Hardy Starter Fish

[griffithimage]

Hi, I;m starting a community tank and was wondering how many fish and what types are hardy to start with. I have a 28 gallon tank.

Thanks

 

[three-fingers]

Once it's cycled?

The easiest fish to keep would be ones suited to your water conditions, any water stats?

 

[griffithimage]

Once it's cycled?

The easiest fish to keep would be ones suited to your water conditions, any water stats?

no water stats- what am I looking for?

 

[indigoj]

read up on the fishless cycle, the nitrogen cycle etc. First you need to cycle your tank using ammonia, get your ammonia and nitrIte to 0 and then think about adding fish.

of course you could cycle with fish but it is not really necessary and is harmful to the fish, possibly for the rest of their lives.

good luck

 

[three-fingers]

Obviously no ammonia or nitrite.

When selecting fish, the pH, GH and nitrate readings of the aquarium water are useful to know .

 

[Jabba]

When and ONLY when your tank is cycled just about the hardiest fish I have ever encountered is the Black Widow Tetra, I have six of them and they have never missed a beat or a feed time, those buggers could live in a stagnant puddle I think (I am not recommending this as a test by the way).

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Just to clarify a few things:

1) It was asked if your tank has been "cycled"...if you don't know what that means: Cycling is the process of building a biological filter...basically a big colony of bacteria that consume toxic waste products like Ammonia and NitrItes that are toxic to fish. Unlike other pets, fish excrete waste into the very substance they breathe and in a small system like a fish tank this can build up very quickly. The filter on your tank serves two purposes...it helps to filter out solid debris, and it provides an excellent place for helpful bacteria to grow. Technically it's the filter that cycles!

There are different methods for cycling a tank but the ultimate goal is to provide a source of ammonia for the bacteria to eat. "Fish in" cycling is the old way where hardy fish are used to provide ammonia via the all natural method of releasing it as a waste product. The problem with this method is that you must test the water often and change it every time it reaches potentially toxic levels (which can mean changing water twice a day!) The other method is "Fishless" cycling where ammonia is provided via chemical or rotting food (a frozen shrimp for example). With this method no water changes need to be performed until the very end (about 80-90% of the water must be changed), and daily testing should occur to avoid overdosing the tank. There are sticked threads about how to properly cycle a tank, and I highly suggest reading them as what I've said here is not the full explanation.

2) pH (how acidic or alkaline the water water is), and GH/KH (general hardness and carbonate hardness) do play a small role in what fish will be easiest to keep, but keep in mind that most fish can adapt to a pH as long as it is stable. Generally hard water is best for African Cichlids and some other fish like Mollies, Endlers, while soft water is better for many kinds of tetras and South American Cichlids who come from the Amazon river. As I stated before however, most fish can adapt (I have "soft water" fish in very hard water), and the only obvious difference will be that the fish may not be as colorful or breed successfully.