Fish Behaviour

[juggernuts]

First Post.. Daunting.

I have had my 200L tank set up for well over 3 month now and have not suffered any real problems other than typical things such as algea etc, until now.

I have quite a large community of fish, of which i think may simply be a little TOO big.
They inlcude:
-2 dwarf and 2 pearl gouramis
-1 common pleco + 1 Golden Nugget Pleco
-2 sucker and 2 zebra loach
- 6 red and 5 neon tetras.

I have a few problems now with a couple of fishy's.

1 of the sucker loach is VERY skinny, it does not seem to eat much but it is still active, whereas the other is now about 3 times as fat.

second question the neon tetras seemed to be fine until recently when i had one neon that appeared to be getting bullied by another neon. i later found this neon so unactive at one stage i thought it died right before even laying down on the gravel. it appears to swim vertically as if it was struggling. i later removed it and found it came back to its normal active self.

id be very grateful for any help thankin you!

 

[rabbut]

The common Pleco will grow to between 12 and 18 inches and so will grow too large for your tank I'd advise you to look for a new home for him/her with someone whom has a larger tank, arround the 4ft mark

The sucking loach will grow to 8 inches and will start killing your other fish for food past 6 inches, and idealy need to be kept species only I'd return these to the LFS, so that they become their problem again

Looks like BFSAS (Bad Fish Shop Advice Symdrome) is the problem

The tetra that was bottom-sitting and struggling to swim sounded to have swimbladder issues. In most cases, this problem is mechanical, a blockage of the digestive track, and is easily recoverd from. It is a caurse of diet, and simply increasing the ammount of frozen/live food and veg in the diet will prevent re-occurances

Once the comon pleco and Sucking Loach are out of your tank, you will have a heavy but manageable stocking. Add more veg and/or soft foods to the diet of your fish and things should remain trouble free for you

to TFF

Best regards
Rabbut