new here

[isome]

hi,

Many years ago I use to have 5 or 6 aquariums, mostly with Cichlids and Oscars. However to accommodate my husband who prefers the shape of less "aggressive", I set up a community tank. Mostly to satisfy my need to keep fish and secondly to get him interested.

I have a 35 gallon aquarium with both an under gravel filter and an internal filter. The set-up was given to me by a relative.

In this aquarium I have a pleco, a knife, a rock shrimp, leopard catfish, albino cory, red fin shark, 4 swords, 2 small snails, a dwarf gourami and another cory which has a paisley type pattern.

I also have around 7 plants in the aquarium, 2 which are oxygenators, as well as some wood. I've been having problems finding out the names of a couple of the plants.

The original idea behind this aquarium was to make a completely eco tank that would result in less water changes, which can be stressful to fish. I wanted to fill it with creatures that would in essence look after the tank without too much artificial influence. However distractions occur in the pet shop...and well that's another dilemma.

I was reading a thread about ICK and other diseases in the forum and I was a bit curious to know as I have both a shrimp and a BGK what I would do if any of my fish ever caught any disease as the medicines would probably kill or seriously harm the shrimp and the knife. I should state none of the inhabitants of my aquarium are ill, but the more I read about the knife and keeping shrimp makes me worried that if it ever happened they would die. Can diseases be treated without medicines and in a more natural way?

Sometimes I think I should have stood fast with my desire to keep Cichlids and reminds me why those hardy fish appealed so much to me. Didn't have to keep plants as they would usually destroy them, the thought of disease none existent for the most part and could live through a full water change without any possibility of death.

Now I just know that every day I'm going to be spending hours checking and double checking to make sure nothing is amiss with the community tank...errr

[angelcakes]

hello and welcome:19:

[snipers_den]

Hello and welcome aboard to the AC.

[donvichu]

Welcome to the community and please understand that nothing prevents diseases on fishes except good old 20% once a week atleast,since you've had 4 to 5 tanks earlier you should know better,the better the water parameters the better your fishes are....

[sandy_n]

hi,

Many years ago I use to have 5 or 6 aquariums, mostly with Cichlids and Oscars. However to accommodate my husband who prefers the shape of less "aggressive", I set up a community tank. Mostly to satisfy my need to keep fish and secondly to get him interested.

I have a 35 gallon aquarium with both an under gravel filter and an internal filter. The set-up was given to me by a relative.

In this aquarium I have a pleco, a knife, a rock shrimp, leopard catfish, albino cory, red fin shark, 4 swords, 2 small snails, a dwarf gourami and another cory which has a paisley type pattern.

I also have around 7 plants in the aquarium, 2 which are oxygenators, as well as some wood. I've been having problems finding out the names of a couple of the plants.

The original idea behind this aquarium was to make a completely eco tank that would result in less water changes, which can be stressful to fish. I wanted to fill it with creatures that would in essence look after the tank without too much artificial influence. However distractions occur in the pet shop...and well that's another dilemma.

I was reading a thread about ICK and other diseases in the forum and I was a bit curious to know as I have both a shrimp and a BGK what I would do if any of my fish ever caught any disease as the medicines would probably kill or seriously harm the shrimp and the knife. I should state none of the inhabitants of my aquarium are ill, but the more I read about the knife and keeping shrimp makes me worried that if it ever happened they would die. Can diseases be treated without medicines and in a more natural way?

Sometimes I think I should have stood fast with my desire to keep Cichlids and reminds me why those hardy fish appealed so much to me. Didn't have to keep plants as they would usually destroy them, the thought of disease none existent for the most part and could live through a full water change without any possibility of death.

Now I just know that every day I'm going to be spending hours checking and double checking to make sure nothing is amiss with the community tank...errr

It would really depend on the type of disease. Personally I think you're letting yourself worry about something that hasn't even happened and may never happen. There's nothing wrong with reading up on different diseases and how you can treat them depending on your tank's inhabitants. That way you'll be prepared if something does break out. But don't let it obsess your thoughts.
Besides, that's what we're here for. If something crops up all you have to do is post about it and there'll be people here that can help you.
Maybe you could set up another tank for yourself that only has cichlids...his and hers tanks!!! :hmm3grin2orange: Good luck and relax and enjoy your fish.

[troy]

Welcome to AC. :19:

[country_boy454]

Welcome to the forum!

[Red]

Welcome and enjoy

[smcurry83]

Welcome to the forum....

[isome]

thank you!

yes, I do worry

keeping fish in the UK is far more expensive than in the US...plus not as much selection. Over here keeping an aquarium quickly becomes an extremely expensive hobby. You can pretty much double the cost of any fish , so if its $11 in the states, it becomes £11 over here which means it actually costs $22. Or if you lose a particular fish it might be 5 months or so before the shop has it again. Also I get attached to my fish but that's another story.

I know I could never have 5 tanks going at once over here as I did there...not enough room for a start. My husband also says NO, that would take up valuable space for him to store all his dvd's, videos and other media. He has his addictions...and well I have mine

I fell in love with cichlids because of the bright colours of the African ones and well Oscars are just in a class of their own. I also know, quite by accident how hardy cichlids can be. When I upgraded one of the tanks to a larger one I transferred the fish at the top noticed one was missing. I thought that one of the other fish had started their own sushi bar and had him. He was a small convict.

My then boyfriend put what I thought was an empty tank in the garage and there it sat for 3 months with a blanket covering it. I then decided I would use the tank for some small puffer fish I wanted to buy (the lime green with black spot brackish water) and noticed to my horror that the tank still had a bit of water in it about an 1-2" above the under gravel filter. When I pulled the under gravel filter up there was this splashing around. I grabbed a net and out came my convict...and he wasn't little any more.

I was both excited that my little fish had survived and was now a big fellow but horrified at the conditions in which he survived. I don't know what he ate, well I have a pretty good idea and he had been swimming on his side under the filter. I kept him isolated for a couple of weeks in a smaller tank while he readjusted to a more normal existence before reintroducing him back into the cichlid tank. He was fine after that. I had him until I moved and it was impossible to take them with me.

It taught me a valuable lesson though...always search under an under gravel filter, never assume a fish has been eaten because its "gone", and never think anything can't get under the filter just because it fits the bottom of the tank.

[Ryuu]

Hello and welcome, that bio tank is cool, I bought a book a few weeks ago that showed you exactly how to do that. Its Called Ecology of aquarium plants by diana wallstead (typo maybe?) Her book goes id depth of what plants to for the aquarium how to grow them, and how to !Naturally! Balance the aquarium that way water changes are only nessesary every 6 months... IF you do get the book tho, make sure you have a dictionary, like I said it goes way in depth farther then my understanding at least so....

anyways welcome to the AC

[Nick_Pavlovski]

G'day from the colonies!

[Boertjie]

Welcome to AC:19: :19: :19: