downunder newbie
New Member
Hi all,
I recently was given two tanks by my mother, unfortunatly it was done in very short notice, with no time to properly cycle on the large one, which I work out to be approx 33-35 gallons. Needless to say I had many problems to start with, losing nearly half of the fish
Things seem to have picked up now though, as of last night I tested it and got the following results:
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
gH - 7degrees
I keep the tank at 25-26 degrees celcius, and have managed to identify all the fish in there bar 2, there is:
(sorry I don't know the scientific names, these are what they are commonly called here)
2 x Blackwidows sex unknown
1 x male sailfin molly
2 x female mollies
approx 4 baby mollies
1 x female sword tail
1 x Adult male platty
1 x Adult female platty
1 x Juvenile male platty (he has been chasing the female around the tank a bit lately)
1 x female egyptian mouth brooder
1 x dwarf gourami sex unkown
2 x neon tetras (were 8 at one point, but have either been eaten or died)
1 x glow light tetra
1 x clown loach
2 x cories
2 x unknown fish (a bronzeish colour, they almost resemble penguin tetras, but the black stripe is only on their tail, have pointed fins with white tips on them)
8 x small pest feeder fish (we didnt know what they were but found out they were pests, they breed really fast)
Also in a small hospital tank is one pregnant female sailfin molly, and several more baby mollies
A couple of things I have read leave me wondering, firstly I read that the cories don't handle salt well, does this mean they should not be kept with the mollies?
Also, I am a bit concerned about the dwarf gourami, he has become rather withdrawn since the last of the other gourami died ( there were originally 3) he hides a lot now and looks a bit undernourished, as he doesnt come out at feeding times, should I isolate him? He doesnt appear to have any diseases. Do they prefer to have others of their kind to swim with? Also my mother put in a large piece of driftwood, the fish love hiding under and behind it, though is it good for the water quality? The plants in there also might need replacing, apart from the ones that the fish have ripped out, the others don't appear to be growing as well as i'd like, could this be from the pH? I am a bit confused, there seems to be a conflicting viewpoint on pH levels
I know it seems to be fairly stable at this point, as a few weeks ago I had it tested at the LFS and it was the same then
I wish I had discovered this site earlier, it might have helped to save a lot of worrying, and thanks for reading a newbies ramble
I recently was given two tanks by my mother, unfortunatly it was done in very short notice, with no time to properly cycle on the large one, which I work out to be approx 33-35 gallons. Needless to say I had many problems to start with, losing nearly half of the fish
Things seem to have picked up now though, as of last night I tested it and got the following results:
pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
gH - 7degrees
I keep the tank at 25-26 degrees celcius, and have managed to identify all the fish in there bar 2, there is:
(sorry I don't know the scientific names, these are what they are commonly called here)
2 x Blackwidows sex unknown
1 x male sailfin molly
2 x female mollies
approx 4 baby mollies
1 x female sword tail
1 x Adult male platty
1 x Adult female platty
1 x Juvenile male platty (he has been chasing the female around the tank a bit lately)
1 x female egyptian mouth brooder
1 x dwarf gourami sex unkown
2 x neon tetras (were 8 at one point, but have either been eaten or died)
1 x glow light tetra
1 x clown loach
2 x cories
2 x unknown fish (a bronzeish colour, they almost resemble penguin tetras, but the black stripe is only on their tail, have pointed fins with white tips on them)
8 x small pest feeder fish (we didnt know what they were but found out they were pests, they breed really fast)
Also in a small hospital tank is one pregnant female sailfin molly, and several more baby mollies
A couple of things I have read leave me wondering, firstly I read that the cories don't handle salt well, does this mean they should not be kept with the mollies?
Also, I am a bit concerned about the dwarf gourami, he has become rather withdrawn since the last of the other gourami died ( there were originally 3) he hides a lot now and looks a bit undernourished, as he doesnt come out at feeding times, should I isolate him? He doesnt appear to have any diseases. Do they prefer to have others of their kind to swim with? Also my mother put in a large piece of driftwood, the fish love hiding under and behind it, though is it good for the water quality? The plants in there also might need replacing, apart from the ones that the fish have ripped out, the others don't appear to be growing as well as i'd like, could this be from the pH? I am a bit confused, there seems to be a conflicting viewpoint on pH levels

I wish I had discovered this site earlier, it might have helped to save a lot of worrying, and thanks for reading a newbies ramble