Hello, Complete Newby Here!

[tobiasnugent]

Hello there i recently got a new job and in the office there is a fairly big fish tank no one really knows much about it
it was left there from the previous owners. Any way to cut a long story short i fell in love with one of the fishes in there!

After abit of research i discovered it is a plec well i think it is! one that sucks the side of the tank! its fairly big.

So i decided i wanted one not knowing any thing about fish i have managed to aquire my self a nice starter tank for free
not sure what it includes yet but its aprox 2.5ft - 3ft or something along those lines

just really want to know


how do i keep the plec

iam aware you need to leave the water in the tank for so long before u get the fish ?


just a heads up would be good please and thank you!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum TobiasNugent.
A tank the size you are talking about getting is about minimum for a decent sized plecostomus. There is a stickied thread at the top of this part of the forum that will tell you all about how to set up and cycle a tank. It is more than what we did years ago where we threw in a few fish that we didn't mind losing and hoped for the best.
One of the essentials will be a good liquid reagent based testing kit to test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. That will allow you to follow all the instructions you will get and will help us analyze what is wrong when you have concerns about what you see in your tank. The real essence of fish keeping is looking after the water and not overfeeding the fish. If you can do both of these things, fish will thrive in your care. Please spend some time reading through the postings and come back with more questions when things are not clear. I think we can all help you get off on the right foot if you give us a chance.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

If the tank has been left up and running it should already be cycled, but you should learn about the nitrogen cycle to avoid mistakes that cause mini-cycles or crashes. Make sure to read the pinned thread about tank maint as well!

As for how to take care of plecos...including some high quality algae wafers and fresh veggies into his diet will mean one happy fish!

If you can get pictures of some of the other fish we may be able to help you identify them, and point you in the right direction of how to care for them.

 

[blodhi74]

Welcome

 

[tobiasnugent]

i just got my tank its huge i know the filter needs cleaning out amongst other things could people tell me what type of filter i have etc just incase i need a replacement because its a strange tank were the filter and things are segmented off from the main tank ie.behind it in there own little tanks as it were.

ITS HUGE!

 

[OldMan47]

If you have a small tank sitting where the water from the main tank sort of overflows into it and then goes through some things before it gets pumped back to the main tank, it is called a wet / dry system. That type of filter is often a home made affair. The way it works is that the water spills into the first part that is partly above water, that part is very good at removing ammonia and nitrites because it stays vey well aerated. From there the flow usually goes through things that filter out the particles and the water ends up in a partly filled sump. The sump needs to be only partly full so that when the pump loses power or is shut off the sump won't overflow onto the floor. What happens is the water stops draining into the sump as the main tank's level drops and at that point there is still a bit of room left in the sump. When the pump starts again, the sump level drops and the main tank starts to overflow again. You need to make sure you know how full you can safely make the sump. I would use a marker and shut off the pump. Once everything settles out, fill the sump most of the way. Mark where the level goes back down to when the pump is running again. That mark will be your full mark when everything is working. That way you don't need to shut off the pump to add water safely.

 

[layne2000]

Plecs make wonderful pets. There are many different species though so choose carefully and weigh up the size of your tank etc before purchasing one.
Do some research about the different kinds and more importantly the size they grow to.
Common plecs grow huge and nearly always outgrow the tanks they are in.
They are also quite distructive and often knock things about in the tank. (Lots of poo too) lol

If you want to breed, Bristlenose plecs are the best. You need to put plec caves or driftwood or clay pots in the tank as the male chooses his nest site and invites the female in to lay her eggs.
Once the eggs are laid the male looks after them until they hatch.

Re plec feeding. Good quality algy flakes and raw fresh vegitable. I alternate them.
They love sucking on a large weighed down piece of cucumber, but take out after 12 to 24 hours.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

are you planning on taking the plec from the tank in the office or just getting one the same for your new tank?

best thing to do is get a picture of it, from that we can ID it for you, some species can get to 24" long and would be far too big for a 3 foot tank, there are plenty of species which would be very happy in that though so piccy first and we'll advise from there.

in terms of setting the tank up and preparing it for fish you need to learn about a process called cycling, there's a link in my sig called 'whats cycling' have a read of that and it'll explain it all to you. Also read the link 'fishless cycling', this is what we'd recommend you do, it takes around 4-6 weeks but it's not hard work just a bit of monitoring

Now because you have access to the tank at work you may be able to speed this process up considerably, what you should do is take some of the filter media from the tank at work (no more than one third of the total media in there) this is the sponges or there may be ceramic shapes, something like that. Anyway bag some of it up in a bag filled with tank water, do not allow it to dry out. Within 12 hrs from bagging it up take the media home and put it into your filter. You can cut the sponges to size if it doesn't fit, just get it in there somewhere, fill the tank with water and switch it on. then start the fishless cycling process by adding ammonia, this must be done the same day. You follow the same process for fishless cycling as per the link, but instead of it taking 4-6 weeks it'll take somewhere between 2/3 days and 2 weeks to become ready for fish