New Aquarium

[mark4785]

Hello,

I've now had a fully cycled 120 litre aquarium running for 1 day with some fish within it. The question I have relates to the cleaning of the filters, keeping a stable PH/nitrate level and gravel cleaning. With my pond filter box, I know that it requires a monthly clean in order to keep it running at optimum efficiency, but with this much more compact filter box in my aquarium (it is a Bluwave 05 filter system), I don't exactly know when a thorough cleaning of the filter media is warranted.

I am feeding all of the fish very small pellets (smaller than the sand substrate parts) once to twice a day. I only sprinkle around 10-15 pieces in each time and I push them under the water so they float towards the bottom dwellers (bolivian rams). Presumably this is how often you should feed them? I've heard they can go without food for weeks so would it be worth feeding them every other day?

The aquarium contains 2 Panasonic 24w lights that are switched on between 9pm and 2am directly above the plants. Is this enough light for the plants per 24 hours and what sort of lighting period would encourage an algae issue?

Lastly (this relates to filter maintenance and gravel cleaning), what should I do to ensure my nitrate level doesn't go above 5.0. In other words, how many filter/gravel cleans per week equates to an acceptable nitrate level? I know that German Blue Rams don't tolerate anything over 20 ppm of nitrates.

The tank is stocked as follows:
# 4 Bolivian Rams (3 male, 1 female)
# 2 German Blue Rams (1 male, 1 female)
# 1 Species of Rainbow Fish (I have taken a photograph of it below as I don't know it's exact name)

Plant information:
# 1 Cryptocoryne
# 1 Anubias
# Another similar larger growing plant.

Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate 5.0
PH: 7.4 (Is that slightly high for my stock?)

Any advise from an experienced Cichlid keeper or knowledgable tropical fish keeper on these matters would be greatly appreciated,

Thank you. Mark.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

From the photo, that looks like Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish, which need an absolute minimum of five in the group (ideally 10+).

Six dwarf cichlids in a 120l (~30 gallon) is pushing things. A general guideline is a footprint of ~24"x12" per bonded pair. As pairs form during juvenilehood, you could have a fish world war going on! I think you need to research if either of your Ram species can be kept in a hareem situation, with one male to several females. If not, you are either going to have to split these six up into seperate tanks very soon, or seriously consider taking some back to the LFS tomorrow...

Or watch them play "the weakest link" or "last ram standing".

 

[mark4785]

From the photo, that looks like Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish, which need an absolute minimum of five in the group (ideally 10+).

Six dwarf cichlids in a 120l (~30 gallon) is pushing things. A general guideline is a footprint of ~24"x12" per bonded pair. As pairs form during juvenilehood, you could have a fish world war going on! I think you need to research if either of your Ram species can be kept in a hareem situation, with one male to several females. If not, you are either going to have to split these six up into seperate tanks very soon, or seriously consider taking some back to the LFS tomorrow...

Or watch them play "the weakest link" or "last ram standing".

I'm a little disgruntled that I was told that "Blue German Rams will completely ignore Bolivian Rams and vice versa" by someone with experience at the LFS if this is indeed untrue. She told me that the German Rams were paired so that I would be required to purchase them both, but she happily allowed me to purchase 3 male Bolivian Rams and 1 female Bolivian Ram without mentioning that the males would fight each other.

At the moment, the male German Ram is chasing the other male Bolivian Rams but is leaving the female Bolivian alone. I have rearranged the rocks to create boundaries so they don't come into contact with each other as often and at feeding time they forget about chasing each other.

Presumably, If I take the male Bolivian Rams back to LFS and keep the female there shouldn't be any continued chasing?

Before purchasing I asked the LFS employee several times "Are these fish compatible" both in terms of water quality (I already knew they were, but wanted a second opinion) and in terms of living alongside each other. She said they would be fine living together. I put my trust in her and now it looks like the fish are behaving in the opposite way to what she described!

With regards to the Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish (thanks for identifying him/her!), the LFS employee said that I should purchase more in the future indefinitely but didn't say it was a requirement to purchase multiples on the day of purchase.

 

[drobbyb]

Yeah, that's definitely a Melanotaenia praecox (dwarf neon rainbowfish) and they really do need to be kept in groups. I have owned some of these and they can actually be particularly sensitive, especially to water quality. That specimen is a male and from the picture it looks malnourished. Certainly not the shape they are supposed to have. It may not be too late for him though, he may just need the proper diet so that he can bounce back: plenty of vegetable matter (I like to use and recommend high quality spirulina flakes) and frozen/live food a few times a week (frozen brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, fruit flies.)

 

[mark4785]

Yeah, that's definitely a Melanotaenia praecox (dwarf neon rainbowfish) and they really do need to be kept in groups. I have owned some of these and they can actually be particularly sensitive, especially to water quality. That specimen is a male and from the picture it looks malnourished. Certainly not the shape they are supposed to have. It may not be too late for him though, he may just need the proper diet so that he can bounce back: plenty of vegetable matter (I like to use and recommend high quality spirulina flakes) and frozen/live food a few times a week (frozen brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, fruit flies.)

He has eaten a blood worm and numerous high protein pellets. To think he is malnourished and I didn't even know it makes me feel quite upset. He's in safe hands now, unfortunately, though, without a friend for the time being.

As I said, I'm completely new to keeping tropicals so I'm a little clueless as to the way they should look.

When did you last see a fish malnourished in this way? Are they often malnourished? I've noticed that he is very eagar to eat and is one of the first to usually take the food. Maybe if all Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish all have a tendency to act like this, he may have had a hard time battling to get the food when in a shoal of 50-100 in the LFS aquarium.

You seem to be saying it could drop dead, I find that hard to believe.

 

[drobbyb]

No, I didn't mean he would drop dead. When rainbows are young, how they are fed can dictate their final shape and finnage. If you look closely at the picture, his head is way out of proportion of his body. Compare your specimen to the one in the picture found here. As you can see, they look very different. Both those pictures are of young males. When adult they look like this.

Also bloodworms is a very bad idea with praecox. Their digestive tract is very small and bloodworms have a chitinous head that can become lodged in there as it is passing through. Larger fish pass the head fine, but praecox are small and often have trouble passing it.

It's not your fault that he looks the way he does. It is most likely the breeder's fault for not ensuring that all the fry get enough to eat. I breed and sell rainbows and most likely the breeder that raised those was lazy and didn't want to take the extra time to suck up any uneaten food. Instead they just feed less and the fish suffer sometimes.

It's not your fault!

Looking at the photo again, it's possible that the particular line that you have may have been inbred too many times and he could be deformed, but it's a little early to say that for sure. It won't effect his life, but don't breed him and pass on any of the young.

 

[OldMan47]

The GBRs and Bolivians are indeed very compatible in terms of water requirements. They are almost identical fish. The problem you will run into is that they do not tolerate each other any better than they tolerate multiple males within their own species. Unless territories can be established that are not threatened by another ram, the ram in question will engage in activity we would call aggressive.

 

[mark4785]

What should I do to stop the aggressive behaviour between the males? Should I be looking to ensure that there is only one male in the aquarium? As described in my first post, I currently have 4 males (3 which are Bolivians and 1 which is a German Blue); would it fix the problem to return 2 bolivian males so that there is 1 male-female pair of Bolivians and 1 male-female pair of German Blue?

The LFS which I obtained them from is about 15-18 miles away so if I need to get rid of 2-3 Bolivian males I'd ideally like to pass them onto a forum member if anybody is interested? You can take them for free.

 

[mark4785]

No, I didn't mean he would drop dead. When rainbows are young, how they are fed can dictate their final shape and finnage. If you look closely at the picture, his head is way out of proportion of his body. Compare your specimen to the one in the picture found here. As you can see, they look very different. Both those pictures are of young males. When adult they look like this.

Also bloodworms is a very bad idea with praecox. Their digestive tract is very small and bloodworms have a chitinous head that can become lodged in there as it is passing through. Larger fish pass the head fine, but praecox are small and often have trouble passing it.

It's not your fault that he looks the way he does. It is most likely the breeder's fault for not ensuring that all the fry get enough to eat. I breed and sell rainbows and most likely the breeder that raised those was lazy and didn't want to take the extra time to suck up any uneaten food. Instead they just feed less and the fish suffer sometimes.

It's not your fault!

Looking at the photo again, it's possible that the particular line that you have may have been inbred too many times and he could be deformed, but it's a little early to say that for sure. It won't effect his life, but don't breed him and pass on any of the young.

Alright, I'll not use blood worm again I guess (guess what? that is what the LFS highly recommended I'd use should I consider treating them!!!)

I have read about deformities and as somebody who is new to fishkeeping, I know that it is only advisable to have one generation of inbred fry. Obviously the LFS know something we don't with regards to repeated sexing in this way or they simply don't care about the possible side effects.

 

[drobbyb]

Well, the LFS doesn't breed the fish, usually they are sold to them by mass breeders. Mass breeders put the adults in a shallow pond and they breed there. This wouldn't be a huge problem except they use the same breeders over and over and there is nothing to stop the parents from breeding with their offspring. Rainbows become sexually mature at a very young age, before the are sale able sized, so inbreeding is common.

To be honest, some species of rainbows are all descendants of one male and one female. So in essence, they are all inbred. Good culling practices helps to keep the lines healthy, but culling cuts into the profits of the breeder. Mass breeders don't care about keeping the lines clean, they just want to make money.

 

[mark4785]

Well I've set up a topic here to hopefully ascertain the sex of each fish in the aquarium. If my stock is deemed unsuitable I'm going to consider giving part of it away to another fish keeper with an interest in dwarf cichlids.

Feel free to reply to that thread and/or vote in the poll.

Thanks,

Mark.