The XMEN Clan Forums

Well, I said I'd post pics of my aquarium, so here we are.

Got two small angelfish:


Got three tiger barbs and three black neons:


In addition to above, have a female blue platy. She gave birth on the way home from the store, so I got a fry net too. Here's a couple of the little 'uns. And a snail.


Mamma platy here, with some of the others. She got an infection of some sort and isn't responding to treatment. I think the same thing killed the male I got with her. You can see her tail is kind of ragged:


Now, this is the interesting one. I don't know what (s)he is, for certain, beyond that it's obviously a catfish. It sure isn't what I thought it was when I bought it. I think it's a Mochokidae :: Synodontis aterrimus

Nice pics Gambit. Make sure you seperate the Platy with that infection, or your whole tank could get sick, then you're at square one. (Trust me, I've been there, it's not fun, nor is it cheap...) I can't remember what kind of infection that is, but I have seen it before.. it's not Ich, but it's something similar. And watch those Barbs, they like to attack Tetras and eat them. I had a small school of 6 Rainbow tetras, and the Barbs picked them off one by one and I didn't know what was happening to them till I saw a particularily agressive Barb kill and start munching on my last Tetra... It was cool to watch, but sad just the same, my son loved the color of the Tetras, and they were all gone.

I've been thinking about getting another aquarium, but I just don't havve the place to put it right now... The GF is getting ready to sell her place, and I'm never at mine, so I need to wait a while I think, though I think both my kids would love to have fish back in the house again.

Oops, left out the betta:


At this point I'm not too worried about the disease spreading. They've been together since before the onset of the disease, including the babies. I've treated the tank more than once for it, too.

Ick (or ich) is a parasite, symptoms are itchy little white spots. This isn't a parasite. The symptoms looked like dropsy, with the bloating and scales sticking out, which is a fungus. So now I'm wondering if it's actually a bacterial infection, but I just don't know. The male lasted maybe a day after onset, while the female there started looking really bad over a month ago, but has been slowly improving lately. But in all that time none of the others are showing the least symptoms.

I know the mix of fish is a little iffy. But the betta was picking on the platys, and I thought the barbs might give him something else to think about. They're very small barbs and haven't been bothering anything else yet. I'll have to keep an eye on them, though. I also know that I technically have too many fish in that tank, but most of them are pretty small and my filter is oversize. I'm working on a larger tank, too.

I've found that if you have an oversize pump and filter, with an undergravel filter, you can have quite a few fish in the tank and not have a lot of problems, as long as the temp and Ph are well regulated. My son has a betta at his moms' house that he's had for almost 2 years that he takes care of... he loves fish. Gambit, you're giving me that itch again, and I think I like it.