first fish tank. need some help.

[Niecie]

My son got a starter aquarium as a gift and it was set up a few weeks ago. My husband and I know absolutely nothing about fish, but a family member set up the tank for us and got us 6 little tropical fish for the tank and 2 snails.

I believe it is about a ten gallon tank and we have a heater and filter. I think the filter is an Aqua-Tech. Anyway, at this time there is a ton of fish poop covering the gravel. I pulled out the instruction manual that came with the aquarium and it says that you need to change the filter cartridge every 2-3 weeks, do a 20% water change, and use a gravel vacuum to clean up the poop.

Changing the cartridge will be no problem, but I'm not sure how to go about the rest. Do we have to take the fish out before we use the vacuum? How exactly does a gravel vacuum work? (We don't have one yet.) Does it suck out all the gravel too? If so, do you just rinse the gravel off and put it back in? Do you just have to clean the surface of the gravel or is there more poop underneath that we should attempt to vacuum up?

I asked the family member who helped us set up the aquarium about all of this, but he said he never vacuumed his tanks, that he just stirred up the gravel with a stick when it got too dirty. That doesn't sound like a great idea to me. He also mentioned that he had some kind of fish that ate the poop. Is this true? Is there a fish I can get that will eat the poop?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am just clueless and I want to do the best thing for our fish. I just need someone to tell me how to do it. (The instruction manual doesn't answer any of my questions unfortunately.)

Thanks!

[Bettachris]

he set you up, but it looks like he needs help himself, (no offence)

there is no fish in the world that eats the poop from any other fish.
the only thing i can think of is a pleco which he might think eats it. a common pleco reaches over 24 inches so i doubt he has a tank for this type of fish, it isn't really his fault as common plecos are so readily avalible.

with water changes, no you dont have to remove the fish.

they make really only three typeos of water changing equpiment.

type a) hose that hooks up to the sink. this is the type that i use and is in my opinion is the best. try looking for a python water changing hose. you just hook it to the sink, and you can suck out water and than refill the water into the tank.
b)battery operated: they make these ones where it is hand held and you go from place to place and hold a button and it sucks gravel and water, and the dirt goes into a bag which you can just clean.
c)hose with a hand pump: pump it by hand and the water goes in to a bucket and than you can add the water back into the tank. (not my favorite)

water changes are very important and a 30 % water change once a week is best.

try also getting a product called stress coat, add this into your tank after each water change useing tap water. this will remove unwanted chemicals from the tap water.

- stocking, as this is your first tank and being a ten gallon, a ten gallon isn't overall that big so stocking is going to be tough. generally in fishkeeping the bigger the tank, the easier it is. but n.e way, make sure you dont over stock this ten gallon with many fishes. it would be good to know what type of fishes you have as stocking from the new fishkeepers can be hard.

- again, there is no fish that will eat poop, and if you have any fish questions please let me know, and post, i would be very happy to help you in anyway.

[Niecie]

I didn't think there was a fish who would eat fish poop. I'm glad I know for sure now. :)

We have had to add water to the tank a few times since getting it because it seems to evaporate somewhat quickly in my son's tiny, warm room. We add something called AquaSafe(?) to the water first. Is that the same kind of thing as the stress coat you mentioned?

I have to go to get the new cartridge tonight, I think, so I will look for one of those python hoses since changing the water with buckets sounds like a big hassle.

As I said in my original post, we have 6 fish now. We have two white ones that are the biggest, maybe about an inch and a half long and about an inch from top to bottom. We have two long thin silvery gray ones that are very quick. And we have two tiny ones, less than an inch long, that are orangy brown with black stripes. I have no idea what kind of fish they are. I think the family member who bought them for us said two of them were some kind of kissing fish.

We don't have any plans to add more fish at this time, but about how many fish can you put in a ten gallon tank without overcrowding them?

Thanks for all your help!

[Bettachris]

unfort, u probably have a kissing gourami. the bad thing is they grow up to be one of the largest gouramis.

when stocking fish, you must stock with potiental size b/c you can buy a small 1 inch fish, that can grow up to 24 + inches.

the only problem that i can really think of, is the fishes that they bought for you are schooling fish, meaning they like to be in numbers, and a problem of a 10 gallon, is there isn't enough room to hold many schools.

i would suggest after you get a handle on fishkeeping for about 3 months, get a larger tank.

a tank around 29 gallons would be best to hold schools of the fishes you have and the kissing gouramies can grow.


also aquasafe is just the same as stress coat.

[Niecie]

Well, my husband ended up going to the pet store and didn't want to spend the money for a python hose :rolleyes: , so he just got some little hose thingy to siphon out the water.

It actually worked pretty well. We siphoned about 30% of the water, and added the AquaSafe'd water. A bunch of poop ended up in the bucket, but there is still a lot of poop in there. Is it ok to vacuum it again and change the water in a few days? Or should we wait at least a week? I know I read something somewhere about not changing too much water at a time because you get rid of good bacteria or something?

I didn't know that the fish we had were schooling fish. That would explain why each set of two like fish are always together! :)

[Bettachris]

they school for protection and they dont usually form mixed schools of different types of fish.

tough question about the water change, as yes changing it often is very stress ful to both the tank and the fish.

another thing you can do is use your net and gently run it across the gravel to pick up some poop, and than the rest can be taken out next water change.