HELP! my fish are getting beat up!

1077

Personally I feel the fish are not particularly pleased with the enviornment they are in but hey,, They didn't have any say in the matter. The whiptail, Farlowella,striped raphael,Angelfish,rams,and plecos will all suffer with weekly addition of aquarium salt. They may not show symptoms of suffering for some time, but eventually the salt content of the water will affect their osmoregulatory functions. Salt does not evaporate or dissipate in the aquarium and with weekly addition of salt, well,,, there will be no need for worry about the fish getting too large for I suspect many will become sick and perhaps die as a result. None of the fish mentioned tolerate salt for any prolonged period of time,and some of them ,, not at all.

I see Mikaila, has beaten me to the punch in regards to use of salt .

Shadowcat0789

Just adding my two cents, I've got an African Knife fish and discovered through research that many knife fish produce a very very weak electrical current that they use to locate their prey, similar to a bat's echo location and as such, two knife fish shouldn't be kept together because they will confuse each other's "sonar" if you will. Now I may be wrong about the GKF but if it is a true knife fish then it should follow that same pattern. If you notice, that's what those two 'feeler' like projections on the front of their mouth are for.

LOUIE ACES

ok so i took out the glass knife and a ram. it looks like my angels haven't gotten kicked around since. i guess i can part with the Clown Pleco and the loricaria since those are my least favorite. also, just a question, but i've heard that slight overcrowding could cut down on aggression. obviously that could be the root to my problem so was i just missinformed?

as far as the salt is concerned, i only use the recommended dosage to keep a healthy status and only add the equivalent to the amount of new water i add during the water changes so the salt level is never going up or down

Fishin Pole

overstocking to cut down on aggression was mainly for african cichlid tanks...........After raising them for close to 20 years, i think that overcrowding for aggression is a crock...............IMO, all that does is stress the fish out even more and lead me to believe the more docile fish will still get picked on............Overcrowding a tank leads to more water issues and more frequent water changes

You said about the recommended dosage of salt.....Who is recommending you put salt in your tank?.........Brackish tanks require salt, but putting it in a freshwater tank for no reason isnt wise in my opinion.........IMO, salt should only be used as a medication aid for ich..............Even for some species with ich, its still very harmful to their internal organs............


Your opening title for this thread was" Help!, my fish are getting beat up".........a bunch of very knowledgable members gave you good advice on what you need to do to combat the situation your tank is in........I'm sorry if the info provided wasnt wht you wanted to hear, but they are correct in their thinking......We gave you info to stop the aggression in your tank...........

DragonFish

Your on the right track, but I would still get rid of a lot more then that, including(thought not limited to)the other ram, your BGKF, and one of your sharks. The Clown Pleco is actually the one that I would keep if I were you and perhaps one more bottom dweller, probably the Loricaria even. Again, standing by my previous advice.
I'm a fan of under stocking, so don't have experience in the over stocking area....

I agree totally and fully with the what others said as well, especially Mikaila31. I cannot add anything to the stunting advice as I am unfamiliar experience-wise with the growth rate of the species of fish you have apart from the Angels. But what size were the Angels when you purchased them? My Angel I got around....oh, 3 months ago at about 2" and since then he as at least doubled in size. Since most angels I see are sold, at their smallest, around dime sized, this worries me that in 6 months they haven't grown very much at all. I don't know, perhaps mine was a quick grower or its just to stage of life he is is, but none the less....

As for the salt, I definitely agree it shouldn't be added. Instead, get yourself some water conditioner(someone else can recommend a good brand). Catfish and Plecos especially will greatly suffer with the addition of any salt. IMO, Salt shouldn't be added to any fresh water aquarium(they aren't called 'Fresh Water' for nothing ) unless your treating for something like Ich and even then I'd look up every other alternative.

Byron

On the overcrowding/aggression issue, previous replies have been completely accurate--overcrowding does absolutely nothing good but plenty bad. In your defence, perhaps you were thinking of shoaling fish that have bullying behaviours; it is true that when kept in larger groups these behaviours are lessened from what they can be with one or two or three fish. But this is not overcrowding, it is keeping a more-natural number of the particular species together in a shoal and in a properly-sized aquarium. When this is done, agression or bullying among the males is often lessened.

On the salt, again the others are correct. There was an excellent article by Laura Muha in the December 2006 issue of TFH that dealt with tanks size vs growth rate in freshwater tropical fish, and she conferred with a number of leading ichthyologists, biiologists and experienced aquarists across America in collecting the scientifically-proven facts she presents in that article. I'm not going into the specifics that salt and overcrowding cause, but both are highly detrimental and the source of a number of internal diseases, other health issues and even behavioural problems. Don't use salt, period.

A successful community aquarium--and successful means the fish are healthy, free of stress and exhibiting their natural colours and behaviours as best as possible--requires that the fish in the tank have basically the same requirements concerning water parameters (temperature, pH, hardness, salnity) and their environment (plants, wood, rock, caves...whatever) and have compatible behaviours. When the fishes preferred environment is provided, they will have much less stress and practically no health issues and reward the keeper with fascinating behaviours according to their biological programming. All of us have a responsibility to provide this for the fish.

Mikaila31

WOW...... After watching the video of this tank in another thread, it appears all your tanks are just as badly stocked as this one if not worse.

You wrote this as your stocking about 2 weeks ago.... all your tanks need some drastic upgrades and reorganizing if you want the majority of these fish to live for any extended time. Edit: I'm also guessing you don't test the water, since you are not posting stats.

30 Gallon:
1 Black Ghost Knife Fish
1 Glass Knife Fish
1 Albino Rainbow Shark
3 Assorted Veil Tail Angelfish
2 German Blue Ram Cichlids
1 Neon Tetra
1 Loricaria Whiptail Catfish
1 Farlowella Whiptail Catfish
1 Clown Pleco
1 Striped Raphael Catfish

45 Gallon Hexagon:
1 Venustus
1 Kenyi
1 Red Zebra
1 White Zebra
1 Aulonocara Blue Gold
1 Electric Blue
1 Melanochromis auratus
1 Hi Fin Butterfly Catfish
1 Spotted Raphael Pleco

10 Gallon:
1 Calico Fantail Goldfish
1 Calico Ryukin Goldfish
1 Black Moor Goldfish
1 Red/White Ryukin
1 Angelfish
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Black Mollie

goldenfish112

BKG is a perfect community fish ....I think the plecos are responsible for all the beatings

LOUIE ACES

ok i've got a lot of responses.....

the salt is definitely out from now on. thank you all. i only added it with water changes because it says on the box "maintains healthy aquarium and prevents disease and sickness". i thought a small recommended dosage was recommended. also the overcrowding advice is very helpful. again, thanks.

as far as not checking my water conditions, you assumed, and you assumed wrong. i check my water conditions weekly. i'm sorry i may not be as seasoned to fish care as you "professionals" but i feel i do the best i can and i am constantly trying to learn something i don't know about (the salt) so don't come at me like i'm an ignorant abusive fish owner.

the cichlid tank i bought entirely AS IS and the previous owner said all those fish lived together all their lives and were happy together. the 10 gallon tank, all those fish are very small and i'm still working on moving them around.

and yes i did title the thread "help my fish are getting beat up" and yes i'm taking all the advice i get. however i hate to buy fish just to return them. i really like the fish i got and enjoy watching them and plus i would lose all that money bc the store won't give me jack sh*t for them. so if i could avoid losing the money and keeping the fish that i bought bc i wanted them, then it's gonna take me an extra day or so to think it over. thanks

to all that are posting positive advice and supportive criticism, thank you and i'm listening and trying to do the best to provide good homes for my fish

Mikaila31

Before you buy any fish the number one thing is that you need to research it. This solves many problems before they happen. Also don't take LFS advice.

The only option you have is looking for a 100gal + tank if you want to keep those fish, and you need to do it sooner than September. You may not get any $ for the fish if you give them back to the store. But you may still lose them anyway, so the best thing for the fish is to give them up. Also Have you asked the store? If you tell them the bad advice they gave you and you want to return the fish, they may let you. If not b*tch at them and don't go back to that store as they are clearly in it only for profit. Also some stores take fish in at a fraction of what they sell them. Most of the ones around here give 1/3 the cost of retail, at least that way you can get some of your cash back.