My new wife moved in and brought her cats and her fish. Actually, they’re not her fish they’re her brother’s fish she was babysitting but he doesn’t want them back.
My only experience with tanks before this were little 10-gallon jobs, this is obviously bigger and I’ve got some questions. But first, some background…
So, it’s a ~50-gallon tank, 4x1x1.5 feet, gravel floor, under-gravel filter, single-fluorescent bulb hood, & plastic plants. It comes inhabited by four black-skirt tetras, a pleco, three silver dollars (I think) about 2.5 inches in size, a 7-inch catfish, and perhaps 4 small black eel-like fish that might be under the central fake ceramic tree root (loaches?). I haven’t seen them since we moved them but they’re really good at hiding. (Lousy fish for viewing, though. I wonder if the cats are interested in them.)
The under-gravel filter is serviced by two submerged power heads, one on each side. I added two more tubes to the “ports” on the filter thing and dropped an aeration stone into each. I like the bubbles, they filled the already-open holes, and, I hoped, added some additional flow to the filter process.
We added a heater since we thought the old one was dead and we added two gold mystery snails because the pleco doesn’t seem to be keeping up with the algae.
We moved the tank successfully (saving about 1/3 of the original water and all the gravel & plastic plants). The fish all survived the move, the worst problem was the catfish not fitting the net, getting his barbed fin stuck through the mesh, and me having to snip him free. He’s still wearing a ball of mesh on the end of his “arm” fin. I think he’s going to look like a little cheerleader the rest of his life.
The current residents seem happy.
The first is, rather broadly, what should I do differently for a 50-gallon tank that wasn’t important for a 10 gallon tank? Different treatment? Different techniques?
The current denizens are nice. My kids, though, would like a little more action and color. The silver dollars and the black-skirts all are, basically, silver. The 3 dollars school nicely and three of the tetras bum around together and there’s this one weirdly anti-social one that likes to strike out on his own a lot.
What’s the best way to introduce fish to this tank without having them become lunch? About a year ago, my then GF introduced about 5 neon tetras to the tank and they disappeared in about a week, one by one. No bodies were found. The catfish is certainly big enough to eat one but he’s not talking. Is there a good introduction method for new fish?
How much more fishage could I safely add? I know the one-inch per gallon rule, does that still apply at this size? I figure I’ve got about 20-inches of fish in there now.
If I introduce a couple more black-skirts, will they joint up with my paltry school? They’d be smaller, newer, but three more might make a more robust school.
Every now and then, the denizens of my deep starting whizzing around the tank. The catfish starts coming off the bottom and kind-of thrusting his nose up and around the upper part of the tank. Are they hungry? Is this a foraging behavior?
They also seem to have a group fondness for the left side of the tank. Frequently, the whole pile of them are all over on the left, just hanging out. Any reason this might happen?
Nitrates? Nitrites? Ammonia? How frequently should I check my water? Are the all-in-one strips any good? How do I adjust what I find?
OK - I guess that’s the immediate stuff. Any advice?
You need to figure the maximum mature size. And some fish cause more of a bioload than others. The silver dollars, cat, and pleco could all get considerably larger. Try not to add too many fish at one time. 3-5 is plenty. You might wish to ask the fish shop what their water chemistry is - some fish are very sensitive to a change in ph, or require high or low ph.