Galaxy Rasboras

[Hsep]

It’s overstocked for a 25L tank and your fish may well be getting stressed because of that, or there might be some sort of infection going through them as suggested (on top of the stress).

The problem is that I always consult all my decisions with the store I get my fish from, starting from tank mates, water parameters to my tank size and on top of that I always show photos of my tank. My policy was to rely on someone who uderstands it.

Are you testing with strips or a liquid test kit? How did you cycle the tank? Photos of stock and decor might help too.

I have stopped using the strips about 4 months ago, now I have Colombo Liquid Test Kit.

I do not have any photos of the fish, but to be precise its 2 albino cories, not large nor small in size, about a year old snow white pleco, i got him when he/she was super small, one male betta a as of today 3 galaxy rasboras.

Regarding the cycling I had to do fish in cycle as I was redoing the aquarium and already had fish. (Starting aquarium went terribly wrong, hence, I did a little bit of research and tried to fix mistakes).

The photos provided are a bit missleading. The net volume is approximately 25l. When I do water change, I change 10l and when 10l are missing there is more than half of the water in there. The photo of the tank is slightly older but it still corresponds to the actual state of the tank.

[plankton]

OK, the black fish is a guppy which you hadn't mentioned. Had you just fed them as his stomach is quite big?
I think the plec may be an albino bristlenose if that is the tail in the "cave", that will be too big for a small cube like you have. Can you try and rehome him/her?
The corys are ok with two, but should be in groups of 6+ if possible to avoid stress, not in your tank though.
If the betta is with them all he may (looking "chill" or not) be stressing the smaller fish out.

[Hsep]

OK, the black fish is a guppy which you hadn't mentioned.

The guppy isnt there anymore, this photo is not up to date regarding stocking. It should be a refence for the decor and plants I have there.

I think the plec may be an albino bristlenose if that is the tail in the "cave", that will be too big for a small cube like you have. Can you try and rehome him/her?

The plec is called Snow White Bristlenose Pleco to my knowledge. I will be changing my aquariums in a few months. I will be moving from Netherlands in a few months and I intend to bring the fish with me. So I will throw away the 30l and rehome him, the corys and betta to my 100l that I will be upgrading as well. But right now it is not reasonable to get more tanks.

The corys are ok with two, but should be in groups of 6+ if possible to avoid stress, not in your tank though.

Yes I know that corys need a group. In my 100l I have group of 7 but here I simply cannot have more. I will get more once I upgrade their tank.

Photo of the Pleco

[VikingMummy2015]

Sadly, the fish store have been telling you what they want to sell you, not what is actually best for the fish. Here on the forum we have no financial incentive; we’re just providing advice based on varying numbers of years of experience.
I had a tank that size as my kids’ first tank in 2017. It was full when it had 8 white cloud mountain minnows and I’d never consider anything more than a single betta in a tank that small ever again. Cories need a larger group, as Plankton (massively experienced member) has said. They’re also quite a chunky species for such a full (with hardscape) tank and there’s not a lot of soft sand substrate for them to safely forage in. They risk damaging their barbels and getting infections. And I have a bristlenose that size in my 240L tank and wouldn’t put one in anything smaller than 100L based purely on the amount of poop they produce, which could put strain on a smaller filter.

You might not like our honesty, but we only have the fish welfare at heart.

[plankton]

I don't know the health of fish stock sold in The Netherlands, only in the UK, so it could be that Celestial Pearl Danios (there's no such thing as Galaxy Rasboras, it's a misname in shops) are a poor stock over there perhaps?

[Hsep]

I don't know the health of fish stock sold in The Netherlands, only in the UK, so it could be that Celestial Pearl Danios (there's no such thing as Galaxy Rasboras, it's a misname in shops) are a poor stock over there perhaps?

It could be the case, I went there to look at the other fish in the tank I got mine from. Even the fish in the tank don't look as healthy as they did when I bought them.

I am currently thinking about rescaping the tank. The ferns are slowly taking over, I could do probably better with other fast-growing plants to help with filtration. Do you think it is a good idea or not? If I do so, I will keep the stocking at the current state, betta, 3 danios that survived, 2 corys and pleco.
Are there some things I could do differently to provide the fish with a better environment? I was thinking about adding more sand to the foreground for corys and planting a lot of Limnophilias since they are overtaking my other tank. Any other tips for making the life of the 3 danios less miserable would be much appreciated.

You might not like our honesty, but we only have the fish welfare at heart.

No, I do appreciate criticism as long as it is constructive. I do not like when people call me an idiot for the mistakes they had to learn the hard way as well.

[plankton]

I don't use anything but sand in my tanks for the well-keeping of bottom feeders, so I will always say sand.
By the way, putting it on top of gravel can cause anaerobic/anionic bubbles underneath which can hold nasty gasses like hydrogen sulph(f?)ide.
I'm not sure you can do anything else for the fish bar keeping the water as good as possible.
I would still consider worming them though, just in case it is that with the danios.

[Martinspuddle]

I do not like when people call me an idiot for the mistakes they had to learn the hard way as well.

There's only room for one idiot on this forum ...me!

If your moving to the Netherlands, you'll find aquatic stores are somewhat superior to ours here in the UK.

[Hsep]

Hello,

today I finally have time to take care of my aquariums and I want to rescape the 30L such that it better suits the fish inside as I have mentioned previously.

Assuimg that the tank has been running for 6 months, do I have to pay attention to some details after I rescape it?

I will be using new stones that I found outside in a park. To clean them up, I washed them with a detergent and had them boiling for an hour afterwards. The stones


I want to use the same substrate and the same plants again, only adding one or two root tabs to help the plants reestablish. Currently I have there some Java Ferns, Limnophilias, some Crypts and a bit of HC cuba. I will be adding some cutoffs of lobelia from my 100l and getting rid of a half of the ferns as they take up a lot of space.

Additionally, I intend to save as much water as possible and use it in the new tank.

Are there any things I can do better? If so, tell me please and I will try to incorporate them.

Thank you.

[Staffylover]

Nearly all fish I can think of with the exception perhaps of Gobies prefer to be kept on sand, so personally I would look to increase the amount of sand you have, in addition since you are re scaping you could add substrate for plants in mesh bags under the sand which will help the plants out, but root tabs do the same job it's just I find I need quite a lot of them if not using any substrate, get plain coloured root tabs as the red colour clay ones are quite annoying when they rise to the surface
If you still have the pleco make sure there is some wood in there in addition to the stones, some need to eat wood for digestion others don't but still like to hang out there
Don't worry too much about saving the water worry more about the filter media - don't let it dry out
If you can I would keep the fish in a bucket (towel over top) with heater if needed plus the media while you do the re scape then when tank is matching temperature of bucket pour them back in
The stones look really nice I'm sure they will look great in your tank