Gr44's Water Problem + Stocking Help!

[Curiosity101]

No I was only reffering to shell dwellers (I thought you'd already decided that's what you are going for so I can see where you got confused. lol)

Also I had a look for top dwelling fish that like hardwater.
Gotta say I came to the same conclusion as OldMan47...livebearers seem like the most suitable fish. I saw marble hatchetfish listed somewhere as liking hard water, but then on the very next webpage I looked at it said the exact opposite. As I've never kept them I wouldn't want to say one way or the other...so sorry about that.

 

[Gr44]

Hi all,

I need some more advice....

I went to a Maidenhead Aquatics store today (which come highly recomended) and had a look round the fish, hoping to get some advice from the folk there and be able to look at some potential new fish...

Walked in and was quite impressed with the number of tanks, however I was starting to regreat the trip after out of the first ~15 tanks i looked at I found 2 dead fish, one of which had been dead for some time. Tempted to do a U-turn and head back home again I pushed myself to ask the guys for some advice, after explaining that I live in a hard water area and giving him the ppm counts of the GH and KH levels and also the pH they said 'anything in the tropical section will do fine, they will all get used to that water, it's pretty normal'

After telling them they were next to useless 'and by the way there are 2 dead fish rotting in your tanks' I had one last look around and found a dead eel in another tank which really had been there a long time... it's insides were stringing out in to the tank!

What got me the most is they said they'd do a 'check on the dead fish in a sec' and 15minutes later they were still chatting to each other behind the counter....

Anyway, totally wasted journey and I'm none the wiser. I did pick up a copy of PFK magazine yesterday though, as recomended... I've read through the Shell Dweller section and they do look pretty cool but I have a couple of hang-ups using the SD's...

1) I'd need to buy sand - and I've only just bought gravel... I'm not doing too great money wise at the moment (just taken a large pay cut at work...! and gone on holiday to 'celebrate')
2) I can't mix them with any other fish... seems kind of boring!
3) I need to buy sand

I don't know.... what say you, can I really throw 'any tropical fish' in to the tank? Need to decide fairly soon as the tank should be ready for populating next weekend!

ps; Don't go to the Maidenhead Aquatics centre in Woburn Sands...

 

[Wills]

Have to say that sounds unusual for an MA! Most of them ranked quite high in the PFK poll. It has to be said though that dead fish are in all shops and if they are not when you get there they could have been before, with the decomposed ones, fish decompose very quickly and in stores others peck at the bodies, also if it is close to a delivery day the fish can be very stressed and this can cause stress which leads to death. Usually in MA tanks disease is very rare because their water is RO and UV filtered. Though personaly I've stopped buying fish from MA as I have had a good few poor fish in the time Ive been keeping fish.

With the shell dwellers I'm just looking for some pics of some tank ideas to show you but I cant find them right now. But I get that they are not for everyone

There are tons of other options for you, did you see anything at MA that you like the idea of having? I mean you dont have to get them from MA but you could plan out a tank and find a good source for your fish and try and have them source them for you

 

[Gr44]

Thanks for the reply Wills!

Other than the staff with as much personality as bog wood and the dead fish it looked a well kept place, to be fair... not a great first impression though!

To be honest, there are so many fish... I don't know what I can/can't keep, what gets big so beyond coming back with a list of 50 fish I like the look of and you guys ruling out 90% of them for various reasons I don't know how to proceed!!

I know I like the following;

Cardinal Tetra
Glass Catfish
Fighting Fish (Male Betta)
Yellow Tab
Leopard Cory
Electric Blue Guppy (and others)
Zebra Danio

Loads more but I forget all the names!!

I like the Shell Dwellers, but I'd rather have a mix of fish so I can see a nice variety... plus, like I said, money side of things

 

[Wills]

How about :
1 Male Betta
10 Cardinals
6 Leopard Cories or how about 10 Pygmy cories

Lots of action at all levels lots of colour. Alternatives to the Bettas for a feature fish could be Honey Gourami, or tank bred Apistos if you can find a little reliable retailer or a breeder close to you on here odds are they will have been raised in the same tap water as you and so will know little difference. There are quite a few different types of Apisto. For a list of easy browsing have a look in the library here or (sorry if im not aloud to link) aquahobby.com has a good listing of pictures and a few people advice though some of that is bad especialy on things like clown loaches and balas but its a very accessible page

Wills

 

[Gr44]

Ooo, nice site - not found that one before!!

The Apistos look great but look a little more complicated. The Honey Gourami's sound great though!!

1 Honey Gourami
10 Cardinals
10 Pygmy Cories

Sounds good to me!!

Will my substrate be suitable for the Cories though, was worried it might hurt their... barbecals(??) ? It's quite large 'gravel' up to around 3-4mm in size

Thanks!

 

[Wills]

Generally people will say sand only for cories due to their barbels but I have kept cories in pea gravel for years before, I think as long as its smooth almost polished stuff it will be okay.

Note for the future though and its one I've made is that defiantly have sand, I'm in a come back to the hobby and have learned tons this time around and I have to say never heard of a fish that needs a gravel bottom, hoping for me to have an upgrade in a few months to a 6+ foot tank and will be going sand 100%

 

[Gr44]

Okay all... hoping to get fish very soon.... (cycle looks NEARLY finished... I hope...)

Just to confirm with my water stats (very very hard water and a pH around 7.5-8.2 on average)

I'm looking to get the following;

10x Glowlight Tetra
10x Pygmy Cories
1x Honey Gourami

Does this seem sensible to everyone?

54L tank

Thankies

 

[waterdrop]

I just saw a shoal of glowlight tetras at a local LFS yesterday and the were gorgeous! The tank was not overlighted, which helped to make them stand out. They were in with a shoal of black neons and those were beautiful too. I think the last couple stocking plans you've been looking at sound pretty good.

Its true the corys might be a bit uncomfortable on the larger gravel, but then again often the larger gravel is not as sharp edged so it might work out ok for a while. One thing you might think about that would be good from the money side of things is to consider a weekend hike back in to a local freshwater stream valley. The very best substrate for cories can be easily found by simply going back up away from where most people are and finding a bend in the stream where some sand and pebbles have been worn away for years. This stuff can be amazingly smooth.. you can feel it! This is what corys relish. I don't consider taking a small bucket of stream sediment to be a disturbance of nature, and you don't have to be obvious about it if you carry the right containers in your backpack. I learned this from a talk by one of the top cory specialists.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gr44]

Oooo nice one... My parents have moved to the sticks in Cornwall... maybe next time I go down there I'll go scouting for a nice site

I could always get 10x Glowlight and 10x Neon rather than the Cories I guess.... Neon's are really nice too, mind you would be good to have some fish at the bottom of the tank too!

Re; my other thread (cycle) do you think I can get fish today?

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, the stuff from a freshwater stream should do great. Just put it in a big bucket on the patio and run the hose for a long time and periodically turn it all over with your hands to get all the debris cleared. Perhaps even give it a round of boiling water from the teakettle for good measure, I don't know. Should be easy with your parents new situation!

Haven't looked at your other thread but if your qualifying week has gone pretty long with double zeros you should be good to go! I figured you had been switching away from neons because of the 6 month mature tank wait? You really want to let the tank mature a long time before they get introduced, but after that they are reasonably hardy, I find.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[coldcazzie]

I reckon the glowlight tetras and the pygmy cories are a good way to go - pygmy cories are just adorable, plus you could get them straight away rather than wait another 6 months - I know you're desperate to have fish in your tank!

I also think the gravel will be ok for them - I've kept cories on gravel before and the key thing is that it's not got any sharp bits - that is what will damage their barbels.