Hello All

[Mrs Tybs]

Hi, a fellow 'grumpy westie' and 'flirty cairn' lover (well thats what mine are like) and newbie fishkeeper The Cairn is Red but she is going very blonde as she gets older I see you have neon's already, I'm still trying to stabilise my tank, one week in and I think I need to stop messing, hopefully we'll have matching neons soon too have to say this forum seems to be the most informative and helpful we've come across, also in pretty simple 'speak' for newbies too.

(You will have to put a pic up Here....)

 

[helen1207]

`grumpy` sounds about right!..Yes ours is only 4 and the cairn is 3. Having a few problems with my tank but got some good advice off here, just wish i`d have gotten on here BEFORE i bought the fish but i went with what our local fish shop said! I must admit i`m finding it alot harder this time round, my other tank ran like a dream which i realise is`nt going to happen with this one! Let me know how your getting on with yours and what fish your going for! (i`m gonna try and post a pic of my 2 )

 

[Tybs]

Well we finally have some fish, god it seems like ages even the credit card bill for the tank has come and gone

2 Black Molly's, 2 Silver Moll's and 2 Dalmation Molly's..... all doing well so far

 

[Wills]

Hi there just read through the thread and congrats on getting the 125 over the biorb really good choice

Its good to see you went through a proper fishless cycle as well how long did it take in total to get your double 0?

From the stock plans and fish you have mentioned you put up this is what I would do.

6 Platies - (all male)
6 Guppies - (all male)
10 Cardinal Tetras
12 Corydora Catfish - either all 12 of one species like all bronze or 6 of one and 6 of an other.

Right so my reasoning for this list, I put platies in instead of mollies as they grow smaller than mollies and are also less problematic. However now that you have your mollies dont worry it should work out I just plan stock lists avoiding any potential issues but its sometimes down to the individuals. I also upped the number of guppies just to add some more in really. With livebearers I would always stick with just males, this means that you are not overrun with fry which could happen with your mollies so something to learn about there. The main issue with livebearers now is that many LFS wont take fry in because they have so many already so make sure you find an outlet for them as your 6 mollies could soon turn into 20 and then 40 and so on and so on.

I also swapped your neons for cardinals, cardinals are much hardier and bred from a better stock than most neons they get a bit bigger and look almost the same. However if you wanted to have a look at some other tetras as well there are plenty that will work in that tank like flame tetras, rummy nose or green fire tetras.

I also upped your cories to 12 from 3, while some people will say the minimum is 3 its not the absolute bare minimum is 6. And thats like of one species like just the bronze or just the peppered etc so like I say I put 12 in because a big group of cories are a fantastic site but if you want to mix it you could get like 6 panda cories and 6 sterbai cories for a bit of variety

On that list you would still have a bit more room in your tank for some feature fish though with the bigger mollies it would be slightly less.

Hope thats helped

Wills

 

[Tybs]

Hi there just read through the thread and congrats on getting the 125 over the biorb really good choice

Its good to see you went through a proper fishless cycle as well how long did it take in total to get your double 0?

From the stock plans and fish you have mentioned you put up this is what I would do.

6 Platies - (all male)
6 Guppies - (all male)
10 Cardinal Tetras
12 Corydora Catfish - either all 12 of one species like all bronze or 6 of one and 6 of an other.

Right so my reasoning for this list, I put platies in instead of mollies as they grow smaller than mollies and are also less problematic. However now that you have your mollies dont worry it should work out I just plan stock lists avoiding any potential issues but its sometimes down to the individuals. I also upped the number of guppies just to add some more in really. With livebearers I would always stick with just males, this means that you are not overrun with fry which could happen with your mollies so something to learn about there. The main issue with livebearers now is that many LFS wont take fry in because they have so many already so make sure you find an outlet for them as your 6 mollies could soon turn into 20 and then 40 and so on and so on.

I also swapped your neons for cardinals, cardinals are much hardier and bred from a better stock than most neons they get a bit bigger and look almost the same. However if you wanted to have a look at some other tetras as well there are plenty that will work in that tank like flame tetras, rummy nose or green fire tetras.

I also upped your cories to 12 from 3, while some people will say the minimum is 3 its not the absolute bare minimum is 6. And thats like of one species like just the bronze or just the peppered etc so like I say I put 12 in because a big group of cories are a fantastic site but if you want to mix it you could get like 6 panda cories and 6 sterbai cories for a bit of variety

On that list you would still have a bit more room in your tank for some feature fish though with the bigger mollies it would be slightly less.

Hope thats helped

Wills

Thanks Wills

Its the Mrs tank so I will get her to read this when she gets home, she is obviously glad to finally get some fish in, seems to take for ages to get the tank ready about 6 weeks in the end, we had a mishap or two on the way, so many different bits of advice.

I'm watching intently as I fancy a Marine tank later !

 

[Mrs Tybs]

Thanks Wills, since our original postings I have changed my stock ideas around several times, adding more guppys for colour and some sunset platies, clown loach and a few catfish. However, my LFS told us to add salt to the aquarium which scuppers some of my stock plans, but he did say Livebearers all flourish in brackish water??!! I know mollies can do without salt but they prefer it and its too flippin late now! I don't want any unhappy fish Also water has gone very cloudy since mid morning but all my readings are still 0

BTW it took 43 days to cycle

 

[Wills]

Cool sounds like you have done a proper fishless cycle then so that is a really good start to the hobby well done!

Right the whole salt thing, its one of the complications I was talking about with mollies I didnt mention it because its an on going debate but yes mollies are found in brakish environments, but I am unsure as to how much they need it in the tank set up as they move between brackish and fresh water throughout their lives although some may stay in full brackish and some might stay in full fresh all their lives plus your molies will have been farm bred which again asks the question what do you do and like I say its argued from both sides. But not all livebearers need salt Mollies are the only one that remotely come into question if they are brackish or not, however if your tank is now a brackish tank that complicates things somewhat as the fish you had mentioned before are all fresh water and will not do well in brackish water.

One thing that has just struck me and while it is worth letting me know it would also be worth you starting a thread about this in the brackish section as there is a genius there called Neale Monks who is the UKs top brackish fish keeper and he will be able to help you out with the following questions. But yeah just something that is concerning me is, how much salt did you add and to what level is your water now set at with salt weight? The reason being is that if you dont stage the water up with the salt the bacteria will die off from the salt as brackish bacteria is different from freshwater and marine is as different again... So that could explain the could in your tank and its actually a brackish bacterial bloom dealing with the water as it is now with the water. Also if you do ask in the brackish section they will be able to help you work out what to do with your mollies and the salt, I would follow Neales advice 100% so if he says stick with the salt do it and then ask him again for any advice for tank mates I imagine it will be things mainly like gobies maybe a type of puffer but not sure but like I say if the tank is going brackish definatly pick Mr Monks brains over it

Wills

 

[Mrs Tybs]

Thanks Wills, have posted on Brackish Thread. Appreciate your help

 

[Mrs Tybs]

ok, I now have babies that was fast work, can only see 2 so maybe the rest have been naturally disposed of is this what could have caused the cloudiness yesterday perhaps?