# Katie's 55g.



## katienaha

This is my tank as of November. It's been running almost a year now.










Stock includes 4 pearl gouramis, 7 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 6 zebra danios, a rubberlip pleco, an albino rainbow shark, an assassin snail, and at least one remaining cherry shrimp.. somewhere in there.. maybe some amanos if they didnt get eaten. Plus one lonely gold barb - its old buddies chased each other into jumping. This is the last one, no one to chase it so it lives.


----------



## Rajan

looks really nice and lots of room for them to swim.


----------



## katienaha

Thanks. Sometime in the new year I would like to switch the substrate for sand. I would like corydoras.


----------



## thefishwife

Looks great, love the piece of wood on the left!


----------



## katienaha

thefishwife said:


> Looks great, love the piece of wood on the left!


Thanks! That's roots from a tree that washed up on the banks of the Quesnel River. I sawed it off with a bow saw, took it home and soaked it in a garbage can in the backyard for 3 months until it sunk. It might be cottonwood, or fir.

Free is my favourite price.


----------



## thefishwife

Oh yes FREE is always good! Its so unique looking just love it.


----------



## TCR

Lol I was about to say it looks like a 55 gal. But whoa it was in the title of the post lol

cories are awesome. U will enjoy
them. I say the pigmies would be a good choice and get a good sized group. In a 55 gal tank I think they would look awesome shoaling around


----------



## katienaha

I may have just purchased the 2 breeding pairs of LF albino bristlenose plecos from Charles. Corydoras might be out for now. I have to figure out how to create more caves in this thing. My albino rainbow shark has dibs on the only one (under the wood on the right).


----------



## mysticalnet

you should put more plants, and fishes!


----------



## katienaha

I am working on more plants. There are none in the LFS's here right now, and its getting annoying. But I need to invest in some pressurised CO2 first. The water sprite is filling in beautifully now that I have my ferts figured out. Ill let that do its work before I spend more money. 

And payment sent for the plecos.. so those will be on their way into that tank in the next day or so


----------



## katienaha

I added a new piece of wood and 4 clay pots. They are all exploring! But oddly enough, even my albino rainbow shark doesnt mind their presence on his piece of wood. All 5 of my plecos were on that hunk of wood at one point, plus the shark.

Water a bit cloudy as I replanted the water sprite around the wood.


----------



## O.C.D Fishies

wow what a bunch of beauty's. What is the brown spotted just a regular bn?? Your tank looks nice and simple to.


----------



## katienaha

charles said they are silvertips


----------



## djamm

Great looking Pleco's...looks good~!~

I sure they will fit in as long as they have enough hiding places...


----------



## Mferko

OMG those plecos look AMAZING! is that a longfin l-144 on the left? or is it albino?


----------



## katienaha

just albino as far as i know


----------



## Luke78

Congrats on adding your pleco group , they look great !


----------



## Rayne

The tank is looking great Katie! I see you sold the Vals? Those BNP's are awesome looking too. The albino one is so alien looking.. lol. I love it! If you get any of those to breed be sure to let me know.. I'd love to buy some for my 125G I'm setting up.


----------



## katienaha

Here's an update with the water sprite growing super fast. A bunch of cuttings floating and rooting out at the top there, probably near 10 of them.

Yellow water from the new piece of Mopani wood. Doing small daily water changes for that, also due to a red dot that appeared on the female albino BN, looks to be a small injury. Been adding some tea tree oil with the water changes too. Orignally i dosed 25 drops, and each water change of about 6 gallons I add 3-5 more drops.

Everyone is healthy and happy! No obvious territory issues, but no breeding yet... anything I can do to boost that?


----------



## Morainy

The tank looks gorgeous, Katie! And the plecos are amazing. Did you get them from Charles?


----------



## katienaha

I did get them from Charles. They are show stoppers! everyone loves them!


----------



## CRS Fan

Your tank is coming along nicely, Katie.

Best regards,

Stuart


----------



## NewGuy

When those BNs start breeding sell a couple of babies to me!


----------



## katienaha

you bet newguy. Rayne is also in for a few! I'll update here if I get some breeding. People say these breed like bunnies, but so far nothing yet.


----------



## katienaha

Apology up front for the murky water! My filter had been running poorly so I took the whole thing apart and cleaned out the impeller and all that, working well now...just a tad noisier. Also I took the pics with my Blackberry Torch. Not bad... turned off the flash and it worked out alright! 
But these guys came out to eat! Enjoy


----------



## TCR

Their fins look like wings


----------



## katienaha

Recently (finally) made the substrate switch to the sand I bought from Bill (aquaman) in December. Lights are off for the night but I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. Looks pretty good!


----------



## katienaha




----------



## 2wheelsx2

The substrate switch looks great.


----------



## katienaha

Mid april 2011


----------



## CRS Fan

Looking good Katie. Those Pearl Gouramis are stunning.

Best regards,

Stuart


----------



## katienaha

thanks stu, i really am loving my pearl gouramis, they are so gorgeous and healthy looking. Very glad I added them to my tank.


----------



## dean9922

Hi Katie
Your tank looks much better with the sand.....The only comment I would have is that you should have some discus swimming around in that tank....lol

good job!!!!


----------



## katienaha

Yeah...no discus!! Lol I do NOT have that kind of dedication


----------



## Tsunami28

WOW! Your tank looks awesome. Great job and thanx for sharing!


----------



## katienaha

wow i just really looked at the difference one month made to those scraggly vals...they really grew in! i imagine me finally setting up diy co2 has helped.
thanks for the positive comments guys


----------



## Morainy

Very nice substrate! What kind of sand is that?


----------



## katienaha

3M colour quartz I'm pretty sure


----------



## Diztrbd1

Tank looks great. the new substrate looks very nice in there. DIY CO2 definitely works well on the right tank for sure. It turned my 33 gal into a forest in no time lol That's a beautiful shark you have in there , he looks to be pretty good size as well. I noticed in the pix your shark looks as if it needs a darker spot. I know albino sharks don't particularly like bright lighting, neither of my sharks like it either. You might want to give it some kind of a cave to make it feel more comfortable during the day. The darker it is the happier they seem to be. Mine are funny in their caves, always got their noses sticking out of the entrance during the day.


----------



## Tsunami28

It's tanks like your that make me think that all tanks should have sand as a substrate. Might have to change my 90g over... hmmm...

The only thing these before/after pictures really do is cost me more money, lol!


----------



## katienaha

Diztrbd1 said:


> Tank looks great. the new substrate looks very nice in there. DIY CO2 definitely works well on the right tank for sure. It turned my 33 gal into a forest in no time lol That's a beautiful shark you have in there , he looks to be pretty good size as well. I noticed in the pix your shark looks as if it needs a darker spot. I know albino sharks don't particularly like bright lighting, neither of my sharks like it either. You might want to give it some kind of a cave to make it feel more comfortable during the day. The darker it is the happier they seem to be. Mine are funny in their caves, always got their noses sticking out of the entrance during the day.


Yeah I was considering tipping one of those pots and propping it with something to give it a better hiding spot. I took out that A shaped piece of wood and now there's a bit of real estate problems going on. I was hoping my crypt would fill in faster to help with the shade. I'll think of something.


----------



## katienaha

picture update! after my terrible summer of tragedies this poor tank got neglected and i was not enjoying my hobbies. im feeling better so i attacked the tank. i plowed down a bunch of algae-ridden plants (its a bit bare now) but i dont doubt their ability to grow back. my crypt up front was SO big but it was sooooo hairy i had to chop it down. the floaty-bit is a crypt that became uprooted. gotta replant that.

im glad to be back to the hobby.


----------



## Slopster

nice tank it looks good i like it


----------



## katienaha

Thanks very much. It feels so naked right now because my plants were all so big before I chopped them down but they'll come back fast


----------



## katienaha

i forgot how irritating it was to post pictures here...


----------



## katienaha

i forgot how irritating it was to post pictures here...


----------



## Rayne

The tank is looking great, It's really filled out quite a bit


----------



## katienaha

A bit of an update with some recent troubles. I've had a couple deaths of the zebra danios and dwarf neon rainbowfish. I was informed that the danios lifespan should be almost up at heading onto four yrs old and not always having been in perfect conditions. They have been getting bent spines or tails. The rainbowfish, so far females only, have been wasting away and then kicking it. I culled one due to it not eating and wasting away before it died in the tank. What could be causing this? No part of the routine has changed in a year and a half and water parameters have been stable. I was told maybe I should try deworming but that this might harm badly infected fish when the worms in the bodies of the fish die. Suggestions please?


----------



## Flear

any recent additions ?, possibly a disease or infection introduced ?

new plants ?, might carry pesticides as they only have to clear their countries standards to get papers to say they're safe for international travel, countries they go to only need to see those papers, ... so if country A is using a toxin that country B has banned, ... well they've still got their papers so it's good.

the papers only have to say they've been treated, so they "should" be safe for everything they've been treated for.
some international dealing companies, when fish/plants/shrimp (whatever) arrive at headquarters they may be given whatever additional treatment as well, ... just their "see we're going the extra mile"

PFK investigates: Shrimps killed by mail order plants! | Blog | Practical Fishkeeping

goes into quite the detail, the company mentioned took heed and stopped their "additional treatment" as well as stopped using their dealer in thailand

if nothing new has been added to the tank, ... possibilities, ... apparently mad cow disease (i know a world apart from any aquarium) has the potential to start as a spontaneous disease, ... what's to say something similar doesn't exist in other species, ... just a guess, not educated, i haven't looked at fish diseases so i don't know.

after that, anyone had contact with fish or aquariums from another tank, ... if the other tank had something, might pass along, ... bordering so close to impossible it just could be "impossible"

as gruesome as it may be, if your thinking worms, your going to want to dissect one of your fish. some diseases are only identified that way.

i'm only random ideas pooled from everything i've heard (and obviously some not aquarium related)

you know the symptoms the fish go through, you can see how long it takes the fish to go through all the stages, you know if it's affecting all fish or just a limited species in your tank. are there any discolorations ?, is anyone beating up on anyone else (getting rid of a betta that turned violent ASAP here - lost a neon)

if it's just females only, ... what are the males mating rituals like ?, are there enough females to males. from other bits i've read sounds like most fish want 2 females for every male to keep the males from acting like a guy around women (talking about humans here) if it's a breeding thing, how old are your fish till they're typically sexually mature ?

===

things i'd check
1) breeding of those fish
2) anything new that has been introduced
3) fish diseases that match symptoms
4) if not those, then consider the other things as they're less likely.


----------



## katienaha

the only thing i have added is feeder snails for my assassin snails. do they carry nasty diseases?


----------



## Flear

i've heard some snails are carriers for diseases that affect people, ... does not mean they have the diseases. guessing if they do the host snails are rather immune to what they are carrying.

more guessing, the same could be true of things that will affect fish, sadly we're humans, and what we care about is humans. if particular snails are hosts for things that can affect fish, identifying those would be on the bottom of our priority list.

more guessing, i would think they'd be affecting males as well as females though.

could consider breeding season for your fish. haven't done research myself, might be something to consider for yourself, can the males turn out to be particularly violent towards the females ? for many fish the males get violent among the males. bettas the males kill off rival males, the females just form a pecking order, with the one at the bottom being picked on by all the rest. but they don't kill each other. even people men resort to fist fights and black eyes, women just ridicule and belittle (less damage, but still a lasting impression)

i've heard that betta males can be rather rough with their females when it comes to breeding. just word of mouth so truths behind it is just that one persons experience.

give yourself a couple days to see what you can find about breeding with your rainbow fish, and if there are any known diseases associated with rainbow fish and/or fish in general that have similar symptoms. some might be key to rainbow fish.

as for worms that might be infecting the females.

the only part that gives me a direction from your description is you say the females only are affected, has me thinking breeding and mating of the species.

i wouldn't rule out diseases, but explore breeding habits first.

P.S.

if it is worms in the fish, ... treating the worms may be stressful on them, not treating them would be worse.


----------



## fishobsessed

How hard is it to change the subtrate? Do you have to take everything out and start with a bare tank? I'm debating changing mine but I don't know if I'm up to the work.


----------



## Flear

if you just want to change everything, ... empty the tank and start over
if there's only a section you want to change and don't want to disturb the rest of the sand bed, ... one method i heard is to take a plastic container, cut the bottom out, press it into the aquarium substrate, ... you can remove what is inside (or outside) that section and leave the rest undisturbed.


----------



## katienaha

its a lot of frigging work. and its messy. and its work. and its messy. better be sure what you want and why before you do it.


----------

