Newbie - Help Needed

[DaviiD]

Hi!

I'll introduce myself in Newbie forum in the next post.

I always wanted to have an aquarium so one day i went to lfs and bought one. At this time i've never heard of terms like nitrate cycle.
So i set up aquarium as lfs suggested. I realize now that they didn't know much about what they're doing.

It all boils down to that i have aquarium which has not yet finished cycling with two pangasius sutchi (they never warned me that pangasius is not for beginners).

Pictures:

I test water every day and here are some data:
- Ph is about 7.6
- NH3/NH4 is about 1.2 ppm
- NO3 is about 10 mg/l
- NO2 is somewhere between 0 and 1 mg/l

I'm adding nitrate treatment to water (some local stuff...you'll probably not recognize it):

As you probably noticed water looks kinda calm (not clean).
Is this normal ? Any suggestions what should i do ?

To the water thar i change i'm adding water treatment (this looks like a more "known" stuff):

And to the second problem: Fish won't eat. It eats very very little. I tried those two:

What should i do ?

BTW: I'm building (from scratch) new - bigger aquarium for pangasius. Will post pictures when some progress is done.

 

[Chri$]

How big is your tank?

I read some where that pangasius sutchi need 800l tanks as they grow huge.

I'm guessing your tank is not 800l, so firstly i would take them back to the lfs.

*EDIT* have just seen you are planning to re-home them

 

[DaviiD]

How big is your tank?

I read some where that pangasius sutchi need 800l tanks as they grow huge.

I'm guessing your tank is not 800l, so firstly i would take them back to the lfs.

*EDIT* have just seen you are planning to re-home them

My tank now is approx. 40l. New tank i'm building will be approx 264-300l max. Do you think it'll be enough ? 800l is not an option for me as that is the size of my living room

I'm still thinking of giving them back but they're such a pretty fishes

EDIT: Any idea about the water quality ?

 

[Chri$]

Have just found some more info which says they could grow to over 3foot! So if you want to house one you would need a 15 foot tank!

Definatly take them back

 

[DaviiD]

Have just found some more info which says they could grow to over 3foot! So if you want to house one you would need a 15 foot tank!

Definatly take them back

Will take them back today. And re-do the tank as it was supposed to be done in the first place....

 

[Chri$]

What are you going for?

 

[DaviiD]

What are you going for?

I don't know yet. Will see what they have. Any suggestions (keep in mind that pangasius su. is a beutiful fish)?

 

[polypterus]

What are you going for?

I don't know yet. Will see what they have. Any suggestions (keep in mind that pangasius su. is a beutiful fish)?

Pangasius cats grow big. There's an even bigger similar species too. However they grow slowly so you should be OK for a while at least. The other thing about them is they are kind of a nervous fish and tend to bash into things when startled. They do get a bit calmer when they are bigger. I had one that was about 14 inches long in a 300 gallon tank for while.

Edit: Oh I forgot to add this is really a schooling fish so ideally you should have a few of them. It helps with the nervousness problem.