I Need Help

[sk85z]

i'm relatively new to fish keeping. i only got the interest through a friend who introduced me to this website around a week ago. after doing some reading, i realised that the community tank my father has in his room is a big joke. i soon found out that he doesn't know anything about fish keeping and only enjoys watching the fishes swim and play around. he doesn't do watercycles or even release the fishes properly; he just dumps them in as soon as he gets home. however after some observations, i'm surprised that everything seem to be fine with the fishes. they're getting along ver well with each other with no signs of aggression in the 36″ x 18″ x 18″ tank. it has been weeks since the last time he added any new fishes but there's no signs of any problems. his choices of fish.

no. fish. av.length.
2 angelfish 6cm
2 clown loaches 3cm
6 goldfish 5cm
5 monos 4cm
1 male betta 4cm

is there anything i can do to help him?

is there anything i can do to help the fishes?

do i need to add salt for the monos?

how will that effect the other fishes?

will there be any problems in the future?

ps. try to give low-budget solutions as we cant effort to get a new/bigger tank

thanks

 

[Tessla]

That's a little bit under 50 gallons then, which would actually be too small for adult clown loaches (12"+) as they'll need a tank of 75 gallons or more but they are slow growers and would be alright in the 50 gallon for a while. Monos also get huge, you're looking at potential 18" fish there. What sort of goldfish do you have? For fancies, I'd stock one for 30 gallons and have ten gallons for each additional goldfish, that would give you space for three in a 50 gallon (with no other fish), shubunkins, commons and comets would need a much larger tank or a pond.

What I'd do first is figure out what kind of tank you want, you currently have a mix of tropical (high end tropical at that with the angels), coldwater (goldfish) and brackish (monos). I'd either go with three goldfish, two monos, or the angels, clowns and betta, rehome the rest, your LFS will probably take them though they may not give you a refund or store credit. There really is no way you'll be able to keep all of these guys together in one tank long term without hurting all of them. I've had to rehome quite a few fish myself as have a lot of the members on this forum, almost everybody has been misinformed on some species at one point or another.

Tropical: keep the tank heated at a constant temperature somewhere between 75-80 F, clown loaches, bettas and angelfish all prefer the higher end of these temperatures. Clowns do best in a group of 5+ so I'd add a few more, since they're slow growers, larger clown loaches are in fairly high demand by people with large tanks so you shouldn't have any trouble selling them once they start to outgrow your tank. If you have trouble with the betta, he can be moved to a small tank of his own, 5 gallons is plenty for a single male. These fish would all also appreciate a planted tank if you'd like to explore that aspect of the hobby, the planted section has lots of great information.

Coldwater: Goldfish are messy and (should) grow big very quickly, but are easily stunted by poor water quality in smaller or overstocked tanks. Only if you are keeping fancy goldfish could you keep a group of three in your tank with no other fish. They should be kept in an unheated tank, they can tolerate higher temperatures in the 70s for short periods of time (summer) but shouldn't be constantly kept at higher temperatures. Feed these guys a staple diet of presoaked sinking goldfish pellets and supplement with shelled frozen peas and other veggies.

Brackish: You might be able to get away with keeping one or two of the monos, I'm not really sure as I haven't kept these before but I do know that they do grow big and I'd go with one of the other options. You'll need to get yourself a hydrometer and marine salt to keep your tank at the proper salinity. I'd check in the brackish forums for further info on these guys.

Whatever fish you decide to keep, you'll want to keep up weekly 10-20% water changes, I'd go with 20% or maybe even a little more if you go the goldfish route as they're messy fish. You can get yourself a gravel vaccum/syphon to clean out your substrate and make water changes a bit easier. Also make sure that you get yourself a dechlorinator and a good liquid test kit if you haven't already, API makes a good freshwater master kit that covers ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. What is your current filtration setup? If you're running an undergravel, you may want to consider supplementing it or replacing it with a canister filter or hang on back, as these will be more efficient.

Hopefully that helps you a bit, good luck sorting out your tank!

 

[Tolak]

A low budget start would be to rehome the goldfish & monos. Goldfish are coldwater, not tropical, monos are brackish fish. You will not be able to adjust the tank parameters to the needs of those fish.

I would start with 10% water changes daily, that's about 5 gallons, as by the measurements you provided the tank is around 50 gallons. Do this for a week, every day, and DO NOT change more than 10%. Buy or build a gravel vac, you need to remove debris from the gravel. Lightly clean about 1/4 of the gravel area with each small water change, if you do less that's ok. Pick up dechlorinator for the water you add, and a product that neutralizes ammonia. You will need to add both of these with each small water change.

What you are dealing with is old tank syndrome; you need to do small daily water changes & cleaning for a while, as opposed to one major cleaning. One major water change will be an abrupt change in the water parameters, and cleaning all the gravel will cause a major jump in ammonia, more than your bio filtration can handle.

After a week of daily small water changes & light gravel cleaning you can then get on a more normal schedule of 20% to 25% water changes weekly, while vaccing half the gravel.

You should also bring your water in to be tested, have them write down the numbers & post them here. Often times your lfs will just say your water is fine, that tells us nothing here, and fine to many lfs is not actually fine.

 

[rdd1952]

Your tank is just a little under 50 gallons and is overstocked with the 6 goldfish. Althoug they are small now, they can grow to over a foot long and probably need 75 gallon on thier own. They are also terrible messy fish and create a lot of waste. From the sizes of the fish, I would assume they hae not been in the tank long. Has there been pretty regular deaths and replacements in the tank

You have some compatibility problems with the angels and the betta as he will view the angel's large fins as being another betta and eventually attack them.

Last but not least, although I'm not really familiar with monos, from all I can find, they are truly marine fish and should not be in a freshwater tank. It sounds like they would maybe be ok in a brackish tank with a high pH but the other fish wouldn't like that very much.

As far as things to help your dad, you could maybe have him take a look at the information you have found about compatibility, water changes etc. If he is set in his ways, he may not care.

For the fish, start doing regular weekly water changes and gravel vacuums to improve the water conditions and to keep the waste cleaned up.

Instead of adding salt for the monos, return them to the store. They need a true saltwater tank.

As for future problems, as I said, the betta will eventually attack the angels and kill them. Get him out of the tank. He needs something like a 2.5 gallon tank of his own. And the goldfish will eventually need a bigger tank (the clown loaches grow to a foot long too).