Crazy Random Tank

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Jalapeno

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Hello All!
I am actually a shrimp person with a planted tank BUT I have an issue pertaining to tropical fish...
After searching the internet for what seems like forever, I have decided to register to this forum to hopefully get answers from other fish lovers.

My husband adopted a tank. The previous owner had it for 5 years. When I say that this person had a crazy random tank, I'm not exaggerating. It's a 40gal with mixed communities. Somehow the fish have been able to cohabitate for a few years so I wasn't going to hate on it. It has a Marble Angel fish, some type of transparent fish, two silver dollars, a rainbow shark, three of some type of schooling fish, two loaches, something that looks like a loach but fatter, and a giant gold fish that they won at a carnival a couple years ago. My husband then bought another Angel fish from PetSmart (I think it's a marble? It's face is white and yellow with a black tail) which is much smaller than the Marble Angel fish we currently have. They get along great. Fast forward a couple months to today, and my husband adopted ANOTHER Angel fish (I wasn't home so this happened without my knowledge.) It's a Black Lace Angel fish. Well, the moment that Black Lace entered the tank, Marble and Black Lace have been fighting. I have no way of knowing what the sex of Black Lace is as I have not been able to get a close enough look but Marble is a male. Little Angel hasn't displayed any type of genitals so that's another mystery. Once Marble and Black Lace started beefing, then OTHER fish in the tank started attacking each other. At first, I noticed that the giant gold fish was getting between the Angel fish when they would fight and would nudge Marble away, but then Marble would go and chase some other little fish. Now, the giant gold fish is nipping at the smaller fish. What is happening?? How is one fish disrupting the entire community of the tank? I have already accepted that I am going to have to rehome this fish or get a separate tank, but any insight would be appreciated.
 
First thing I would recommend: Stop getting more fish.

The first two transparent fish that come to my mind and Glass Catfish and Blood Fin Tetras, both of which need to be in groups of 6 or more, and are very shy/skittish.

Will you please upload photos of the other fish so we can properly identify them?

The gold fish is probably a common goldfish, or a comet goldfish - both of which need big tanks.


What is happening??
These fish are no compatible and are starting to ā€œsnapā€. Itā€™s best we ID all the fish in your tank, so we can give advice as to what to do next. :)

(Sorry for first tropical fish tank had to be this bad... :/)
 
First thing I would recommend: Stop getting more fish.

The first two transparent fish that come to my mind and Glass Catfish and Blood Fin Tetras, both of which need to be in groups of 6 or more, and are very shy/skittish.

Will you please upload photos of the other fish so we can properly identify them?

The gold fish is probably a common goldfish, or a comet goldfish - both of which need big tanks.



These fish are no compatible and are starting to ā€œsnapā€. Itā€™s best we ID all the fish in your tank, so we can give advice as to what to do next. :)

(Sorry for first tropical fish tank had to be this bad... :/)
Iā€™m not going to lie. I had completely forgot I had posted this because the angel fish eventually calmed down. Trust me, I know. My husband stopped after the Angel fish fights because I was fuming mad and I told him that if any of the fish die, itā€™s all on him. Iā€™ll admit that I have absolutely zero idea what type of fish we have as I was only repeating what the original owner said (and even she didnā€™t seem confident in her answer). I took some pictures today. Currently, our tank is on the floor because the stand we originally had seemed questionable, and weā€™re getting a new one built. But this is the transparent fish Iā€™m talking about. His fins are starting to grow back and everyone stopped nipping at him.
F5858738-6570-40BA-B7EB-D4D96CD61979.jpeg
57C62444-B74D-46D5-89A3-09F66BC9FCF2.jpeg
81786727-6616-4622-91FA-1334FBC4AACB.jpeg
3EDA7BF4-8CA2-40D9-BDF0-0710B6E0FA5A.jpeg
 
I canā€™t ID the fish in picture #1, sorry. My first thought was a a silver dollar, or a black skirt tetra, but no.

So as of right now all of the aggression has settled down?

Obviously there is a lot of work to be done to get this tank to get all of the fish to get along, and to have proper stocking.

I would either try to get a bigger tank, or try to give away some of the fish. Particularly the fish that are causing the most issues.
 
The fish in the red ring has me stumped! It looks a bit like a glass fish but the body should be totally transparent, it also sort of looks like a skirt tetra but the wrong shape for that too? The other three disk shaped fish look like silver dollars which shoul grow to 6-8 inches tall and long. The more slender fish with the horizontal stripe markings look like Giant Danios. In the second to last pic you have a Rainbow Shark and a Chinese Algae Eater (the CAE is sucking the bridge) and your last picture is of a weather loach on the right and under the decor is a YoYo Loach. I think I can see a couple of tiger barbs in there too.

I dont really know what to suggest as the combination could result in problems on an almost continuous basis - eg your angels could get aggressive at any point, the big fish like the goldfish, weather loach and silver dollars will grow too big for a 40g. You have a big mix of temperature requirements - goldfish and weather loaches need coolest water, then giant danios, CAE and rainbow shark need a bit warmer and then silver dollars and angels a bit warmer still. If you dont keep them in the right temperature it will shorten their lifespan. Hopefully if you have a neutral ph and medium to soft water you should be ok here too as you dont have any fish that need extremes of soft or hard.

What do you want to do with this tank? Do you want to keep all of the fish currently in or would you be open to finding homes for some of them with the aim of achieving a more balanced tank?

Wills
 
The fish in the red ring has me stumped! It looks a bit like a glass fish but the body should be totally transparent, it also sort of looks like a skirt tetra but the wrong shape for that too?
Exactly my thought also, lol.

Maybe a disfigured BS Tetra? It is possible I guess...
 
Exactly my thought also, lol.

Maybe a disfigured BS Tetra? It is possible I guess...
The way the dorsal fin is split looks like an indian glass fish, they can go opaque/cloudy when stressed or ill which if they have been nipped would be enough.
 
The fish in the red ring has me stumped! It looks a bit like a glass fish but the body should be totally transparent, it also sort of looks like a skirt tetra but the wrong shape for that too? The other three disk shaped fish look like silver dollars which shoul grow to 6-8 inches tall and long. The more slender fish with the horizontal stripe markings look like Giant Danios. In the second to last pic you have a Rainbow Shark and a Chinese Algae Eater (the CAE is sucking the bridge) and your last picture is of a weather loach on the right and under the decor is a YoYo Loach. I think I can see a couple of tiger barbs in there too.

I dont really know what to suggest as the combination could result in problems on an almost continuous basis - eg your angels could get aggressive at any point, the big fish like the goldfish, weather loach and silver dollars will grow too big for a 40g. You have a big mix of temperature requirements - goldfish and weather loaches need coolest water, then giant danios, CAE and rainbow shark need a bit warmer and then silver dollars and angels a bit warmer still. If you dont keep them in the right temperature it will shorten their lifespan. Hopefully if you have a neutral ph and medium to soft water you should be ok here too as you dont have any fish that need extremes of soft or hard.

What do you want to do with this tank? Do you want to keep all of the fish currently in or would you be open to finding homes for some of them with the aim of achieving a more balanced tank?

Wills
Hi, Wills! Thank you so much for all the info! Iā€™m not surprised that the fish have such different requirements. When I first saw the tank at the previous ownerā€™s home, I had mentioned that it looked like a mixture of different communities and she was very confident that, that was not the case. I held my tongue at that point because I wasnā€™t about to argue with someone who was confident about a goldfish in a tropical tank when even PetSmart tells you that they shouldnā€™t go together. Again, they have been cohabitating together for a couple years so maybe she knew something that I didnā€™t. Iā€™m not sure what all fish my husband wants to rehome or what his end game is, but Iā€™m definitely going to present all this info to him. I DO know that he wants to buy a bigger tank. And I think itā€™s safe to say at this point that his pride and joy are the angels. The fish are currently not fighting or nipping at each other aside from the expected Angels chasing the school fish. Now the Angels are able to swim past each other without problems.
 

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