I am not exactly new to owning fish, as i have had an aquarium in some form or another, for the past seven years. however, for the past two years, i have been a college student and, as such, am required to move about every few months and cannot own a very large tank. i write now, only because i deeply concerned with my pets' current well-being, what with the moving about and the small aquarium they are housed in.
i currently own only a (admittedly deceptively large-looking) five gallon tank (though it actually holds about 6 gallons when full) with a fire-gourami, a killifish, a black moor and a largish plecostomus. these fish, minus the black moor, are the remnants of a much larger tank (50 gal) that i owned previously... (the other fish are kept by my old roommate along with the giant tank.)
the pleco is my main source of concern... having started at a tiny couple of inches when i first bought him (at which time he was housed in another small tank of only six to seven gallons) he grew to a (comparatively) monstrous five to six inches while living in the giant fifty gallon aquarium. after splitting the denizens of the large tank i had believed that my friend would keep the growing pleco (as the large aquarium is needed for the ammonia production of such a large fish) but, after a complicated turn of events, the pleco returned to my care. i am now forced to keep him with my other tank residents in my tiny five gallon tank.... a situation i know is unhealthy for all the fish involved,
due to financial constraints i have been unable to procure a larger tank and no one i know is willing/able to support the needs of my pleco. none of the nearby petstores will buy/take him off my hands and so they have all stayed in this little tank for almost two years now. none of them seem unhealthy or unhappy (the pleco keeps himself mostly confined to the underside of his cave during daylight hours and moves around a bit at night... he is growing slowly but not nearly as fast as he had been in the large tank) but i know that this cannot be a healthy arrangement for them. the moor goes wherever he chooses, the killifish stays near the middle/top (as is expected of killifish) but the gourami tends to sit very still near the tank bottom, amongst the (real) plants. is this healthy behavior?
i replace the filter every month (all that is allowed by my current financial constraints) and i replace about half a gallon to a gallon of water a week with detoxified tap water. also, i add two drops of Bio Safe brand tap water detoxifier to their tank every week as the label boasts that it decreases ammonia levels. is this enough to keep the ammonia at safe levels until i am able to afford a larger tank?
also, i move this tank about once every five months (on average.) to accomplish this i usually drain the tank down low enough so that the pleco is still completely covered in his cave and i move the other fish to a plastic pitcher i have bought for that purpose. they endure these conditions for somewhere between 6-8 hours max (i make sure that the containers aren't sealed constantly so the water can be oxygenated) after which i refill the tank with detoxified tap water (the pleco rarely seems to mind this transition overly much) and replace the three other fish. this is about a 2/5ths to 2/3rds ratio of old water to new water. is this acceptable? what other factors should i be aware of when transporting these fish?
i currently own only a (admittedly deceptively large-looking) five gallon tank (though it actually holds about 6 gallons when full) with a fire-gourami, a killifish, a black moor and a largish plecostomus. these fish, minus the black moor, are the remnants of a much larger tank (50 gal) that i owned previously... (the other fish are kept by my old roommate along with the giant tank.)
the pleco is my main source of concern... having started at a tiny couple of inches when i first bought him (at which time he was housed in another small tank of only six to seven gallons) he grew to a (comparatively) monstrous five to six inches while living in the giant fifty gallon aquarium. after splitting the denizens of the large tank i had believed that my friend would keep the growing pleco (as the large aquarium is needed for the ammonia production of such a large fish) but, after a complicated turn of events, the pleco returned to my care. i am now forced to keep him with my other tank residents in my tiny five gallon tank.... a situation i know is unhealthy for all the fish involved,
due to financial constraints i have been unable to procure a larger tank and no one i know is willing/able to support the needs of my pleco. none of the nearby petstores will buy/take him off my hands and so they have all stayed in this little tank for almost two years now. none of them seem unhealthy or unhappy (the pleco keeps himself mostly confined to the underside of his cave during daylight hours and moves around a bit at night... he is growing slowly but not nearly as fast as he had been in the large tank) but i know that this cannot be a healthy arrangement for them. the moor goes wherever he chooses, the killifish stays near the middle/top (as is expected of killifish) but the gourami tends to sit very still near the tank bottom, amongst the (real) plants. is this healthy behavior?
i replace the filter every month (all that is allowed by my current financial constraints) and i replace about half a gallon to a gallon of water a week with detoxified tap water. also, i add two drops of Bio Safe brand tap water detoxifier to their tank every week as the label boasts that it decreases ammonia levels. is this enough to keep the ammonia at safe levels until i am able to afford a larger tank?
also, i move this tank about once every five months (on average.) to accomplish this i usually drain the tank down low enough so that the pleco is still completely covered in his cave and i move the other fish to a plastic pitcher i have bought for that purpose. they endure these conditions for somewhere between 6-8 hours max (i make sure that the containers aren't sealed constantly so the water can be oxygenated) after which i refill the tank with detoxified tap water (the pleco rarely seems to mind this transition overly much) and replace the three other fish. this is about a 2/5ths to 2/3rds ratio of old water to new water. is this acceptable? what other factors should i be aware of when transporting these fish?
