"Elaine T" <eetmail-aquaria@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:aONTd.9406$Pz7.2117@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Timothy E. Raborn wrote:
>> "Dr Engelbert Buxbaum" <engelbert_buxbaum@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> news:cvhrlm$min$04$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>>Timothy E. Raborn wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I'm having problems adding new fish to my 30 gallon freshwater tank.
(I
>>>>typically keep guppies and neon tetras in my tank with a pleco or
two).
>>>
>>>Guppies need hard, tetras soft water, so this combination is not very
>>>good. Depending on your water params, you should decide on a matching
>>>set of fishes.
>>
>> You're the first person I've ever heard say that guppies and neons were
>> not compatible.
>>
> In an ideal world, guppies like hard water with some salt and neons like
> soft water, as Dr. B mentions above. Your water sounds better for
guppies
> than neons, but I wouldn't worry too much.
>
> I started thinking - many guppies and neons are sickly when they come to
> the stores. Both of these species are mass bred for the hobby, ****pped
> too small, and often have poor genetics. This may be why you're having
> tank wipeouts. For neons, watch the tanks of neons in LFS and buy from
> tanks with big neons that have been in the store for a couple of weeks.
> Avoid the tiny ones as they tend to be sickly. As for guppies, see if
you
> can find a source for locally bred fish. My LFS in Baltimore used to
get
> tanks of huge, healthy locally bred guppies from a hobby breeder. Your
> local aquarium society may also have someone who needs to find homes for
> healthier guppies.
>
> <snip>
>
>> Oh brother... Plants would be an entire other topic for me to post on.
>> I have had terrible luck with plants. They look good for about two
>> months, then slowly wither away. The only plant that would grow was
>> Cobomba(sp?). But I swear it must have grown about an inch a day and
the
>> more it grew the more "stretched out" the limbs got and it wasn't very
>> pretty. For the first two years of tank owner****p, I spent a small
>> fortune buying new plants every couple of months and did quite a bit of
>> research on how to be successful with it. I tried all kinds of
>> techniques to be successful and nothing worked. I had even added two
>> Nutrafin CO2 tanks to the tank and that helped a little, but not
enough.
>> In the end, I decided that I may not have enough light. The hood that
>> came with the tank will only take up to a 22W, but I can only find 15W
>> lights (fluorescent) to fit it. A calculation I found somewhere on the
>> internet indicated that I need about a 60W (was based on the depth of
>> the aquarium). It wasn't feasible for me to change out the hood, so
that
>> was the point I gave up and stocked up on the fake ones. They look ok,
>> but regardless of what the real plants do for the fish -- I wanted them
>> for aesthetic reasons. They look so much nicer.
>>
>
> You're right - 15 watts is nowhere near enough for live plants in a 30
> gallon tank. The legginess of the Cambomba is your first clue. And CO2
> doesn't help under low light conditions. Your research is right that 60
> watts of full spectrum fluorescent light would give good growing
> conditions for most plants. However if you can get even 30 watts you
> could grow low light plants like Anubias, Cryptocornes, java moss, and
> java fern.
>
> --
> __ Elaine T __
> ><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html
<'__><
Not new to me that neon's require softer water than guppies..Pretty well
common sense to me.. The CO2 will in turn cause the pH to fall
eventually..
The good Dr is right on when adding the new fish, different bacteria and
different bacterial hardiness for the new fish.. Stress is the trigger..
The
movement is the stress, and the fish become very susceptible to the
bacterial strains. And boom, just like you described..
T
|
