Hi All, Newbie To Fish Care!

[dgoulston]

Hay Everyone, Im Darren, A 25 Year old systems developer in the investment banking sector in the city (London,UK)

I just brought myself a 90 litres (23.7754846 US gallon) tank for some tropical fish, Have set it all up with all the equiptment:
Filter, Heater, Temp monitor, Volcano and some pretty rocks/plastic plants.
oh and a spongebob square pants statue.

Ive filled it with water, and put in the water treatement stuff.

Ive started to read me books on tropical fish!

Im looking to get some nice colorful & funky fish that are compatable, any recomendations?
so far i like:

siamese fighter
Neon Tetra

what other fish would you recomend to compliment these (i love the siamese fighter look)

regards
Darren

 

[Snooks1!]

Howdy there, and welcome to the forums!

Bettas are general not very good community fish. They should not be kept with any other fish, especially smaller nippier fish like tetras. If you wanted to keep a betta, I would recommend that you get a smaller aquarium to house just the betta. Anything from 2gallons up would be fine for them, with the minimum being 1gallon.


If you haven't already, you should read into fishless cycling. (Fishless cycling link here ). You will need to cycle your tank before you can add any fish to it. Cycling is simple building up a colony of beneficial, nitrifying bacteria on the filter media. In a nutshell :

Fishes pee and poo breaks down into ammonia, which is toxic to fish. Unless taken care of, it will cause serious harm to your fish. This is where the filter media and it's colony of bacteria comes into the picture. The media hosts an array of bacteria meant to break down ammonia into nitr I te , which is also harmful to fish. But, if you correctly cycled your tank, you'll have bacteria able to take care of nitri I te by breaking it into nitr A te. You then take care of excess nitr A te by doing routine water changes.



As for compatible fish, check the fish species index and see if you find anything that interests you. But, since you are just getting into fish keeping I advise that you keep a very sparsely stocked tank until it has had time to mature, and you learn the ropes of this hobby. It can be very rewarding if you do things right, but it can go horribly wrong if you don't; and sometimes even if you do! Just remember that patience is key with keeping an aquarium. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want, and I'm sure there will be more people along to tell you more than what I can.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Most any smallish community fish will work in your tank. As mentioned, bettas sometimes don't do well in community tanks. They especially aren't good if you plan to have other ornamental fish like guppies. They see the bright colors and big tails as another betta and will attack and kill them.

 

[kewskills]

to the forum

 

[dgoulston]

Just need to get some real plants, and some Fish lol.
my tank:

and the volcano in the dark, looks cool.

 

[dgoulston]

details:

Tank:
Fluval Roma 90 designer tank (which came with the stand/cabinet) £180

Filter:
Fluval 2 Plus underwater fliter

Heater:
Fluval Tronic Electronic Aquarium Heater

Volcano:
Hydor Ario aerator

light 1:
power-glo High Intensity aquarium lamp 15W 55lux(18000k)(says: promotes coral, invertebrate and plant growth)

light 2
power-glo Aquarium Lamp 15w 35lux(18000k) (says it: intensifies fish colors and promotes plant groth)

 

[Snooks1!]

Just make sure you do a fishless cycle on the tank, and you'll be in great shape mate!