Algae and pregnancy

Question
I think that my parents may have been overfeeding because they told me that they fed the fish a little more than I told them because the fish were "starving". I cut down a little but today tried adding a little piece of an orange because I had read that it was good and because we had no broccoli. Nothing bad happened but it was the first time I had seen them refuse food, so I am going back to flakes for tonights feeding... I have a florescent light and canopy, and I am leaving the lights on 10 hours a day now. I feed them twice a day,, and normally they are done eating and just swimming around in 30 seconds, leaving the other food just to fall.
My tetra normally just waits until they are done and catches the rest of the food when it falls so not all of it goes to waste, but no matter how little amount I feed, some always makes it down, and then the fish act starving. Why don't they just finish it off quicker? Is there a way to keep the flakes from sinking so quick?
Also, would an otto be ok to get for algae control, or would it die because my tank is too new?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello again Nicole. I am back from my vacation, during which my parents had a handy dandy book to help them look after the fish. When I came back, there was brown algae on the front and back glass, the decorations and the gravel. I have read that vacuuming the gravel worked, and it had been a week since I had last vacuumed so I figured I would try it. It does not seem that my syphon is strong enough to pull the fungi off the rocks, but I did clean some of my decorations. I have read it is not bad for the fish but it does not look good and I do not like it, what should I do?

Also, one of my danios is getting a big belly. This morning one of the other danios was very golden, but now, all my fish (not the neon though) are back to silver. How did this happen and is my zebra pregnant?
-----Answer-----
Hi there Garrett, how's it going?

I hope you had a nice vacation. I am so glad you had the foresight to give your parents some instructions and a book to read. They probably enjoyed looking after your fishes!

Non-fishkeepers, though, tend to overfeed. They may not have, and zebra danios are eager eaters so they might have cleaned their plate, so to speak. The algae may have occured because of overfeeding, or perhaps your parents left the light on for a little too long. Or, you could just be predisposed to this type of algae and it will always be lurking there! In any case, let me give you some tips.

Did you buy a special aquarium bulb, or are you using the bulbs that came with your fish tank? If you have incandescent bulbs (screw-in) then your lights will always a cast yellowish hue, indicative of being high in the yellow spectrum of light, which is favorable to algae. One thing you could do is upgrade to a fluorescent hood, if you don't already have one. General Electric makes a very pleasing fluorescent bulb that works for aquariums. They have one that's for plants and aquariums, but this one looks terrible in my opinion! The light I like to use is called Sunshine. It's 15 watts, and it's a full sprectrum light, which means (sort of) that it has all of the colors of the rainbow, not just a few. Replacing your lighting is one suggestion.

Another thing you could do is cut back on the lights. If you don't have any live plants, then you could, theoretically, just turn on your lights when you want to observe your fish. Some people only turn on their lights to feed their fish. This gets them up and at 'em right away, since they learn to associate having their lights turned on with being fed. Some people also turn their lights off around noontime - especially if their tank receives natural sunlight. The reason for this is that sunlight is most direct during the middle of the day, and a fish in a sunny room will get plenty of ambient light during this time.

If you have any testing equipment left after your intensive cycling period :) - then test your water. I bet it has nitrate levels in the tens. Doing some large water changes will help bring it down, about 50% a week for a month would be my suggestion. After a month you can go back to your regular maintenance schedule. Nitrates can be stubborn! A fresh cartridge of carbon will help, but most especially some added live plants. Hornwort is very easy to take care of, albeit "messy" - it grows rapidly and thus absorbs nitrates better than any commerical product, in my opinion.

Gravel vacuuming will help remove decaying material, which will reduce your nitrates, so it does help with algae control, just indirectly. It isn't actually possible to suck the algae off the gravel. The only way to remove it from the gravel would be to rinse it clean with lots of vigorous stirring. You don't want or need to do that, however.

I hope I gave you some suggestions about the algae!

I can't really say why your danios looked golden and now they don't, except that morning light does cast a different glow in your fish tank. I have my 29 gallon community tank near a south facing window, so it receives some indirect light. It's hard to see my fish in the morning because the sunlight is so much brighter than the aquarium light, but when they swim towards the left panel (where the sunshine hits) they do look very shimmery and lighter colored.

Your danio is very likely pregnant, indeed. You could encourage her to scatter her eggs in a separate tank, so you can raise the fry - that is up to you! If you do nothing, she will either re-absorb her eggs (1 teaspoon of Epsom salts dissolved in water, per 7-8 gallons helps with this) or scatter them in the tank, where they will either be eaten in their egg phase, or in their fry phase. Few community fish display much in the way of parenting skills! If your plan is to raise the fry you will need to take action.

Here's an article that will help you understand algae:
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm

And here's a couple of articles on breeding zebra danios:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/articles/zebradanio.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/aquariumd/zebra.html

Let me know if you have any other questions. Have a nice weekend, and take care!

Nicole

Answer
Hi again Garrett,

I can see the reason for your dilemma. The problem is that you have primarily zebra danios, which are surface feeders, and you have not stocked the middle or lower level of your tank yet.

I believe an otoclinus would be a fine addition. Just follow a drip acclimation procedure, since these are sensitive to changes in water quality. I would use a cup instead of a bucket, and I would cut the time to 30-45 minutes, but here is the basic outline of the procedure:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=19

Also have a read at this article about stocking an aquarium evenly, even if you are not ready yourself to add more fish at this juncture:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/evenstocking.htm

The orange was an admirable effort, sorry it did not work out. Oranges and carrots, while rich in color enhancers, are not beloved by all fish. Goldfish seem to be the ones who really take a shine to these foods. Zebra danios seem to only like flake, frozen, and live foods that are just for fish, perhaps because they only feed at the top of the water column and don't "pick" at foods such as cucumber the way fish like mollies would.

You could try a floating ring to keep the food in one place. They sell these, you can make your own very easily:
http://aquaticpredators.com/forums/index.php?s=82906963a269865817964ef5877ccadb&

You could also feed a couple of flakes at a time. Many people drop a pinch in all at once, I'm a bit fussy I suppose and I use wide tweezers to pick out three or four flakes at a time. I repeat this step about three times, and everyone gets enough to eat. Did you know that bettas' stomachs are only about the size of their eye? Goldfish only need to eat as much as their eye mass daily, although they are nearly always fed many times this much. In your case, I don't know if the size of their eye would be an accurate measurement, but your zebra danios' stomachs are really tiny, indeed. You could bring this up to your parents! Probably they just liked watching the fish eat, and since they do eat readily, they may have seemed unusually hungry to them.

As far as I know, there are no flakes that float at the surface longer! I wish there were, since flakes are universally accepted by most tropical fish. What I have read about TetraMin Tropical Granules and Tetramin Tropical Crisps suggests that they stay afloat longer than flakes - you might give them a try. Let me know!

Try cutting back on the lights a bit and doing a couple of water changes a week. I would also investigate the bulbs you are using. Hard water and low lighting high in the yellow spectrum is the ideal recipe for red/brown algae, nutrient levels being the catalyst for a bloom. Even if your lights seem bright to your eyes, most lights are not full spectrum - you have to seek these out specifically. The Eclipse daylight fluorescent bulbs that come with aquariums are especially encouraging to red/brown algal conditions.

I hope that helped. Until next time!

Nicole