Fish keeping and similar hobbies

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westonwarrior

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Here's my pond..
1.JPG

4.JPG

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some serious Koi there
 

MattyD

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Just had a bit of a disaster with my tank, fully cycled and running for 2 years. Carried out my usual maintenance and next day found several dead/dying cichlids. Managed to get everything back to normal with an additional water change and adding more surface agitation to get more oxygen in the water.

Really strange though, did nothing different to what I always do. There's a lot of water works being carried out to the camps supply, wondering if the water chemistry has changed, tested PH and nitrates etc and it all seems the same, water was treated as always and added gradually to keep the temps within limits.

Glad it's all sorted now but lost some larger cichlids that have been in this setup since the start, to replace fish at that size would cost me 80+ quid, luckily I bought them as juveniles and they have bread so realistically about a tenners worth. Still a bit gutted though and slightly concerned about the next change, I think more frequent smaller change will be needed for a while.
 

Mandoscottie

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Just had a bit of a disaster with my tank, fully cycled and running for 2 years. Carried out my usual maintenance and next day found several dead/dying cichlids. Managed to get everything back to normal with an additional water change and adding more surface agitation to get more oxygen in the water.

Really strange though, did nothing different to what I always do. There's a lot of water works being carried out to the camps supply, wondering if the water chemistry has changed, tested PH and nitrates etc and it all seems the same, water was treated as always and added gradually to keep the temps within limits.

Glad it's all sorted now but lost some larger cichlids that have been in this setup since the start, to replace fish at that size would cost me 80+ quid, luckily I bought them as juveniles and they have bread so realistically about a tenners worth. Still a bit gutted though and slightly concerned about the next change, I think more frequent smaller change will be needed for a while.

whats the gH normally like? if theres a gH or dH change and low oxygen levels this can be enough to knock out most cichlids, id say check for Ammonia in the supply (used at times to clean pipework) with soft acidic water it usually harmlessly changes to Ammonium (which is less harmful) but in hard alkaline water is stays as Ammonia.

ive seen a tank running perfectly fine then suddenly an ammonia spike arrives like the filter is knocked out, turns out decaying plant matter and plants dying off produces Ammonia, but it aint that either as its all calcareous rock you have.

My main tank is in the process of being drained/moved due to this at the weekend, the remaining tetras I have left are now in my 45L until the 180 is back up and running, time to start again from scratch, toying with red belly Acaras or firemouths (going retro!), or move my breeding blue map angel pair to the 180 and have more apistos in the 100L and 45L
 

MattyD

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Don't think it's ammonia in the Supply, I had zero when testing the tank water after a 60% change. Everything running okay now, I'll just check tank/supply chemistry before I next do a change
 

Mandoscottie

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ive just ordered replacement light tubes, the Rios ones are shot tbh, went colour and nature this time, tanks being dismantled, cleaned out and redone on other side of living room, the high priestess has spoken, so that's this weekends job :p

cant decide if I should go Amazonia again or perhaps a diff biotope, Asian perhaps. gouramis and some cracking catfish :) cardinals and my bombproof glowlights are going into angel tank upstairs, once I move my plants up from the rio.
 

MattyD

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Gouramis are pretty cool... I had a pair of kissing gouramis fully matured and about 5-6 inches long that I'd had since fry. Had to get rid when I moved overseas and was gutted.
 
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Mandoscottie

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Gouramis are pretty cool... I had a pair of kissing gouramis fully matured and about 5-6 inches long that I'd had since fry. Had to get rid when I moved overseas and was gutted.
ye was toying with a couple pair of pearl gouramis, and a nice catfish or two Asia has so many to choose though, I would have another synodontis or a few Nigraventis, or I grow on some cardinals then move the angel pair downstairs instead of the tank upstairs. I do love my cardinal shoal 20+ is lovely. And the angel pair as the centrepiece the male smoke is now a good 5-6"" tip to tail and quite stocky, hes getting quite tame also.

ach I dunno lol
 

JumpMaster

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If you can find them, true honey gourami can be awesome. With Synodontis, you have some interesting fish.

I personally prefer the south American fish.
 

Mandoscottie

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If you can find them, true honey gourami can be awesome. With Synodontis, you have some interesting fish.

I personally prefer the south American fish.

yep gonna keep the Amazonia tank in the mancave I think.

Had a couple of synos before, had a hybrid lace synodontis when I was a young lad had him for years with a breeding trio of Convicts and had Syno nigeventis (true dwarf upside down catfish) in another tank. A small group of them would be interesting :) My syno I had as a kid was hand tame, he was a big lad :)

Lace Syno
lace-synodontis.jpg

Nig
19.jpg
 

JumpMaster

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yep gonna keep the Amazonia tank in the mancave I think.

Had a couple of synos before, had a hybrid lace synodontis when I was a young lad had him for years with a breeding trio of Convicts and had Syno nigeventis (true dwarf upside down catfish) in another tank. A small group of them would be interesting :) My syno I had as a kid was hand tame, he was a big lad :)

Lace Syno
View attachment 997

Nig
View attachment 998


Aye, beautiful fish!!!
 

MattyD

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I'd much prefer a gold nugget pleco, but never seen one in any of my LFS.

gold-nugget-pleco.jpg


I have a Bristlenose Plec and a Cuckoo Synodontis in my Cichlid tank that help keep things tidy
 

westonwarrior

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I'd much prefer a gold nugget pleco, but never seen one in any of my LFS.

gold-nugget-pleco.jpg


I have a Bristlenose Plec and a Cuckoo Synodontis in my Cichlid tank that help keep things tidy
they have them in maidenhead aquatics at Saunders near me about £24 each
 

JumpMaster

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A few photos
 

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Crotador

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Just had a bit of a disaster with my tank, fully cycled and running for 2 years. Carried out my usual maintenance and next day found several dead/dying cichlids. Managed to get everything back to normal with an additional water change and adding more surface agitation to get more oxygen in the water.

Really strange though, did nothing different to what I always do. There's a lot of water works being carried out to the camps supply, wondering if the water chemistry has changed, tested PH and nitrates etc and it all seems the same, water was treated as always and added gradually to keep the temps within limits.

Glad it's all sorted now but lost some larger cichlids that have been in this setup since the start, to replace fish at that size would cost me 80+ quid, luckily I bought them as juveniles and they have bread so realistically about a tenners worth. Still a bit gutted though and slightly concerned about the next change, I think more frequent smaller change will be needed for a while.

That's crappy news!

Did you notice some or all of them sucking at the surface?

I see this occasionally if I either change too much water, or the filter return isn't agitating the water surface enough. It is usually, but not exclusively, due to poor oxygen levels. As most Cichlid tanks don't have plants, cos they eat them, the only source of oxygen is from surface agitation.