New Fishtank

[Barramundi]

Hi there,

My name is Steve, I have had an aquarium for about 4 months now. Freshwater Tropicals. 220L ( 55 gallon ) tank. Current population 9 Cardinal Tetras, 8 Black Widow Tetras, 4 Peppered Corydoras and 3 Swordtails. Tank is heavily planted with live plants. Mostly wisteria, banana lillies and long grassy plants ( forget their name ). Plants are going gangbusters - I run the light 10 hours a day. Fish seem happy. One 2 fatalities so far, one Cardinal disappeared very early on and one Swordtail also vanished - presumed dead.

The pepper cats have been spawning now for about a month. But fry don't last long in the main tank even though there are lots of hiddy holes. I have attempted to get the eggs into a little nursery tank ( sits in main tank ) with some success. Best method so far is to put pieces of glass where they lay eggs then transfer glass to nursery. This mostly works by so far the 2 fry we have had this way die in a day or so. Dunno why yet. First one seemed to be trying to swim up and out of the nursery instead of hide, which was odd. The nursery in behind the thickest clump of wisteria, so it not too brightly lit.

Snails are sh1tting me. Had pond snails only for a while, which I seemed to be mostly on top off. Then after feeding bloodworm (tubifex?) got an infestation of red ramshorn snails. These little buggers are now *EVERYWHERE*. Without exaggeration there would be well over a thousand in there!

After feeding tubifex a few times I now seem to have a large permanent population in the gravel. The fish try to eat them, but mostly miss. However, I have seen one of the Swordtails succeed once. Since the tubifex worms moved in I have noticed that the fish don't seem very interested in their fish food ( Tropical Crisps ) very much. They eat some - slowly. But most sinks. Which the snails happily eat and their population exploded!

I have been backing off the food, which seems to help keep the snails down a bit. But it is still a problem even though I don't have to clean the glass any more. I remove as many as I can physically during my weekly tank maintenance, but it's fair to say the snails are winning. I think I will get 3 Dwarf Loaches next week. They're quite expensive, but if they help with the snail problem then they're worth it. Even though this does wreck my "South American" theme. Oh well, as long as they play nice with the other fishies.

I am finding this hobby very absorbing and rewarding. My philosophy with the aquarium to aim for as natural a look as possible. I just have river stones and gravel in there. With a background made from small river pebbles struck to sheets of acrylic using aquarium-safe silicon. No kitsch ornaments like pirate ships or snapping sharks mouths for me. Only regular maintenance is a 10% water change ( aged tap water ) once a week, and a once a month filter clean. And some gardening - that wisteria grows very very fast! The only additional thing I'd like to add is maybe some driftwood and a Java fern.

I look forward to discussing fish with you guys!

 

[rabbut]

Hi and to TFF,

Sounds like a great tank Not enough people try a biotope IMO, and it's nice to see somone trying one.

Tubifex can be a dangerous food unless it is captive cultured. Wild tubifex can bring into a tank all maner of parasites and the fact that there are snails in the tubifex source surgests to be that it is a wild source... I'd stop offering it personally, moving to a different frozen or live food. Such foods are great treats that the fish will go mental for, but as a day-to-day food can be a bit dodgy, as you cannot ballence their diet with one live food going in only. The tropical crisp should be your "staple" or main food with live or frozen food offered weekly as a treat that prevents constipation and bloating

For snail eaters, I have found Botia Kubotia very effective in the past. They need a group of 4+ like the dwarf loaches you were going to try, and grow to about 4 inches. Well behaved and real charactors. It's fun whatching them smash their way into shells, to divour their contents.... Still ruins the biotope theme though....

A little trouble saving tip though...

Rather than using aged tap water, try a water conditioner. They work instantly removing any need to stand buckets arround, that may pick up muck from the surroundings. Also, aging tap water does not remove chloramine, a popular alternative to chlorine, often used to in the water supply. Some water bords with cut between them for an odd month each year without warning, so that may catch you out later if you stick to standing buckets arround...

All the best, and welcome once again to TFF
Rabbut

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forums Barramundi. If you back way down on feeding it will have 2 effects. The first is that the pond snails will stop reproducing so quickly and will start to come under control. The second is that all of your fish will suddenly get better at hunting worms. Since that type of worm lives on the detritus in the tank, the reduced feeding will also keep the worm reproduction down and again help clean up the mess. At 10% water changes each week, what level has your nitrates gone up to? The reason I ask is that 10% is pretty light compared to most people but if your levels are staying OK I guess it's enough. You want to be sure to do a good gravel cleaning each time you do a water change as it will help control the worms and the snails too.