More noob Q's?

[Jennie]

Discus behavior?
Q1.In the future, when my fish are grown, and some seem to be pairing off to breed, how do I prevent this? should they just remain in the tank regardless of pairing? will there be severe aggression?
Q2. Do females act the same as males as far as a pecking order.
Q3. I only have 1 plant in my tank to help with water quality, but how many would it take to actually absorb the toxins? (55 gallon with 5 juvies. and daily WC. fed well 3xday)
Q4. what's the body slapping all about?

[joanr]

1. You don't prevent this, it's natural. The fry will not survive long in a community tank, they will be eaten.
2. Females can be more aggressive IMHO
3. You need to cycle your filter media, one plant or a dozen will not absorb all the toxins, that's why we do a fishless cycle of the tank and the filter media before adding the fish, did you cycle?
4. If you mean the fish are swatting each other with their tails? Normal. If you mean they are having spastic body movements, not normal.
5. Get a test kit and check your water parameters. You should have 0 ammo, 0 nitrite and between 5 -15 nitrate. Plants will help with nitrates but fish will not live long if you have ammo or nitrites. If you plan on changing 100% water every day then you don't need to worry about bio filtration but most people do not want to change out 55gal everyday. Make sure you are using Prime dechlorinator, Colorado water has both Chlorine and Chloramines, especially around the Denver area.

[joanr]

Ok so I read in another of your threads that you have cycled the tank but had a small nitrite spike when you added 2 more but things are back to normal now? Here is what a lot of us do. A 55 gal is a big tank for small juvies and with daily water changes it gets pricey to do big daily water changes. Is there a way you could grow them out for awhile in a BB 40breeder or even a 30gal? That would be easier for you to handle. Then when they are about 4" you could transfer them all back into the 55gal and cut back a tad on the w/c's.

[Jennie]

I actually had a light bulb go over my head joan. I was doing water changes with the python via my kitchen sink because that is the only faucet that worked with the fittings and to boot that water had to flow upstairs. It was taking allot to change the water, I guestimate it was 3 to 4 times the amount in wasted water per day that I wanted to change in the actual tank. so Now I'm just syphoning the water manually to the shower drain on the same level(much faster) and when I drain enough I just grab the end of hose and hook it to the kitchen sink to refill. duh! now down to 30 gallons day instaed of couple hundred. I never felt it was a big deal to do daily, what bothered me is the amount of water I wasted and the time it took to syphon upstairs(very slow) anyway my water prmeters are back on target, so no worries there.



Ok so I read in another of your threads that you have cycled the tank but had a small nitrite spike when you added 2 more but things are back to normal now? Here is what a lot of us do. A 55 gal is a big tank for small juvies and with daily water changes it gets pricey to do big daily water changes. Is there a way you could grow them out for awhile in a BB 40breeder or even a 30gal? That would be easier for you to handle. Then when they are about 4" you could transfer them all back into the 55gal and cut back a tad on the w/c's.

[joanr]

Since you are not storing water first and are filling right from the kitchen faucet you could install a quick connect fitting to a bathroom faucet male on faucet/female on a hose, upstairs for filling and drain with python into the toilet or tub? Using two hoses, one for filling clean water and one for draining the dirty water is always a good thing. That's if you have an upstairs bath. That's what I do with my daughter's tetra tank that's in her bedroom. Those python faucet connectors that have you turn on the water to create a syphon are really wasteful and only necessary if your drain is higher than your tank. Actually PetSmart ( TopFin) has a self-priming drain tube canister, pump it a few times and it starts the syphon, I like them better than the Python. Better than all that, a submersible pump connected to a drain hose is the way to go....much easier.