I'm not much of a blogger any more, especially not much of a fish blogger. My last post, A blank slate, was supposed to be my story of how I created a new tank, and how wonderfully it all turned out. I'd let things grow, and I'd be able to post the kind of beautiful pictures I posted in A lack of updates.
Things didn't work out that way.
Instead, it's been two years of algae problems and no more than modest successes. Two years of disappointingly messy tanks and long periods of neglected maintenance.
A tank that goes well is a joy to behold. The plants look gorgeous, the fish set things off ever so nicely. If you fall behind on your maintenance, the robust system just takes care of itself. But a tank that never quite settles out right is an ongoing struggle. It's hard to motivate yourself when things aren't going well. Algae outbreak, mediocre plant growth, all sorts of things like that. But that's the kind of tank that needs more interventions, not less. If you don't do it, the whole system just limps along.
Showing posts with label general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label general. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 August 2017
Saturday, 28 February 2015
A lack of updates
Both the excitement and the frustration of aquarium-keeping tend to come within the first few months of setting up a tank. Algae outbreaks tend to be par for the course. New fish bring with them a fascinating repertoire of behaviours, but can also bring problems (disease, conflict, failure to thrive). And the plants you put so much effort into setting up and arranging just the way you want them seem to have a mind of their own. Some you hoped to fill out die or get uprooted, while other spread like weeds.
After a few months, things tend to work themselves out. The fish adapt to your tank and to their new tank-mates. The plants get established (or die) and your main concern tends to be trimming them back and working on a coherent aquascape. (There's always the challenge of filling that one troublesome spot, or that one troublesome plant, but it tends to become a minor annoyance you're happy to live with.) Algae problems never go away, but they fade into the background. All is well and you can sit back and enjoy your tank.
That's about the time you start thinking about setting up a new tank, and replaying those problems all over again.
After a few months, things tend to work themselves out. The fish adapt to your tank and to their new tank-mates. The plants get established (or die) and your main concern tends to be trimming them back and working on a coherent aquascape. (There's always the challenge of filling that one troublesome spot, or that one troublesome plant, but it tends to become a minor annoyance you're happy to live with.) Algae problems never go away, but they fade into the background. All is well and you can sit back and enjoy your tank.
That's about the time you start thinking about setting up a new tank, and replaying those problems all over again.
Friday, 15 August 2008
Stocking
At some point, every aquarist has ask the question "how many fish should I put in my aquarium?" Conventional wisdom says "one inch of fish per gallon". Earlier this year I blogged about two articles that challenged that dogma, one in Practical Fishkeeping and the other in Tropical Fish Hobbyist. In each case, they suggested that a well-established tank could support twice that level - two inches of fish per gallon.
While territoriality and aggression can play into the number of fish you can keep in a tank, those are species specific considerations that overly any basic rule of thumb. Far more basic is the issue of oxygen supply. While certain fish depend on gaseous oxygen (the best known being the anabantoids), most fish depend on dissolved oxygen. Too many fish and too little surface area will lead to problems. The other issue is "bioload" - the production of waste products by the fish. These include nitrogenous compounds and organic waste. Ammonia and nitrites are harmful at relatively low concentrations; they tend to be a problem in new tanks, but can also build up in established tanks if the biofiltration crashes. Chances are though, if the biofilter crashes, even a moderately stocked tank will run into major problems. Nitrates, on the other hand, are only a problem at higher concentrations, but unlike ammonia and nitrites, they are not broken down by most biofilters. Organics are a separate issue - one that doesn't seem to get all that much attention. Some people specifically add organics ("black water extract") to their tanks. Others stress the importance of water changes to control the levels of organics. The simple truth is that there are a whole host of organic compounds, and their effects on fish are going to vary.
Bearing all this in mind, and the fact that "inches per gallon" is a very crude rule of thumb (more on that later), I sat down and assessed stocking in my main tank this morning. It was an interesting exercise - based on the "inch per gallon" rule, my tank is slightly overstocked. Of course, that involves weighing a 3.5-inch kuhli loach as placing a greater demand on the system than a 3-inch Macropodus (which probably has more than twice the body mass, but almost no dissolved oxygen demand). If I chose to follow the "two inches per gallon" rule, I could almost double the stock of fish in my tank. Right now, that seems reasonable - the upper two thirds of the tanke are currently occupied by three fish; everyone else is near the bottom of the tank (and largely hidden by the plants). Things looked different this morning just after I fed the fish - in the flurry of activity, the tank seemed to have twice as many fish as it does now.
Aside from the obvious issues of filtration and water changes, I think there are two main things to think about when it comes to stocking - the space available, and the overall ecology of the tank. The main tank tends to have higher nitrate levels than either of the small tanks. This is largely a function of the amount of plant biomass - the other tanks are choked with plants, which presumably consume any available nitrogen. The main tank, on the other hand, has far less plant biomass (though this may change). Increasing the plant biomass probably increases the overall number of fish the tank can support. The other issue is one of space. Where in the water column does a fish live? Recommendations for cory stocking seem to be expressed in terms of tank surface area - or actually, the area of the base of the tank. (Is this modified by having a more heterogeneous tank bottom?) In my main tank, the open water is only used by the Macropodus. The corys spend their time on the bottom of the tank, with occasional forays up and down the plants. The Glowlight tetras tend to swim among the plants, while the Rummynose like the open water in front of the plants - they rarely venture above the level of the taller plants. (I suspect that as the plants get taller, they will expand their usage). So in terms of fish to add, the obvious choice would be an open-water species (zebra danios are what come to mind) or a surface species (guppies or some other small live bearer?) That is, of course, if I decided to trust the two-inches-per-gallon rule of thumb...
While territoriality and aggression can play into the number of fish you can keep in a tank, those are species specific considerations that overly any basic rule of thumb. Far more basic is the issue of oxygen supply. While certain fish depend on gaseous oxygen (the best known being the anabantoids), most fish depend on dissolved oxygen. Too many fish and too little surface area will lead to problems. The other issue is "bioload" - the production of waste products by the fish. These include nitrogenous compounds and organic waste. Ammonia and nitrites are harmful at relatively low concentrations; they tend to be a problem in new tanks, but can also build up in established tanks if the biofiltration crashes. Chances are though, if the biofilter crashes, even a moderately stocked tank will run into major problems. Nitrates, on the other hand, are only a problem at higher concentrations, but unlike ammonia and nitrites, they are not broken down by most biofilters. Organics are a separate issue - one that doesn't seem to get all that much attention. Some people specifically add organics ("black water extract") to their tanks. Others stress the importance of water changes to control the levels of organics. The simple truth is that there are a whole host of organic compounds, and their effects on fish are going to vary.
Bearing all this in mind, and the fact that "inches per gallon" is a very crude rule of thumb (more on that later), I sat down and assessed stocking in my main tank this morning. It was an interesting exercise - based on the "inch per gallon" rule, my tank is slightly overstocked. Of course, that involves weighing a 3.5-inch kuhli loach as placing a greater demand on the system than a 3-inch Macropodus (which probably has more than twice the body mass, but almost no dissolved oxygen demand). If I chose to follow the "two inches per gallon" rule, I could almost double the stock of fish in my tank. Right now, that seems reasonable - the upper two thirds of the tanke are currently occupied by three fish; everyone else is near the bottom of the tank (and largely hidden by the plants). Things looked different this morning just after I fed the fish - in the flurry of activity, the tank seemed to have twice as many fish as it does now.
Aside from the obvious issues of filtration and water changes, I think there are two main things to think about when it comes to stocking - the space available, and the overall ecology of the tank. The main tank tends to have higher nitrate levels than either of the small tanks. This is largely a function of the amount of plant biomass - the other tanks are choked with plants, which presumably consume any available nitrogen. The main tank, on the other hand, has far less plant biomass (though this may change). Increasing the plant biomass probably increases the overall number of fish the tank can support. The other issue is one of space. Where in the water column does a fish live? Recommendations for cory stocking seem to be expressed in terms of tank surface area - or actually, the area of the base of the tank. (Is this modified by having a more heterogeneous tank bottom?) In my main tank, the open water is only used by the Macropodus. The corys spend their time on the bottom of the tank, with occasional forays up and down the plants. The Glowlight tetras tend to swim among the plants, while the Rummynose like the open water in front of the plants - they rarely venture above the level of the taller plants. (I suspect that as the plants get taller, they will expand their usage). So in terms of fish to add, the obvious choice would be an open-water species (zebra danios are what come to mind) or a surface species (guppies or some other small live bearer?) That is, of course, if I decided to trust the two-inches-per-gallon rule of thumb...
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Hints for beginners
In an article published today on Practical Fishkeeping's website, Karen Youngs has some good advice for new (and not so new) fish keepers. Some of it is obvious to anyone who has done some reading, but other things were new to me.
Her first word of advice is not to stock tanks too quickly - wait for them to cycle. When I first kept fish, back around 1980, I was unaware of the concept. I don't recall it being in any of my fish books. When I returned to the hobby last year, it was something I was made aware of almost immediately - quite rightly, it's one of the first things they tell you are the pet store. That said, I still messed up with the whole cycling thing - it would have saved me (and my platies) a lot of stress if I had understood the time course a little better. I had fin rot and "shimmying" fish - because the tank wasn't yet cycled. While everyone wants fish as soon as possible, fishless cycling is much less stressful on the aquarist. But who really knows that right when they start off?
Once you have a tank that has cycled, you still need to add new fish slowly. More fish means a larger input of nitrogenous compounds. Since the bacterial populations will be limited by food availability, adding too many fish too quickly, even to an established tank, can cause a spike in ammonia or nitrite levels.
Her next piece of advice seems pretty straightforward as well - don't overfeed. But overfeeding is an elusive idea. If you read a pack of fish food they will say "no more than the fish can consume in three minutes". But that really depends on the fish. Some fish will take a couple minutes to even notice the food. Others will just keep eating. If I could get flakes that would float for three minutes, I suspect that my Macropodus would consume their own body weight in food.
Youngs has some interesting advice about feeding that I hadn't come across before. "How often should I feed my fish?" is a common question. Some people say three times a day, some people say once a day or less. Why such diversity of answers? Probably because it depends on the fish you're keeping. Youngs advises feeding small fish like tetras and guppies several times through the day. Larger fish should be fed less frequently. In addition, herbivores need to eat more often than carnivores. This is all pretty obvious once you think it through, and it's probably something a lot of people know intuitively. But again, it isn't something I remember coming across before.
She has some fairly standard things to say about lighting and algae, but again, says them well. Good advice on acclimating your fish, and on suitable tank mates. She advises redundancy when it comes to heating and filtration - two filters, two small heaters. Why small heaters? Because if one sticks on the "on" position, it won't heat the tank up too quickly. Common sense. Hadn't thought of it.
The last point she makes has to do with stocking levels. If you visit discussion boards, most people talk about the 1 inch per gallon rule as the upper level when it comes to stocking, which is why I was surprised when I read that an article in the February issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist which suggested that you start a 10-gallon tank with "10 neon tetra-sized fish" (1 inch per gallon) but that you could eventually go to double that once your tank was well-established. Bending the rule a little - I'm sure most people do that. But going to double that? I was surprised. So it was nice to see Karen Youngs give similar advice
Her first word of advice is not to stock tanks too quickly - wait for them to cycle. When I first kept fish, back around 1980, I was unaware of the concept. I don't recall it being in any of my fish books. When I returned to the hobby last year, it was something I was made aware of almost immediately - quite rightly, it's one of the first things they tell you are the pet store. That said, I still messed up with the whole cycling thing - it would have saved me (and my platies) a lot of stress if I had understood the time course a little better. I had fin rot and "shimmying" fish - because the tank wasn't yet cycled. While everyone wants fish as soon as possible, fishless cycling is much less stressful on the aquarist. But who really knows that right when they start off?
Once you have a tank that has cycled, you still need to add new fish slowly. More fish means a larger input of nitrogenous compounds. Since the bacterial populations will be limited by food availability, adding too many fish too quickly, even to an established tank, can cause a spike in ammonia or nitrite levels.
Her next piece of advice seems pretty straightforward as well - don't overfeed. But overfeeding is an elusive idea. If you read a pack of fish food they will say "no more than the fish can consume in three minutes". But that really depends on the fish. Some fish will take a couple minutes to even notice the food. Others will just keep eating. If I could get flakes that would float for three minutes, I suspect that my Macropodus would consume their own body weight in food.
Youngs has some interesting advice about feeding that I hadn't come across before. "How often should I feed my fish?" is a common question. Some people say three times a day, some people say once a day or less. Why such diversity of answers? Probably because it depends on the fish you're keeping. Youngs advises feeding small fish like tetras and guppies several times through the day. Larger fish should be fed less frequently. In addition, herbivores need to eat more often than carnivores. This is all pretty obvious once you think it through, and it's probably something a lot of people know intuitively. But again, it isn't something I remember coming across before.
She has some fairly standard things to say about lighting and algae, but again, says them well. Good advice on acclimating your fish, and on suitable tank mates. She advises redundancy when it comes to heating and filtration - two filters, two small heaters. Why small heaters? Because if one sticks on the "on" position, it won't heat the tank up too quickly. Common sense. Hadn't thought of it.
The last point she makes has to do with stocking levels. If you visit discussion boards, most people talk about the 1 inch per gallon rule as the upper level when it comes to stocking, which is why I was surprised when I read that an article in the February issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist which suggested that you start a 10-gallon tank with "10 neon tetra-sized fish" (1 inch per gallon) but that you could eventually go to double that once your tank was well-established. Bending the rule a little - I'm sure most people do that. But going to double that? I was surprised. So it was nice to see Karen Youngs give similar advice
Nowadays with better filtration it is hard to give an exact figure, but PFK recommend the following:Getting that sort of advice from one source seemed iffy to me. Getting it from a second, independent source (and getting a more nuanced answer) makes me feel a little more inclined to integrate that factoid to my pool of knowledge.
Tropicals: 1” per gal/ 2.5 cm per 4.55 l initially, then up to a maximum of 2” per gal/5 cm per 4.55 l after six months.
Coldwater: 1” per gal/2.5 cm per 4.55 l.
Marines (fish and inverts):
1” per 4 gal/2.5 cm per 18 l.
Marines (fish only): 1” per
2 gal/2.5 cm per 9 l.
Ponds: 10” per 100 gal/25 cm per 455 l.
Friday, 2 March 2007
New tank
I bought a new tank today - a 10 gallon tank. Now I just need to clear a space for it. It would be nice to put it in the bedroom, but I don't think there's space for it in here. Actually I could put it in the corner next to my bed...but I'd need something to support it. I think the corner table in the sitting room should be a good place for it.
Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Delinquency
So, as usual, I start off with a burst of energy, but it isn't sustained. It's been over a week since I last posted...after starting off with many posts a day. On the other hand, I have to ask myself why I am bothering to write - thanks to the sitemeter, it's obvious that I am just writing for myself. With zero readers it's pretty pointless.
So anyway, to update on what's happened - a lot. I continue to have health problems with the platies. I took two more of them out this past week, put them in the small tank and dosed them with Melafix. The female died, the male, who was in much worse condition, seems fine...as "fine" as you can be when you are missing a chunk out of your tail fin anyway. The rest of the platies in the main tank seem ok...the big male keeps getting bigger and keeps bullying all the others. The babies (14 at last count) keep getting bigger too.
I moved the male fighter into the breeding box in the main tank, so I could use his tank as a hospital tank. After a few days I let him out into the main tank where he chased every other fish around for a while...and then settled down, but kept following the female around. Eventually things went badly again, she ended up with bloody fins, and he was back in isolation. Unsurprisingly, she hangs around his box all the time.
The 3 surviving pandas seem to be doing well. They aren't as boisterous as the other corys, but they will school with them from time to time. And the latest additions to the tank are four baby angels. They are a lot of fun. They are really cool fish.
Now I need another tank ;) I need to do something to reduce the platy overpopulation, and maybe to do something about the sex ratios (the five remaining adult platies in the main tank include three males and two females. I should really remove two of the males...that would leave the 2:1 (females to males) sex ratio that they recommend. I wonder how a males-only tank would get on - whether they would still bully each other if there aren't any females to fight over...
So anyway, to update on what's happened - a lot. I continue to have health problems with the platies. I took two more of them out this past week, put them in the small tank and dosed them with Melafix. The female died, the male, who was in much worse condition, seems fine...as "fine" as you can be when you are missing a chunk out of your tail fin anyway. The rest of the platies in the main tank seem ok...the big male keeps getting bigger and keeps bullying all the others. The babies (14 at last count) keep getting bigger too.
I moved the male fighter into the breeding box in the main tank, so I could use his tank as a hospital tank. After a few days I let him out into the main tank where he chased every other fish around for a while...and then settled down, but kept following the female around. Eventually things went badly again, she ended up with bloody fins, and he was back in isolation. Unsurprisingly, she hangs around his box all the time.
The 3 surviving pandas seem to be doing well. They aren't as boisterous as the other corys, but they will school with them from time to time. And the latest additions to the tank are four baby angels. They are a lot of fun. They are really cool fish.
Now I need another tank ;) I need to do something to reduce the platy overpopulation, and maybe to do something about the sex ratios (the five remaining adult platies in the main tank include three males and two females. I should really remove two of the males...that would leave the 2:1 (females to males) sex ratio that they recommend. I wonder how a males-only tank would get on - whether they would still bully each other if there aren't any females to fight over...
Sunday, 11 February 2007
Beginning
Linz got me an aquarium for my birthday, and so the adventure began. After a 20+ year hiatus, I was once again fish-crazy. And I made a new discovery - cycling. Back in "the old days" the books I had never mentioned cycling. No one talked about "New Tank Syndrome". It made sense to me - after all, I'm an ecologist, I am aware of the nitrogen cycle. But it still seemed an awful imposition :)
Anyway, with a 55-gallon tank and "magic" bacterial cultures to add, I figured I could cheat a bit. So I added plants, figuring they would help things along, and Linz's fighter. And after a couple days I bought a few platies. That's where the problem started - everything I read said more females than males, so I asked for 3 females and two males. I figured that the guy at the pet store should know what he was up to, but once I got them home and had a look at them I realised that I had four males and one female. So a few days later, since she was being harrassed so much, I added four more females. And, of course, some Corys.
A few days later, after the first female had given birth, I noticed fin rot on her and one other the other females. Not sure what that meant, I moved them into the old fighter tank, where they promptly died. (The fighter had also expired the previous day - I felt really badly, since he wasn't mine). Only then did I got looking online, and realise that rather than being a contagious disease, fin rot was most likely to be a symptom of bad water quality. So I did a water change - about 10%, because I didn't want to mess up the cycling too much.
The next day I noticed that the remaining females in the tank didn't look well either, and had some fin rot. I was going to attribute it to (harrassment by the males, but then I noticed "shimmying", and I remembered seeing something about it on a disease page. So I looked into it, and realised that my water temperature was set really low. I raised it any everyone seemed happy.
Anyway, with a 55-gallon tank and "magic" bacterial cultures to add, I figured I could cheat a bit. So I added plants, figuring they would help things along, and Linz's fighter. And after a couple days I bought a few platies. That's where the problem started - everything I read said more females than males, so I asked for 3 females and two males. I figured that the guy at the pet store should know what he was up to, but once I got them home and had a look at them I realised that I had four males and one female. So a few days later, since she was being harrassed so much, I added four more females. And, of course, some Corys.
A few days later, after the first female had given birth, I noticed fin rot on her and one other the other females. Not sure what that meant, I moved them into the old fighter tank, where they promptly died. (The fighter had also expired the previous day - I felt really badly, since he wasn't mine). Only then did I got looking online, and realise that rather than being a contagious disease, fin rot was most likely to be a symptom of bad water quality. So I did a water change - about 10%, because I didn't want to mess up the cycling too much.
The next day I noticed that the remaining females in the tank didn't look well either, and had some fin rot. I was going to attribute it to (harrassment by the males, but then I noticed "shimmying", and I remembered seeing something about it on a disease page. So I looked into it, and realised that my water temperature was set really low. I raised it any everyone seemed happy.
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