Hello! I'm New Here.

[DiscoFace]

Hi everybody! I'm somewhat new to the fish scene, set up my own tank about 2-3 months ago and everything seems to be doing alright. I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank. Now before I go telling you what I have in my tank, I've been reading the forums for the last week or so and I know you guys and gals are going to tell me I need a bigger tank.
I plan on buying a bigger tank in the next couple of months. But for right now I feel that with the size of my fish, the 20 gallon is doing fine for now. Everybody seems happy and not too much bickering has been going on.

I have a Blue Acara, about 1 1/2-2 inches.

A Green Terror, about 1 1/2-2 inches. and a Ram about 1 1/2-2 inches.

and 2 angel fish.

And due to me being an impulse buyer once in a while, and wal-marts vague description, I have 2 brackish water fish in a freshwater tank. I plan on changing that as soon as I can, and am looking into getting them their own tank. Wal-mart had these guys listed as freshwater fish. come to find out, thanks to this forum, they are not.

The little guy didn't want to come out and play.

But the big guy had no problems showing off for the camera.

Sorry for the crappy pics, I'm not a photographer.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum! Beautiful fish you have there Just be careful with the GT as they can sometimes go a bit nasty when they hit 4 inches or so. I think those fish at the bottom are violet gobies which are brackish fish I believe which might cause an issue, like you said youll need a decent size upgrade in the near future but if your prepared for it thats fantastic

Do you have a water test kit, since its a new tank I would be interested to know what your nitrite and ammonia readings are?

Your blue acaras really are stunning especially the one in the second pic!
Wills

 

[DiscoFace]

Hello. Thanks for the welcome. You are correct, the bottom pics are of Violet Gobies. I forgot to add that in there, sorry. And I only have one blue acara, I couldn't decide what pic I liked the best so I posted both.

I've heard that GT's can get aggresive, but my friend had two of them and they wouldn't hurt a thing! So, I thought I'd give one a try.

 

[chrisbassist]

nice, i'd quite like a couple of angels but they wouldn't like their tank mates.

 

[21rm]

hey welcome to the site

 

[DiscoFace]

I forgot to mention, I do not have a test kit. However, my friend does and we test the water every so often to see where things are. I don't remember the exact results but last time we checked, about a week or so ago, everything was alright. Things could be a little better, I admit. But things could be a lot worse as well! lol

nice, i'd quite like a couple of angels but they wouldn't like their tank mates.

Angels are cool fish! I actually didn't want them at first, my girlfriend did. As soon as I put them in my tank I fell in love. One of my friends has an angel in his community tank and it's mixed in with many different agressive/semi agressive fish and it seems to be doing fine. I've found that all the tips you read and hear can be great advise. But in certain cases, it's best to just try things out yourself.

I also see you play bass guitar. I was wondering if there were any other musicians on this forum, I play bass as well. If you don't mind I'd like to send you a private message and talk bass. Let me know.

Thanks for the welcome, I'm really starting to like this place and have been visiting almost everyday. I learn something new almost everytime I log on.

 

[chrisbassist]

feel free to PM me about anything, I'm a big victor wooten fan, and recently taught myself classical thump (although after the first 16 bars I have to slow down... not used to double thumbing) but i listen to all sorts of music.

on the fish side, I'm pretty sure most of my fish (which are the standard guppy and tetra mix - as disliked by Wills, but he was polite enough not to mention it) don'tmix with angels. since neon tetra are their food in the wild, and they just don't like guppys...

one day I may have to get a nice big tank just for angels. although if I ever have the money for a nice big tank I'd rather get a few bamboo sharks or possibly some leopard sharks... but i'd need a HUGE aqaurium for stuff like that.

 

[Wills]

which are the standard guppy and tetra mix - as disliked by Wills, but he was polite enough not to mention it

Oh god! Im so sorry that was not meant personally at all.... Im so sorry

Also to OP when you say they werent ideal we might be able to help you get them spot on there are some easy ways to solve off water conditions. What levels were off?

 

[chrisbassist]

I'm not bothered Wills, at the end of the day, they're my fish, and as long as I like them, my wife likes them, and the 2 yr old likes them, that's what counts. plus, I'd rather not spend a fortune on great fish to learn I'm crap at keeping fish.

EDIT: Spelling, #40## keyboard sticking

 

[DiscoFace]

Wills, I honestly don't remember what the levels were. I remember my ammonia was a little high, between 2.0 and 4.0 on the little chart, I beleive. Nitrate and nitrite levels I don't remember at all. My friend and I made plans to hang out tomorrow, I'll see if we can do another test then and let you know.

 

[Wills]

Ah right if your ammonia is anything other than 0 you have reason to worry, sounds like your tank is not cycled.

This article will help you understand what is going on in your tank and how long it will go on for
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=224306

The high levels of ammonia could and will kill your fish, it also puts them at severe risk of disease like whitespot. Good Luck!

 

[DiscoFace]

So my friend and I met up yesterday, and I forgot the water sample! lol. But in our running around we stopped by a shop and I picked up a master test kit. My nitrite is 0. Nitrate is about a 10. PH is 7.6 and my ammonia is still up in the 4.0 area. So, according to what I've been reading, everything except my ammonia levels are ok. Honestly, I feel that once I remove the dragon fish (violet gobies) from the tank and give them there own home, the ammonia will come down a bit and I should be fine. Thoughts?

 

[Wills]

Ammonia in the 4 region is really really bad, I think you must still be in the cycling process. What kind of filter do you have? If you have such a high ammonia level but no nitrite level this means that you filter is not building up bacteria for some reason. If your saying the ammonia is high because of the high stock levels this is not the case in overstocked tanks you usually see high nitrate levels in the tank but if yours is at 10 that sounds just like tap water levels so again there is nothing happening in the bacteria department to change your ammonia into nitrite or nitrate.

The cycle goes like this

Fish poo - Ammonia - Nitrite - Nitrate

Ammonia and Nitrite are highly toxic to fish, it puts them under immense stress as it burns their gills and fins and damages their nervous system. Additionally when they are stressed it means that they are susceptible to diseases like white spot.

If the tank has been set up 2-3 months Im at a bit of a loss as to why the levels have not started to go through the cycling stages, perhaps post this in the my new tank section as there are some real cycle buffs there that should be able to help you sort it out.

But for now I would recommend doing daily water changes to get the levels down in the water. You need to do about 50% a day (though I understand that this is not always possible due to varying factors) to prevent any more stress. I think so far you have been lucky though the longer the fish are in these conditions increases the risk of death, one thing for sure though your fish are hard as nails to survive this long!

Wills

 

[DiscoFace]

My filter is a, somewhat old, whisper 10-20 my mom gave me to use. It uses the standard whisper filter cartridges you can find at wal-mart. My friend told me about this bio filter thing he said I should put in there in front of the cartridge, looks like a peice of foam. He said that might help out. I also bought some stuff to "kick start the biological process." Says it breaks down organic build-up.

 

[Wills]

Does your filter have any foam in it? If not that is the problem. The stuff your friend gave you was it from his tank? If so it needed to go in asap otherwise the bacteria would die off quickly and it would be useless. The bacterial products are pretty useless, there is no way at all that the bacteria can be alive unless you got it from a store that keeps them in a fridge and even then it is hit and miss as to how well the bottles have been handled in distribution usually by the time you get these products the bacteria has died if it has ever been there at all. The bacteria will occur naturally it is present in all water and starts to reproduce when there are levels of ammonia present for it to thrive on. However like I said it needs something like bio media (ceramic rings etc) or sponges.

Wills