Tropical Fish Forums

[Y.O.Morales]

Hi to eveyone:

My name is Yamir Ortiz, age 22, from Puerto Rico, and I wish I've discovered these message boards before making all the errors that I've made with my first (current) aquarium.

It is a two-weeks old, 10 Gallons (40 L) aquarium with the following fishes:

3 neons tetras
2 buenos aires tetras
2 zebra danios
3 red-eyed tetras
1 lemon tetra
2 albino corys
1 reedfish (yeah, recipe for disaster; read below)

However, because neither I or the local pet shop employees have sufficient fish knowledge, some unwanted things had happened. First, I had to release two apple snails and two silver-tipped tetras into a local stream, as I didn't know how pesky these critters can be. The snails munched my budding plants and spread slimy dirt all over the tank, and the silver-tipped tetras were a terror to the other fishes.

Then, I discovered how carnivorous a reedfish can be (the stupid pet shop employees said that it fed on algae). I originally had 5 neon tetras, but each morning I wake up to find that another neon is missing. I try to feed the reedfish other things like dead fish meat (goldfish) or bloodworms, but it refuses. And lately I've found that it is sick with ich parasites (the reedfish is all covered in white spots that seem to multipicate each day).

As if these things were not enough, I just found some minutes ago (on this website) that one of the 'red-eyed' tetra is actually a lemon tetra, when I thought the contrary all the time (and again, the pet shop employees sold it as a 'red-eyed').

So, these are the things that are happening to me with just two weeks of experience. I wish I've found this website before to avoid the above mistakes. If anyone have some recommendations to me, then I'll be more than grateful.

[Y.O.Morales]

By the way, the reedfish has been behaving oddly since I bought it, and I suspect that it was sick before entering my aquarium.

I'm very sure that it has ich parasites, and so I've begun appropriate treatment and medication. At first I thought it wasn't a threat to the tetras because it didn't ate anything (refusing both live and freeze bloodworms, shrimp pellets, dead fish meat). But now it has eaten two neon tetras, so I might move (when my money allows it) it to a separate tank with bigger fish, probably chichlids.

But what if it continues to refuse food?

[Stealth_ninjaJoel]

I would recommend that you either take fish and snails back to the pet shop or discard of them in some other manner rather than dumping them in a stream. There are many fish in this country that are not native (such as the large population of oscars in florida waters) that were released and reproduced abundantly. Good luck with your tank, as depressing as it is we all kill a few fish before we get it right.
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morturi non cognant