After a week of watching a tank with nothing in it and some amazingly unmoving chemical analysis, we decided that we were going to cycle the tank with fish as opposed to fishless cycling. There seems to be a lot of confusion and a variety of different ways to cycle a tank, but in truth a 65 litre tank with only a couple of fish in it will cycle quite happily eventually in about the same time as fishless cycling and generally it’s a bit more interesting.
This in mind we went to a central london aquatic centre, right around the corner from where i used to work in oxford circus, so close in fact that i can’t believe i didn’t know it was there or i would have been in there every week.
Now I have always known what fish i wanted in my tropical tank, but Richard had first choice and for reasons of his own he was adamant that he wanted Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami’s. So dutifully we selected two likely fishes. A brightly coloured male, electric blue with red stripes, and a smaller more timid female to keep him company with a simple silvery blue tone. With fish in bag we drove carefully home and following instructions, floated the bag in the tank for some time, to help the temperature adjust, added some water to adjust the fish to the water chemistry in the tnak and eventually with patience i didn’t know i had, released the first inhabitants in to our tank.
The bigger male seemed quite happy to explore the tank vigorously and lay claim. The shyer female took to hiding, though we were aware that Gouramis are peaceful shy fish that like to hide and generally prefer smaller tank mates who won’t bully them. We were going to learn that there are exceptions to the rule, but i’m getting ahead of myself.
Richard duly named our new friends. Dave and Kris… that’s what happens when you let your husband name your fish, you get names like Dave and Kris. In fairness, there is a tiny bit of logic to his insanity. He reckons since they are Dwarf blue gouramis, it is only right to name them after red dwarf characters. So they were named after Dave Lister and Kristine Kachanski.
For the first couple of days, everything progressed as expected, the fish got less timid and became more interesting to watch and more interested in their environment. Dave seemed to be behaving himself and Kris seemed extremely shy and timid, but relatively happy. However after a week or so it became apparent that Dave was not as peaceful or community like as we had expected or hoped. He began bullying Kris mercilessly, chasing her whenever she emerged from her sanctuary behind the filter. What do you do when you discover domestically violent fish?
Whether she succumbed to his bullying and abuse, or to one of the genetic defects common in the breed (due to over-breeding ) Kris didn’t survive in to her second week. And although i initially believe Dave was the route cause of this, I now believe that perhaps she hadn’t been well from the start and that though Dave’s persistent aggressive behaviour didn’t help matters, she wouldn’t have survived long any way.
After consulting an aquatics specialist, we discovered that every now and then male gouramis can be less docile and are known as Tank Bosses… brilliant, we tried for a peaceful fish and instead we got hooligan. However it was recommended that we pair him with two females instead of one, as they will support each other and perhaps calm him.
So thats what we did. And our two new females, Betty and Wilma, hold their own very well against El Toro ( as i’m now referring to him since he has a tendancy to try and line up on of the girls and charge at them across the tank before realising she’s moved out of the way and nearly swimming head first in to the glass). It is their behaviour that has me convinced that Kris was doomed from the outset. They are confident fish, that spend a lot of their time around the tank and barely any in hiding, they have been known to face off against Dave and keep him at bay, and generally seem un bothered if he feels the need to chase them about a bit.
3 weeks and counting and this bizarre threesome still seems to be working well. So a week and a half after their introduction and on noticing that the chemistry was finally sorting it self out appropriately we added to our tank in the corner. But that’s for the next post.
Dave (neon dwarf Gourami) in the bushes
Finally after years and years of badgering, my reluctant husband finally gave in to my badgering and arranged to buy me a tropical fish tank as my birthday present… cue excited girly giggling, hand clapping and jabbering, followed by a trip to an aquatics specialist and a lot of wrangling over tank size.
Eventually after what felt like hours said wrangling we settled on a 65 litre tropical tank with small cabinet style stand. Due to my impatience i insisted on buying the gravel for the tank there in a very serious aquarists, so we ended up with a mottled natural looking gravel. Initially we decided on plastic and silk plants as we didn’t want the fuss and polava of real plants. Rich wanted something that looked really natural, i had my own ideas, and that was, i wanted a bubbly thing, preferably one with led lighting… and i got one, and it changes colours…. soooo coool! red, green and blue lighting up the bubbles. I also wanted a skull of some variety, and so a trip to a more main stream pet shop was in need, and we emerged with some more exciting coloured plants, a blue, purple and green mottled central rock structure and a crocodile skull (quite probably not a real one, otherwise it is a diddy crocodile!)
Task 1: setting up the tank, getting the wiring in, planting the fake plants and filling it with water. Then turn the filter on and leave it alone to Cycle.
No that doesn’t mean we’re going to get up one morning and find the fish tank is an expert unicyclist. put simply it’s all about chemistry in the water, getting the filter up and running so it will destroy the dangerous ammonia naturally produced by the fishes, and then destroy the nitrite that is produced by destroying the ammonia (seems a bit self destructive, but heck that’s science for you) and then what your left with moderately unpleasant but not generally too harmful nitrate (cue me never being able to pronounce which nitrous I’m talking about and Richard forever correcting me).
However, what produces the ammonia to help cycle the tank? hmm well at first we read up and were told pour shed loads of filter start in the tank and leave it alone.
So we did. It looked pretty though. Have a look and see for yourself.
