please help!

Byron

Almost certainly a livebearer fry, either molly or platy. You know that a female once impregnated can deliver several consecutive broods, of up to 100 fish each time? You may have many more fish before long.

They will survive if they have good plant cover, preferably at the surface. Floating plants like cabomba, hornwort, water sprite work best because they provide depth.

yyankeeyankeefan

i also have some Anacharis coming in in a couple days. about 24-36 stems of it. i am going to group this all together to make a nice little bush for the fish to hide in. it should be here at the latest 2/08. so i am hoping that the fry can hold out a little longer!

yyankeeyankeefan

sadly to say one of the neon tetras didn't make it. though it wasn't from the water...was from my 4 year old. got ahold of my net and fished one out to pet...... he cried for an hour because he killed the poor thing. he said sorry to the other fish til he went to be and even offered them his blankie as a comfort. i don't know if i should be mad or understanding to him. have any of you had a similar problem and if so how did you handle it.

Tazman

Be understanding to him...it gives him knowledge that he did wrong and can get over it. Being mad will ony serve to make him scared of going near the tank.

When I was setting my 180g tank up, my now 5 year old who was 3 at the time, decided it was a good idea to put some of his toys in it. I did not have the covers for it at the time. Rather than shouting at him, I took him to the pet store and let him choose a small decoration to put in the tank. He knows not to put things in the tank now and can sometimes spend ages watching the fish. He loves helping me do water changes.

If I had shouted at him for doing it then it would probably have made him sacred to go near it in case daddy shouted at him.

yyankeeyankeefan

very true. i didn't shout at him i just told him why we can't pet the fish but i tried to stay calm. instead i showed him that you can play with the tetras from out side the tank (if you swish your hand across the tank they all swim away) so he finds that entertaining for now. i hope that he has learned from this and doesn't do it again. think the poor fish will have a heart attack if they see him with a net how. lol.

one fish looking at another "omg it's the kid SWIM AWAY!"
2nd fish swimming away "what if we can't outswim the net?!"
1st fish "well i only have to out swim you"

yyankeeyankeefan

i have just added more plants into the tank today. it is a decent sized bush of anacharis. will post a pic. bought this plant because i read it was going to produce lots of oxygen and it was great for helping a tank cycle. should this actually work?

yyankeeyankeefan

the new plants are on the far lefthand side of the picture. will still be adding more. want a heavily planted tank. gonna have it be a mini jungle in there :D

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Byron

Yes. More important than the oxygen though is that being fast growing it will take up more of the "bad" stuff, like ammonia. This is a move in the right direction.

yyankeeyankeefan

awesome! glad to hear it. i am hoping to have my duckweed in early next week. also i have a filter that has the option of getting filter insert that will filter out the amonia. should i invest in this at this point?

beetlebz

I just want to say this is such a nice change of pace. I read lots of posts, and the trouble is there are so few local and informed sources of information on the hobby, which is one reason I have come back to the forums. I cant tell you how trying it gets when you constantly get texts, calls, and see forum posts that sum up to 'I have a 4 foot shark in a 55 gallon tank and its tailfin is now sticking up out of the canopy. Can I feed it hot dogs?'

Good on you for being smart about your fishes welfare :)