tank help. please help clown loaches, gouramis cichlids etc. pleasssse help?
expierenced fish-owners only. i have a 60l(12 uk gallons) tank for about 7 months now and i currently have 3 tetras, 2 clown loaches, 3 angelfish 1 kribensis. i DID have another 2 clown loaches *cry* and two gouramis the water is perfect, ph-6.7 nitrite-1 nitrate-15 temp-27
and yet two of my loahes died in the same day. i think it may of been a fight but im not sure.then both of my gouramis died and im really getting worried please someone help. what do you think is killing my fish?
2008-03-18T15:15:30Z
im gettin a new tank at the end of the year ive worked it out believe me its not overstocked please someone just tell me what to do the loaches and angelfish r tiny
Your water is not perfect. It may be clear, but a nitrite reading of 1 IS dangerous, and probably explains your clown loach deaths. That indicates a problem with your filteration, not enough, been cleaned out to well, or something has upset the cycle bacteria (medications?)
Nitrite and ammonia in the water should allways be so close to zero that an aquarium type test kit measures nothing. Anything else indicates a problem.
Thats a very small tank for those fish, and they have probably grown a bit since you got them. One of the signs of an overstocked tank is problems maintaining the water quality, the small filters may not be able to process the waste, no matter how many water changes you do.
Right now, reduce the feeding, that means less ammonia / nitrite going into the system. Do extra partial water changes, that will temporarily improve the water conditions Review the tanks filtering, DONT clean it out, but you may need an extra filter to maintain that amount of fish.
Long term - you WILL need a much bigger tank. You have some cool fish, but some can grow to 12" long, so thats what you have to plan on housing.
Your tank is extremely overstocked, that is less than 20 US gallons you would need AT LEAST a 75 gallon for the clown loaches and angelfish need 30 gallons at the absolute minimum. I would take back all your fish except the tetras, buy more of them, put in a few bottom feeders and call it a day, but don't add that many fish at the same time!
First thing first.The cichlids are your natural breeding control. A few clown loaches added into your tank should not be too much of a problem. They too will cut down on the over abundant amount of those little guys. Other than that, the only other way to keep them from breeding is to take them away from each other.
I woulg think your angelfish most likely...There not known for there aggression but in a ?12? gallon tank thats a lot of fish for such a small tank...they are most likely fighting over space.