Another What Fish Thread...

[boardy]

Hi,

I'm new here and thought I'd make my first post getting some advice.

I recently upgraded my Elite 60 tank which had my 2 9 month old Oranda in, to a 118l tank as I wanted more fish. I was a little hasty in this and have recently read that Oranda can't be kept with tropicals really. This was after I went out and bought 2 pleco's and 10 neon tetra (of which I have 9 left. 1 explored the filter intake.)

The Elite 60 is going through cycling again so I can move the Oranda back into that tank if I need to, but I am wondering what fish I could get to go with my tetra's to add more colour to the tank, more life, and possibly a few bigger fish.

The 118l new tank has 6 live plants in as well. I used TetraPlant Complete substrate on the bottom, with a layer of Roman gravel on top of that. I don't know if that was the right thing to do but I had read that's generally how it's done, and seems to be fine at the moment. I still need to sort out CO2 in the tank but I have a Natural Daylight light on for 12 hours a day at the moment for the fish and plants.

In addition to getting some fish I was thinking of getting some rocks and maybe more plants but again a little advice would be nice on those as I'm not sure what looks best when trying to make a "show off" type tank. Can't really think of anyway else to put that, but I want it to look really colourfull inside, which is something I could never really do with my Elite 60.

Eventually I will be upgrading again to a Roma 200 in hopefully a years time.

Any help and advice on fish, rocks, plants, and anything in general about the tank would be great. I've had my Oranda's for about 9-10 months now but as I say tropicals are pretty new to me.

Cheers
Adam

 

[boardy]

Can anyone give me some advice please, I need to get the tanks sorted ASAP?

Cheers
Adam

 

[boardy]

After 33 views and no replies I went ahead and ordered some fish anyway, due for delivery on Friday

118l tank stock -

8 x Neon Tetra
5 x Diamond Tetra
3 x Guppy (1M 2F)
3 x Platy (1M Red Wag and 2F Sunset Wag)
2x Pleco

6 x Live plants

60l tank stock -

2x Oranda
1x Pleco

The 60l tank has fully cycled and has been the home of the Oranda for about 9 months now, it was recently moved downstairs to the living room to make room for the 118l in the bedroom. The 118l is in the last stages of cycling after 4 weeks so I thought it about time it got some fish in, instead of sitting there empty.

I'm looking into getting some rocks, backdrop, and co2 for the 118l so it is a little nicer to look at. I've also ordered an Interpret birthing tank for the 118l just incase / for when the guppies and platys start breeding. The 118l tank is filtered by a Fluval 205 canister with BioMax, Amonia remover, and wool media, the 60l is filtered with an Elite Stingray 15 internal with Carbon/Zeo media and has been for the 9 months we've had the tank. The 118l has 5 air stones in for oxygen, and the 60l has a Hydor Airo 3 in as well as 2 plastic plants, bridge and plastic tree trunk. The 118l also has a DIY co2 system, which doesn't seem to be working at the moment, and a 200W heater keeping the water around 24c.

Is there anything I've missed, or should look into getting for either tank?

Cheers
Adam

 

[Davo86]

Hi adam do you know what type of plecs you have? also is the 60L tank heated, if it isn't then there is a chance you may lose your plec if the temperature becomes unstable.
Your stocking and equipment for both tanks looks great provided the plecs aren't going to exceed the 6" mark.

 

[Matt_northants]

On occasion neons can get a little nippy, and they may nibble at the male guppies tail.
Plant wise Amazon swords will do in the substrate as will any plants that dont require high lighting. IMO I wouldnt bother with CO2 as your lighting isnt high enough TBH. Java Fern, Java Moss and Anubis dont need high lighting and should be tied with cotton to bogwood or rocks and not planted. Bacopa, Hygrophila, Hydrocotle, Sagitaria, Cryptocryne and Vallis should all grow pretty well depending on the pH and water hardness. They all look fairly different so should add a nice level of interest. If your adding rock make sure it wont affect water chemistrty by placing a drip of vinegar on it, if it fizzes it will increase your hardness, which in your tank I dont think you would want.
Bogwood needs to be boiled or soaked before placing in your tank to remove tannins which will turn your water yellow.

 

[Iron Man]

Well I just saw this thread so I couldn't give you any advice earlier but it all looks great to me accept I wouldn't put a common pleco in with goldfish as there's a big chance he may harass them immensely trying to suck the slime coat off their sides. And if he can he'll suck the scales right off of them. I've seen it happen. Also if he's a common he'll grow way too big for that tank.

Otherwise, you made the best choices. For one thing the goldfish would have made mince meat out of your live plants.

 

[boardy]

Thanks for all the replies Good to know I didn't mess up by ordering the fish I liked the look of best in other peoples photos lol.

As far as plants go, the 6 I had in the tank while the goldfish were in there are looking a little battered but I'm hoping they will recover. I have no idea what they are as they were bought from Pets at Home just to get something in the tank.

I bought a backdrop for the tank today, along with a cheap co2 system, just to give the plants a blast every now and then. I have 2 rocks in there at the moment which I have no idea, again bought from Pets at Home, they will be coming out and other rocks put in ASAP as I'm not sure on them. I will be upgrading the lighting as I really want the fish to be shown off and the plants to grow, anyone recommend any tubes for this? I have space for 1 but I'm looking into fitting a 2nd myself so will have space for 2 tubes.

Davo the 60l did have a heater but during the transition between upstairs and downstairs it exploded, which is why the goldfish were in with the tropicals for a few days. I'm looking into a new 100W but at the moment both the Pleco are in the 118l tank and may both stay in there reading about them possibly irritating the goldies. I believe they are common plecs, they were given to me by a friend who decided after buying them that he no longer wanted fish. As far as I know and from what he has told me they shouldn't grow any bigger than 3", but if they grow bigger, I'll just have an excuse to upgrade the tank again

Matt, thanks for the advice on the plants, I think I'll pick a few of those up soon. My fish should arrive on Friday so may get the plants next week at some point.

I'll post pics of the tanks up at some point once I have them pretty much how they will stay for a while. Just signed on a new house which I'm moving to in June / July time so all this will have to be moved to the new place then, that's gonna be great fun.

Thanks for the advice and reassurance that I made the right choices

Adam

 

[Davo86]

I believe they are common plecs, they were given to me by a friend who decided after buying them that he no longer wanted fish. As far as I know and from what he has told me they shouldn't grow any bigger than 3", but if they grow bigger, I'll just have an excuse to upgrade the tank again

If they are common plecs then they have the potential to grow from anything from 12" to 18" depending on species.
or could they be bristlenose? but even these will get to around 5"

 

[boardy]

Thanks for the info Davo. I had no idea they could get that big, according to a calculator I used on another website even if thy do grow that big, they should still be fine in the tank. Hopefully by that point in time I'll have a tank double the size and will be able to get more fish to feed my addiction of tropical fish..

Cheers
Adam

 

[boardy]

Just thought I'd post in here to to say that the new fish have arrived and are now in the tank, they look brilliant.

Big box came this morning with -

3 x Guppy
3 x Platy
5 x Diamond Tetra

The diamonds were the first to be added to the tank with the existing Neon Tetra and all seemed well, so I added the Platy and Guppy females to the group. Everything going well at the moment, so the last 2 to be introduced were the Guppy and Platy males. I'm still contemplating a 30l birthing tank being setup somewhere but very quickly running out of space for more tanks. I have an Interpret birthing thing to go inside the 118l tank, I'm just hoping that it will be big enough if 2 females get pregnant at the same time.

Well everything is going swimmingly (pun intended) for my tank at the moment, just trying to find somewhere that sells BioSpira to help the filter out in coping with all the fish being added at once, if I could have afforded to stagger them a week each type then I would have but at £10 shipping a time, it's not cheap, and 5 shipments of fish would have cost more than the fish themselves. Does anyone know where I can pick some of this up?

Gonna head down to Pets at Home later to pick up a tropical tube to replace the natural daylight one in now, some more food, and possibly some other goodies but we shall see.

Cheers
Adam

 

[fourthtimelucky]

I've heard that mature filter bacteria can double its population in about 24 hours (given an increase in oxygen & food) so hopefully if you feed your new arrivals sparsely at first the filter should be able to cope.

I would test your water daily for the first week at least to check it hasn't spiked.

I would try and id the plecs as soon as possible - post a photo on here and someone will be able to tell you what sort it is. If they are going to need rehoming you'll find it easier to give them away now when they've still got some growing to do.

Goldfish and live plants is never going to be a match made in heaven - either invest in some good fakes or buy one of each type first to see which ones they'll munch and which they'll leave alone. They will eat a lot of them!

Are you going to post some pictures of your tanks?

 

[boardy]

Ello,

Thanks fourthtimelucky the nitrite and nitrate levels are going crazy at the moment so I've ordered some more Tetra SafeStart to whack in the tank and see if that will sort it out quickly. I think I may have screwed up the cycle by adding everything at once. Not so much a big problem as I'm controlling levels with daily changes but more of an annoyance after waiting for it to cycle, and then messing that up with my own stupidity and not learning from previous mistakes.

As for images of the tank as it is at the moment, they can all be found here [URL="http/www.flickr.com/gp/23228500@N06/E4q0NE"]http/www.flickr.com/gp/23228500@N06/E4q0NE[/URL] you don't need a Flickr account to view this set as it's a public view set. I will post a few pics on here when I remember my FTP password for my server lol. There are 2 pics of one of the Plecs, best I could do as it seems to like the back of the tank right next to the filter intake, strange fish!!

I decided against live plants in the Oranda tank, and have 2 plastic ones in there now. This was after I came down to feed them in the evening and the plats were floating around the top of the tank.

Thanks for the advice, and if anyone has any comments on my photos, please comment / post here. Any advice is good advice for me being a kinda beginner in tropical fish keeping.

Cheers
Adam

 

[NoRp]

just wondering where you order your fish from?

 

[boardy]

NoRp I order the fish from Tri-Mar Aquaria. I have however just found a shop very close to me called Lincoln Aquatics, which has a pretty good selection of fish, didn't have much of a chance to look around though as I was running late for a lecture but will be going back there soon

It's not the greatest site in the world but they can get most fish and are really friendly people, just give em a call. Very helpful.

Adam