Balloon Molly Fry

[Strega]

LOL aww dont be embarrassed ...I had to look up everything I posted before as far as size...

But...he's gonna get huge...dont know if the others will say you should get rid of him or not..probably


My hubby's dentist has a fish tank in his office...the pleco in it is a foot and a half long easily...its HUGE. The tank is way bigger than a 63 gallon...judging by what I've seen in our local fish store, that tank has to be at LEAST 95 gallons (probably bigger but I've not seen bigger to give an idea) and that pleco is the absolute centerpiece of the tank..he's just so big he's all you see at first

*jaw drop*

Oh my!

Our problem is that we don't know how old the catfish is, the person we got him from told us that he had had the catfish for a long time and it is kinda medum sized. He seems to live in the little rock cave that we have in the tank and only comes out when he is hungry lol
He is a joy to watch when he comes out of the cave though, my 3 boys adore him lol

 

[waterdrop]

Davo and Lilfishie are experts and I agree with all the advice they've given up there. Its good you are off and going on figuring out who needs to be moved where.

The "Fish-In Cycling Situation" that Lilfishie has pointed out is important. Its good that you are reading and hopefully planning to act on that information, which should be in our beginners resource center material.

To probably repeat some of what that will be: If you've just set up this 63g and it has a new filter and is only 2 weeks old then we'd expect very rapid toxin (ammonia and nitrite(NO2)) buildups (sorry if I've missed some aspect here and its not so urgent...) Your priorities will be to begin large water changes (50% per day if you can manage it) while you don't yet know your stats. Then, once you have your liquid-reagent based kit you can tailor your water changes to the reality of your water stats.

Many of us, including myself, like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, which measures ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) using liquid reagents and small test tubes. Its helpful to have a syringe marked in milliliters to go along with the kit. If you can't find that one there is also a Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit that has the same tests. With a large tank like yours and a fish-in situation, another helpful piece of equipment which hopefully you've discovered is a gravel cleaner and tank refiller that can reach to your faucet. The Python is the best-known example of this type of product and they have a web site where you can see the many options for putting together one of these.

You'll also want to be sure to use good water changing technique, with the use of conditioner and rough temperature matching. It takes a month or more on average to grow the correct two species of bacteria to implement the biofilter, getting your filter ready to handle fish by itself, so you'll potentially be doing a lot of water changing. Luckily the large size of the tank will work in your favor, giving more time between water changes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Strega]

Thank you to everyone who replied and gave advice.

You have all been extremely helpful.

I shall be going out tomorrow to buy the test kit that was recommended as I only have the dip test strips and those are telling me that the water is fine. But now that I have read they are not very accurate, I want a second opinion lol.

Thanks once again.


Strega.

 

[greenscooby]

LIONESS i'm typing this from my phone as my computer is up the creek without a paddle, thats why i'm not that quick to respond. I never disagreed with you, apart from one word, you used the word rule, i've used guide, as it is only a guide, i've been repremanded so many times for saying rule, when i should have said guide, please don't take offence to what i said.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

LIONESS i'm typing this from my phone as my computer is up the creek without a paddle, thats why i'm not that quick to respond. I never disagreed with you, apart from one word, you used the word rule, i've used guide, as it is only a guide, i've been repremanded so many times for saying rule, when i should have said guide, please don't take offence to what i said.

oh goodness...definately wasn't offended! When I started replying to this thread, I was unsure that what I was thinking was correct. So, when I replied to you, I was more just stressing that I wasn't going by the actual overstock angle so much, as I was going by thinking her tankmates weren't compatible.

No worries mate, I dont get offended hehe I get even ::::big evil grin:::::

 

[greenscooby]

Nice to know we both have an 'evil' sense of humour