A Couple Of Questions

jrussuk

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Hi, my wife bought me a Tropiquarium 55 as a gift.Imready to set it up read about fishless cycling etc but ive just relised it hasnt got a air pump in the set up. Should i get a pump with a airstone to oxygenate the water or will plants and the filter (a Trio 2000 which takes up a lot of room!!!) do the job? Also, im going to stock eventually with a pair of dwarf gouramis and a pair of panda corys (if i can find any in London!!!) but do most species need to be kept in pairs? And does anyone have some advice on what other fish species i could keep ? Many Thanks in advance
 
Should i get a pump with a airstone to oxygenate the water or will plants and the filter (a Trio 2000 which takes up a lot of room!!!) do the job?

you don't need an air pump/airstone as long as the filter output is rippling/breaking the surface tension

a pair of panda corys (if i can find any in London!!!)
but do most species need to be kept in pairs?

Corys are quite gregarious and should be kept in groups, rather than in pairs
I'd say 3 is the absolute min.
Try Wholesale Tropicals in Bethnal Green for pandas. If Terry hasn't got any in stock he'll order them in for you.

And does anyone have some advice on what other fish species i could keep ? Many Thanks in advance

Although I have heard of the tropicarium 55, i'm unfamiliar with it
could you post the dimensions, that way we can best advise you on other fish to stock in it.
 
Hi, my wife bought me a Tropiquarium 55 as a gift.Imready to set it up read about fishless cycling etc but ive just relised it hasnt got a air pump in the set up. Should i get a pump with a airstone to oxygenate the water or will plants and the filter (a Trio 2000 which takes up a lot of room!!!) do the job? Also, im going to stock eventually with a pair of dwarf gouramis and a pair of panda corys (if i can find any in London!!!) but do most species need to be kept in pairs? And does anyone have some advice on what other fish species i could keep ? Many Thanks in advance


hi, glad your fishless cycling, IMO it's the best way forward.

you don't nescessarily need an air pump, if you can adjust the filter output so it breaks the surface of the water and gives plenty of surface agitiation then that should give enough oxygen.

be careful with your fish selection, dwarf gourami's while nice fish are notoriously weak, i wouldn't recommend them for a tank under 6 months old and be very careful where you buy them from, you can also experience agression from the males so you need to watch out for that.

panda cories are even more delicate, also not for a tank under 6 months old, and you need to keep a group of 6+. they'll do best if you use sand instead of gravel as your substrate and you need to keep it immaculately clean.

fish numbers is normally divided into 4 groups..... you either keep a single specimin, a trio (1m x 2f), a pair (1m x 1f) or a group of 6+.

how big (in us gallons) is the tank?
 
Thanks for all your repleys im at work at the moment so cant give you actual dimensions but i know its a 40 litre tank (10 gallons not sure american or imprial gallons)
 
OK, for a 10g tank the largest fish you could get is about 3" i reckon, best sticking to little ones.

the basic rule for working out how many fish to get is the " per gallon rule.

this works on us gallons and adult fish sizes, work out what fish you want, add the adult sizes in inches of them all up and it should be roughly the same number as the us gallons your tank holds. fairly obviously though 1 10" fish isn't the same as 10 1" fish, yuo do have to exercise a little common sense, but it should give you a guideline for the amount of fish you can have.

in a 10g tank i wouldn't probably stock something like this

6 microrasbora galaxy - 3"
1 ram/dwarf gourami - 3"
5 panda cories - 5"

this makes you a teeny bit overstocked but there's a good distribution of fih around the top middle and bottom of the tank so it would be fine.
 
fish numbers is normally divided into 4 groups..... you either keep a single specimin, a trio (1m x 2f), a pair (1m x 1f) or a group of 6+.

Neatly put, I never thought about it that way. Just to add to that:

the reason for assigning different species to different size groups is their natural behaviour.

Some fish are schooling fish, which need to be kept in groups to feel safe. This includes tetras, danios, rasboras and many barbs. These get a feeling of safety by looking round and seeing others like them; if they can't, they will get stressed. Additionally, group-living fish often develop a very strict hierarchy within the group. This is another strong reason for not keeping the group too small as it means that the top dog will constantly be chasing weaker members to keep his (or her) position. If the group is large enough his aggression will be spread out, but if there are only one or two other group members they may succumb to the stress of getting it in the neck all the time. There are some fish - such as corys- which school for reasons of protection and sociability (if this is not too anthropomorhic a term), but which do not keep to a group hierarchy- these can be kept in groups of 3+, though the more the merrier.

When fish recommended for keeping in a trio, what is usually meant is 1 male and 2 females. These are fish where the male is very territorial and will not tolerate other males, but is quite happy with a little harem. Common fish include gouramis. The reason a trio is recommended and not a pair is that the males of such species may drive their females rather hard, so it is a good idea to keep more than one female to take the pressure off. The number three is not set in stone- 1 male and 3 or more females will do just as well. Livebearers such as guppies, platies, swordtails are also good harem fish, though with most of these you can keep more than one male as long as they are outnumbered by the females. Swordtails are easiest to keep with only one male and a harem of females. It should be added that all these trio fish can be kept as a group of females only- the only reason this is seldom recommended is that the females tend to be less colourful.

Then there are fish that form mated male-female pairs- this includes many cichlids, such as angels and kribs. Here an extra female can actually cause problems as the pair try to drive her out of their territory. The usual method is to start off with a group of mixed-sex juveniles, then as they mature and two form a pair to rehome the rest.

And finally there are fish that are so territorial that you can really only keep one specimen (unless you have a very large tank). These are fish that in the wild would only come together for mating, then drive each other off afterwards- not a viable situation in a fishtank where there is nowhere for the weaker fish to go. This group includes red-tail black sharks of both sexes and male bettas (female bettas can be kept together in a sorority group).
 
Thanks for all your repleys. Ive never come across the microrasbora galaxy fish before they look ideal fosh for a small tank look very pretty as well !
 
Thanks for all your repleys. Ive never come across the microrasbora galaxy fish before they look ideal fosh for a small tank look very pretty as well !


they're brand new, only got discovered in august but they're starting to crop up in shops all over the place now.

they're slightly pricey for such small fish, but IMO they're worth it. gorgeous little fish and cos they're so small it gives you room for variety in the tank
 

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