Hello everyone, I've somewhat recently set up my first aquarium and now that i have everything running smoothly ( for the most part) and a consistent schedule for maintainance, I figured I'd post some info on my tank to get some feedback/opinions, and ask a few questions I've got!
The tank is 8months old and was cycled for 2months before adding snails and shrimps and then corys and tetras after 4months. I feed them once a day with hikari micro pellets, and brine shrimp once every week or 2.
Firstly I'll list the tank components, water parameters, inhabitants, upkeep of tank, features.
Tank components: Filter with sponge intake, Carbon filter and filter media. Heater (set to 22°c), Thermometer, Air stone + Air pump, LED light (On for 7hr per day)
Water parameters: Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate = 0, KH =40ppm, GH =100-120ppm, PH =7-7.5, Temp: 22°c (72°f)
Inhabitants: 4 blue cherry shrimp (1 w/ eggs), 1 Nerite snails, many other snails, 5 pygmy corydoras, 6 neon tetras.
Upkeep: I do a 15% water change weekly and use API tap water conditioner for the new water added to tank. I clean the filter by rinsing the sponge and scrubbing the pump in a bucket of aquarium water once a month. Finally i use a gravel back roughly every 2 months or whenever the gravel looks very dirty.
Features: lots of space for fish to swim in upper third & front of bottom third.
Hiding spots at the back behind the rocks/under the filter for the fish.
A tunnel amongst all the rocks with 4 entrance/exits that's covered by java moss for the shrimp to hide.
A piece of wood full of algae for the shrimp/corys to eat.
If anyone has any suggestions or opinions I'd love to hear them! Now for some questions/concerns i have:
A patch of gravel i don't vac so it grows algae, also for the shrimp (photo #3)
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One of my tetras likes to spin in circles a lot when he swims and has been doing it since i got him. At first I thought it might be stress/water parameters but the rest have all been acting normal for a while now except for this one, any ideas as to why they would swim in circles/spasm other than stress?
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Another one of my tetras I'm not sure if it has a bent spine? or is just a slightly chubby female? (photo #4)
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My tetras spitting out their food a lot before they finally eat it, is this normal?
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My pygmy corydoras seem to swim up and down the bubble column produced by the air stone a lot and chase each other around a lot. Normal?
Corys seem to be eating fine and swimming around all happy so no questions for them and the shrimp are also very active at night and hide during the day between the rocks/plants.
Thanks you for reading and I look forward to your opinions on the tank and answers to my questions!🐟❤️
Posted by RandomGuy19237
3 Comments
After some googling I’ve realised the snails that are all over my tank are ramshorn snails!
For #3 the food might be a bit too big for their mouths! I had that problem at first with my CPD fry that I was raising. I use the Xtreme nano sinking pellets and that seems to work for them.
1. It may have some pre-existing injury. It is difficult to know. If it can eat fine, it should be okay.
2. I don’t have tetras but I have WCMMs and one of them also has a bent spine. It might be a genetic deformity, and again if the fish is swimming and eating fine, it will be okay.
3. Again, my WCMMs also do this lol. I don’t know why, but has never been an issue.
4. Probably just having fun?