General Fish questions

[ItchRinse]

hi. i'm new to this fish stuff (apart from random ownership of goldfish in the past). Next week i'll be getting some Lyretail Mollies, and i've done some research, so i know they're livebearers and may eat the fry, 1" of fish per gallon, 2:1 male - female ratio (or 3:1, i've heard), and all that stuff. many sites say that you should have live plants for them to nibble on. i basically know nothing about live plants, however, so i'm hoping i might be able to learn more about 'em here. does it matter what kind/species of plants i get? and apparently ur s'posed to have like 5 cm of gravel so that they can take root, but i Definitely don't have that much down. (gravel filter, if ne1's wondering). also if i'm doing the vaccuuming/siphoning or whatever, won't the roots be vaccuumed up or whatever? and how many plants should i get...? Also, i don't really want fry (not enough room), so any tips on having my (future) fish Not breed? (for the time being, anyway.) Some hints as to how to sex the fish would be good, too, b/c i'm not sure if the sales ppl @ the store know how to do that. i posted more about my tank in the Newbie section, so check there. FYI its 20 gallon, w/ a florescent lite (Aqua-Glo). ummm yeah i think thats it for the time being, sorry for making this post so long! oh. and what kind of food should i get? floating pellets? flake? thx!

 

[rsz]

theres a special forum all about plants, i bet theyd tell you

 

[guppymonkey]

Someone will say it soon but I got here first! Make sure you cycle your tank, check the signatures of various posters (Alien Anna or smb). If you don't cycle the tank your mollies WILL die.

Mollies like most livebearers will eat their fry so if you don't want baby fish you basically won't have to worry about it. They will eat most any flake food, I am not sure about pellets because I think mollies are top feeders and most pellets sink straight to the bottom. If any algae grows in your tank they will eat that as a supplement to their diet and save you the effort of cleaning it all off.

Some plants attach to rocks and wood so you should research into them. I really don't know anything about plants though.

 

[ItchRinse]

check the signatures of various posters (Alien Anna or smb)

what do you mean by that? *points to quote* posters? huh? and do i have to worry about my pH or whatever? (whatever that is...) i put in water conditioner (cuz i filled the tank with tap water) so...

and the sales person @ petland didn't say anything about cycling the tank. yes, i know, you buy goldfish or whatnot then get the good bacteria and stuff going, then go get the fish you actually Want. but why can't u just cycle it with the mollies?

 

[Alien Anna]

and the sales person @ petland didn't say anything about cycling the tank. yes, i know, you buy goldfish or whatnot then get the good bacteria and stuff going, then go get the fish you actually Want. but why can't u just cycle it with the mollies?

Please follow the link in my sig and read my article. You can cycle with mollies, but that is best avoided if possible as you would possibly lose your mollies in the attempt. You can also cycle using Fishless Cycling techniques. Either way you need to understand what is going on, regardless of what the idiots in the LFS might have said or not said.

 

[ItchRinse]

actually, i already did read ur article... found thru cruising other threads/topics. very long, but very informative . this other person didn't cycle it or whatnot and she now has angelfish and platys and stuff.

here's my tank situation. i put the (tap) water in on thurday night, and then once it was filled i turned on the (gravel) filter and the filter's been on ever since. i've put in the 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons (so 4 tbsp, cuz its al 20 gallon-er), and i've also been putting in water conditioner. so now its just filtering away.... and i'm planning on/was hoping to get the mollies next saturday... but... yeah. with this whole cycling thing popping up....i mean, wouldn't the water conditioner be enough?? it kills the chlorine And cloramine.... i dont think it does amonia, but wouldn't the live plants help with that? or not.... or......?!?? i'm just kinda confused.

and does ne1 have a reccommended temp. for the mollies? i've seen a few varying temperatures so i thought i'd ask here. also, the pet store person said to change 25% of the water once a month, but some sites say 20% per week.... so...... *shrugz* and how long should i leave 'em in the bag in the tank for before taking 'em out the bag 'n into the tank?

 

[canis_lupus]

hiya.........i just started mollies 2.......sadly my male has dropsy which is really rare anyways.....hate 2 say it but u can put fish in an uncycled aquarium......don't hurt me......i did it cuz i didn't know any better...... all my fish lived.... it's ur choice, mollies r hardy enough to make it thru as long as there r only a few fish in the tank and u don't feed 2 much as for temperature they seem to like 24-27 degrees C or 75-80 deg. F
um the live plants help with nitrates.....but i'm not sure about ammonia.......about the water changes......i do 20% a week and that keeps everything nice and clean, i used 2 do once a month but it's a way bigger job!
i keep my new fish floating in the bag 4 20 minutes with the light off....... hope i didn't confuse u.....i'm not good at explaining anything ) good luck with your fishies

 

[ItchRinse]

oh and i'd just like to add that i have a water conditioner, and this stuff called Cycle that you put in the water 'n says it releases massive amounts of beneficial bacteria, and each dose helps to reduce dangerous amonia and nitrite levels in the aquarium. so, just to let you all know. also the live plants would help... right?

 

[canis_lupus]

apparently it does........a lot of people use it others don't......my lfs uses it

 

[Alien Anna]

actually, i already did read ur article... found thru cruising other threads/topics. very long, but very informative . this other person didn't cycle it or whatnot and she now has angelfish and platys and stuff.

here's my tank situation. i put the (tap) water in on thurday night, and then once it was filled i turned on the (gravel) filter and the filter's been on ever since. i've put in the 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons (so 4 tbsp, cuz its al 20 gallon-er), and i've also been putting in water conditioner. so now its just filtering away.... and i'm planning on/was hoping to get the mollies next saturday... but... yeah. with this whole cycling thing popping up....i mean, wouldn't the water conditioner be enough?? it kills the chlorine And cloramine.... i dont think it does amonia, but wouldn't the live plants help with that? or not.... or......?!?? i'm just kinda confused.

and does ne1 have a reccommended temp. for the mollies? i've seen a few varying temperatures so i thought i'd ask here. also, the pet store person said to change 25% of the water once a month, but some sites say 20% per week.... so...... *shrugz* and how long should i leave 'em in the bag in the tank for before taking 'em out the bag 'n into the tank?

Trying to answer your questions:

1. Regardless of whether your friend consciously cycled her tank or not, she did cycle it. You can't have a healthy tank without an established Nitrogen Cycle. She may have lucked out and not lost any fish, or maybe she did lose fish that she hasn't mentioned to you. Selective memory can be a useful thing

I can assure you that the vast majority of newbies that come onto this forum having followed similar advice to your friend's do have problems - we've even had people lose every single fish they started out with.

2. Water conditioner simply removes chlorine and chloramine disinfectants from your tap water - obviously you don't want disinfectants when you are trying to grow beneficial bacteria in your tank. They have no effect on the ammonia or nitrite levels that may develop in your tank.

3. Live plants can help with the ammonia spike, and given that that is the most dangerous part of the cycling process (if you cycle with fish) that could be quite helpful. However, live plants don't do anything for nitrite and although nitrite is less toxic than ammonia, that part of the Cycle takes much longer to develop and long-term nitrite poisoning can be just as harmful.

4. Once your tank is cycled, presuming you have live plants, a 25% water change once a month is probably just about adequate. It depends on your fish load, the sensitivity of the species you have etc. I personally do about 15% per week on my matured tanks.

However, if your tank isn't cycled you are going to have to keep those ammonia and nitrite levels down - which means daily or twice-daily water changes of 10-15% to dilute the poisons.

5. I usually keep fish in the bag for 20 minutes or more to acclimatise them to the temperature. If the pH is different I would also swap out a cup of water every 10 minutes, with the tank water, which might take a while. I always roll down the top of the bag so the air can get to the fish (be careful if the fish are jumpers). Don't forget to keep the lights of your tank off, particularly when the fish are in the bag.

If you are cycling with fish you're going to need to do an ammonia test and a nitrite test daily. Nitrite particularly could take a few weeks, so get a large box of testing kits (it's cheaper in the long run). Be aware that mollies are not generally considered the best fish to cycle with.

 

[ItchRinse]

ummm this may sound Really stupid, but what exactly is pH?

 

[guppymonkey]

To keep it simple pH has to do with how acidic (or base the opposite of acidic) the water is. Some fish prefer water that is of different pH than the water you will have locally. This will stress your fish if they are not used to (or can not live in) the pH you have.

You said you were getting mollies. Did you research this fish? They like brackish (slightly salty) water but I really don't know the specifics on them. They are not as hardy as people make them out to be. I have had friends try them in a cycling tank (though at the time none of us knew that we had to cycle the tank) and all of theirs died because of the stress caused by ammonia levels or nitrite levels. So be careful if you put them in a tank without cycling because you could end up wasting the money you spent on them. Also if you add live plants your mollies might eat them too (depending on how many mollies you have).

 

[Lithril]

I don't if this will help with you choice, the tank I've got running now I started up a several weeks back. Didn't know anything about fishless cycling. Left the tank for about 2 weeks then put 6 White Water Minnows in as apparently they're fairly hardy. After another week I put 6 poppendettas in as the nitrite levels were non existent. Another 10 days later I put 2 peppered corys and a dwarf pleco. Now the nitrite levels have stabilised but I'm still having problems with ammonia as I've lost 3 of the poppendettas, I think I could have avoided all of this if I had got the tank cycling first.

Anyways its costing me a lot more time now as I'm having to do small partial water changes every 1-2 days just to keep levels down.

 

[ItchRinse]

Lithril, do you have to do the partial water changes every 1-2 days for the whole lives of ur fish? or until the good bacteria amounts to enough, or what....?

 

[Alien Anna]

Lithril, do you have to do the partial water changes every 1-2 days for the whole lives of ur fish? or until the good bacteria amounts to enough, or what....?

Once a tank is well cycled, and depending on the type of fish you have, once a month is usually fine for a 20% water change.

I do weekly partial water changes of 15% on my tank with rummynosed tetras in because they are very sensitive to poor water quality. I'm currently doing weekly w/c on one tank because the nitrates got too high and on another tank because I didn't soak this piece of bogwood properly and the water looks like tea. But the fish would probably be fine if I wasn't so particular - its just that one tank would look more like tea and the other tank would get horrendous algae. I think my rummys are just spoilt B)