10gal Tank Started 7th June 08 & Cycling With 6 Cardinals

[tibby25731]

HI, and welcome!
I got Dwarf Gouramis a while back, and they all died within a month.... this is in a mature tank, and all fish looked fine when i got them. They all developed ulcers. i medicated but it just wasn't enough So just be ready for them to die, no matter how well you look after them - I think you would have to get very lucky to get some that were healthy. Good luck!

 

[Lazerus]

Ah, thanks guys...

Isn't it a pity though....from what you are telling me, the ole Dwarf Gouramis do seem a little 'weak' alright, what with their nervousness and sickness and all. God, they're lovely though!!

I'd still be tempted to try them out regardless...it really would complete my tank just perfectly. I'd love to hear some success stories. I'm sure there must be?

Only thing that dosen't attract me is the mention of bubble nests....I don't really want to go down the road of breeding fish.....well, not just yet! Sure, I'm only starting!

Anyway, I'd say they'd have a heart attack though being in my tank as its in the middle of my kitchen/dining area and its a 'high traffic' area...unfortunately, I love to put my tank somewhere more quiet but I don't have anywhere else. Hmmm.

I'll have to think of something else, I guess....something that also swims middle to upper level and is not too scared of odd noise or two. More research required.

 

[Bblou]

It is early days yet... but hers my newbie two cents..

I have two male dwarf gouramis in a 20g tank with 10 emperor tetra and 3 (was 5) fancy guppies.

I knew nothing about cycling and what fish went together and how they liked to live or anything like that.

I think my tank is just finishing its fish in cycle allthough I have a hig pH, but like you, don't have a clue what to do about it. my tap pH is the same.

To start with I had a betta in the tank as well.

He and the largest gourami DID NOT get on... i learned from here its because theyre closely related. Anyway, I had to move the betta to a new tank.


Anyway... I have had some pretty atrocious stats for my tank and they are only now becoming good over the last few days.

The gouramis seem to be the healthiest thing in my tank but theyre far from placid. well, they WERE far from placid.

From my short experience with them, theyre an absolute bugger if someones not feeling well and become bullies and theyre rather inquisitive. The larger of my two males swims right up to my nose if I put my face up to the tank. And theyre cheeky...

Again, the biggest male, when I feed them, waits sort of mid tank until the guppies and tetra have swam up and grabbed a flake, then he swims up to them and steals it!!

They have a lot of character I have found.. like my betta aswell.
The gouramis have these funny feeler things and my two males once had a kinda sword fight with theres and I thought they were going to tie themselves up in a knot!!

Also.... they both eat chunks of my live plants. my lfs said it helps them digest or something.

My boyfriend laughs at me because he heres me shout 'stop it stupid gourami' a lot. if someones doing something naughty in the tank, its always my largest male gourami!



um.. i was going to say something else...

um.. um...
oh.. noise!

My boyfriends hobby is amplifiers and speakers... no1 in the tank seems to mind the noise. We also have a red winged parrot ( a new edition to the home) that has all of a sudden decided it will never shut up!


I have no idea what I have rambled on about, sorry... lol

I am v fond of my gouramis but they are pesky and I am now afraid theyre going to die on me!

 

[Lazerus]

ha,ha!! Your post really made me laugh!! lol

Thanks for the run down on your expeirence so far though, ....yours does seem to be a success story, I think? Although you do mention that you think they are going to die...so I'm not sure what to think now!! ha,ha!

Sure, I'll watch out for your posts and see how they are getting on!!

Oh, and yes, thats another thing, my hubby is in a band, and so he'd often be banging away at his electric guitars / bass guitars in the room also...so thats another source of noise.

God, I hope I haven't blown it with this fish tank altogether!

I'm getting the feeling I should move it elsewhere....but where Anyone else have a 'successful' tank surrounded by noise?

 

[Bblou]

i think as long as the noise is pretty constant, theyll be ok... think its just sudden loud bangs and stuff? might be wrong.

I think theyre going to die only from reading this post lol! I was pretty please with there progress lol


i'd keep them in your kitcken... if its a busy room, you can keep a close eye on them for illness and stuff. if you hide them away somewhere you dont go so often, you cant monitor them so well?? or enjoy them as much!!


Good luck

 

[Lazerus]

Ah, I knew what ye meant...I was only jokin!! lol

yes, I agree...I love looking at the fish all day long whenever I'm passing by. It would be no good have them somewhere else out of view...sure what would be the point then.

Yeah, sure we'll see how things go....I'm probably reading to much about the 'negatives' of Gouramis now and frightening myself out of getting them. They really are lovely and I'm sure i'd have a good chance at success if I care for them carefully.

Also, Bettas.....hmmm, there's an idea.... I could get one of those instead of the three gouramis. They are beautiful fish also. Again, I'll have to do some reading up on them.

But I do think the gouramis would be more suited to my tank.

Ok, lots to think about.... Thanks....

 

[Bblou]

my betta is my baby. he gets more attention that my boyfriend lol.

you have to be careful what you put in with them mind.. they can be quite fussy. cant really put any other pretty fish in with them (if its a male betta) especially if theyre a similar size.

fish like tetra can nip and damage their beautiful fins (although my tetra stayed away from him)..

but theyre v good to watch.

theryre the same family as gouramis... similar traits.

me think bettas are better lol.

but not together... bad idea lol

 

[BecciMac1987]

Hi Laz, welcome to TFF. You have a real concern for your fish and an obvious desire to do well, but RELAX!! Having fish is fun, so stop worrying! You sound like you are doing great, and cardinals are a personal fav of mine so you also have a lovely tank. Just do a 10% water change a week, keep an eye on the stats and chill out.
Oh, and I have been keeping fish forever (on and off), and I cant keep a b****y dwarf gourami alive for love nor money!
And for a newbie, my biggest piece of advice is dont ask your fish shop for advice. Well, ask them by all means but them come straight on here so we can tell you the real answer!
Good luck xx

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i have to say i'd steer clear of the dwarves as well, i can't keep them alive either.

why not try one of the other dwarf gourami's, chocolate or sparkling? The sparklers are relativley hardy, chocolates need a low pH and a mature tank but with that should be fine.

 

[Lazerus]

So...into day 5 of water testing without any water changes since Wednesday last and Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0 & PH7.8...still no change. Whats going on here? Surely something should be changing by now?


So, that poorly fish I keep talking about is not really ok...well, what I mean is often up and about with the others & he is feeding, but he frequently goes back under the foliage for a bit of rest and stays there for ages.....then he might join the group again. None of the other fellas are doing this...so his behavior is clearly standing out from the others as being different.

Plus this particular fish has weaker colours to the rest....in that his red stripe is transparent with a tinge of orange rather than ruby red, and his blue florescent stripe has more of a black hue. I think he's probably just a weak fish....I don't expect him to survive. Although, he's been like this for over a week now.

Ok….I’ve made a decision on the Dwarf gouramis…they are OUT!! If the experts can’t even keep them, then why would I be so presumptuous to think that I can!

Edited to say...Miss Wiggle, I had a look at the Sparkling Gouramis...Gorgeous!!!! I love them!!! I wonder can I get them here though?...I've never seen them. I'd have to find a real specalist shop. I was hoping to get larger sized fish though as a centre piece to the tank. They sound like they are similar size to the tetras.

I'm not as keen on the chocolate ones, plus my water is a high PH, so that wouldn't work at all but they are nice alright.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you know...... while i hate to say this cos it goes against everything i've ever read......... i think the nutrafin cycle may just have worked!!!

The only other explanation is the regular water changes kept levels low enough that they were undetectable but the cycle happened anyway.

if the tank wasn't cycled you would have definatley seen ammonia or nitrite by now, we've checked that the test kit isn't malfunctioning and it doesn't seem to be. If possible I'd pop a sample of water to the lfs for another test, just to doubly confirm that the test kit isn't wrong (slim chance that the test kit was dodgy before but because of the water changes the results happened to be the same...... be a bit of a coincidence but possible).

But if the test kit is fine, and the water stats are fine, then the tank is cycled, by hook or by crook but the method doesn't matter, it's the results which are significant.

The poorly tetra...... as you now know cardinals are not the hardiest of fish, unless he's showing any specific symptoms which we can trace back to a disease (nothing you've mentioned so far rings any particular bells aside from 'unwell') then it's probably the result of either trace levels of ammonia or just an immature tank which he's not handling terribly well.

If you can do some very close monitoring and see if you can spot any symptoms other than just hiding away and colours looking pale then we may be able to pinpoint something specific and treat it, but as it is the best we could do is a stab in the dark and it's a bad idea to medicate without a proper diagnosis so not much you can do.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that being said actually if you were cycled you'd be seeing nitrates.............. very confusing

have we asked you yet what filter media you're using?.... not got any zeolite or anything like that in there have you?

 

[Bblou]

should you aim for 0 nitrates? or is some good?

sorry to but in.

 

[Lazerus]

Well, Miss Wiggle,

I'd be really delighted if it was because I could add another two fish this week confidently. But I'll leave it another few days and see what the story is. I'll keep testing daily as before just to make sure.

I forgot to add in my introduction, that when I did the 10 day fishless cycle at the very beginning, I added Nutrafin tropical fish food into the tank and let it rot...perhaps that helped the cycle process along. I'd read it somewhere that adding fish food 'feeds' the bacteria not just the fish. So that’s what I did. It was really hit and miss for me!!

I wish I’d know about this forum before I started.

Most of the fish seem totally happy, no signs of distress at all...their colours are vibrant, and they are alert, feeding well almost like a pack of sharks! It’s great to watch them.

The ‘sick’ fish seems to be the one who eats the most actually....he's the fastest and bravest once the food gets dropped in. He flys up ahead of the others and feds like a crazy lunatic. After his feed he goes off for another rest then to the same spot behind the log. Such odd behavior?

I only feed them once a day, I was wondering perhaps I should increase that to twice daily? Scared of over feeding though. But I'm also anxious that they might be hungry too!

Now, another thing I've observed today is that my biggest fish who I named Lazerus (as he came back from the dead after traveling badly in the bag on the way home - he was floating upside down & I thought he was totally done for!)

Anyway, he sprung back to life when I added the water from my own tank into the bag, and now he is the healthiest looking, biggest fish amongst the other five, but he appears to have an increasingly large belly. Surely he's/she's carrying eggs!!!!! That would be just too mad altogether?

He so round this morning, I really noticed it...the others compared to him/her are slim and long and smaller in size. I'm thinking its not the case though, as from reading up they need a much lower ph & darker tanks conditions to even contemplate breeding.

Maybe he's just a more mature fish and has a mature body shape. I must go and look up some photos and see if I can see anything similar to what I'm seeing.

I tell ye this fish keeping is very exciting altogether! Ha,ha! It’s a daily challenge, but very enjoyable! I can see how people are totally hooked!

 

[Bblou]

my guppy was really fat/bloated.

he died