More Fish

I got 3 Corydoras Trilineatus fish today. I wanted to get the Albino Cory, but the LFS keeps not having them. I guess it doesn't matter because when the tank is done being stocked I want to have 6 cory - I guess I'll just get 3 Albino later.

They are pretty active fish. I always thought cory spend all their time on the bottom of the tank, but I already so one checking out to top of one of my plants.

They also seem to hand out pretty far from each other in the tank. However when I went to try and get the pregnant fish out of the tank all 3 grouped up very quickly until they realized they were not the target of the net.

Fish in breeding box

So I just moved two of my pregnant fish into a breeding box. Let me be perfectly honest. I don't like the breeding box at all. My largest issue is the way it attaches to the tank - Which is to say it hardly attaches at all. I have half a mind to just weigh it down to the bottom of the tank and secure the lid on it tightly. As it is I wouldn't be shocked to find it sitting at the bottom of the tank in the morning with nothing in it.

My other problem with the breeder box is it is tiny, which I suppose is a issue with most or at least nearly most breeding boxes. Right now I have 2 pregnant fish in the box together. I have two more roaming free in the tank. I just could not bring myself to put all 4 into the same breeder box even though it is designed to hold at least that many fish.

I guess it is actually kind of good that I don't want to put all 4 fish into the box. This way I will see what works best. If in 30 days my free roaming fish's fry live then I will know that I don't have to use this silly box ever again.

Oh and one other thing. Trying to catch 1 much less 4 swordtails in a 90 gallon tank... Ya... It's not easy what so ever.

Part 4 - Pregnet Fish

So today I was looking at my tank and noticed something. My male swordtail was chasing one of the female swordtails around the tank.

And boy was he intent on catching her. However upon closer inspection the male seems to have been around the tank quite a few times already. 1 of my females was quite plump. Even more inspection reveled that perhaps only 1 swordtail had not been caught yet by the male.

I suspect at this point it would be much easier on the last female if she would simply allow herself to be caught instead of getting chased around the tank all day long.

I will be sure to update this as needed.

Hopefully the LFS wants some swordtails to buy.

Step Three Part B - Buying More Fish

So I have been kind of lacking in keeping this up to date so it is time for some catch up.

If you see "---" it means that time has past (typically about 6-10 days) between events.

I have 3 new species in my tank now, and 3 new plants. I also have substrate now.

So I bought Gold Tux Swordtails. I got male and 6 females. They like to swim all over the tank and at least 2 are always out in the open.

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I then got substrate. I decided on pool filter sand because I have heard the fish tend to like it, and it's easy to plant with since the plant roots can easily dig into the sand. Sadly I wasn't paying much attention when I put the sand it, and choked out one of my swordtails. Thankfully though this is the first and only death in the tank, which puts me way ahead of where I was at this point in the previous setup.

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I then bought a Amazon Sword. I had this plant in my previous tank and I loved it. This one though is a lot more healthy then my last, and seems to be on the verge of flowering.

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I then bought Red Eye Tetras. These were by far the most expensive because of where I bought them, but well worth the purchase. I have one that will just float right under the heater. He must feel safe there because the heater has been on a total of maybe 10 hours in the past month.

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I then got two more plants. The first one is a "green hedge". Don't buy this plant. From everything I am reading it isn't meant to be underwater and will eventually drown and die.

The second plant I got was Wisteria. It kind of looks like parsley. More on this plant in a moment.

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I then bought 2 Albino Clawed Frogs (image). These guys are fun little critters. At the moment they are much smaller then the gouramis in the tank, but don't tell them that - During feeding time they will chase off the other fish, and whey they are not eating (they are slow to take bites) they will sit on top of the food. But when they do decide to eat they are very quick and use their hands to hold the food and chow down. They also love to lounge away in the Wisteria plant in the corner of the tank.

When I first put them into the tank they would intentionally get themselves lodge between the HOB filter and the tank glass. They days it isn't shocking to see them lodge between the plants and the glass. When they do this they look dead because of the really strange ways they will position themselves, but their not - Their just chilling.

They also don't seem to move around a ton, but don't let them fool you. They might tend to move slow, but when they decide to put the pedal to the metal they easily are the fastest species in the tank.

Third Step - Buying First Fish

Yesterday I bought the first fish for the tank.

They are 3 Blue Gourami's. I made the choice based off of this site. After getting out of the bag (where they were flipping out) they seem very content. And I would hope so - Using the 1 inch rule I could nearly put another 20 of them in the tank with them still being content.

Of course the 1 inch rule needs to be used with a grain of salt.

I'm pretty sure my next fish purchase is going to be a bunch of albino cory (which is effectively this fish).

Step Two - Resetting Up

Now it was time to set the tank back up.

First I put the filters back on. Then the heater. Then the hood.

Then I started filling.

Then I put in the water conditioner.

I decided to put in cold water. I figured with the 90+ degree heat this would be the most cost effective way to get the tank where I want it temperature wise.

I then put the air line back into the tank. I forgot about it. Not that it mattered - The water line was still not above the tube's bottom.

I then put the thermometer back in. The reading was 60 degrees straight out of the tap.

And now it is full.

I turned on the filter (without media), heater, and air pump.

Next is to let the tank cycle, which is step three.

First Step - Clean Up

The first step was obvious. Get every ounce possible of chaos out of the tank. The first step however involved a lot more then 1 step.

First I used my "No Spill Clean & Fill Python" knockoff to drain as much water from the tank as possible.

To do this I pushed as much of the gravel as I could up against one side so it would be easier to get as much water out as possible.

As I was removing the water I was also vacuuming the gravel. I figure that when I get around to cleaning the gravel it will be much easier to clean vacuumed gravel then 100% dirty gravel.

I then starting cleaning the sides with a clean dish sponge with the dirty water (bear with me). While doing this I was picking up the rest of the water I could not get with the sponge and putting it in a bucket to throw away.

I then removed the gravel with a 16 oz cup one scoop at a time.

After that I got any left over dirty water out for the final time with the sponge.

I then washed my two hang on the back (HOB) power filters, heater, and thermometer. I also of course cleaned all the suction cups.

I then took very hot water and cleaned the sides of the tank.

After that for the final time I removed the water with the sponge that was from the hot water cleaning.

I started at around 10:30 am and finished around 2:30pm. Mind you it was 93+ degrees and felt like (according to Weather.com) 96 degrees. I also took around a hour and a half break total so it took me about 2 hours to clean up the mess - Draining time included.

Chaos

I had a 90 gallon fish tank set up, and sadly it went from great, to a pure disaster in less then 24 hours.

I don't know if it was the heat. I don't know if it was the new fish in the tank. I don't know if a existing problem suddenly decided to manifest. I don't know if I disturbed a air pocket of toxins when I cleaned the tank. Heck, I don't know if I managed to kill to much beneficial bacteria when I cleaned the tank.

All I know is that a great tank with two peaceful oscars, and a bunch of goldfish all died within 48 hours.

So what do you do when your favorite fish tank goes belly up? You write a blog about the after math of course. This blog will in the first post go from what I did to clean up the disaster to what I did to restart the tank with new fish and beyond. I will talk about all the equipment I have, and all the fish I have. But most of all - I will be honest. Hold nothing back, even if I know I am a fool for doing something. This blog will be as much a reference for myself as I hope it will be for other people.

I have no plans for exact fish yet, but I highly suspect this will be a community tank, instead of the semi aggressive tank it was previously. It is a 90 gallon tank so there is quite a bit of room for a very interesting tank.

Wish me better luck this time around.