (I know....I know.... some people have a hard time differentiating what's humane compared between burying alive and providing to other creatures as food which is most likely a quick death making it more human) but I have to do something or else I might lose my silver dollars and after that one recovering from the accident a few months ago so well it would be a shame to lose one or both of them to a dumb overpopulation problem. Again, later! |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
"Daniel Morrow" wrote in message
... Only time will tell - it sure has. I cannot seem to be able to keep my nitrites down any more and the silver dollars were breathing/gilling hard before my latest water change (1 hour ago) and the fancy guppies are dieing off approximately one every 2 days (unfortunately females - maybe because they are large and need more oxygen which their gills are unable to provide enough of because of the nitrite inhibiting their gill action) occasional a male passes away, and today the silver dollars aren't eating and the fancy guppies aren't eating nearly as much as they used to. I talked to my lfs representative (don't worry about my choice of words - my lfs has been family (not my family) run for over a decade) and he agrees with my plan to buy an oscar for $9.00 to eat the fancy guppies (all of them) and raise it in this 55 gallon tank (the silver dollar tank), and he agrees I could use other large fish like other cichlids. His bottom line is that he says he is confident he can sell me a function fish to take care of this problem for sure. I consider this idea a humane way to deal with the situation (it doesn't bother me and unfortunately it is the only reasonable way I can think of about how to deal with this overpopulation problem) especially considering what the humane society of america does with higher animals (dogs, cats). Of course I am open for recommendations and the oscar or other large fish (the oscar would be sold to me at a 2 or 3 inch size which I worry might not be hardy enough to grow through the initial high nitrites that would be in the silver dollar tank ultimately with the silver dollars and the one large cichlid type of fish and the tank is a 55 gallon tank - would that be o.k. guys/gals and including those of you who are experts? Even with the function fish I will have fancy guppies in 2 other tanks that can be used to hopefully humanely feed as live food to the function fish later after the silver dollar tank is "cleaned out". The other tanks have no problems right now because one of them has 3 turtles in it that keep the fancy guppy population under control and the other tank has only just re-started a population of fancy guppies in it. Thanks for reading this and please give me advice?! Thanks, good luck and later! P.s. I am looking at a 2 or 3 or less week timeframe to get the new "big" fish and I hope it works! I will never burry any fish alive so to speak, because I consider that inhumane so I won't throw the fish out with the garbage or anything like that so to speak (I know....I know.... some people have a hard time differentiating what's humane compared between burying alive and providing to other creatures as food which is most likely a quick death making it more human) but I have to do something or else I might lose my silver dollars and after that one recovering from the accident a few months ago so well it would be a shame to lose one or both of them to a dumb overpopulation problem. Again, later! It's a bad idea to move any fish into a tank which is having problems. Also it can be a bad idea to buy function fish, as the function is quickly addressed leaving you with a fish to cater to. This is never so obvious as when adding an Oscar to a Guppy tank. If you want an Oscar, then buy an Oscar. If you have too many Guppies, bag them all to the LFS. An Oscar will not stop with the small Guppies, and will basically wipe the population out. If you want a carnivorous predator, Bettas, medium Gouramis and medium sized cichlids will fill that role, but you don't have a healthy tank to put them in. jmo, best wishes with that. -- www.NetMax.tk |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Daniel Morrow wrote:
Only time will tell - it sure has. I cannot seem to be able to keep my nitrites down any more and the silver dollars were breathing/gilling hard before my latest water change (1 hour ago) and the fancy guppies are dieing off approximately one every 2 days (unfortunately females - maybe because they are large and need more oxygen which their gills are unable to provide enough of because of the nitrite inhibiting their gill action) occasional a male passes away, and today the silver dollars aren't eating and the fancy guppies aren't eating nearly as much as they used to. I talked to my lfs representative (don't worry about my choice of words - my lfs has been family (not my family) run for over a decade) and he agrees with my plan to buy an oscar for $9.00 to eat the fancy guppies (all of them) and raise it in this 55 gallon tank (the silver dollar tank), and he agrees I could use other large fish like other cichlids. His bottom line is that he says he is confident he can sell me a function fish to take care of this problem for sure. I consider this idea a humane way to deal with the situation (it doesn't bother me and unfortunately it is the only reasonable way I can think of about how to deal with this overpopulation problem) especially considering what the humane society of america does with higher animals (dogs, cats). Of course I am open for recommendations and the oscar or other large fish (the oscar would be sold to me at a 2 or 3 inch size which I worry might not be hardy enough to grow through the initial high nitrites that would be in the silver dollar tank ultimately with the silver dollars and the one large cichlid type of fish and the tank is a 55 gallon tank - would that be o.k. guys/gals and including those of you who are experts? Even with the function fish I will have fancy guppies in 2 other tanks that can be used to hopefully humanely feed as live food to the function fish later after the silver dollar tank is "cleaned out". The other tanks have no problems right now because one of them has 3 turtles in it that keep the fancy guppy population under control and the other tank has only just re-started a population of fancy guppies in it. Thanks for reading this and please give me advice?! Thanks, good luck and later! P.s. I am looking at a 2 or 3 or less week timeframe to get the new "big" fish and I hope it works! I will never burry any fish alive so to speak, because I consider that inhumane so I won't throw the fish out with the garbage or anything like that so to speak (I know....I know.... some people have a hard time differentiating what's humane compared between burying alive and providing to other creatures as food which is most likely a quick death making it more human) but I have to do something or else I might lose my silver dollars and after that one recovering from the accident a few months ago so well it would be a shame to lose one or both of them to a dumb overpopulation problem. Again, later! Slow down. I find it hard to believe that you can't find a store that would take a batch of healthy, locally-raised guppies for free so you can clear out your tank. Do you actually want an oscar? If you do, go for it. Remember that an oscar is not a swimming trash dump or "function fish". It's a huge, long-lived fish that requires a considerable commitment of tank space and care. You'll have to be careful in your choice of tankmates too. The silver dollars will probably be OK and you might have room for something like a firemouth, depending on how many silver dollars. Also, you have turtles that eat guppies so you have a way to get rid of the gravid adult females. Plenty of other fish eat baby guppies. Put the females in the turtle tank. Add an angelfish, a few large tetras, or a couple of loaches to the 55 gallon and you'll have nothing but males soon enough. -- Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply. Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Daniel wrote,
I cannot seem to be able to keep my nitrites down........ Sounds to me like you don't have enough filter media for the bio-load! guppies are dieing off approximately one every two days...... and today the silver dollars aren't eating..... guppies aren't eating nearly as much...... *If* it were nitrite poisoning, at least some of the fish would be showing red streaks on their bodys, they become listless, gasp, hang near water outlets, tan or brown gills with rapid gill movement (brown blood disease - forms methenoglobin, which renders blood unable to carry oxygen, so the fish die from suffocation)... I don't see it to be nitrite poisoning - if it was you would have a *lot* more fish dying than one every other day, and the largest fish (silver dollars) would have been the first to die! Something else going on in the tank - being overpopulated, I would suspect a bacterial infection. Skin and gill fluke infections can cause the same symptoms you outlined and can also be due to overcrowding.... Getting back to the high nitrites - a half tsb. of salt per gal. (0.5ppm) will help the fish. Stop feeding untill the nitrite level drops. A product called Prime bounds nitrite up to 24 hours, rendering nitrite non-toxic (or not near as toxic). How high is the nitrAte? ............ Frank |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Bottom posted.
Slow down. I find it hard to believe that you can't find a store that would take a batch of healthy, locally-raised guppies for free so you can clear out your tank. Do you actually want an oscar? If you do, go for it. Remember that an oscar is not a swimming trash dump or "function fish". It's a huge, long-lived fish that requires a considerable commitment of tank space and care. You'll have to be careful in your choice of tankmates too. The silver dollars will probably be OK and you might have room for something like a firemouth, depending on how many silver dollars. Also, you have turtles that eat guppies so you have a way to get rid of the gravid adult females. Plenty of other fish eat baby guppies. Put the females in the turtle tank. Add an angelfish, a few large tetras, or a couple of loaches to the 55 gallon and you'll have nothing but males soon enough. I like altum's recommendations the most. What to do about the water quality? Well the nitrites and nitrates are high even after changing 40% of the water every other day up until recently (the nitrites and nitrates are still sky high but I stopped changing water as much recently since behaviorally all of the fish WERE doing fine). I must have lost that one angel recently because of the high nitrites/nitrates, which means I might NOT be able to successfully add a function fish anyways? One thing about the turtle tank though is the turtles are a small species that I have and they don't eat even close to ALL of the guppies in their tank so I can't really get rid of upcoming guppies. All other water characteristics are fine (soft water (I know that guppies prefer hard water but mine have lived at least 1 year in water from the same dechlorinated tap water source so they should be well adjusted by now), non-alkaline, ph 6.5, no ammonia, the rest I said before), high nitrites or nitrates HAVE to be the cause of the deaths in my opinion and I can't seem to be able to reduce them at all at least with the current occupants. I have a lot of babies in the silver dollar tank that can grow up after otherwise eradicating them, to be male or female fancy guppies. I am getting very weary of picking out fish corpses every other day so I am going to try something drastic most likely and take in what I can of the fancy guppies in that tank and use it towards a large fish like an oscar. I can't figure out why the fancy guppies die slowly and I want to do something that works. Netmax has my concerns in mind as well as if I introduce a 2-3 inch oscar as my lfs offers then the oscar could die off soon after from whatever is killing the fancy guppies. It just HAS to be nitrite/nitrate poisoning as with both my silver dollar tank and my bedroom tank the fancy guppies die off after overpopulating - summary: I have seen this cycle before. Sorry netmax if you are getting sick and tired of dealing with my silver tank problem (I have been trying to figure out what has been going on with it for 6 to 12 months now ad I still haven't figured it out, as I have posted many times about my various potential answers to this problem) but I want to treat my pets RIGHT and not leave them to die when something just HAS to be going on that I have to figure out. Even if I got an oscar and it survives to fix this problem I would even be able to feed it live food in the form of fancy guppies from my other two tanks (I have a lot of fancy guppies in my bedroom tank and turtle tank) and I will still have a lot of fancy guppies. Sorry if I talk too much guys but this is important to me, my fancy guppies should not be dieing off like this and I add a tsp. of salt for every 5 gallons and I have plants. Problem just keeps coming back. I even tried a full treatment of formalin with this tank and no real difference. I guess it all boils down to what I WANT to do more than what I CAN do, like netmax says. Suggestion box is still open of course but I guess I will have to plan for myself. Good luck all and thanks for reading and recommendations are still welcome of course. Later! |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:17:05 -0600, NetMax wrote
(in article ): It's a bad idea to move any fish into a tank which is having problems. Also it can be a bad idea to buy function fish, as the function is quickly addressed leaving you with a fish to cater to. This is never so obvious as when adding an Oscar to a Guppy tank. If you want an Oscar, then buy an Oscar. If you have too many Guppies, bag them all to the LFS. An Oscar will not stop with the small Guppies, and will basically wipe the population out. If you want a carnivorous predator, Bettas, medium Gouramis and medium sized cichlids will fill that role, but you don't have a healthy tank to put them in. jmo, best wishes with that. "Function fish"! I love that term. I wish I had heard it when I was working as a fish professional. I couldn't believe how many people wanted to add a fish to a tank with problems in order to solve that problem. A bit like the old lady who swallowed the fly. Once the guppies from the original post are thinned out and a few partials have been done, I'd recommend a couple of black skirt tetras to keep the babies in check. Or better still, net a few Gambusia from the local ditch and witness the livebearer on livebearer mayhem. Gambusia are the toughest fish under two inches. -E |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Bottom posted.
Eric wrote: On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:17:05 -0600, NetMax wrote (in article ): It's a bad idea to move any fish into a tank which is having problems. Also it can be a bad idea to buy function fish, as the function is quickly addressed leaving you with a fish to cater to. This is never so obvious as when adding an Oscar to a Guppy tank. If you want an Oscar, then buy an Oscar. If you have too many Guppies, bag them all to the LFS. An Oscar will not stop with the small Guppies, and will basically wipe the population out. If you want a carnivorous predator, Bettas, medium Gouramis and medium sized cichlids will fill that role, but you don't have a healthy tank to put them in. jmo, best wishes with that. "Function fish"! I love that term. I wish I had heard it when I was working as a fish professional. I couldn't believe how many people wanted to add a fish to a tank with problems in order to solve that problem. A bit like the old lady who swallowed the fly. Once the guppies from the original post are thinned out and a few partials have been done, I'd recommend a couple of black skirt tetras to keep the babies in check. Or better still, net a few Gambusia from the local ditch and witness the livebearer on livebearer mayhem. Gambusia are the toughest fish under two inches. -E I didn't invent or come up with the phrase "function fish", I have seen it used on this newsgroup before. Quite frankly I would rather have one 55 gallon tank with my two silver dollars and 1 oscar than the silver dollars with a couple mountain minnows (like now) and tons of fancy guppies with a guppy dieing every other day. Come on guys - even fancy guppies are supposed to live at least a year except for the high nitrates and nitrites. Could my problem be not enough oxygen? I don't have decent transportation so I can't get to the lfs 14 miles away one way to drop off bags of fancy guppies every 2 weeks to 1 month, I've done it before and I just don't have that much time on my hands anymore. I doubt the bus system drivers would let me carry on bags of fish each trip and I sure can't get to the store often enough to keep buying rubbermaid tubs which the bus driver wouldn't allow anyways. I'm sorry if I sound negative but when people chastise me after acting on assumptions and incorrect information even after I have already said the correct/accurate information here before it really saddens me - don't you guys know me by now? I guess not. I am sorry I even asked about this subject, geez, [goes away sulking]. :-( |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Daniel Morrow wrote:
I didn't invent or come up with the phrase "function fish", I have seen it used on this newsgroup before. Quite frankly I would rather have one 55 gallon tank with my two silver dollars and 1 oscar than the silver dollars with a couple mountain minnows (like now) and tons of fancy guppies with a guppy dieing every other day. Come on guys - even fancy guppies are supposed to live at least a year except for the high nitrates and nitrites. Could my problem be not enough oxygen? I don't have decent transportation so I can't get to the lfs 14 miles away one way to drop off bags of fancy guppies every 2 weeks to 1 month, I've done it before and I just don't have that much time on my hands anymore. I doubt the bus system drivers would let me carry on bags of fish each trip and I sure can't get to the store often enough to keep buying rubbermaid tubs which the bus driver wouldn't allow anyways. I'm sorry if I sound negative but when people chastise me after acting on assumptions and incorrect information even after I have already said the correct/accurate information here before it really saddens me - don't you guys know me by now? I guess not. I am sorry I even asked about this subject, geez, [goes away sulking]. :-( Hey...don't sulk. Frank makes a good point about fish tending to all show toxicity at the same time from nitrites. There are guppy viruses and some fancy guppies are really sensitive to certain bacteria. Parasites can cause problems like you're seeing too. Are you sure there isn't velvet or tetrahymena in the tank? Check the slimecoats of your fish with a flashlight for parasites. There's also a guppy fluke disease called gyrodactylus that's gotten more common in the hobby. It causes bad shimmies and eventually death when it gets in the gills. You treat it with formalin. What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate results? How bad is the water in the tank, and is there any way to get more biofiltration going like a big sponge filer (or two)? Nitrates aren't particularly toxic so you can buy yourself some time. You have some salt in the tank, right? Silver dollars will be OK with 1 tsp/gallon for a while and the salt helps counteract nitrite toxicity. While you're waiting for the extra filter to help, think about your tank plans. Oscars are cool, but you do have other options. Most small carnivorous fish will catch and eat baby guppies and hold the population down. The adults may continue to die off, particularly if you have one of the nasty Singapore viruses in the tank. If not, you'll have a stable population of healthy guppies and some tetras, an angelfish, loaches, or whatever other baby guppy eating fish you choose. Do keep posting - your tank doesn't sound like any fun right now and we're happy to help out. -- Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply. Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
Altum wrote:
Daniel Morrow wrote: I didn't invent or come up with the phrase "function fish", I have seen it used on this newsgroup before. Quite frankly I would rather have one 55 gallon tank with my two silver dollars and 1 oscar than the silver dollars with a couple mountain minnows (like now) and tons of fancy guppies with a guppy dieing every other day. Come on guys - even fancy guppies are supposed to live at least a year except for the high nitrates and nitrites. Could my problem be not enough oxygen? I don't have decent transportation so I can't get to the lfs 14 miles away one way to drop off bags of fancy guppies every 2 weeks to 1 month, I've done it before and I just don't have that much time on my hands anymore. I doubt the bus system drivers would let me carry on bags of fish each trip and I sure can't get to the store often enough to keep buying rubbermaid tubs which the bus driver wouldn't allow anyways. I'm sorry if I sound negative but when people chastise me after acting on assumptions and incorrect information even after I have already said the correct/accurate information here before it really saddens me - don't you guys know me by now? I guess not. I am sorry I even asked about this subject, geez, [goes away sulking]. :-( Hey...don't sulk. Frank makes a good point about fish tending to all show toxicity at the same time from nitrites. There are guppy viruses and some fancy guppies are really sensitive to certain bacteria. Parasites can cause problems like you're seeing too. Are you sure there isn't velvet or tetrahymena in the tank? Check the slimecoats of your fish with a flashlight for parasites. There's also a guppy fluke disease called gyrodactylus that's gotten more common in the hobby. It causes bad shimmies and eventually death when it gets in the gills. You treat it with formalin. What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate results? How bad is the water in the tank, and is there any way to get more biofiltration going like a big sponge filer (or two)? Nitrates aren't particularly toxic so you can buy yourself some time. You have some salt in the tank, right? Silver dollars will be OK with 1 tsp/gallon for a while and the salt helps counteract nitrite toxicity. While you're waiting for the extra filter to help, think about your tank plans. Oscars are cool, but you do have other options. Most small carnivorous fish will catch and eat baby guppies and hold the population down. The adults may continue to die off, particularly if you have one of the nasty Singapore viruses in the tank. If not, you'll have a stable population of healthy guppies and some tetras, an angelfish, loaches, or whatever other baby guppy eating fish you choose. Do keep posting - your tank doesn't sound like any fun right now and we're happy to help out. Another long-term option is to separate the males from the females - I seem to remember that you have more than one tank...or return the females to the LFS along with the excess fry (that way you don't need to keep making multiple trips to get rid of the fry). I don't seem to have too much of a problem with my livebearers (Platys and Mollies) over populating the tank(s) but I'm pretty sure these are kept in check by the other fish (and I don't have an Oscar)... The Mbunas are a different kettle of fish - they are getting an additional Fluval 304 at the weekend (got one hanging around in the garage). But even so I'm pretty sure that the numbers are kept in check by the Plec. Right now your options are limited because of the nitrites (and I guess ammonia) in the water - you can't go adding another fish in there right now. Altum may also be spot on that it is in fact a guppy specific disease - whenever I've had a hiccup on the water quality front it is all the fish that are affected not just one or two. Good luck Gill |
Recommendation or 2 about dealing with overpopulation....
"Daniel Morrow" wrote in message ... Bottom posted. Eric wrote: On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:17:05 -0600, NetMax wrote (in article ): It's a bad idea to move any fish into a tank which is having problems. Also it can be a bad idea to buy function fish, as the function is quickly addressed leaving you with a fish to cater to. This is never so obvious as when adding an Oscar to a Guppy tank. If you want an Oscar, then buy an Oscar. If you have too many Guppies, bag them all to the LFS. An Oscar will not stop with the small Guppies, and will basically wipe the population out. If you want a carnivorous predator, Bettas, medium Gouramis and medium sized cichlids will fill that role, but you don't have a healthy tank to put them in. jmo, best wishes with that. "Function fish"! I love that term. I wish I had heard it when I was working as a fish professional. I couldn't believe how many people wanted to add a fish to a tank with problems in order to solve that problem. A bit like the old lady who swallowed the fly. Once the guppies from the original post are thinned out and a few partials have been done, I'd recommend a couple of black skirt tetras to keep the babies in check. Or better still, net a few Gambusia from the local ditch and witness the livebearer on livebearer mayhem. Gambusia are the toughest fish under two inches. -E I didn't invent or come up with the phrase "function fish", I have seen it used on this newsgroup before. Quite frankly I would rather have one 55 gallon tank with my two silver dollars and 1 oscar than the silver dollars with a couple mountain minnows (like now) and tons of fancy guppies with a guppy dieing every other day. Come on guys - even fancy guppies are supposed to live at least a year except for the high nitrates and nitrites. Could my problem be not enough oxygen? I don't have decent transportation so I can't get to the lfs 14 miles away one way to drop off bags of fancy guppies every 2 weeks to 1 month, I've done it before and I just don't have that much time on my hands anymore. I doubt the bus system drivers would let me carry on bags of fish each trip and I sure can't get to the store often enough to keep buying rubbermaid tubs which the bus driver wouldn't allow anyways. I'm sorry if I sound negative but when people chastise me after acting on assumptions and incorrect information even after I have already said the correct/accurate information here before it really saddens me - don't you guys know me by now? I guess not. I am sorry I even asked about this subject, geez, [goes away sulking]. :-( I may be confused but if you want guppies but dont want them having babies and over running the tank, get rid of females, then you will have no more babies Nikki |
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