Need Help With My Fish Tank :/

[biokid101]

i have a 5 gallon tank(look in my signature below) and im going to clean it and do a water change while im at it.what supplies do i need? should i buy a heater(i dont have one)?

 

[walkers101]

yes tropical fish need a heater

 

[Curiosity101]

Exactly how many fish are in the 5gal? How often are you doing water changes and how long has it been set up?

All the fish in the 5 gal are tropical, but things like guppies are capable of surviving at room temp. Eitherways to give them the best chance you should definitely have a heater set to around 23-24C

You really need to get your stocking levels sorted out, even with most fish being fry you're asking for trouble with that many fish in 5 gal of water.

To do a water change you need a gravel vac/syphon or some sort of tub to scoop water out. And in both cases you need a bucket or similar to scoop water out into.

Why is there a cory in the 5gal? Please for it's sake put it back with the others in the 36 gal.

 

[jacko32]

Exactly how many fish are in the 5gal? How often are you doing water changes and how long has it been set up?

All the fish in the 5 gal are tropical, but things like guppies are capable of surviving at room temp. Eitherways to give them the best chance you should definitely have a heater set to around 23-24C

You really need to get your stocking levels sorted out, even with most fish being fry you're asking for trouble with that many fish in 5 gal of water.

To do a water change you need a gravel vac/syphon or some sort of tub to scoop water out. And in both cases you need a bucket or similar to scoop water out into.

Why is there a cory in the 5gal? Please for it's sake put it back with the others in the 36 gal.

52 fish if my maths are correct

 

[Paradise3]

62 actually.

~AJ~

 

[jacko32]

62 actually.

~AJ~

52 and 2 snails

 

[biokid101]

lol to much math!! lol jk i love math..but they r not gonna be in there for long.that cory passed away a long time ago and i actually have to update my signature and then u can say if thats a bit better...i have a vacumm for the rocks and im going to use that..should i replace the filter?

tank has been set up for about 4 months..water changes r every 2 weeks(used to be one but im busy more now...

 

[biokid101]

ok just changed my signature these r up to date...37 plus 2 snails is 39

 

[Assaye]

i have a 5 gallon tank(look in my signature below) and im going to clean it and do a water change while im at it.what supplies do i need? should i buy a heater(i dont have one)?

Hi there,

Wow, you sure have a lot of fish in that little tank

When you "clean" the tank, you don't want to change all the water. In a healthy tank you should be changing about 25% of the water a week. It's also important to clean the gravel and if you want to, scrub off any algea. It's also important to take away any bits of dead plants.

This is how you do it:

1) Turn off filter and heater (if you have one)
2) Leave for 20 minutes for heater to cool down
3) Insert a gravel vacuum
4) Suck on end out of tank to get water flowing
5) Direct water into a clean bucket
6) Use the end in the tank to gently move over the surface of the gravel and gently disturb the surface to release any debris (this will get sucked up)
7) Stop syphon by pulling out of water when you've taken out enough of the water and cleaned the gravel
8) Use a soft tank scrubber to clean algae off the tank
9) Take out anything that needs a better scrub and do that in the old water
10) Take out any dead leaves
11) Throw the old water away
12) Fill bucket with fresh water - you can use a tiny bit of water from the kettle to warm it up to same temp as in tank
13) Add a good tap water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals
14) Mix in
15) Gently scoop water back into tank
16) Turn filter and heater back on

About once every month or so, take out the filter sponges when you do a water change and gently rinse them in the old water. This gets rid of any extra muck. Don't put them anywhere near un-treated water as the chlorine will kill the bacteria. Don't replace them unti, they are becomming damaged and even then, only replace 1/3 at a time and leave at least a month before you change another section. This is to preserve the bacteria.

Done! Here is a video of someone explaining a water change.

This should be done about once a week and you only need to take some water out. The fish can stay in the tank. Make sure that the bucket you use for fish has never had any kind of cleaning chemical in it as these will kill the fish. Use a dedicated bucket for just the fish stuff.

However, your tank will be a bit different, because it has a LOT of fish in it.

First of all, you need some liquid test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and test your water. With so many fish in such a small tank, there is actually a very good chance of there being too much chemical waste in the water. Fish produce poo and stuff that we can see but they also produce something called ammonia that we can't see. In a healthy tank, special bacteria that grow in the filter get rid of it but in tanks with a lot of fish, the filter can't grow enough bacteria to get rid of all the ammonia, so the ammonia builds up. Ammonia causes burns to the fish, mostly on the gills, and eventually kills them.

If your water shows these readings:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-40

Then you are doing OK in terms of water quality. If there is any ammonia and/or nitrite then you need to do some very large water changes (50-90%) to bring the levels down until the bacteria can grow some more. You should test every day if your water is bad and change some water every time you see ammonia or nitrite. In your case, you might well need a bigger filter if you do see bad water because you have nearly 40 fish in that tiny tank and a filter for a 5 gallon tank just isn't designed to cope with that many fish.

If your ammonia and nitrites are 0 but your nitrate is high, it probably means you need to do more water changes (so if you do them once a week, try twice a week, etc) but it isn't an emergency. High levels of nitrate are not too dangerous but do indicate that we need to do more water changes.

Making sure your water is good is one thing, but in the end (and to be totally honest) you have far too many fish in the little tank. It sounds like you've bought some livevearers (guppys and swordtails) and they've started breeding, and now you're over-run with fry. Will your local fish shop (lfs) take any off your hands? Do you have any friends who could take some?

In a 5 gallon tank, it is especially important to keep a very small number of fish. This is because of two things:

a) There isn't much space to begin with
b) It is harder to keep the water quality good because there is so little water

We would normally recommend just 5 guppies or something similar. If you are using it as a temporary tank for fry, you still don't want too many. If you have more than 5 (as you do) you need to have other tanks for when the fish get bigger. Even now, with the tiny babies, you still have too many. I'd only recommend a maximum of about 20 babies, as long as you had somewhere for them when they get a little bigger.

I know you've come on here to ask about cleaning and we've all gone "oh wow, you have too many fish" but this is very important for the long term health of the fish so you can see why we've commented

Heater - yes, a heater would be a good idea. It doesn't just make the water warmer than room temp, it also regulates the heat and you can set it nice and low as Curiosity said.

The cory - corys need groups and with your little tank so heavily stocked, he's only adding to the problem. Please pop him back in the main tank with the other corys.

Here is an excellent resource that I really recommend you bookmark and read.

 

[biokid101]

thank u soo much..u answered all my questions and i have the lfs to take some off my hands i just have to get them to be 6 motnths old they said. i have a couple of friends that can take some.and i might put a couple in my 36 gal.i might just swtich the 5 gal to be a fry tank? im just gonna take the adults out and put them in the 36 gal.but then the 36 gal will be overstocked.but i have angelfish and silver dollars in there which means they will shorten the supply of the guppies which is good. i have a pregnant guppy who gave birth to my third batch a while ago and i think it will be soon that she will give birth cause i can see eyes.

i appreciate the time u put into that post to help me
as for the heater im going to have to dip into my savings..err emm..20 bucks lol..only 14 with no allowance is tough..but im going tomorrow to get a new filter

Should i take out all the babies and put them into a breeders net that i have and put it in the 5 gal? or will that be bad also?

 

[Assaye]

thank u soo much..u answered all my questions and i have the lfs to take some off my hands i just have to get them to be 6 motnths old they said. i have a couple of friends that can take some.and i might put a couple in my 36 gal.i might just swtich the 5 gal to be a fry tank? im just gonna take the adults out and put them in the 36 gal.but then the 36 gal will be overstocked.but i have angelfish and silver dollars in there which means they will shorten the supply of the guppies which is good. i have a pregnant guppy who gave birth to my third batch a while ago and i think it will be soon that she will give birth cause i can see eyes.

i appreciate the time u put into that post to help me
as for the heater im going to have to dip into my savings..err emm..20 bucks lol..only 14 with no allowance is tough..but im going tomorrow to get a new filter

Should i take out all the babies and put them into a breeders net that i have and put it in the 5 gal? or will that be bad also?

In the end, you just have too many fish. Putting them in breeding traps in the small tank won't help much, as they'll still wee and poo and produce ammonia. Could you put some breeding traps in the big tank?

What is your current stock in the big tank? Overstocking isn't good but the larger tank will be able to handle it better than the smaller one.

Do the guppys normally live in the larger tank or where they supposed to stay in the 5 gallon? Putting the guppies and babies in with the angels could mean they get eaten - adults and all - as the larger fish (particularly the angels) may see them as food. The tiger barbs will also tear at their flowing fins.

What I would actually suggest is that you get a large tub (maybe a Rubbermaid tub or something else that is food safe) and use that as a temporary fry tank. You can get ones as large as 20 gallons or so. Don't worry about a new filter for that if you can't afford one. You'll want to do daily water changes of about 50% though, if you don't filter it, as the ammonia will build up. Put a few floating plants in there such as cabomba and elodea. The more the better - shove LOADS in! The plants will soak up some ammonia and combined with the water changes, you shouldn't get too much ammonia. Make sure you do at least one 100% water change a week on it though. You can keep the tub on the floor if you like as it's just temporary, but try to find a room with lots of natural light. Much cheaper than a new tank!

I would also suggest getting rid of all your females when you take some babies to the shop. No females - no more babies. The males look prettiest anyway

If you get a new filter for the small tank, run it in tandem with the current filter. Extra filtration =

If you don't want to run two filters, you'll need to get a bigger filter than you currently have (by bigger I mean higher flow rate) and transfer all your old sponges into the new filter to preserve the special bacteria.

As for heaters - if your room is warm make sure that getting new homes for the fry and making sure your water is clean is a priority. A heater is good but in a warm room the guppys and such will be fine for now.

A note on your 36 gallon - the silver dollars will outgrow it. For a shoal, you need to think about 75 gallons in the future. Just a heads up! In the long term you'll want some more tiger barbs as well. They should really be kept in groups of 6 or more as they are shoaling fish. Do you know what kind of pleco you have?

I know it's a lot of information! Good luck!

 

[biokid101]

its just a common pleco i think...the 36 wasnt mine at first the angels silver dollars and barbs were not my idea.i actually want to get rid of them but its not my tank. the 36 gallon is what i have in the signature right now.there is one angel about 4 inches long and the rest r an inch and a half long.the big angelfish isnt looking to good.its fins r ripping off and its in the corner all the time....the silver dollars r fully grown and always hide in their little place between rocks.

i have been wanting to put the breeding net in the big tank for forever!!!!!!!!!!!! my mom wont let me tho.

for the 5 gallon,,, i am cleaning it today and im taking all of them out while i do it..yesterday i found a baby snail in there?? i dont know where it came from..do u know? i only have one live plant in there and ive had it since july in the 36 gal but i moved it in the 5 gal when i got it..its a banana plant.until i find out what to do im just going to put all the babies in the breeder net and put less food in for them..

 

[Assaye]

its just a common pleco i think...the 36 wasnt mine at first the angels silver dollars and barbs were not my idea.i actually want to get rid of them but its not my tank. the 36 gallon is what i have in the signature right now.there is one angel about 4 inches long and the rest r an inch and a half long.the big angelfish isnt looking to good.its fins r ripping off and its in the corner all the time....the silver dollars r fully grown and always hide in their little place between rocks.

i have been wanting to put the breeding net in the big tank for forever!!!!!!!!!!!! my mom wont let me tho.

for the 5 gallon,,, i am cleaning it today and im taking all of them out while i do it..yesterday i found a baby snail in there?? i dont know where it came from..do u know? i only have one live plant in there and ive had it since july in the 36 gal but i moved it in the 5 gal when i got it..its a banana plant.until i find out what to do im just going to put all the babies in the breeder net and put less food in for them..

Be really careful about taking the babies out of the tank to clean it. You should ideally keep some of the old water to lessen the shock for them when they get mixed in with the new water. When changing all the water you need to carefully re-adapt the fish to the new water by mixing some new water in with them in a tub with the old water.

Why won't your mum let you put the tap in the 36 gallon? Is the big tank hers?

The angel could well be being nipped by the barbs - the fewer barbs there are, the more bullying they are towards other fish. Often this happens at night so you might not see it. The silver dollars should really be kept in groups of 4-6 (or more) and should also be about 8 inches across if they are full grown, which would be too big for them to have enough space in a 36 gallon tank. Are they this big? Common plecs also reach between 12 and 24 inches (so 1-2 feet) and need to be in 6 foot long tanks. With 4 angels you should ideally have a larger tank as well. This is a lot of bad news, but if you could maybe talk to your mum if it's her tank and tell her how much happier and healthier the fish would be in a bigger tank?

Anyway - your little ones and the snail. Snail could have come from bigger tank or from the plant. Don't worry about him - they eat left over food and generally keep the tank clean. Unless you get loads of them, it's not a problem. I have a few pest snails and I actually quite like them. I kept two as pets for a while until I accidentally lost one, lol!

Feeding less is a good idea - less food = less ammonia. How about two tiny feeds a day, to keep their strength up?

 

[biokid101]

its not hers but she bought it and she thinks it will make it look really ugly.
i do feed them twice a day but some food reaches the floor and thats how i know that i feed to much.

i cleaned the tank and i rearranged everything..i took out the divider and i put the fry into the breeders net in the tank..unless i can pull my mom thru. i bought this new fake thing and its like a little cave with plants attached to it and its beautiful! i love how it birngs out the tank. i took out the only live plant and i put it in the 36 gallon.i might ask for a 10 or 20 galllon tank for my bday on the 23rd

 

[Assaye]

its not hers but she bought it and she thinks it will make it look really ugly.
i do feed them twice a day but some food reaches the floor and thats how i know that i feed to much.

i cleaned the tank and i rearranged everything..i took out the divider and i put the fry into the breeders net in the tank..unless i can pull my mom thru. i bought this new fake thing and its like a little cave with plants attached to it and its beautiful! i love how it birngs out the tank. i took out the only live plant and i put it in the 36 gallon.i might ask for a 10 or 20 galllon tank for my bday on the 23rd

Tell her that some fish could en up dying if they don't get some more space and you don't get them out of your little tank. The reason is that the little tank gets polluted very quickly and the big tank doesn't because of the big filter and large amount of water.

Keep feeding twice a day but feed much, much less. Just enough for them all to get a little bit. This is only because they are babies and need lots of food to keep going. If these were adult fish you could even feed once every 2-3 days.

A 20 gallon would be a great upgrade. Have you thought about what I said ebout giving away the female guppys and keeping the pretty males? Even in a 20 gallon tank the guppys can keep breeding and breeding and overpopulate the tank. If you keep males and females together you should also have a ration of 2-3 females per male, to stop the males trying to reproduce with the same females over and over again (which causes a lot of stress).

Have you managed to do any water tests on the little tank?