hi from doncaster england,
as a raw begginer to plecs and cats i thank you for allowing me to join you on what seems a good and friendly site.having just come through a disaster which saw me lose 2 pictus, 1 ornatus and my beautiful royal plec i rely on you all for help and advice. my remaining fish were saved by advice from phil aspinall who was brilliant. so i look forward to a rewarding time spent in the company of fellow "pleccies". bye for now.
i set up a new rio 400 tank especially for my plecs and put 10 fish in it. unfortunately, being new to this super hobby, i thought i could feed them as normal. what a mistake to make eh?. within a couple of weeks the nitrate level was at 160!! and of course deadly for my poor fish.i have a sailfin plec about 9inches long who is a major waste producer besides cats of around 6inches. the big lad has survived , as has 3 cats. i would appreciate good advice on correct feeding levels in terms of amount and frequency. i have put no food in the tank for 3 days now and am wondering when to start feeding again. the nitrate level is now at 40 which apparently is ok. look forward to hearing from you. bye for now
Sorry to hear that you ran into problems with the new tank and lost a few of your fish. Looks like you over stocked too quickly in the new tank before your filters had a chance to cycle and cope with the waste from your fish. I hope that all is well with the tank and fish now.
despite a 50% and two days later a 25% water change i am still losing fish. my zebra plec went last night and this morning one of two angelfish in the tank was gone. wits end now. i am beginning to suspect that the gravel i inherited with the tank was really badly infected and although washed and cleaned is still toxic in some way. water tests have shown all is well with the readings. i have now decided to transfer my few remaining fish to a small tank and completely empty the big tank of everything including rocks, logs, gravel and sand and renew the whole lot. i must try and save these fish. i only have a sailfin plec, syno zambesi, multipunctatus, sun cat, one angel and two gouramis left. sorry if i am depressing you all but who else can i talk to about it?
hi from doncaster england,
hi des,
Looks like you over stocked too quickly in the new tank before your filters had a chance to cycle and cope with the waste from your fish. I hope that all is well with the tank and fish now.