My poor aquarium

[Lili Von Shtupp]

I was only away for two and a half weeks, but that was enough time for my maid and MIL to completely obliterate my fish tank. I have a very small tank (10 or 15 gallons or so) that contained only 4 happy cherry barbs (which I've had for a long time), some Malaysian snails and fake plants. The pump is newish, but the bio-filter is full of good bacteria and I had replaced the charcoal - my tank was in top condition.

I showed them exactly how to feed the fish and was explicit about the teeny tiny amount of food to give.

Lo and behold, when I got back yesterday, the tank was empty. All four barbs were gone, and there was one mysterious fish, I don't even know what it was, in a filthy temporary holding tank next to my main tank.

Mother in law went on and on about the snails in the tank and how they had killed the original fish , so she and the maid went out and bought 4 more fish and three of those died too, apparently the result of another violent snail attack . So they removed the remaining fish from snail danger and left him to smother in his own waste .

Well, I found the problem - you people should have seen my biofilter. There was nothing left but a mass of slimy jelly that stank like sewage. I checked my food container, which was half full when I left - it was almost gone. They'd given about 4 months worth of food in under 2 weeks. They were most likely shaking it in like table salt.

Grrrrr. I had no choice but to throw away all my filter materials and start the cycling process over again. The tank is vacuumed out and I have transferred the one surviving fish as gently as possible into the new set up, but he's in shock after what he's been through and he certainly won't survive an uncycled tank. He's basically hunkered in the corner waiting to die.

So, after all that ranting, can any of you aquarium experts tell me if I can cycle the tank with just the snails? I haven't culled the herd in a bit, so I've got a few. I'm thinking that with their bio processes, they could do the job, right? If so, how long do you think it would be before I could introduce fish? A couple weeks? A month?

Big sigh.

[Morrolan]

depending on the type of fish, you can put some in quite early. most can survive uncycled water with just some Tetra AquaSafe or SafeStart and Torumin, plus some quick start freeze dried bacteria. add a few real plants as well. i've kept all kinds of (sometimes very) exotic fish in various sizes of tanks (upto very large), and always used to put my fish back into a new tank as soon as it reached the right temperature (within hours) and never lost one.

unless you are breeding discus, you can easily work this way.

[Lili Von Shtupp]

Thanks, M. I was under the impression that bottled tank cyclers weren't very effective. I've never heard of freeze dried bacteria, I don't even know if my tank shop will have it.

Real plants - you know, I've considered real plants, but since my tank is so small I was worried about overdoing it with the biological matter in there. My Malaysian snails won't eat them, since they just grub around under the gravel, really, but is there a danger of introducing a new specie of snails to the tank via the live plants?

[baloo]

No wonder any attempt I had to have a fishtank ended in tears. The only fish that survived with me was one of those ugly cat fish thingies that suck up the scum. It was quite a monster in the end.

[Morrolan]

No wonder any attempt I had to have a fishtank ended in tears. The only fish that survived with me was one of those ugly cat fish thingies that suck up the scum. It was quite a monster in the end.

plecostomus, i reckon... i once had a tank dedicated solely to cat fish; from African back swimmers to rare wild caught South American plecostomus spec.

[baloo]

Google images says yoou are right M. That thing grew into a monster.

[Morrolan]

is there a danger of introducing a new specie of snails to the tank via the live plants?

very limited risk. check in the shop if the tank where they keep the plants has snails on the glass anywhere. if not, you should be right. plants are very effective at using up the fertilizer that is left after the bacteria turn the waste into useful elements. without them your tank will have a hard time reaching and maintaining any kind of equilibrium.

edited to add: the shop in Singapore where i used to go had the dried bacteria. one of those 24 hour uncle and aunty shops under an HDB block.

[Morrolan]

Google images says yoou are right M. That thing grew into a monster.

the Fullerton used to have at least two 40 cm monsters in their bonsai pool.

[Lili Von Shtupp]

Thanks for the advice. My aquarium shop is in Serangoon, there's a whole walking avenue of pet sops and this fish shop is huge, so I'm sure they have it. I just never thought to ask.

I'll do a little plant research and head over there later, then.

[Morrolan]

Tetra SafeStart is also contains bacteria...

anyway, i found Singapore the easiest place in the world for keeping tropical fish. we put six yellow African chichlids called Leleupi in a small outdoor pond (about 1m in square and 40 cm deep) and within a year we had 60... no water management at all, the rain kept it full for most of the year and we'd just add tap water with the garden hose during the dry season. only added a bit of food on occasion. same with bettas, but then again that's just about a local fish.

[Snaffled]

I know its all very serious, but I had to laugh at the violent snail attack comment ...

[Pinklepurr]

So did I Snaff, images of gangs of killer snails waiting behind plants to attack those poor fish...



Lily, I hope you get your tank back up to normal again soon, there is nothing worse than a lovely cared for aquarium that is ruined like this. I will never understand why people overfeed, but so many do it. It is one of the reasons I don't have a tank. Mr PP is one of those overfeeders as well, if you could have seen what he did to just a couple of goldfish the boys had it is enough to banish any thoughts of a nice aquarium in the house. I am sure your MIL and maid are the same, no amount of explanation will do to make these people realise that fish do not need bags of food every day. It is definite stuff...good luck with restoring it again.

[Aliya]

Did you beat your MIL and maid to death? I would be steaming! Already have a very sick cat because of our maid grrrr.

In fact didnt you recently have to beat both of them over something similar a while ago??

[Fat Bob]

the rain kept it full for most of the year

Did you know that's bordering on illegal? You're not allowed to collect rain water for your own use by all accounts.

[Lili Von Shtupp]

Did you beat your MIL and maid to death? I would be steaming! Already have a very sick cat because of our maid grrrr.

In fact didnt you recently have to beat both of them over something similar a while ago??

Wow, A. Great memory. That was about 2 and a half years ago. MIL was "helping me" by dumping food in the tank behind my back. I had to empty out the whole thing and clean it - then a few months later my maid decided to do me a favor by cleaning the tank for me, completely replacing the biofilter with new wool. I'm being killed with kindness over here.

I can't believe this poor little surviving fish isn't dead yet. He's traumatized by the whole experience, but my MIL would tell you it's those delinquent snails (you should have seen her face when she was telling me about them - you would have thought they were packing switchblades, she was so excited).

Haven't had the time to get to the fish shop. Grrrr...

Rainwater - I think you can let it collect if the pool or tank is either a) treated with a chemical that will prevent mosquito breeding or b) stocked with fish who will love to dine on delectable mosquito larvae, which M's was.

[Aliya]

He is like my Xiao Hei, MrA and the vet all said "survive, cannot" but that little shite is chewing his way through small amounts of food! I keep promising him mice in the hay barn Your little fish will be fine x

[chocolate]

Fish respond quite well to CPR...personal experience.....neighbours goldfish....

[Kooky]

But you'll have to get chocolate round to do it as she's the only person small enough.

[chocolate]

I charge by the compression

[Morrolan]

the rain kept it full for most of the year

Did you know that's bordering on illegal? You're not allowed to collect rain water for your own use by all accounts.

you know me: i like to live life on the edge...

[Rosbif71]

just bought an Dymax IQ3 tank and have a male Betta in it. probably won't add anything else even though my local aquarium say I can add 5-6 tetras. I feel its far too small for that. may add 3-4 shrimps once the tank is more established
would love to have a much bigger tank so this will be my learning curve

[slinky]

just bought an Dymax IQ3 tank and have a male Betta in it. probably won't add anything else even though my local aquarium say I can add 5-6 tetras. I feel its far too small for that. may add 3-4 shrimps once the tank is more established
would love to have a much bigger tank so this will be my learning curve

I thought betas kill any/all other fish? Absolute worst 'party gift' the slinkies have ever gotten were a beta fish each and little plastic fish bowls to put them in. Couldn't put them together because they're fighting fish and we have a cat, so couldn't leave the bowls where the cat could get at them. Locked in bathrooms is where they ended up

I wouldn't mind a nice aquarium though, but given the work they entail and all the 'help' (I'm sure it would be Lili's kind of 'help') I'd surely get around here, I think I'll have to pass for now.

Hope you can save that last little fighter, Lili!

[Lili Von Shtupp]

Oh, no, that poor fish didn't make it. I think it was all a bit too much for him.

I did take M's advice, though. Bought the Tetra AquaSafe and some live plants. Then a bit after that bought a small shoal of silvery tetras. I'm happy to report that I have a pretty good looking biofilter coming along, the wool is looking nice and pond-y. Next week I'll probably get a few cherry barbs, as the tetras mostly hang around the water's surface, the barbs will skim the bottom. With my small tank I can only keep a handful of fish, though.

Slinky, I originally bought this set up for Wolfie. His first word was 'fish' and he was fascinated by the fish shop at the market, so I picked up this little 10-15 gallon tank. He was interested in it for about 20 minutes. I, on the other hand, fell in love with it. I love my fish tank. I can't explain why, it's everything - over here we got old people, young people, cats, plants, fish - a house full of life and I love that. (...although I do wish the old people would keep their mitts off the tank! )

[Burbage]

Be careful adding new fish.

Aquasafe is really just a water conditioner.

Monitor ammonia and nitrite until they are both zero. Then add a couple more fish. Monitor ammonia and nitrite until they are zero. Then add a couple more fish. This is the safe process. once you have a good population of bacteria then a small increase in the number of fish will require a week or so for the population to adjust to the new bioload. Also remember that in fact the biological loading of the filter is not fish mass = bacteria, but food introduced = bacteria.

It's not complex and it's worth reading up on the details of the nitrogen cycle and how it works in a fish tank. The most important thing to remember is this:

You are keeping bacteria, not fish.

Once your nitrites are zero you can measure nitrates. Try to keep them below 10ppm, which is pretty easy in a small tank. You just need regular water changes.

[Rosbif71]

all that is why I am going to stick with just the single Beta at the moment. if they can live in a tiny unfiltered bowl then I'm sure they can survive in one of these