Keeping Fish

[enola]

Mosquito fish in a community tank would be a disaster. They will eat the fins off of slower moving fish. For their size they are one of the most aggressive fish I have ever raised.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I see, I'll change that. They were mostly meant for a pond environment, this is where I keep and breed mine.

 

[enola]

Mine are in a 300 gallon water tank. I put some extra male guppies in the tank because I had no where else to put them. They did not last 24 hours....

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Do you happen to keep any fish?

I presently have 6 tanks, 2 tropical, 4 with goldfish, my biggest tank is a 125 with 12 goldfish.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Very nice oldhen! Enola, that is crazy that mosquito fish killed guppies! We raise our fry of both species together often with no problem, so I will watch for these possible behaviors. I'm sorry about your guppies. What were you keeping the misquito fish for? In a 300 gallon tank, that's a lot of fish! They are small and relatively slow compared to the fish they live with in our pond, and tank, but perhaps they are faster than I knew. Do you think they will go after my swordtails, mollies, platys, and goldfish they live with? They are thinned out in our turtle pond with my spiny softshells and Mississippi map turtle, but they may pose a problem where I add some of the guppies from an old breeding line. The males got too aggressive towards my females, but with a crying five year old, I cannot cull them. I promised them a place in the pond, but that may have to change. With some new "pet fish" in our 18 gallon tropical tank, our small scale breeding with our mollies and swordtails needed to go, but we recently got another batch of fry from our beautiful white female. They are now in with our small guppy fry but as soon as they are big enough they will either be moved into our heated pond or into the pet aquarium.

 

[enola]

I raise them to keep the mosquitoes under control and as snacks for the chickens.

I don't know why they killed the guppies, maybe the fancy tails looked like food.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

So chickens like them? Interesting! They are good with mosquitos for sure. The tails of fancy guppies often look like food for many fish. We have had problems with tetras, barbs, which are nippy in the first place, other guppies, etc. bothering our fancies, which is why we are very careful in keeping them away from other fish. I will definitely stop raising mosquito fish with my fancies, definitely not risking my good breeding lines. Do you keep your fish indoors or outdoors?

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Tank check today. We recently lost our two breeding guppy males which we hoped to breed for new bloodlines in our breeding section. My females were thinned out this week by a fungul infection that is still running strong even with repeated extensive treatment. We are looking towards buying new breeding lines of Moscow Greens, Cobras, Sunsets, and Fancies for our program when this infection has run its course. A few of our hobby fish are sick and aren't looking good, but I'm not too upset to see my neon tetras go, nasty little fish. They attack anything that moves that is even slightly smaller than them, but I was lured into purchasing four or five last year after our few runny nosed tetras passed away from old age, probably some of my favorite of all our hobby fish. They were very sweet, non aggressive, pretty, and would eat from my hand. I have tried to find them again and again, but to no avail. My dojo loach, by far one of my favorite fish along with my albino bristle nosed Pleco and some seven to eight year old skirt tetras, passed on a while ago, and I would like to replace him soon. I am soon to add either sunfish, bitterlings, killifish, more mosquito fish, or some plain guppies into my heated goldfish and koi hobby pond. The turtles eat fish ravenously in the pond, but they are relatively good snacking on rosy reds and mosquito fish and keeping away from my Goldies, koi, mollies, platys, swordtails, etc., which I'm very glad of. My high finned shark died during a major algae outbreak this year and I am looking for a catfish to replace him, or maybe Sunnies. Anyone have any ideas for good fish for a koi and goldfish hobby pond?

 

[enola]

I don't want to sound snarky or any thing...... Do you realize that most fish diseases are caused by water quality?

I don't keep fish anymore, something about the water where I live now kills them.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You have to let the bacteria needed to process your ammonia and nitrite waste establish, and then make sure you don't destroy the colonies, as well as doing weekly water changes to remove nitrates from the water. Some fish are not compatible to every water condition but never where it kills all species. That's a keeper problem usually.