Giving Up

[wally6346]

Does anybody else feel like giving up on keeping fish? I never will but can't see what I'm doing wrong and its so fustrating!!

I do regular water changes at 30% a week, water tests, I have a more than adequete filter, airstone, and also quite heavily planted. All my fish seem to really dislike my tank, even the platies wont breed, the dwarf gourami has started just to hide, and any new fish I introduce don't even survive!! I aclimatise them etc!!! I don't know whats wrong!

Tank is well established, about 2 years I think!

 

[kpintheshed]

how big is your tank? e.g litres or gallons

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Wally,

First thing first, what's your vital statistics?

Tank size?

Livestock?

Filtration?

Ammonia?

Nitrite?

Nitrate?

PH?

 

[wally6346]

Hi Wally,

First thing first, what's your vital statistics?

Tank size?

Livestock?

Filtration?

Ammonia?

Nitrite?

Nitrate?

PH?

Tank size: 60l

Livestock: 1 full grown male dwarf gourami, 2 female platies, 1 male, 1 bristlenose plec about 3 inches, 2 bronze cory, 1 sterbai cory, and 4 ottos.

Filtration: Fluval 2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 3ppm

PH: 7.7 (High)

 

[backtotropical]

All sounds good.

Is your avatar a pic of your tank? (might save me asking silly questions)

 

[wally6346]

All sounds good.

Is your avatar a pic of your tank? (might save me asking silly questions)

It is the tank but way back in last year when I had old nasty blue gravel etc.

 

[Duck and Dive]

Hi

Have you got a good filter that is fully mature and a good areation system? If you have sorry i cant help you there!

 

[wally6346]

All sounds good.

Is your avatar a pic of your tank? (might save me asking silly questions)

It is the tank but way back in last year when I had old nasty blue gravel etc.

Hi

Have you got a good filter that is fully mature and a good areation system? If you have sorry i cant help you there!

Yeah the filter's about 5 months old now...plants and an airstone aerate the water!

 

[backtotropical]

I'm going to hazard a guess that your gourami is male as females are not often found for sale.

Male dwarf gouramis can be quite aggressive, especially in a tank so small. Have you ever noticed any aggression?

 

[wally6346]

I'm going to hazard a guess that your gourami is male as females are not often found for sale.

Male dwarf gouramis can be quite aggressive, especially in a tank so small. Have you ever noticed any aggression?

As mentioned before he is a male yes...not aggressive at all, never bothered anything, his colours are so strong and he is grown well at just over 2 inches...only recently he's started hiding away and acting more nervous. No other fish bother him.

 

[backtotropical]

[As mentioned before he is a male yes...

Sorry, didn't read it properly.

Have you recently moved the tank or is there anything else you can think of which may be different?

Is the tank exposed to lots of loud noises or anything like that?

 

[wally6346]

[As mentioned before he is a male yes...

Sorry, didn't read it properly.

Have you recently moved the tank or is there anything else you can think of which may be different?

Is the tank exposed to lots of loud noises or anything like that?

I have recently moved the tank yeah, changed my room around so tank moved to, quiter place now....the only thing i can think of is the de-chlorinator i have changed to...its API tap water conditioner....i'm definitely dosing correctly but wud this be why?

 

[backtotropical]

I don't think the water conditioner would have anything to do with it. However, the tank being moved may explain some of the problems. The fish may well feel slightly uneasy in their new surroundings and will just take some time to adjust.

That, however, wouldn't explain the deaths of new additions. That said, i would probably turn my attention back to your gourami. It may have gone un-noticed, but i think it's definitely a possibility that the gourami may bully new additions to the tank. You say he shows bright colours and this would suggest that he is probably king of the castle.

How sure are you that this could / couldn't be the case?

 

[wally6346]

I don't think the water conditioner would have anything to do with it. However, the tank being moved may explain some of the problems. The fish may well feel slightly uneasy in their new surroundings and will just take some time to adjust.

That, however, wouldn't explain the deaths of new additions. That said, i would probably turn my attention back to your gourami. It may have gone un-noticed, but i think it's definitely a possibility that the gourami may bully new additions to the tank. You say he shows bright colours and this would suggest that he is probably king of the castle.

How sure are you that this could / couldn't be the case?

I could see exactly what you mean...I've had him for a while now, probably a year and a half and he's only ever shown a small sign of aggression and that was towards the two females i tried with him...i regularly watch the fish, probably too much lol, and i'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been to blame...i can see exactly where your coming from and i agree with you that the tank moving could leave them a bit wary!! maybe that would explain the change in character in some of the fish for a while, it was only a week and a half ago. Thanks for your help though, hard to find a definite answer!!