My 30gallon tank

[Ted]

You need an NO3 test kit.

Ammonia should be 0
Nitrite (NO2) should be 0
Nitrate (NO3) should be less than 20

[Cichlids]

ok, working on it thnx

stupid seller guy, poor me when i was at the shop i saw in this alot of bottle, also its was the only one available at the market so i said to my self this it..
turned out to be a wrong one.
anyhow i will try to get one.

[Cichlids]

hi again, sorry for being late to reply. i was out of home for few days. although i know the fishes can keep fasting (without food) for at least 5-7 days i kept there meals and managed to find someone to feed them, when i came back i couldn't find the 1mon. convicts. both been eaten. .

now about the water test kit, the one i got is the only one i could get, i will still try to get one, but till then. i will try to be more carefull and change 1/2 tank water weekly. anyone suggest me anything more to do?
i'm thinking of returning the extra fish by the time i find the tank is small for them, or i might expand the tank for them, so how big is the minimum tank for them all?
also i still didnt know male/female of the texas
and didnt know if they are all called texas fish. i'm guessing after "Jon M" reply they both have texas blood.

also i 'm guessing the gray color is in the fish in picture "B" could be from there mood (like discus), or from there adult color, because in there adult color they are all dark color, right?
or why would they be the only ones to change color ?
last thing can beneficial bacteria be kept in tablets like the one in the pic. ?
thanks in advance

[Jon M]

believe or not, but he is the only one available in my home. but i need him since he is a cleaner fish as i was told. and i see that the tank is getting small for him, i'll just exchange him for smaller one, but he is needed in every tank right??

Not sure why no one else addressed this yet. Absolutely not. You DO NOT "need" a "cleaner fish." Quite frankly there is no such thing as a "cleaner fish." Sure, the plecostomus species will feed on some of the algae in your tank, but this isnt' "cleaning" your tank. Algae technically isn't even harmful for the most part to your tank. It's just unpleasing to look at in a tank. Plecostomus being a fish that cleans an aquarium is a common misconception. They grow FAR to large for most home aquariums and produce MASSIVE amounts of waste. Long story short, they are practically a living waste factory.

Keeping your tank clean is your responsibility as a fishkeeper. Keeping glass clean, and doing regular water changes to keep nitrates low. No fish is going to clean the tank for you.

If your LFS employee told you that you need a "cleaner fish" then don't listen to any further advice from him as he doesn't seem to have any actual fishkeeping knowledge...

[Cichlids]

ok, that is good to know, but again what about the clown loaches are they also in the same group with pleco in clean or i mean feeding on the algae in the tank bottom or no ? also are they also called "living waste factory" ?

[Ted]

You need a 300 gallon tank for all the fish you want.

Clown loaches get too large and should be kept in groups.

[Cichlids]

OMG !!!! is that for real ?
6 texas = 300 ??
but the tank would be so empty

but also wt about the clown loaches are they cleaning or no, sometimes when i look at them, i see them moving like they feeding on rocks surfaces. what would be doing ?

[Ted]

They eat off the bottom but they don't eat algae.

So far you have listed convicts, clown loaches, Texas cichlids, jack dempseys, severum, pleco...

Yes, you would need a very very large tank to keep all of those. Way more than a 30gallon tank.

6 Texas cichlids that can grow to a foot? Yes, you need a 300 gallon tank.

Buying all these fish with no regard for their health and requirements is a disrespect to the fish and to the time and effort we have already put into attempting to help you.

In the end, it's your tank, your money and your fish. The only thing we can control is whether we continue to spend time on this.

[Cichlids]

They eat off the bottom but they don't eat algae.

So far you have listed convicts, clown loaches, Texas cichlids, jack dempseys, severum, pleco...

Yes, you would need a very very large tank to keep all of those. Way more than a 30gallon tank.

6 Texas cichlids that can grow to a foot? Yes, you need a 300 gallon tank.

Buying all these fish with no regard for their health and requirements is a disrespect to the fish and to the time and effort we have already put into attempting to help you.

In the end, it's your tank, your money and your fish. The only thing we can control is whether we continue to spend time on this.

i was searching the net for loaches and ended up with "Marge the clown loach." from the website loaches.com
i now understand its not a bottom cleaner fish. also for pleco he is not a cleaning fish. they both can be removed from the tank right??

and please you keep saying i disrespect you, the forum, the fishes.. etc.
and i keep to reply with, i'm sorry, i dont disrespect you and so on, yet you say it all over again. while i try to know my fishes better, sorry for being a slow learner.
if you like, and if it would make anyone a bit happier i would close my forum user.
and really why would i bother to spend time and upload photo, movies,write..etc all for wt ?
and i dont have JD, or Severum.
and believe or not, i joined the forum only to be good for them.

[OscarbitteninOhio]

Cichlids

Let me lay it on the table for you...in plain easy to understand language:

Your 30-gallon tank is big enough to 2 Convicts...preferably female so they don't breed. All other fish in your tank need to go. Either that or you spend a lot of money for a lot of bigger tanks. Each Texas Cichlid you have will need 55 odd gallons of water....and with 6 fish that are known for being highly aggressive and territorial, putting them all in one 300 gallon tank will most likely result in a blood bath/massacre of Biblical proportions. Best route is to set up 6 55 gallon tanks and house each Texas individually.

The Pleco....most liky a Common...will reach 2 feet in length and will require 50 to 75 gallons of water to handle the amount of waste it produces....and it will need to be fed....veggies, fruit....Plecos ARE NOT algae eaters.....they may eat some while small, but once they get some size to them, they need real solid foods such as potato slices, cucumber, zucchinni, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, apples.

Clown Loach....18 inches when fully grown, best kept in a colony of at least 6 as they are social fish. Another 240 to 300 gallons of tank right there.

Make your life, and the lives of all your fish, easier....take all the fish in your tank back to the pet store....keep your favorite 2 female Convicts and let them enjoy the 30 gallon tank for the rest of their lives.

Do 80% water changes each week, maintain your filters, feed the 2 female Convicts a healthy balance diet and they will be around for close to a decade.

That's as direct and honest an answer as you are going to get. Based on my nearly 38 years of fish keeping and research.

OBIO

PS: This is what I have in my 30 gallon tank....and it is considered over stocked by some:

young male Blue Acara...will reach 6 inches when fully grown
young female Convict....4 inches when fully grown
7 Giant Danios....4 inches at maturity, small bodied fish
2 banjo Catfish....3 inches long, mature, very small bodies
3 Cory Catfish....2 inches long, mature
Mystery Pleco...unknown species....12 years old or so, 2 inches...not going to grow...still the messiest fish in my tank by far

I do 80% water changes on this tank every 5 days.

[Cichlids]

thanks for your understanding, i did some reading here and there i'm suprised to know that each texas need its own 55g, thats why i reasked "Ted" about it, coz i thought as for texas they could share about 200g tank or so, while i was searching the net, in one forum they said "55g for a texas, but a pair could be kept in 55g, although its not recommended" or so.
so ita a dead end if i want to keep this much texas, so i will have to give up on green texas, i also want to thank members who pointed to remove the pleco, especially Jon M. i really watched it, and wooow it was really a "waste factory" altough with the pleco around it so much easier to clean the glass. i mean some times i have some brown spots but the pleco eat them all. but i guess pleco will be out.(i was reading its because of direct sun light or extra tank light turning on)

also, about the texas gray color, i found out in the net, also in youtube, thats its natural for them, i saw a movie with fry, it was the same color and size. some forum said its the male showing he is ready for the female, some said the opposite anyhow green texas will be out.

clown loach are cool to watch, slowly gaining size, i might keep them alittle while, but also i dont mind to take them out when i get the chance.
although they are doing a good job. sweeping all the tank even the rocks and the decor. coz the type of food (tetera cichlid sticks) breaking very small while they feed on it.

about the Conv. all small ones are out i will see what happens then.

but like this wont be needing any kind of fish that might eat this brown spot, or sweep the tank bottom ?
brown spot is easy to clean (altough some times it can be in annoying places)

this is a good bye movie for all the good fishes i have

[Cichlids]

i was thinking about snails as algae eaters, but found them to be Cichlid and Loachs best food. (so is it recommended to give them to my fish once in a while?)
so anything to replace pleco or loaches and would go fine with the convicts and dont gets too big ??

[Tom]

This is my bottom cleaner:


This is my glass cleaner:

[OscarbitteninOhio]

Cichlids

There are not true "cleaner" fish.....any fish you add to your tank to eat algae and left over food is simply going to increase the bio-load of your tank, resulting in the need for larger and more frequent water changes. And any fish you place in your tank is going to need to be fed....there is not a single species of fish that can live solely on food scraps and algae. I have Cory catfish and a small unknown Pleco in my 30 gallon tank....sure they eat food left over from the other fish...but I still have to feed them their own foods in order to ensure that they are healthy and have long lives (the Pleco is 12 years old and still going strong and one of the Cory cats has been swimming in my tanks for 6 and a half years and looks as good today as he did the day I bought him).

The best...and ONLY...way to maintain a clean and healthy tank is to use a gravel vacuum to remove excess food and fish poop from the gravel, use a glass scrubber to clean the tank glass, use a tooth brush (one that has never been used with tooth paste) to clean the decor, and by doing large weekly water changes. As the fish keeper, it is YOUR job to maintain your tanks in a state of cleanliness and health.

OBIO

[Cichlids]

i used to use the normal gravel cleaner, but only today i got this new one, really does what it needs.






and as for glass i didnt like the magnit, coz sometime you need to do it manually (like when the algae shows up and the back glass) , so i took a shortcut, and got only the sponage with stick, the old manual way .
also thanks for explaining that there is no one would any cleaning in the tank beside me !!
i really must make sure to keep it clean now whitout thinking about there help now right ?

[Tom]

Absolutely right.