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We got my son a 10 gallon aquarium kit, but the heater it came with has no numbers on it. There's a little notch we assume is where they want us to set it, but yesterday the water was pushing 84 so I turned it down. Been keeping an eye on it and adjusting to try and keep it around 78ish, but I'd really like a better heater. What's a good one to get so I don't have to babysit it and guesstimate temp settings? We've got 2 mollys, 2 skirts, 2 tetras, 2 Otocinclus, and a couple ghost shrimp. Is 78ish a good temp for them? They've all been pretty active, even when the temp rose, but we're new to this so want to make sure. Last thing we want is our son to wake up to floaters.
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Apr 28, 2015 15:46
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Howdy folks! So I just got a new office. I'm a mental health therapist for adolescent women and am looking to spruce up the place and fill it happy things. I love animals and would love to get some fish for my office space. Now, I'm not sure if logistically it's possible and if isn't I'll abstain. Here's what I'm looking for: One aquarium, with two fish. Fish that could be comfortable without presence on the weekend (I work a standard week, are there fish that can get by for the weekend on their own?) Space is somewhat of an issue, I'm not looking for anything floor standing. I'm definitely going to get a decent tank with a filter, the office can get a bit chilly, sometimes it goes down to the mid 60's will most fish be cool with that? Sorry if that's vague and newbish, I'm very new to fish but not new to pets. Let me know if I'm missing anything or being a massive dunce.
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Apr 28, 2015 21:26
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Sure, thats a pretty easy setup. The OP has more detailed info but you'll want to set up the tank without fish first. The temp issue should be handled by a heater. Fish can get by without food for a weekend, but if you're really worried there's things you can do: add edible tankmates, or have a timer feeder. Just dont overfeed before the weekend, that wont work and will just foul the water! Fish: Gourami are pretty tolerant and easy to care for. If you dont mind a single fish, bettas are great. (Just stay away from metal or platinum white bettas tho, they look great but are pretty heartbreaking for health problems.) Dwarf pufferfish could also do well. You could even introduce a snail population before settling the fish in and they can feed themselves. 
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Apr 28, 2015 21:46
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I'd vote Gourami. They're quite sedate fish, and very relaxing to watch.
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Apr 28, 2015 22:15
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CeeCee posted:We got my son a 10 gallon aquarium kit, but the heater it came with has no numbers on it. There's a little notch we assume is where they want us to set it, but yesterday the water was pushing 84 so I turned it down. Been keeping an eye on it and adjusting to try and keep it around 78ish, but I'd really like a better heater. What's a good one to get so I don't have to babysit it and guesstimate temp settings? http://www.amazon.com/EHEIM-Jager-Aquarium-Thermostat-Heater/dp/B003U82YEY the 25watt version should be fine.
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Apr 28, 2015 22:20
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May I also suggest finding out what conditions are like in the office when you're not around. Like if power/AC/heat get turned off.
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Apr 28, 2015 22:23
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Chili posted:Howdy folks! I have guppies and they've survived with no food over the weekend since July when I set the tank up. I've lost some here and there but that's probably because I work in a daycare and can't get toddlers to leave their goddamn hands off the tank. Also my boss thinks I starve the fish and feeds them a handful of food every now and then. But my guppies are bright, vibrant, and pretty okay at living.
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Apr 29, 2015 00:40
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CeeCee posted:We got my son a 10 gallon aquarium kit, but the heater it came with has no numbers on it. There's a little notch we assume is where they want us to set it, but yesterday the water was pushing 84 so I turned it down. Been keeping an eye on it and adjusting to try and keep it around 78ish, but I'd really like a better heater. What's a good one to get so I don't have to babysit it and guesstimate temp settings? I love Fluval E-series heaters because not only do they have your basic heating capabilities, but they also have a color-coded thermometer right on the thing. They're worth every dollar over the cheap crappy $10 petstore heaters, and are much more reliable too. Fluval E 300-Watt Electronic Heater (I can only link to the 300 watt version for some reason - you only need the 50 watt version at best)
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Apr 29, 2015 01:55
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daggerdragon posted:I love Fluval E-series heaters because not only do they have your basic heating capabilities, but they also have a color-coded thermometer right on the thing. They're worth every dollar over the cheap crappy $10 petstore heaters, and are much more reliable too. I don't know if a $50 heater is required. You can get a $5 thermometer that works fine and get a jager heater and save like $20-25.
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Apr 29, 2015 02:10
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I'm redoing my planted tank for the umpteenth time and I need to buy plants again. The LFS around here are ungodly expensive, where are good places to look online?
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Apr 29, 2015 03:22
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GreyPowerVan posted:I don't know if a $50 heater is required. You can get a $5 thermometer that works fine and get a jager heater and save like $20-25. Nobody said it was required. I just like the all-in-one indicator that tells me if the water is too hot or too cold from across the room. Fluval E's are also workhorses - they always maintain the correct temperature and I've never had one fail on me. I have had the cheap $10 heaters fail way too many times. I haven't tried the Jager heaters, though. Why mess with success?  It all comes down to whether or not a built-in, glow-in-the-dark thermometer is worth a $20 premium to you.
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Apr 29, 2015 04:43
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SynthOrange posted:(Just stay away from metal or platinum white bettas tho, they look great but are pretty heartbreaking for health problems.)  Really? I just this weekend bought a platinum white betta for my tank, what sort of thing should I look out for? He's not eaten much but I assumed that was from the stress of moving.
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Apr 29, 2015 11:22
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Their pigments can spread over their eyes, severely restricting their vision or even completely blinding them. Mine's 2 years old and his eyes are completely covered in metallic pigments. He has extremely short range vision left and follows my tapping to the feeding spot when it's mealtime though.
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Apr 29, 2015 11:25
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Oh no  I wish I'd known before choosing him. Does he do alright other than vision though?
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Apr 29, 2015 12:00
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Thanks to everyone for the advice so far!SynthOrange posted:Sure, thats a pretty easy setup. The OP has more detailed info but you'll want to set up the tank without fish first. The temp issue should be handled by a heater. I'm think 3 gourami may be the way to go. The office I'm in is in a residential hospital, we never shut down, there's always power and heat, so that won't be an issue. The coldest it ever gets in my office space is 65. So I read the OP, and I'm still a little confused about filters and if I go bio or mech, I'm also not sure what size tank would be appropriate for the three little guys.
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Apr 29, 2015 13:45
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minema posted:Oh no Yeah apart from poor sight he seems in okay health. He isnt very active though, hiding in plants most of the time because he gets bullied by the othr fish. Chili: Filters combine both bio and mechanical filtration. Sponges and other filter media filter out large debris and host the bacteria colonies that are needed to filter out ammonia and nitrites. As for tank size 20 gals should be great for three gouramis.
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Apr 29, 2015 13:54
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I'm actually getting a bit concerned for my betta. This is the third day I've had him and up until today he has been alternating between exploring the tank and resting in various places. All of today he has just been floating on the top of the tank and not eating and barely moving. His fins also don't look right, sort of limp. This is what he looked like when I got him home:  And this is what he looks like now:  What's wrong with him? Water parameters and temperature are fine.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:05
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Get some AQ salt and dose it at the correct level if it's just him in there. I had that happen to my betta and salt cleared it right up. Alternatively, wait for people who have been doing this longer than me here to tell you what's up.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:09
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Anyone ever had a Nerite with some sort of...disease...that causes them to not eat and have a green "tongue"?? I've tried googling this and had 0 relevant results. Maybe I just suck at googling I suppose. I have a heavily planted tank and ( had ) 4 nerites. I used to see them all the time despite how thickly planted the tank is at this point but lately I rarely see even 1. I've spotted an empty shell in one area but who knows how that guy died. The odd occasions I see one on the glass now is always the same - they are just moving along but not "scraping" with their tongue at all, just kind of aimlessly moving around, whereas before they were constantly working that tongue. Further, when I get up close and look, it's like the tongue/mouth is all dark green - almost like that section is coated in dark green algae/slime or something similar looking. So my first thought is some sort of green tongue snail disease but not sure what else it could be. Water parameters are more or less perfect ( alkalinity is high though, sitting at 7.6 right now, am slowly bringing it down ) and up until a few weeks ago they seemed perfectly happy. 
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Apr 29, 2015 21:06
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I have always had a high horse when it comes to quarantine of new fish, but today, I did a bad thing. After making the switch from a 75g pond to a 180g pond a few months ago, I neglected to set my quarantine tank up. I had been scouring my LFS's for Wakin Goldfish and was assured that my favorite LFS would have them in June - why setup the quarantine tank in March, right? WRONG. I walk in yesterday looking for some new airline tubing and there I see them. 3 tanks of the most gorgeously patterned, fat, 5" red and white Wakin's I have ever seen in person. 8 dollars a piece, when I had been considering spending 60+ to order 4 from a website. They had arrived 2 days earlier. I bought 6 and threw them in my display pond. Fish gods help me, I did it and broke my own rule. Maybe, just maybe, I would have waited to set up the quarantine, but that store only holds fish for a week and the last time they had Wakins (in September), someone came in the day after I looked at them and bought all ~30 of em. 5 minutes after introducing them to my pond, every single one of them ate with gusto and this morning, they are swimming around like they have been there for a year. If the fish gods strike me down, I have my aquarium salt and water heaters ready, and I only just added a few Water Hyacinth last week. Wish me luck.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:34
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cheese posted:I have always had a high horse when it comes to quarantine of new fish, but today, I did a bad thing. After making the switch from a 75g pond to a 180g pond a few months ago, I neglected to set my quarantine tank up. I had been scouring my LFS's for Wakin Goldfish and was assured that my favorite LFS would have them in June - why setup the quarantine tank in March, right? WRONG. I'm sure they will be belly up in the morning. 
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Apr 30, 2015 05:04
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My betta died. Don't really want to get another one, I think I might just make it a shrimp tank instead. Pretty bad first experience for fish ownership!
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Apr 30, 2015 13:51
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minema posted:My betta died. That's sad, he was really pretty RIP. I think it is worth trying to work out what went wrong (if anything, he might have already been sick) before giving up. Your first post about cycling was only on 19th April, so maybe your tank hadn't finished cycling? You said your parameters were good, but what were they, how hot, did you measure pH etc? What water were you using, maybe if it was city tap water there could have been something bad (for fish) in it etc. How strong was the water flow in the tank? Did anyone spray flyspray/cooking oil/deodorant/surface cleaner near the tank, or did you accidentally put your hand in the water after using lotion etc.The other thing to keep in mind is that some fish shops just don't look after their fish that well. For example, I bought five rosy barbs from my local fish store to keep my original three company, all healthy looking active and eating well. One died after the second day in quarantine, one died after the third day in quarantine. The remaining made it out of quarantine but another one died after a week in the main tank and then another one the following week, and the last one held on for another month or so before dying and he was the only one who actually showed any sign of illness, an ulcer that slowly grew and resisted all treatment. The others, one by one just stopped eating, sat on the bottom and were dead overnight and my best guess is they had an internal bacterial infection or had suffered organ damage from previous illnesses. My original three fish lived through the same conditions with no ill effect so I know there wasn't anything wrong with the tank. It's just one of those things that can happen when keeping fish. Until you find a trustworthy source of healthy fish you might go through quite a few fish that just die, even if everything else in your tank is perfect. I think I would have given up if all I'd had were the five dead fish but Olive, Melon and Ozzy were fine, stayed healthy, had babies and proved to me that my tank and my water were okay. It is a really awful feeling when you lose everything, I managed to kill an oto and a danio through sheer ignorance as a teenager, and since they both died at once I knew I'd done something wrong and it was my fault. In your case with a solo fish it's difficult to know for sure what happened. If you do decide to keep shrimp, they are awesome! But they can be a bit fussy about certain chemicals in their water and they also can have diseases and just die out of nowhere, and you have even less chance of medicating them than you do with fish. All you can do when things like this happen is try to learn from it, and if possible, do things differently next time. You know you tried your best and weren't neglectful, so don't blame yourself too hard.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:55
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How big do my guppy fry has to get before I can put them into the tank with the rest of my fish?
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Apr 30, 2015 22:01
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Much much bigger than the mouths of those other fish. I suggest sending a couple tributes to test the waters
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Apr 30, 2015 23:57
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Mocking Bird posted:Much much bigger than the mouths of those other fish. I suggest sending a couple tributes to test the waters I only have three! I can't afford to send tributes! I'm still not sure where the rest of my fry went. I found two the day I put the net in and then a third the week after. Figure I have 8 females I should have way more than three. I guess they give birth overnight and get eaten?
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May 1, 2015 00:01
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So, I'm fixated on the idea of keeping Bolivian Rams in my new 29 gallon tank, but PH is a mystery to me. I figure putting in some driftwood would help, but a worker at the fish store pointed out that lowering ph would pretty much only be temporary until the next water change. Feeling at a bit of a loss. So, two questions: how does one lower PH and keep it down through water changes OR does anyone have suggestions for fish similar to bolivian rams that might be more forgiving for a n00b with high ph tap water?
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May 1, 2015 01:26
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minema posted:My betta died. Sorry to hear that. As Stoca said above, dont lose heart. Hard to see from the pictures but looks like he was puffed up and pineconed a little. Three days since you got him is really short and could very well have been issues during his time at the shop. Still, shrimp are pretty enjoyable creatures to watch. Fingers crossed.
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May 1, 2015 01:32
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Inevitable posted:So, I'm fixated on the idea of keeping Bolivian Rams in my new 29 gallon tank, but PH is a mystery to me. I figure putting in some driftwood would help, but a worker at the fish store pointed out that lowering ph would pretty much only be temporary until the next water change. Feeling at a bit of a loss. So, two questions: how does one lower PH and keep it down through water changes OR does anyone have suggestions for fish similar to bolivian rams that might be more forgiving for a n00b with high ph tap water? What is your pH? Bolivian rams are pretty forgiving in that regard, much more so than 'german' rams, at least. To keep pH down, you can run a bag of peat in your filter, or toss some (clean!) oak leaves in the tank. Both will discolor the water to some degree, but I like the effect, myself. If you've got hard, alkaline water out of the tap, there's probably not much you can do, save buying RO water and mixing it with tap to get a hardness you're happy with so the peat can work. Alternately, if you do have hard, alkaline water, take a look at shelldwelling cichlids from lake tanganyika. Some of them are really neat looking, and they're a hoot to watch.
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May 1, 2015 02:25
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kaosAG posted:What is your pH? Bolivian rams are pretty forgiving in that regard, much more so than 'german' rams, at least. To keep pH down, you can run a bag of peat in your filter, or toss some (clean!) oak leaves in the tank. Both will discolor the water to some degree, but I like the effect, myself. If you've got hard, alkaline water out of the tap, there's probably not much you can do, save buying RO water and mixing it with tap to get a hardness you're happy with so the peat can work. Alternately, if you do have hard, alkaline water, take a look at shelldwelling cichlids from lake tanganyika. Some of them are really neat looking, and they're a hoot to watch. It's about an 8, so that's definitely pretty high. I've currently got some lemon tetras and corys in there (I'd planned on doing a South American community tank) so I need something reasonably peaceful. Maybe kribensis? Though that would throw off my South American theme 
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May 1, 2015 02:31
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Inevitable posted:So, I'm fixated on the idea of keeping Bolivian Rams in my new 29 gallon tank, but PH is a mystery to me. I figure putting in some driftwood would help, but a worker at the fish store pointed out that lowering ph would pretty much only be temporary until the next water change. Feeling at a bit of a loss. So, two questions: how does one lower PH and keep it down through water changes OR does anyone have suggestions for fish similar to bolivian rams that might be more forgiving for a n00b with high ph tap water? Blackwater Extract is easy.
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May 1, 2015 02:57
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Desert Bus posted:Blackwater Extract is easy. Yeah? How about with water changes? How can I avoid ph swings that could be harmful for the fish?
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May 1, 2015 05:06
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Stoca Zola posted:That's sad, he was really pretty Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! I really want to figure out if the tank conditions had anything to do with him dying before I get any more livestock. I think the tank was cycled, I started it at the beginning of April and had media from my boyf's tank in from the start. Had the ammonia and nitrite spikes etc. and then the ammonia was going from 1ppm to 0 ammonia 0 nitrite within 24 hours, is that fully cycled or should I have done it longer? pH was about 6, temp was about 25, ammonia + nitrite were 0 and nitrate was 30. I know the pH was lower than ideal but I didn't really want to mess around changing it, from what I had read it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The water in my area is very soft as well, maybe that didn't help? The only other thing I can think of is that the water flow was perhaps a bit too strong for him, which is one of the reasons I am leaning towards shrimp. The shrimp in the tank are all absolutely fine still, does that indicate he may just have been unwell to start off with? I am new to all this as I said so it is definitely possible I could have done things better, if anything I've said here jumps out at you please let me know! I don't want any more fishy deaths if I can help it. Also this may sound a bit uncaring but he was a pretty expensive fish and was a birthday present from my boyfriend so that made it even worse
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May 1, 2015 09:09
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It sounds like your tank was cycled fine! Using established media is a great way to do it. I've never had a betta but I read a lot about betta owners having trouble with too much flow in smaller tanks, ie the fluval spec has a ridiculously high flow rate out of the box and its common to cut a heap of holes in the hose coming out of the pump before the nozzle to the main tank, to drop the flow down to a reasonable level. So it could be he wasn't used to swimming against the flow, it tired him out, which stressed him and let a bug he was already carrying make him sick. Maybe the temperature was a little cool for a betta but its certainly not what I would call cold. The only other thing I'd say is 30 nitrate is a bit high and would warrant more frequent water changes to keep it lower (also maybe feed smaller amounts, less often, remove any uneaten food and rotten leaves). Bettas should be okay in soft acidic water and 6 pH isn't too bad, it's more of a problem if the pH fluctuates - this does happen more in acidic water than it does in pH > 7. But if you'd had a pH crash it should have knocked off your shrimp before your betta. Similarly with a lot of my chemical suggestions, I would think the shrimp would be more badly affected; the only other thing I can think of where that wouldn't be the case is if the betta had something nasty or oily on the water's surface get into his labyrinth organ, something like that might not affect shrimp further down the water column. If you've got live shrimp happily in your tank, I really think that rules out an acute problem with your water chemistry or with poisons. 30 nitrate over a longer time would make fish get sick but it would probably take weeks for the damage to be done. Hopefully another betta owner will chip in with more advice, but as far as I can tell you didn't do anything wrong.
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May 1, 2015 09:53
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I've had 3 bettas in the last few years. One was a plain old bog standard blue veiltail betta that's been in the hobby forever. Another was a platinum white. And my current one is a lovely metallic guy. The blue lived in my 4 gallon tank forever til I moved him into the 10 gallon where he enjoyed things even more. He had no health problems, ate everything in sight and was generally a terror to all other tank inhabitants til he committed suicide one night several years after I got him by jumping out of the tank while I was at work, or possibly the night before. After I moved blue out of the 4 gallon, I got an expensive platinum white. He was never particularly active, just hid a lot, and died in a few weeks from dropsy. Metallic guy is currently still alive but as I've mentioned, is blinded by metallic pigments growing over his eyes. This is an issue that seems to plague all metallic or densely colored betta hybrids. Gets bullied by the chain loaches who nip his fins if they can, but otherwise no major health issues since he can still detect food that's dropped right on top of him. I've had friends who dont know any better and have basically kept standard bettas in fishbowl conditions for years. The newer varieties look great but seem to be asking for trouble. :\
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May 1, 2015 10:07
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In terms of pH: loving it up by loving with it is more likely than unfucking anything. Unless the rams are wild caught there is no need to gently caress with your pH. Unless you want them to breed, no need to lower it either. A friend of mine breeds discus, and he has them in RO to spawn, and once the fry are a good size he slowly acclimates them to our tap water, because most people here have 8.4 from the tap and the fish are fine. Don't gently caress with pH. It's not worth it unless you have one of 6 and want to keep Tang cichlids or have an 8 and want to keep blackwater fish.
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May 1, 2015 10:52
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Cowslips Warren posted:In terms of pH: loving it up by loving with it is more likely than unfucking anything. Yeah, basically, this is my worry. I don't want to make things worse. Speaking of things getting worse, I just noticed this slimy, fibrous, but not really green crap growing on various surfaces in my aquarium. I assume it's algae, but maybe it's a bacteria? Anyway, it's ugly and starting to spread everywhere. Any ideas as to what it is, if it's a health problem for fish and how I can get rid of it? I was using a co2 supplement in the water until I noticed this poo poo growing like gangbusters. Here's a picture. It's on the rock behind the lemon tetra, a sort of mustardy blur. You can't tell in the pic, but it's made up of strands. 
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May 1, 2015 17:32
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I've had my eye on one of my guppies lately, she was the smallest female and I had just assumed she was littler due to being younger. But her colour hasn't looked right compared to the other females and she looks like she is getting paler in colour than when I first got her. The males had been following her and harrasing her same as the other females and as I'd removed the two most pregnant females in hope that they'd drop their young in a different tank, I thought perhaps she was getting stressed from all the extra attention. But much closer scrutiny has revealed that this plainly coloured, lighter guppy is actually a male, with a gonopodium... but its a different shape to the other males. So I am pretty sure this is actually a male gambusia not a female guppy, thus the different colouring and different behaviour - this fish ventures more often into deeper water than the guppies who stay fairly close to the surface. Well the male guppies were fooled too I think, so I don't feel too bad.
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May 2, 2015 07:53
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minema posted:My betta died. Bettas are kinda risky when you're going for a first fish. Lots of places, as already said, simply don't take very good care of them. Everything from the walmart pint containers to pet shops that claim "they live in muddy rice patties, they can survive a dirty tank".
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May 3, 2015 03:33
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My celestial pearl danios are spawning, eating the fry. I have 2 males and four females, not planning on breeding them but if somehow the fry survive I wont mind. Here you can see the two males in the bottom center and the females above.  Video of them fighting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFk2MSBhMk
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May 3, 2015 06:11
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