kemst Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 So, I have since display tank recently "renovated" with a breeding colony of electric yellows and a breeding colony of demasoni. I live in a small terrace so it is the only tank I have. A friend had her tank crack and had a few fish she needed to survive, so I agreed to take her fish (about 7 of them). I put them in my tank and thought all was well, but I think I overloaded it but didn't do any water changes.Yesterday morning all was good, but within a few hours the entire tank was decimated. I think it may have been an ammonia spike.My 4 year old daughter loves looking tan the fish (and especially the new "babies") and she was the one to find them all dead. She was devistated and cried for about an hour.Not a good start to the year, but I am taking the opportunity to start fresh. Any suggestions of what to stock the tank with? It is about 200L. I like an active tank with a bit of colour. Can't really afford to buy adults so will just get fry and invest time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 What are the dimensions of the tank? I cant suggest much until i know the bottom surface area, considering most of the ideas i have for you require bottom area territories to thrive, and not kill eachother lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 It is a triangular tank - approximately 2 ft x 2ft by a little over 2 ftEstimated surface area is a little over 2 ft2 or about 0.185m2 ?Height is about 550mm. I have plenty of rocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Sorry, but it is pretty difficult to house much in a tank with that bottom surface area. Most cichlids like a long and wide tank. If you had a 4 ft 200L you could do much more than a triangular 200L tank. I can though suggest dwarf cichlids and open water column dither fish, like tetras. All require good water quality 100% of the time.lots of different Apistogramma species are very pretty and interesting, but require soft acidic water and a fair bit of cover. Shell dwellers from Lake Tanganyika would work well in that tank also. These require the opposite water to apistogramma, hard, alkaline water, much like malawians. As the name suggests, they dwell in shells, so require more than 2 round snail style shells each to make their homes, depending on the species. Very interesting, pretty little fish, highly recommend. True characters they are.I can suggest, doing a bit more research on what ive mentioned. Hope this gives you something to work withCody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Hi Kemstcan you advise a couple of more thingswhat filtration do you use what were the other fishhow long had the other fish been in your tankhas anything else happened in the area the tank is inpower loss, spraying insecticide etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 A "few hour" turn around from fine to all dead definitely sounds more like a poison than some kind of introduced illness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 I have a large canister filter with 3 generous layers of seasoned media. The media (and most of the tank water) was from my old tank (last set up about 5 years ago).The other fish were two large blue dolphins, two large Nimbochromis Venustus and two other similar shaped fish I cannot identify.Nothing else that I know of happened near the tank. I switched off the bubbler on monday morning - but I don't know if that would make that much difference.The tank was stocked about 4 weeks ago without any drama and the new fish were introduced on Sunday morning. The mass extinction was noticed at about 2pm on Monday.When I got home last night I discovered that there were 2 survivours. Both bristlenose catfish made it.There was also a julidichromis regani - I liked him. I have had shellies in the past - but since I have so much height in this tank I would like the fish to use all "levels". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gombe Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Turn off the air and hot day = disastrous. In hot days we need as much air as possible. Your next stock list could be maingano and saulosi Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxious_nasties Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Turn off the air and hot day = disastrous. In hot days we need as much air as possible.Your next stock list could be maingano and saulosiGood luckI'm with you. Lack of oxygen would be my first guess. This is provided their was no aggression leading to death otherwise you'd get an ammonia spike fooling you into thinking it was a filter issue. Doesn't take long to take affect and when it does it's a chain reaction after the first fish dies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Turn off the air and hot day = disastrous. In hot days we need as much air as possible.Your next stock list could be maingano and saulosiGood luckI'm with you. Lack of oxygen would be my first guess. This is provided their was no aggression leading to death otherwise you'd get an ammonia spike fooling you into thinking it was a filter issue. Doesn't take long to take affect and when it does it's a chain reaction after the first fish dies.Perhaps, but terraces don't heat up that much - temperatures were not overly hot. I usually have the air on only when the light is on - and both are on a timer. So the air woudl have been off only for a few hours. I have never had any issues before - that said - I will keep the air on in future.Would the chain reaction be that rapid when one fish dies? Or are you suggesting that there may have been an ammonia spike because of a dead fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 I like the look of the saulosi. Especially because the females are such a different colour (so blue and orange in the tank at teh same time). How dense can they be poltaed and what are good tankmates?I have had maingano in the past - but I would like something with different colouring - any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YAL05T Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 They went from highly oxygenated water to extra fish added and less dissolved oxygen. Never stop aeration, I would put that down as the reason for the loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 They went from highly oxygenated water to extra fish added and less dissolved oxygen. Never stop aeration, I would put that down as the reason for the loss.Ok, thanks. I think I need to buy a better (quieter) air pump. I used to have a Hydor immersible "Airio" which was great. Maybe a new one of those is in order... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxious_nasties Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Turn off the air and hot day = disastrous. In hot days we need as much air as possible.Your next stock list could be maingano and saulosiGood luckI'm with you. Lack of oxygen would be my first guess. This is provided their was no aggression leading to death otherwise you'd get an ammonia spike fooling you into thinking it was a filter issue. Doesn't take long to take affect and when it does it's a chain reaction after the first fish dies.Perhaps, but terraces don't heat up that much - temperatures were not overly hot. I usually have the air on only when the light is on - and both are on a timer. So the air woudl have been off only for a few hours. I have never had any issues before - that said - I will keep the air on in future.Would the chain reaction be that rapid when one fish dies? Or are you suggesting that there may have been an ammonia spike because of a dead fish?It only takes a change in the weakest link of an environment to turn from good to lethal. From what you have described, the tank went from low stock to higher stock (inducing it's own temporary shock on the filter) alongside a greater biological oxygen demand (BOD) and turning off the airstones (decreasing the oxygen exchange). Changes with oxygen can occur on a rapid basis if the elements are against the tank. It doesn't take long for oxygen depletion to occur in moderate temps and this is accelerated when the tank has a high stocking density.The chain reaction I was suggesting can be triggered by the death of one fish due to either aggression or lack of resilience to low oxygen levels (sensitive species observed in various environments are known as bioindicators - they are the first to die off due to lack of coping mechanisms). As soon as you lose one fish, if you have other factors at play such as a low oxygen environment the ecosystem turns from aerobic to anoxic and development of ammonia from the corpse accelerates the situation - positive feedback mechanism.I've found the stellar pumps to be my favourite so far. They last ages and have good air output with a fairly quite operation overall.Cheers,John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gombe Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Kingsizei I or Electra, one of the zebras have multiple colours between male and female red zebra I think, anyway I'll get corrected if I'm wrong edited due to auto correct not knowing Latin, how many times does that happen to people, you write something, send it only to find auto correct stuffs it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemst Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I have tested retained water and nitrates and nitrites are both very high. Ammonia and pH were ok.Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into combinations and availability when i have rehabilitated and redecorated the tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazzman Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I like the look of the saulosi. Especially because the females are such a different colour (so blue and orange in the tank at teh same time). How dense can they be poltaed and what are good tankmates? I have had maingano in the past - but I would like something with different colouring - any suggestions? you will need to stick to small speices. maybe consider Pseudotropheus saulosi 1M/3F + Iodotropheus sprengarea 1M/3F. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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