Beginner Questions

[dafrnhm]

Hello Everyone!

I am new to this whole fish keeping thing, I've only just started my tank up after buying it from a member on this forum and I have a few questions and thought I would squeeze it all into 1 thread.

I have 17 little fish in the tank, all my water tests are coming back perfect. The shop round the corner to me are pretty helpful and he has advised me on the easiest fish and which ones not to mix together.

Yesterday I noticed that all my guppies where right at the top of the tank and after a quick little browse on here I put that down to lack of air, which so far turns out to be correct. I bought an air pump and stone and they seem to be so much happier.

I have noticed that one of my mollys looks like he is trying to eat the heater, I wondered why this could be? I keep shooing him away but he just swims straight back and starts again??

Also a question about filters. The filter I have doesn't seem to be very powerful, the man in the fish shop told me because of the size of the tank, 100x50x40, I would be better off with 2 small filters at either end of the tank. My question is, is this correct? and is it possible to over filter?

last one, about snails! I love snails and things like shrimps etc. I currently have no plants in the tank, I am going to be adding live plants over the next couple of weeks but thought it was wise to add the rocks first. I have 3 apple snails who are pretty active working there way around the tank. I would like to get more snails but dont want too many that there is not enough algae for them to eat, should I be worrying about this in such a big tank or is there food I can give them? Also some recommendations for any other crawlies I can add to the tank. LFS told me that some fish like to eat cherry shrimps, is this true?

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there dafrnhm and welcome to our beginners section!

I will leave the specific answers to our other members but will comment on your title question, how to decide on a stance toward your LFS (local fish shop.) Once you've discovered there are serious hobbyist forums like TFF, you realize that you have a new and very good tool in seeking information advice on hobby topics. Over the years most of us have found it really wise for beginners to make use of this forum method more than taking LFS advice. The reasons for this are numerous. What really happens is that it works well to reduce the "automatic trust" level you might have in an LFS if it were your only source down to that of it being really the same as a single commentator on the forum here. In other words, the LFS presents the same chance possibility that you may get wonderful, average or poor advice for a given question or issue as you get for any one given commentator in a forum. As with anything, you also get out what you put in, so over time you will of course build up opinions about your LFS persons, just as you will about the various forum members.

Unfortunately, one thing this means to beginners is that the "bully pulpit" (is that overkill, lol?) of the LFS should not be allowed in your mind at first, it is quite important to resist it. As with any retailer, the strong underlying motivation is often the profit and even more surprising to beginners eventually is realizing that often people working in a/an LFS are not really hobbyists and can't really tell you many of the fundamentals as you will hear them here. This is not -always- true of course and many shops to indeed have wonderful and experienced hobbyists as owners or workers. You just shouldn't assume that shop ownership status automatically means this.

OK, that's all I'll say. I -do- think that larger volume filtration is often a good thing. Filters are a core learning area for beginners.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

I have 17 little fish in the tank, all my water tests are coming back perfect. The shop round the corner to me are pretty helpful and he has advised me on the easiest fish and which ones not to mix together.

More fish can probably be added to a nice 55 gallon tank like that. Please give us some idea of the fish you already have and the ones you are thinking about getting. That way we can help you through stocking decisions without the LFS perspective of simply wanting to sell fish.

Yesterday I noticed that all my guppies where right at the top of the tank and after a quick little browse on here I put that down to lack of air, which so far turns out to be correct. I bought an air pump and stone and they seem to be so much happier.

If you have poor circulation in your tank, you may well have an oxygen deficiency. As long as you have decent circulation, an air pump is really not needed.

I have noticed that one of my mollys looks like he is trying to eat the heater, I wondered why this could be? I keep shooing him away but he just swims straight back and starts again??

Mollies are grazers. They constantly graze surfaces picking at the micro-organisms that can often be found there growing in thin layers of algae.

Also a question about filters. The filter I have doesn't seem to be very powerful, the man in the fish shop told me because of the size of the tank, 100x50x40, I would be better off with 2 small filters at either end of the tank. My question is, is this correct? and is it possible to over filter?

A tank that size can be nicely filtered with a single filter but it needs to be the right filter. I presently have one that size running with a sponge filter like this one driven by a simple power head. It is located at one end and the power head shoots water toward the other end. By aiming the flow from the power head to promote good circulation, my tank runs with no air pump to support it.

Power head

last one, about snails! I love snails and things like shrimps etc. I currently have no plants in the tank, I am going to be adding live plants over the next couple of weeks but thought it was wise to add the rocks first. I have 3 apple snails who are pretty active working there way around the tank. I would like to get more snails but dont want too many that there is not enough algae for them to eat, should I be worrying about this in such a big tank or is there food I can give them? Also some recommendations for any other crawlies I can add to the tank. LFS told me that some fish like to eat cherry shrimps, is this true?


A tank the size that you have needs to make choices between snails, shrimp and fish. Each adult apple snail requires about 2 gallons of water just for its bioload. That means that you already have over 10% of your tank devoted to the snails that you have. You can feed the snails on algae wafers so that is not a problem but it is my guess you will want more fish too.