I can completely agree about the low morals of your LFS. The guy in the shop knew my tank set up and still sold me a Silver Shark that was inapropriate for my tank. I should have been suspicious when I observed the same gent attempting to sell them to an enquiring customer.

I have of course learned my lesson since then concerning prior reserch, eg see the fish, like the fish, leave the fish shop

BTW Matthew Le Tisser (my bala shark) seems happy enough. Just hope i can re home him, in a tank of mine or some one elses when he grows a little.

buy a bigger filter than the minimum you need-particularly internal filters that flow drops off within days

Neons are a natural food source for angels..so yeah, they'll be eaten quickly.
I hate neons though, so more power to the angels. <3

What will happen if like the other evening we had a power cut and the power was off for around 6 hrs? I assume the bacteria will start to die but what is the solution other than get a generator?

Here's a few more:

Don't try and cram a gazillion species into a small tank. Keep the number of species to a minimum. A tank will look much better with proper schools/shoals of 2-3 species rather than the bare minimum of a gazillion. Gazillion will eventually be an actual number if the US's debt gets any higher! If you want more species, get a larger tank. I personally like 3 species per 20g, see below for the reason why. I'm talking slim-bodied, minimal waste-producing small fish. If your fish are bigger, then that's a different ballgame.

Don't purchase all your fish species to occupy one strata of the tank, instead try to find species that will occupy different levels. It makes for a more aesthetically pleasing tank and tankmates will not bother each other so much.

When you are setting up a planted tank, don't add your wonderful brand new upgraded lighting until your CO2 is at the level you want it too be. When it's there, then add lots and lots of fast-growing stem plants and then turn on your lights. You'll have less algae to deal with. Once your tank is stable and algae free, you can aquascape the way you want.

Don't plant anubias or java fern all the way into the substrate. These plants have rhizomes and if water circulation is cut from the rhizome, it'll rot and your plant will die. You can cover the roots, but leave the rhizome above the substrate. Better still, attach these plants to rocks or wood.

Don't move cryptocorynes around too much in your planted tank. They don't like to be disturbed and they could melt on you. This is called cryptocoryne disease.

Now, don't toss a melted cryptocoryne right away, most of the time, if the roots aren't too badly damaged or shocked from the move, they'll grow back right as rain in a few weeks.

Of course, you are welcome to disagree with anything posted here. I am definitely not the be all and end all of tropical fish keeping.

I agree and dissagree with a lot of these, like dont belive the ppl at the LFS, well then WHO will they belive, some person they met on the internet??? no, and the crap of "dont buy fish from chain pet stores" well no, I buy a LOT of my fish at petsmart... and it just so happends I whant to work their and specialize in the fish and birds section... at petsmart, I rarely have to take a fish back, ......and I do agree with the angel fish in the 10 gall though , I made that mistake, that was the first thing I did, after I got a betta, I put 2 angels in a 10gall tank...luckly, they were fine they were put in a like...120 gall planted ect.... and the thing about angels and neons, NOT TRUE, I kept angels and neons together, now a no no is not to keep neons and KILLIES together, ........ and also FEMALE bettas should be kept away from fish with long fins, such as guppys....and neons they LOVE to eat neons...

Ive broken 1, 2, 3, 5, and 16

As this is a pin (albeit an old one) in the FAQ section, maybe some of the things need to be sorted out...

1) Don't clean out bio-media in tap water - yes, but mechanical (and mechanical only) is fine under the tap - my filter floss in my wet/dry trickle towers will ONLY come clean under the shower on full bore. The mechanical media is not there to support bacteris colonies, it is there to remove detritus fromt he water column before the bacteria can break it down and make it a nitrate factory.

6) Unless you have a UGF, most of your bacteria will be on the bio-media of your filter so extensive cleaning of the gravel should not be a problem.

7) Plants prefer to take up ammonia than nitrate, so I would not be surprised if nitrite is a preferred fertiliser than nitrate as well. However, it is important to get them right as one is toxic merely by being present,a nd the other has had no noticeable effects on fish in scientific experiments at concentrations of less than 100 ppm.

12) There is no evidence that salt burns the skin of corries (or plecos, or loaches or any other salt intolerant fish). This article: http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article84.htm goes into some detail on why catfish are not allergic to salt [credit for first putting the article on this forum goes to NMonks]. The reason for not putting salt in is because it can upset the osmoregulatory system of the fish. The only way to burn them would be to add undissolved salt, which WILL cause problems with any live creatures in a tank.

hi i have a 4gallon tank the tank is fully recycled in tank i have 3 fish and 1 zebra sucker should i stay at that or could u advise me on
1. how many fish i could have in tank
2. which fish i could add too tank
my tank is cold water but also i have large pump fluvalplus 2.any advice would be welcome.

jon.coleman1@btinternet.com

um... okay, you can't have anymore fish in that tank, you should definately not have the plec in that tank, and you probably shouldn't have the other fish in the tank. however for future reference you can't just say you have four fish and ask advice on stocking as we need to what sort of fish they are. You can't just throw fish together randomly and assume they are going to get along, and in four gallons, very few fish are going to get along (unless they are dying which they may well be.)

So i would suggest that you ID the other three fish, and also the species of "sucker fish". You definately need a bigger tank. Pretty much the only suitable fish for that tank is one betta. i would suggest going to tropical chit chat if you want more advice as this isn't really the place.

Never buy any kind of brackish fish (mono, scat, puffer, archer etc) unless you are SURE you have the right water. They can live in fresh water for a short while, but after they WILL die. I did this with a mono - I asked at my lfs if it was brackish or not and the usual questions - but the person didnt know, yet I went and bought it anyway . I suppose that is another rule - never buy a fish if the lfs person doesn't know anything about it!
Luckily for my mono I add a fair bit of salt to my tank and so it is okay and is growing nicely.

Well, I know I did a no no. I added some salt to my Freshwater. I hope my Plecos will be ok

I have to Disagree with 4. and i disagree with 7 for the most part. PH is something every fish keeper should be aware. and should be aware of how to properly raise it in a tank with fish in it already, for instance if there is a drop or jump in PH, but then at the same time i agree with you because i have a relative that thought that when your ph is 6.5 and it needs to be 8 that all you do is buy some instant ph 8 at the pet store and dump it all in at once. never a good outcome

don't screw up. don't not ask questions. don't ask questions that's been answered a zillion times. don't forget that there's a search button on the top right corner of this website.

last but not least, whatever you do, don't panic.

This post has been edited by handsomeboy: Aug 13 2006, 05:12 AM

Well i must say this thread has well and truly confused the living hell out of me, so many do's and dont's and alot without credible reason. As for not taking advice from a aquatic store the real important advice ive read in this thread (and one that seemed clear and credible was from an owner of an aquatic store) aka:GetTanked .

Im a total newb as it was over 8 year since i kept tropicals "alot of which is coming back to me as i plod along" The 1st post was very informative thanks Alien Anna and also GetTanked although one did infact dissagree slightly with the other it would allow me to make my own assumption, and told the tale from both sides of the fence: Fish Keeper (Hobbiest) and Fish Keeper come Fish Sales (With a clear love for his job).

Angels and Neons "this has caused a debate in my home as my wife swore the angels ate our neons and claims she witnessed it many years back but ive always shunned this idea" so you can guess what happened when she read this thread ? lol Thanks for the domestic hehehe (but it has made me cautious and will watch for this when my new tank is cycled and fish start getting added).

I honestly would have defended anyone that said it couldnt have occurred but im wide open for ideas as to where the tetras went night after night (im talking maybies 20 and only leaving a couple larger full grown neons to go on).

As per the neon/angel debate, I think there are many variables in which they could and couldn't get along. For example, my DH has two full grown male angels that treat neons like snack food. I actually had to get my own tank so that I could have neons (although at the moment I am battling with my high PH in order to do this ). However, if you had young angels or maybe a mated pair, they might be less agressive and less likely to eat other fish. Just a thought.

in my old 45 gallon tank I had a male and female betta, an angelfish and 3 neon tetras among others. They all got along very well. The only time I had a fish disrupt others was when I mistakenly added a cichlid, yeah I know now that was a bad idea, but I was told it would be fine by the LFS. Needles to say when I woke up the next morning I had one fish withhis face ripped off and my angel being harassed by the cichlid. Bye-bye cichlid.

different people will say different things
neons and angels can go together...best results are if you get the angels real small after the neons are settled.
i keep angels, a betta, and a gourami together. my gourami and betta sleep next to each other. i dont think its fair to say it wont work, it all depends on the fish.

but like posted earlier, some things work for some people that dont for others

i am planning on adding a couple cories to my tank after it cycles. salt will harm them but all the other tropical fish benefit from salt and i want to have them in my tank too so what do i do? and do i need to somehow remove the salt that i already added to the tank?

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