Does fishkeeping ever get easier?

[Elisabeth83]

Since day 1 of setting up my tanks I've just had problems after problems...will they ever stop? Is there ever a time you can just look at your tank and all your fish are healthy and you are stress free???

Out of 6 months I've only had about 1-2 months of stress free enjoyment and the other months I've been stressing, reading, buying expensive medications etc etc.

I'm just wondering will the diseases and deaths ever stop..or is this what fish keeping is?

I'm just so depressed with all the problems I've been having. I love my fish so much but it just seems like I stick at taking care of them. I really need some encouragment.

 

[enchanted]

Elizabeth, yes it does. Want to know what keeps me going? I remember growing up with my parents doing water changes maybe twice a month, rarely losing a fish and buying meds only once in a great while.

I know that eventually it does pan out and it is wonderful. In fact they never did as much as I am doing. They never tested water, never truly "cycled" a tank, etc...

But the difference is they didn't know. I do and I prefer to do things right and from what you have said you are the same way.

It all pans out.

 

[maestro]

I think alot of people over complicate matters, get a good filter setup, stock sensibly, feed sparingly and do frequent water changes and ur fish wil thrive, havent had a diesease outbreak or death in over a year and im by no means an expert

 

[Gunnie]

I agree with maestro. Stick with the basics, learn how your equipment works (filters, heaters, etc) and you should have a great tank! My biggest problem starting out was overfeeding which caused algae, filter problems, and water quality issues. It will get better, I promise!

 

[CFC]

Once everything falls into place keeping fish is as easy as falling off a bycycle.
Get some good stock (fish) reliable equipment and keep to a strict maintainance schedule with the minimal of interference and you will be rewarded with happy healthy fish and a stress free hobby.

The biggest problem with this hobby is that as said people over complicate things and try to do too much too soon. Until you are confident of your fish keeping skills stick to keeping a lightly stocked tank with a few inexpencive hardy fish and maybe a low maintainance plant or two. The real key to success and advancement in the fish keeping hobby is knowledge and the more you read and learn about keeping fish the more confident you will be, this is one of the few hobbies where you can learn something new almost every day no matter how high you have advanced.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Thanks for all your replies

Right now all my tanks are lightly stocked. In the 30 gallon I feed a tiny pinch of flakes once a day and then small pieces of wafer 2-3 times a week as well as veggies occasionally.

26 gallon I was overfeeding and have stopped to only a pinch of flakes a day.

Bettas get fed frozen bloodworm and sometimes 1-2 pieces of flake 4 times a week and then mosquito larvae the other 2 days. I fast them once a week.

Fry tank I give them tetra min fry food 1-2 times a day. Sometimes a pea.

I think I probably fiddle around in the tank too much adding plants and re-arranging things. I have to stop doing that...that probably adds a lot of stress??

I usually do water changes about 2-3 times a week about 20% a time...but that is because they are new set-ups and I don't want the ammonia go get up high. Soon I'll just do water changes once a week like I used to.

I just hope in the next month or so everything will get settled and I can relax. I know I was over-stocked before in the 26 gallon but with the 2 new tanks I've moved a lot of fish over so I'm hoping I won't run into anymore problems.

I was thinking of fasting all of the fish once a week is that a good idea?

 

[CFC]

Fasting the fish once a week is a great idea and many experienced fish keepers will only feed there fish every other day unless they are conditioning breeders or raising fry. In the wild most fish do not have a continual source of food and may go several weeks without eating during dry seasons so skipping one or two feeds a week will not harm them at all. I miss feeding two days a week for my non predatory fish and only feed the predators twice a week.

 

[Dubby]

Elisabeth:

If this is the first 6mths since you setup tank then its going to be cool sailing from now on. Once you have got the tank cycled and established a few good habits (change water, feed etc) you should find that you dont have to worry too much.

Lets look on the bright side - looks like you've already become a Grandmother(?) with 29 fry !!! Thats not bad for 6mths.....

My belief is that if the start is too smooth then it can turn really bad sometime in the future. That goes for installation of new versions of Windows as well

 

[Elisabeth83]

Feeding fish everyother day makes sense to me...just like plants it's better to underwater them than to overwater them.

CFC I really appriciate your advice and I'm going to start feeding them every other day instead of everyday and I really think that will save me a lot of stress with having to deal with diseases due to bad water quality etc etc.

As the saying goes..."Your killing them with kindness" and thats probably what I am doing to my fish. Being too involved. I should just neglect them a little and they will be healthier LOL

I haven't fed any of the adult fish yet today so today (Wednesday) will be one of their fasting days...then should Saturday I fast them as well? So it's not like 2 days in a row it's more spaced out.

The fry though I have to feed them everyday....I have about 30 fry in a 14 gallon...Should I be doing water changes on a daily basis for them? I have a filter in it.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I've lost about 8 fish since I began 6 months ago. Also given some back to my lfs. I've managed to keep 3 of my original fish alive and have been having lots of fry which is always nice to see new life I usually get the fish to pull through when they have diseases ..it's just so stressful.

It really should be smooth sailing from now on. I know so much more since starting 6 months ago. Now with the advice from CFC I'll also be cutting down on feeding. I believe over-feeding was the reason why I got so many diseases in my 26 gallon and why I lost so many fish. Also learning that I need to keep my gravel/sand down to an inch will really help.

In my 26 gallon I had about 2 inches of gravel and when I gravel vacced I never went too deep because I thought it wasn't good to go deep...well I now know with all the feeding I was doing all the food and waste was getting stuck down there and causing all kinds of problems. Right now theres only about half an inch of gravel in the tank. I was hoping to get it switched to sand tomorrow but now since they have ick I don't want to stress them even more so I'll have to wait on switching to sand.

Haha and I agree with you about Windows LOL

 

[Rubicon]

It's basicly a two bucket system. You take buckets of cheap free scuzzy water out of the tank... and pour buckets of money back into it. Kind of like a boat come to think of it...

 

[The-Wolf]

I may in time get easyier

but to qoute Sunflower
"unfortunatly fish keeping is not as easy as keeping fish."

 

[Elisabeth83]

Well I had a rough day...lots of crying, stress and frusteration. I've got a tough week ahead of me! Lots of treatments and water changes UGH

 

[clutterydrawer]

ach I dunno...seems like since I started doing everything "right" i ahve had nothign but troubles and disease...

 

[Elisabeth83]

clutterydrawer I know what you mean. When I was younger I had a tank set up and I probably did just about everything wrong and yet I had 5 fish that were healthy and grew so much. A pretty blue gourami, 2 big plecos, a bala shark and a danio.

Rarely did water changes and just fed them. I knew zero compared to what I know now and yet I seem to be doing worse...what the??

This hobby is costing me soooo much money!! Tomorrow I'll be spending about 30-40 dollars buying aquarium salt and ick treatment.

Sweden is probably one of the most expensive countries to have fish as a hobby as well one of the countries that doesn't seem to offer a lot in medications etc. One of the biggest fish stores in Stockholm didn't even sell an ammonia test kit!!! She said people just don't buy them for their fish and I said why not? when you have a new set up and theres problems etc...you need to know what your ammonia levels are and she said yeah I know.

I ended up buying an ammonia test kit for 40 US dollars at another big fish store. Came home and was looking up info on it and found a page that showed people selling it on e-Bay for buy it now 4.99 US ..I just about threw up!!