rock decoration

NoaDon12

i have a rock that i got from petco, it has caves in it so the fish can swim through. it's getting covered with brown spots witch makes me worry. there are also some occasional green spots. is this just simply dirt, or is it algae?! -NoaDon12-

JohnnyD44

both the brown and green are forms of algae....what are you parameters?

NoaDon12

change of topic.......... my blue gourami bit off half of my green tiger barb's tale!!!!!!!!!! she keeps getting stuck to the side of the sucky part of the filter cuz she literaly only has half a tale! is she going to dieeeee?!?!?!?!?!? I'm frantic!
-NoaDon12-

Romad

Gah!! Can you set up a hospital tank for the barb? You'd need something that can hold a few gallons of water and a filter and heater. You obviously need to seperate them.

JohnnyD44

yeah, as stated in your other post, Blue gouramis can be really territorial and aggressive when they need 'defend their turf'

you need get your barb to a QT tank immediately!! it's going to end up stuck to the filter beccause it's too weak to swim away from the current.

get a small filter, put some of your filter media from your current tank to seed that filter, put a small heater on it and get that barb in there to hopefully save it's life.

NoaDon12

oops! 2 late!? i will have to be more careful of what size fish i get........... darn. well, i got some new fish to cover for the 2 others that died. maybe he just doesn't like pipsqueaks in his tank. :( well, now i can walk away and move on with some more knowlage about fish keeping. on a higher note, ive decided to upgrade my tank in the summer to a 36 gallon bow front aquarium. when i upgrade, i thought about getting some red tail sharks. theyre semi-aggressive, so the red tail sharks, the gourami, and the school of 7 tiger barbs should get along in there, right??? and i got my water tested at petco today, and everything is fine, except for the ph witch is 8.5, so they gave me a water sofening pillow to stuff in my filter to sofen the water. it only works for 48 hours till i have to charge it. the only problem is, i don't have any doc fishwell's aquarium salt to recharge it!!!!!!!!!! du, du, du!!!!!!! is there a good alternative for aquarium salt?
thanks alot!!!!!
-NoaDon12- :D

JohnnyD44

the best alternative to using aquarium salt is not to use it at all.....although it can be used from time to time to cure disease...salt is generally not recommended for fresh water fish....it can clog the gills on fish, making it harder for them to breathe and thus, stressing them out...i would not use aquarium salt on a day to day basis....and alot of others would agree...

as far as your pH, I would also ditch the pH "down" or whatever product you're using to lower your pH....over time this will do nothing but cost money and add stress to your fish....the constant changing pH will stress them out...instead, I would find some fish that work suitably for your natural pH rule....if you can't find any fish you like in that pH range, there are some other methods to lowering your pH which is less stressful on your fish, but still cost money on a weekly basis

NoaDon12

well the tiger barbs seemed to be doing just fine before i got my water tested, and i'm not saying that they arent doing well now, but i have an artisian well, we dont use the town water. i dont even use condidioner! i just get a picher of warm water, and throw it in! could the ground water be filled with lots of minerals that make the water hard? just curious! -NoaDon12- :D

JohnnyD44

no matter what your water source(except for maybe rain water and RO water)....any water added to your tank needs to have water conditioner, it's crucial to keep your fish safe. I recommend Prime, alot of people use Aqumel+ also...i would definetly pick some up!

NoaDon12

OK! next time i go to petco i'll do that!!!