Hi Im New! And Confused!

[moonrose]

(Posted this in intro group but thought id have better luck here)

Hey everyone!! im kitty and im brand new to the forums and well to fish to i guess.  though im pretty sure i will have lots of experince soon!!  we currently have 4 tanks in our house. 

1 is set up!!!  its our daughers a 46g bow front!!  We started it back in sept for cycling and put fish in on her birthday end of oct!! its going great! except the fix i picked...a opaline grourami (darn bully)  We also have 2 koi angels 6 glo fish 2 ottos a snail and 2 german blue rams (one is thriving the other not so much..will ask about that later) 

 

The second one is a quarintine tank and later will be a breeder tank. We want to breed angels and rams.   But right now i dont think we will be able to do the rams.

 

The third is a start of a aquascape.  My husband has a LONG 55g he is turing into a beautiful piece.  He only has the soil and wood in it right now. he is collecting the plants right now so no water in it  yet (taking lots of itme and planning it out!!)  and has his fish list mostly pigmy corys and other bottom ones with an angel or two.  he offered to let me put an eel in there instead of his fish but i gave him the your a dummy look. an eel would just unearth everythink while it digs in the soil.

 

The forth tank..well its my tank...and right now it only has 2 inches of "live" sand in it.  I thought about starting the cycling but...im so confused on what to do on my tank.  the day i got the sand and was gonna set up i was thinking brackish and slowly transition to marine.  I had wanted to do 2 puffers and 2 knight gobys with a possible black sail fin molly. 

 

Only we had stopped at a local (not name brand) pet store where we have been going for years and the very experinced (i thought)  fish guy talked me out of what i wanted.   He said night gobys would get up to 36 inches!!  and that the puffers would never work. (i wanted to cry i love puffers always wanted them)   He also said i would grow to hate brackish and that i should just do salt....but that SCARES ME!! especially when he started talking about a (5th) second tank attached to mine and sump pumps ... 0.o  whaaat.......  He also said my 30 gal wouldnt do well for reef tank to many veriables but i might beable to do just fish and live rock.  So now i dont know what to do.  I love taking care of all the tanks. water changes, testing the waters, cleaning them.  feeding the fish.  I think my daughers fish are BORING!!!  

 

I love eels (especially snow flake and fire eel), puffers, gobys,  demisoni (sp?) cichlids and few other cichlids, like   rope fish and also love star fish and lobsters LOL.  I only have my 30g and dont really want to upgrade due to my daughers and husbands HUGE tanks (no room for bigger one for me).  i also dont want this hugw tank for just one fish..look really empty.  i really dont know what to do.  i wanted a tank on my desk but it seams like what i want work at al!! so im hoping to look around do even more research and hopfully get ideas and insight from you!!

 

p.s. im a horrible typist..even worst speller and iv got a 7 month out fighting in my arms excuse the rushed typing.  and feel free to ask me anything

 

[Ch4rlie]

to the forum!
 
Wow you already have several tanks up and running.
 
Would love to see some pics of your current set ups! we're nosey that way 

 
Hope you enjoy the forum!

 

[moonrose]

to the forum!
 
Wow you already have several tanks up and running.
 
Would love to see some pics of your current set ups! we're nosey that way 
 
Hope you enjoy the forum!

we only really have the one my 3 year old daughts ( and yes its her tank helps with water changes and cleaning and feeding!!) Its kinda sickly girly lol but she loves it. I cant take pic of hubbies. Had to promis no pics until plants are in for the grand unveiling. Our quarinten is very basic. Cycled heated filtered with a few plants glass bottomand a cave.

Mine im starting to thinkis a lost cause....

 

[Doomchibi]

Do you have the koi in with your other fish? Your other fish are tropical while the koi should be in a cold water tank, and they will definitely outgrow the 46g if that is what they are in. You can keep knight gobies with puffers, but I have heard those gobies only really tolerate low end brackish water and prefer freshwater. I wanted them at first to keep with my green spotted puffer until I heard that, so I figure it wouldn't be fair to them. I assure you the man at the store didn't know what he was talking about, the knight gobies only get to about 3.5". If you wanted, you could use your 30g as a brackish tank and house a green spotted puffer or figure 8 puffer along with some bumblebee gobies, though as you mentioned the puffers should eventually be in marine as they grow. If you aren't sure if you would like brackish, how about looking into a couple Dwarf Puffers? You can keep a freshwater tank that way and I believe there are a few fish you can keep with them though I am not sure what. Good luck and happy researching

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Dwarf puffers are not very good with community tanks, but keeping them alone is fine! Lots of hiding spaces and keep it dense, as they get kind of agressive IMO.

 

[moonrose]

Do you have the koi in with your other fish? Your other fish are tropical while the koi should be in a cold water tank, and they will definitely outgrow the 46g if that is what they are in. You can keep knight gobies with puffers, but I have heard those gobies only really tolerate low end brackish water and prefer freshwater. I wanted them at first to keep with my green spotted puffer until I heard that, so I figure it wouldn't be fair to them. I assure you the man at the store didn't know what he was talking about, the knight gobies only get to about 3.5". If you wanted, you could use your 30g as a brackish tank and house a green spotted puffer or figure 8 puffer along with some bumblebee gobies, though as you mentioned the puffers should eventually be in marine as they grow. If you aren't sure if you would like brackish, how about looking into a couple Dwarf Puffers? You can keep a freshwater tank that way and I believe there are a few fish you can keep with them though I am not sure what. Good luck and happy researching

 
thanks for your reply!!  the koi are koi angels.  angel fish with koi markings.  shouldent get anybigger then other angels.  i had wanted brackish moving to marine but the fish keeper  basically talked me out of it.  salt sounds fun but also horribly confusing and i really dont want a sexond tank attached to this for extra water filtration.  im still trying to learn salt but confused as to whats really needed. i know i dont want reef but besides that...no real ideas.

Dwarf puffers are not very good with community tanks, but keeping them alone is fine! Lots of hiding spaces and keep it dense, as they get kind of agressive IMO.

hi ellie! thanks for letting me know they arnt community fish. if i were to get just dwarfs how many could go im my 30g?  i know the inch of fish per gallon wont work. but 2 or 3 in my tank might?

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

The general rule for them is 5 gallons per dwarf puffer, so probably 5 or 6. They are really cute and other members can say they have a personality! I have had one, and he was so cute and tiny, I loved him alot.
 
Just like I said, dense planting and lots of hiding spaces will keep them happy and out of each others way. They will soon learn to associate you with food and come to the glass when you watch them!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Here's a little more information on Dwarf Puffers if you are interested
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/90950-dwarf-puffer/
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-travancoricus/

 

[moonrose]

One of our koi angels!!

 

[tunagirll]

I don't have any advice for you, but I think you should keep fish you love and are excited about Fish keeping is a little work no matter what you have so you might as well love the fish you keep! Google is your friend; read up and learn about the species you want and then come back with questions!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

to the forum.
 
If you're interested in the dwarf puffers and having a desktop tank, they would be perfect inhabitants! 5 gallons is their minimum, so if you got a tank that size it would be perfect for one. They have big personalities. The only problem with dwarf puffers IMO is that they prefer to be fed live food, primarily snails. You can feed them frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp etc. but from what I hear, snails are their favourite! 
IMO if you were to stock them in your 30G, you would probably loose them, as they're only 1".
 
For your husbands tank, unfortunately, an angel wouldn't be a good choice with pygmy corys, as most angels will eat anything that fits into their mouth, which in this case, would be the corys.
If you and your husband want this tank to be mainly about the plants and aquascape, with the fish just being something extra, a big scale nano tank could work, especially if you like the pygmy corys.
You could have a nice big school of pygmy corys and mosquito rasboras, with a pair of peacock gobies or a honey gourami as your centrepiece fish. This could look really cool, especially with the red of the rasboras and the activity of the corys.
Instead of the mosquito rasboras, you could have a school of neon or cardinal tetras, if you prefer their colouring.
For a list of other nano fish, have a look HERE.
As TunaGirll said, make sure you thoroughly research your fish choices before going out and buying them.
 
Your daughters tank is so cute, and what a great age to get her interested in fish keeping!

 

[moonrose]

to the forum.
 
If you're interested in the dwarf puffers and having a desktop tank, they would be perfect inhabitants! 5 gallons is their minimum, so if you got a tank that size it would be perfect for one. They have big personalities. The only problem with dwarf puffers IMO is that they prefer to be fed live food, primarily snails. You can feed them frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp etc. but from what I hear, snails are their favourite! 
IMO if you were to stock them in your 30G, you would probably loose them, as they're only 1".
 
For your husbands tank, unfortunately, an angel wouldn't be a good choice with pygmy corys, as most angels will eat anything that fits into their mouth, which in this case, would be the corys.
If you and your husband want this tank to be mainly about the plants and aquascape, with the fish just being something extra, a big scale nano tank could work, especially if you like the pygmy corys.
You could have a nice big school of pygmy corys and mosquito rasboras, with a pair of peacock gobies or a honey gourami as your centrepiece fish. This could look really cool, especially with the red of the rasboras and the activity of the corys.
Instead of the mosquito rasboras, you could have a school of neon or cardinal tetras, if you prefer their colouring.
For a list of other nano fish, have a look HERE.
As TunaGirll said, make sure you thoroughly research your fish choices before going out and buying them.
 
Your daughters tank is so cute, and what a great age to get her interested in fish keeping!

 i should say that the desk tank is the 30 gallon.  But i dont have room to go bigger.  Im still in love with figure 8 puffers and want to do brackish  but what the guy said haunts me that i wont love brackish in the long run.  Online says figure 8's and knight gobys do ok togeather. some great and of corse some not so great.  But any fish could be diffrent.  like my daughers tank.  all the glof ish are nice gentil but this mall pink one gets cranky!! they hall have personalitys.  LUckly i am still researching havent even started cycling my tank yet ( dont wanna start until i decide FW, BW, or SW.  
 
Hubby hasnt decided yet what he wants. TOday he came home wanted a white betta in his aqua scape!  He has mentioned Tetras and lots of others the pigmys are the only constant. 
 
Our daugher loves her tank!  we surpsrised her we had it set up no fish for nearly 2 months.  THen the night before her birthday we said to wish and wish and if she wanted it hard enough magic will bring her fish.  So she wished and wished and the next night we "unwrapped" ( i covered it in paper LOL)  and there were 2 nickle size baby koi angels.  and from there it was her tank and she wont quit fussing at it LOL!

 

[tunagirll]

Don't let one person put you off! Just because they think it's more work than they personally want isn't a good enough reason to tell other people not to do it.
Go and check out the brackish forum here

 

[Blondielovesfish]

 

to the forum.
 
If you're interested in the dwarf puffers and having a desktop tank, they would be perfect inhabitants! 5 gallons is their minimum, so if you got a tank that size it would be perfect for one. They have big personalities. The only problem with dwarf puffers IMO is that they prefer to be fed live food, primarily snails. You can feed them frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp etc. but from what I hear, snails are their favourite! 
IMO if you were to stock them in your 30G, you would probably loose them, as they're only 1".
 
For your husbands tank, unfortunately, an angel wouldn't be a good choice with pygmy corys, as most angels will eat anything that fits into their mouth, which in this case, would be the corys.
If you and your husband want this tank to be mainly about the plants and aquascape, with the fish just being something extra, a big scale nano tank could work, especially if you like the pygmy corys.
You could have a nice big school of pygmy corys and mosquito rasboras, with a pair of peacock gobies or a honey gourami as your centrepiece fish. This could look really cool, especially with the red of the rasboras and the activity of the corys.
Instead of the mosquito rasboras, you could have a school of neon or cardinal tetras, if you prefer their colouring.
For a list of other nano fish, have a look HERE.
As TunaGirll said, make sure you thoroughly research your fish choices before going out and buying them.
 
Your daughters tank is so cute, and what a great age to get her interested in fish keeping!

 i should say that the desk tank is the 30 gallon.  But i dont have room to go bigger.  Im still in love with figure 8 puffers and want to do brackish  but what the guy said haunts me that i wont love brackish in the long run.  Online says figure 8's and knight gobys do ok togeather. some great and of corse some not so great.  But any fish could be diffrent.  like my daughers tank.  all the glof ish are nice gentil but this mall pink one gets cranky!! they hall have personalitys.  LUckly i am still researching havent even started cycling my tank yet ( dont wanna start until i decide FW, BW, or SW.  
 
Hubby hasnt decided yet what he wants. TOday he came home wanted a white betta in his aqua scape!  He has mentioned Tetras and lots of others the pigmys are the only constant. 
 
Our daugher loves her tank!  we surpsrised her we had it set up no fish for nearly 2 months.  THen the night before her birthday we said to wish and wish and if she wanted it hard enough magic will bring her fish.  So she wished and wished and the next night we "unwrapped" ( i covered it in paper LOL)  and there were 2 nickle size baby koi angels.  and from there it was her tank and she wont quit fussing at it LOL!
 

 
Ah, I see. Sorry
 
Like Tuna said, don't just take the mans word, ask on here in the brackish forum and see who has done it and how much work it was.
 
I can understand being undecided, it can be very hard choosing which fish you want, especially when there are so many!
When your husband decides what he wants, in terms of colour, size, activity etc. come back to the forum and we'll be able to suggest some fish for what he wants
 
Awww LOL that is adorable!