Another New One To The Hobby

[Arcane]

Hello people,

This seems to be a nice busy community, and will probably save me looking all over the internet for answers to questions as I have been up until now.

Just about six months ago, my mother picked up a 60 litre tank with filter and a few accessories... and I rapidly came to share the hobby.

We still have the 60 litre one, and 200 litre to go with it.

Once things stabilise a bit financially I imagine at least one more will appear in the house in no time!

I am very surprised at how enthusiastic I am about the hobby. The strange thing is that one of my oldest friends has been keeping fish for about 20 years, and although I did like to look at his tanks, I just did not find any real attraction to the subject.

I suppose the interest only really grows once you begin yourself.

We began setting up tanks almost blindly with a little advice from my friend on putting things together, cleaning and feeding... but he left out stocking. So we have ended up with a bit of an odd mix.

The small tank has Platys, Mollies, Neon Tetras and an Amano shrimp patrol. The mollies do seem healthy enough, although I gather they would really like brackish water... which seems unacceptable for the shrimp.

The large tank was cycled with 16 Dannios, and they are healthy and lively. The other occupants are five Angel fish and two small Plecos... and a few rock shrimp.

I have learned a lot since the early days, and would not make the same odd mixes of fish now. Believe me... it could have been worse. If I didn't get involved a week or so after my mother buying the first tank... the 60 litre one would have been the home to a handful of Angelfish and an amount of Guppies in no time. She received some less than perfect advice from a local pet chain store. Needless to say we know better now!

I had better cut it short there; I have a horrible habit of not stopping typing once I begin!

Cheers,

Mark

 

[BigC]

Welcome to TFF Mark,
We hope your time on the boards lead you to all the information you require to set up and maintain a successful tank
Regards
BigC

 

[rob158]

to the forum,

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

to TFF

 

[simonas]

welcome to the forum Mark

Its bad for your wealth mate you watch after searching around on here you;ll discover lots of set ups you;d like and before you know it there will be no space for you in the house!!!

 

[Skins]

Hello Mark and welcome to the forum

 

[hensonc4098]

Haha you've been bitten by the fishkeeping bug too There's always room for one more tank...

Welcome to the forum

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

hi and welcome!

 

[Arcane]

Thankyou all for the welcome.

Indeed... I think it won't be long until space has to be found for another tank.

I actually have a sick angelfish this week (HITH now being treated). Once that is cleared up I think the priority will turn to a new tank.

Under other circumstances I would have had lots of questions about treating the sick angelfish, but searching this message board has turned up all the information I could possible need already. It's been very helpful.

Currently on the 3rd day of medication, so hopefully within a week the sick fish (Jerry) will be active and feeding again *fingers crossed*.



Edit: How quickly things change. Since I made this post earlier, we now have a third tank brought for an emergency (queue thread that I will post in the emergencies secion once the panic is over).

 

[SensesFail]

Welcome to TFF Mark,
We hope your time on the boards lead you to all the information you require to set up and maintain a successful tank
Regards
BigC

Hi welcome

Brilliant place to be ever in a jam? Just ask and you will be informed

 

[peter shogun]

 

[Whitey_144]

welcome! can you post pics up?

 

[Carlovel1]

Welcome to the forum

 

[fishmad135]

Hey, Welcome to the forum!

 

[Arcane]

This place is so far proving to be amazingly informative... to the point that I have been unable to post any questions as everything I need to know has already been answered!

So far a search through previous posts has turned up everything, which is very helpful but not very good for my post count!

Two angel fish in my main 200 litre tank were constantly fighting, so one of them is (very temporarily I promise) in a 35 litre for a short time. It's less than half grown at the moment so should be fine for a week or two. Then if the fighting has not calmed down I will have to find a home for one of them. I am hoping the excessive hostility was simply because one of them laid eggs. A few weeks before the other did, and close to the egg laying, the layer seems to chase off every other fish except the large male (who goes through the motions, but has so far failed to actually fertilize anything).

Here is my oldest fish, the large male (unless he is a confused female and just pretending to fertilize the eggs ):

Here is the currently angry female... Thelma. Louise is her sister who is temporarily in the small tank.

The photos are rather poor quality from a basic mobile phone. I will learn to take better ones.

I am a little worried about the red at the base of her pectoral fins. We did have an angel with HITH in this tank recently which unfortunately had to ultimately be euthanised. We used treatment, increased temperature a little and tried hard to feed her vitamin enriched pellets as suggested on this board and elsewhere, but I fear we were too late. It took us too long to realise the little indentation on her side was HITH and not a marking. It seems that once she was determined not to eat anymore there was not much hope. Once the medication had run for it's period, then I gave her another few days but am sure she was getting worse and worse (not touching food and floating at an odd angle from time to time).

Back to Thelma with the red bits at the base of her pectoral fins. I am not certain that it is illness as she is feeding perfectly well and still very active. I might just be paranoid due to our recent fish loss.

Just in case I am on day 6 of an anti bacterial medication in the tank, and then after a good water change tomorrow I will consider anti-biotics.

I know I really ought to post any questions in the fish emergencies section. I am just really rambling (and awful habit of mine online).

If there are any more signs of Thelma or tank mates suffering from illness I will make a fully detailed post in the emergency secions for a bit of advice.

Since I have already brought it up, I will mention that Ammonia is either zero or as close as my eyes can tell to zero. Nitrite would be zero on the standard Salifert through the bottom of the open test tube rating, and registering something like 0.025 on the through the side method. I don't have a nitrate test kit yet, but an API master kit is on the way, for a nice price from Ebay, again due to the good advice on these forums!

I understand HITH is usually down to poor water quality, but ours has very rarely been higher than listed above. I suspect she might have come with some illness from Pets at home. She was pure silver when we got her, and only began to show her stripes after a week or so. I wonder if this was a sign of stress from her experience at Pets at home. Needless to say we don't go there anymore. Besides... I live in the same road as the Henlow Japanese Koi Carp company (granted... it is a very long road) so there is really no excuse to go anywhere else.

I realise I have just taken the art of rambling to a whole new level (can you imagine what I am like talking about fish when meeting with friends at the moment ).

So here is a pitcure of our largest bamboo shrimp... and now I will leave everyone alone for a while!

Cheers