A Very Stressful Ship....

[WaterDragon]

Fisrt off, I'm kinda new to this forum. So hello^^

Anyway, my Uncle is a big fish enthusiast but recently he'd decided to take down his two fresh water tanks and seeing as I'm fish obsessed, he offered to send me his Cichlids along with a snail and a mini Pleco. Problem is, he lives in DC while I live in Washington state....out in the country^^; So, may dad comes home from work and what does he find? A leaking box that had seemingly been tossed over our fence. My immediate reaction was to get the fish out of there and into my practically empty 20 gallon. Unfortunately, the box seemed to….not be packed well. The fish were at the bottom and there was a bunch of rocks and a log in there too ;; I panicked of course and practically tore apart the box to get to the fish^^;;

In the end, only three were alive. It seemed the breeding Cichlid pair and the snail along with one of the babies didn’t make it . Currently I have two unknown Cichlids and a mini Pleco hanging out in my 20 gallon accompanied by three feeder gold fish. My guppies were there two, but they have been moved back to the community tank for the time being.

Now heres my question, as I said I have my new fish in there with my goldfish. No one seems to mind, but the Cichlids are obviously very stressed and though the goldfish are keeping to themselves…should I move them away? Also, what more can I do to help them settle in with as little stress as possible? I had a table lamp for simple lighting until I could go this weekend and get a top and lamp for the tank(the tank is fairly new, but all cycled and everything)but I turned that off and where they are in my room is pretty dark, is that okay? Or should I turn it back on?

Also another question I would have would be what kind of Cichlids they are, but currently I’d like to let them settle in before I turn the camera on them^^; I suppose I could just ask my Uncle when he calls back too…

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to look this over. And if this is in the wrong place, please let me know

 

[Craster]

Do you have a heater in the tank? I don't think there are any cichlids that will be happy at the sort of temperatures that goldfish like.

 

[WaterDragon]

Oh, yes of course. I should have mentioned this before^^;
See, the 20 gallon tank was originally set up because my 50 gallon might not have been able to house all the Cichlids(its a community tank). Also it would serve to keep my breeding pair away from the others so no one got hurt. The goldfish were just added in there because I wasn't sure when the Cichlids would arrive and the tank was looking....a little empty. My brother wanted some goldfish xD Said goldfish would eventually go into our pond with our other goldfish =3
So it has a heater along with a Penguin 100 Bio-Wheel for filtration. The temp is kept at around 76-80 degrees F.....my thermometer is a little funky, it was cheap ^^; I'll be looking into a new one when we go into town this weekend...

Oh, and another note. I forget what the smaller one is, but the larger one I've found out is a Firemouth, female I believe but its difficult to tell for its always hiding. My uncle suggested that I keep her separated for she may get aggressive now that the big breeding pair is gone, so I'll probably keep her in the 20 gallon. But is there anything else that I could keep her with in there? Any fish species that would do well with her in a 20 gallon?

 

[WaterDragon]

Ummm.....bump?