TANK ADVICE PLEASE!

[aceabegq]

Hello! This is a two part question as I have just started to run a tank and my friend has had a tank for a bit longer but her fish keep dying.

My tank:
- 65 litre (14/15 gallon)
- cycled for 2 weeks before adding cardinal tetras
- added 6 cardinal tetras
- waited a further week before adding 2 male dwarf gouramis (today)
nitrites/nitrates: 0 pH: 6- 6.5 temp: 23 degrees
i have 5 live plants and a piece of wood in the tank.

Questions about my tank:
- one gourami keeps swimming right at the front of the tank and swimming up and down constantly? should i be worried?

- the seller assured me that cardinals/gourami should be fine together but im not confident as i also read they may see each other as a threat (bright colours=competition?)

- do gouramis need to be fed more? a source says x6 a day but i also have algae in the tank and i dont want them to be overfed

- do i need more hiding places for the fish? I just checked on them at night and saw the cardinals and gourami sleeping in one area but the cardinals looked very pale - not sure if they are very stressed or just natural for cardinals to not be coloured during the night?


Friends tank:
Her fish have been known to die young in her tank and her fish look in bad shape. She has
- 30 litre/6 gallon fluval tank (assumed)
- 1x plebo catfish
- 3xgoldfish (two are about 15cm in size and another is much smaller and im not sure its a goldfish)
The goldfish have missing scales, sores, and white spots on them
I offered to test her water and nitrates/nitries 0 pH is 8-9 the KH looked high as well. I feel like her tank is overstocked? (Re the 1 inch per gallon rule) she doesnt have the filter on as it "scares the fish" and kicks up loads of stuff around the tank (theres so much algae in the tank and waste from the fish)

Obviously as this is not my tank i cant say a full diagnosise. I was wondering if any lovely people here could help me and her?

 

[aceabegq]

As an update to tue gourami:
- both lived through the night!
- i checked on them during the night and they were sleeping with the tetras/in same place to sleep
- they seem active and in going to add more cover/surface foliage for them to make them feel less exposed (both tetras and gourami)
- they still keep dartin forwards and up/down the front of the aquarium that worries me
- tetrad have most if not all their colouring back!

 

[kornel351]

I wont be worried if the fish was swimming up and down fast could be maybe he was trying to escape something or he doesnt see the Glass in front of him ask for feeding Gourami’s 6 times a day I used to Keep the Opaline Gourami ( Blue Gourami) and what I can tell u is that they dont need to be fed that much 3 times a day is good enough.Ask for you friends tank one Goldfish alone should be really in a 40 Gallon tank and for every other additional Goldifsh is 10 gallons more .Filters are needed for Goldfish they poop too much and produce too much ammonia that’s probably why they died .If your friend doesnt want to upgrade her tank and give them a filter then she should give them to someone that will take care of them but DO NOT RELEASE THEM INTO THE WILD

 

[King puff]

My gourami did that two. I did try feeding him extra but that did not help. some tanks have reflective glass and male gouramis are quite aggressive to an invading fish. It also may be because you dont have enough plants. Gouramis like a heavily planted tank with lots of cover and a minimum flow. Gouramis are also not the best community fish and have health issues. They can be both shy and territorial. Housing them with smaller fish can cause them to start being very aggressive, while housing them with larger fish can cause the opposite. In a larger tank this would not be a problem but in a small tank like yours, there may be some problems with aggression. I mentioned heath issues earlier. When a fish is intensively bred, there can be deformations and a disease called Dwarf gourami iridovirus. This is caused because of the terrible conditions that these fish are bred in. Some stores have even stopped selling them because they can not get any that are disease free.

I agree with Kornel about your friends tank. Goldfish have huge bio-loads and are not a good fish for small tanks. You also said you had plebo? Did you mean pleco or plecostomus? Plecos also have a huge bio-load and max out between 12 and 24 inches. They also need a certain amount of algae that 6 gallon tank cant supply.

 

[Essjay]

You don't mention testing for ammonia, and that is the one that shows up first. Ammonia and nitrite must be kept at zero, and if they show anything above that a water change is necessary to get them back down to zero.
Did you add ammonia to the tank to cycle it? Two weeks is a very short time for cycling (mine took 7 weeks) so the chances are that your tank is not cycled and ammonia is building up.
The other alternative is to have a lot of live plants, especially floating plants which both the gourami and cardinals will appreciate. Plants use ammonia as fertiliser, and with enough plants you don't need to cycle the tank before getting fish. Floating plants are particular good at taking up ammonia as they can get the carbon dioxide they need from the air.

 

[NickAu]

- waited a further week before adding 2 male dwarf gouramis (today)

2 male Dwarf gourami in basically a 2 foot tank? I cant see that working, once they settle in the stronger one will pick on the other one and eventually the weaker one could die they are best to keep 1 per 20g (2ft) or so

 

[aceabegq]

idk how to test for ammonia. again this is my first tank ive ever run so im not expecting miracles from it. the gouramis bickered a lot and when i asked two of the shopkeepers they said adding female gouramis could lower agression but now im reading that it INCREASEES aggresion im so stressed from this im never getting gourami again

i had the 2 males in a tank and added 2 females. i moved one male gourami to a new tank id been running so now there is one male gourami and two females in the 65l. i probably did that all wrong and now i dont know what to do please help

 

[Essjay]

You need to buy an ammonia tester. Liquid ones are more accurate than strips. I would buy a master test kit containing testers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH as it works out cheaper than buying them all separately. They are easy to use. Just fill the test tube with water up to the line and add drops of reagent as per the instructions and after waiting for a few minutes (the instructions say how long) compare the colour to a chart.

Males will fight more if they have something to fight over - females. You did the best thing by separating the males. Since male gouramis can be aggressive towards females if he wants to breed and she doesn't, keeping two females per male is often recommended.