Do I need to replace my danio?

[bemgelado]

I had 5 danios, but after spending a few hours staring at my tank (desperately trying to de-stress from work), I realized that currently I only have 4.

I guess the 5th died, and was eaten. My question is, do I need to replace the danio? The others school with my minnows just fine. They act like one big happy, current loving family. I don't want to stress them out if I don't have to, but I feel like, unless the other danios need a buddy, I won't worry about replacing him (her?).

Of course, I will also be keeping a wary eye on my tank to make sure everyone else is ok. I did a water perimeter check, and I'm at ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10. (Nitrates are a little higher than my normal of 5, so I'll do 50% water change tonight before I go home.) I did do a WC yesterday at 25%, but I didn't test my nitrates before I went home. (I've been keeping up a 25% WC, 3 times a week schedule. More water than that, and it's just a big mess here in the office. I can't have a python, so it's a lot of hauling buckets.)

I haven't seen any signs of disease in the tank, and everyone is swimming, chasing, eating and pooping normally. I say chasing because the gourami is certain that the log is HIS, and the corys just laugh at him. :hmm3grin2orange:

So, do I get another danio or just stick where I'm at? If I did get another one, I'll probably get something obnoxious like a glofish. My tank is a little... natural. And the kids who come and see it would probably like a little pop of color.

[SmokeyCFH]

If there is no more loss i'd say you found a balance. And i see at the end there it says you have "too many darn snails!" well I'd suggest two things, get a loach or two to eat the snails or my favorite, assassin snails. Within a week the assassin snails will take out your infestation of snails. Good luck and it sounds like you have a pretty active tank.

[bemgelado]

I'm going to get a couple of assassin snails ASAP. At first, I thought the little pond snails were so cute. Boy was I wrong! This weekend I'm going to head to my LFS, because I could have sworn I saw some there. If they don't have any, Aquabid here I come! lol

Edit to add: and yeah, my tank is a really really busy one. Probably a little over stocked, but I do a lot of water changes during the week. I have a seriously stressed out life, and the busy tank helps keep me sane.

[SmokeyCFH]

are they ramshorns?

[bemgelado]

I've seen exactly 1 of those. All the rest look like these:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x351/kgknitter/pondsnailmini.jpg

Which I think are common pond snails

[SmokeyCFH]

Yeah i used to have three different kind, both of the kind above and trumpet snails, I'd prefer to have none haha, I keep one tank with ramshorns just so i can give my loaches and assassin's a snack from time to time

[bemgelado]

My boss keeps saying he wants to watch a death-match in the tank. I plan on giving him one, just snails not fish.

[SmokeyCFH]

try some loaches, they're fun to watch with snails.

[Lady Hobbs]

Not clown loaches however! They get much too large and need to be in groups.

[bemgelado]

Not clown loaches however! They get much too large and need to be in groups.


I ended up with just assassin snails. My LFS only had clown loaches, and I knew they wouldn't work in my tank. And with the amount of snails I was seeing, I didn't want to wait too long.

The assassins seem to be acclimating well, and hopefully I'll stop seeing so many baby pond snails in the very near future. :hmm3grin2orange:

[SmokeyCFH]

Yeah you will, i've never been a huge fan of clown loaches, so instead i got 4 assassin snails, 2 yo-yo loaches (1 got pretty messed up so he's at a friends house) and 2 strigata loaches and they ate every last snail i had in my tanks.