B13
Fish Crazy
Hi all!!
I'm v. new to fish keeping and because I'm a. a "worry wart" and b. want to do this properly, I've got a few questions/concerns that I'd like advice on, please!!
Basically, I 'inherited' a 1' x 3' x 15", 83 litre tank, I put the water in about 2 months ago, have got a super-duper filter/pump doing it's job nicely and the chemical tests have all been within tolerance (that said, I'm gonna do a 20% water change in a couple of day's time...)
OK...
I've had six Zebra Danios in there which - apart from trying to eat me out of house and home - are doing very well.
On Sunday, I bought (from a reputable aquarium stockist in a nearby garden centre) 2 Suckermouth Catfish (I was told they grow to only 6cms... ...er... I think not, but that's the joy of Saturday Staff, eh?) , 2 Siamese Flying Foxes (one of which I had to return because it had a gash down it's side, was letharic and then went black!!) and 6 Coolie Loaches.
One of the catfish is very dull in colouration and it's skin has a 'milky' appearance in places. It's also not as active as it's pretty, chocolate brown spotty tankmate. Typically, when I went to get a picture this morning, the little beggar was hiding... What would cause a grey-ish milky appearance? It's not fuzzy, so it (to me at least!) doesn't appear to be a fungus. Is it stress due to the move or something more worrying. Is there anything i can do to help it? Any medication/tonic I could buy?
I was given some aquarium salt with the tank and have been told this is a good thing to add if something is amiss, but obviously, I'm not going to try anything I'm not 100% sure of and besides which, I wouldn't know the right dosage anyway!
I've had a look in my tropical fish books and can't find much help...
Any ideas anyone?
One of the Coolie Loaches also has some grey patches on it's skin, but this (to my untrained eye!) looks like scar tissue. Another one is swimming about at 3000mph and appears to be 'panting'. Again, any ideas? Or is the second one merely hyper-active?
And lastly, are Zebra Danios reknowned piglets? My lot eat everything and anything with great gusto - even the tablet-shaped, sinking food pellets that are meant for the bottom feeders. The females in particular look like straightened out commas! I only feed them a small pinch in the morning and that goes in about 2 minutes. The tablets, I've put in at night at 'lights out' - but they gobble them down too. At this rate, I may be the only fish keeper in the world to have spherical danios...
Lastly, when I do a water change, (I've had the water standing in buckets since Saturday and I'll be adding Tap Safe to it) 20% of room temperature water all at once seems to me like it may well be one hell of a shock temperature-wise to the fish - or are they OK with that?
(Sorry for all the questions, but like I said, I'm new to fish-keeping and want to do this right!)
I'm v. new to fish keeping and because I'm a. a "worry wart" and b. want to do this properly, I've got a few questions/concerns that I'd like advice on, please!!
Basically, I 'inherited' a 1' x 3' x 15", 83 litre tank, I put the water in about 2 months ago, have got a super-duper filter/pump doing it's job nicely and the chemical tests have all been within tolerance (that said, I'm gonna do a 20% water change in a couple of day's time...)
OK...
I've had six Zebra Danios in there which - apart from trying to eat me out of house and home - are doing very well.
On Sunday, I bought (from a reputable aquarium stockist in a nearby garden centre) 2 Suckermouth Catfish (I was told they grow to only 6cms... ...er... I think not, but that's the joy of Saturday Staff, eh?) , 2 Siamese Flying Foxes (one of which I had to return because it had a gash down it's side, was letharic and then went black!!) and 6 Coolie Loaches.
One of the catfish is very dull in colouration and it's skin has a 'milky' appearance in places. It's also not as active as it's pretty, chocolate brown spotty tankmate. Typically, when I went to get a picture this morning, the little beggar was hiding... What would cause a grey-ish milky appearance? It's not fuzzy, so it (to me at least!) doesn't appear to be a fungus. Is it stress due to the move or something more worrying. Is there anything i can do to help it? Any medication/tonic I could buy?
I was given some aquarium salt with the tank and have been told this is a good thing to add if something is amiss, but obviously, I'm not going to try anything I'm not 100% sure of and besides which, I wouldn't know the right dosage anyway!
I've had a look in my tropical fish books and can't find much help...
Any ideas anyone?
One of the Coolie Loaches also has some grey patches on it's skin, but this (to my untrained eye!) looks like scar tissue. Another one is swimming about at 3000mph and appears to be 'panting'. Again, any ideas? Or is the second one merely hyper-active?
And lastly, are Zebra Danios reknowned piglets? My lot eat everything and anything with great gusto - even the tablet-shaped, sinking food pellets that are meant for the bottom feeders. The females in particular look like straightened out commas! I only feed them a small pinch in the morning and that goes in about 2 minutes. The tablets, I've put in at night at 'lights out' - but they gobble them down too. At this rate, I may be the only fish keeper in the world to have spherical danios...
Lastly, when I do a water change, (I've had the water standing in buckets since Saturday and I'll be adding Tap Safe to it) 20% of room temperature water all at once seems to me like it may well be one hell of a shock temperature-wise to the fish - or are they OK with that?
(Sorry for all the questions, but like I said, I'm new to fish-keeping and want to do this right!)