Hi there

[murphio]

Hi guys.
Ive not long bought a fish tank which is my pride and joy. Im a total novice but am very keen to learn - so please, be gentle. Before I start posting - are there any dos and donts of the forum? I know you more experienced posters probably get frustrated with newbies.
The tank is a corner unit and was quite expensive - I had to save a lot of wages to get it. It is a trigon model and it is 180 litres. I had some fish before but my little boy decided to feed them his smarties - tube and all - and I found every fish, bar the catfish, dead at the top of the tank!!
Ive started again - I had about 10 neon tetras, 1 catfish, 1 yellow Gourami, 1 clown loach, 1 blacktail shark, 2 black mollys, 1 Siamese fighter.....my girlfriend bought some more the other day......cant remember what they are but three are small and orange - kinda resemble piranha actually...and two others are quite large. The look a bit like sharks, orange with a very distinctive black stripe.
Unfortuantely, there is now only three tetras left - the rest are dead. Also I found the black molly at the bottom of the tank this morning. In the meantime, I brought the yellow Gourami back to the shop - it was very agressive and since I seen him eating the dead neons, I assumed he had killed them. Is this likely to be the case?
Please bear with me folks, im learning as I go. Hope to get some good advice and who knows, maybe make a friend or two
All the best
Nick

 

[BOD]

Hi there welcome to TFF, not a good combination of fish im afraid, the black tailed shark will get agressive, neon tetras dont do well in new tanks, what sort of catfish??? clown loaches need to be in groups and need a bigger tank, and siamese fighter BETTAS, do not do well in community tanks, they are better off in there own little tank 1G +, sorry to break the news.

Do you use water de-chlorinator?
Do you test your water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites?
Do you know about cycling?
Water changes?

edit - just to let you know there are some great fish you can put in the tank, but first we need some info?

 

[murphio]

Do you use water de-chlorinator?
Do you test your water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites?
Do you know about cycling?
Water changes?

Hmmm...have to be honest here and say a big fat no. I brought a sample to the shop and they said it was ok, so kind of assumed that everything was alright. Shooting fish in a barrel (forgive the pun) which is why im on here.
I change about a third of the water every couple of weeks - but no I didnt declorinate it. All the rest of the fish seem happy and healthy...just basically all the neons have died along with one Molly. The catfish? Hmm im not sure TBH....he is an alge sucker if that helps.
Actually now that I come to mention it we have an albino ctafish as well.
I will take your word for it in regards to tank suitability - we simply followed the advice of a (probably not very qualified) shop assistant.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[BOD]

hey thats ok, yea some shops tell you a load of tosh....

you defiantly need to get to the lfs and buy dechlorinator, and some home test kits they are not very expensive but are worth it to check that everything is in order in you tank and that theres nothing going wrong, water changes about 15%-25% 1-2 weeks should be fine, you add de chlorinator to the new water to make it fish safe.

if you could get picture of the catfish/alage eaters that would be really helpful to identify and tell you what you have.

also here is link about cycling to help you understand a bit more cycling

 

[murphio]

??#\s ok, yea some shops tell you a load of tosh....

you defiantly need to get to the lfs and buy dechlorinator, and some home test kits they are not very expensive but are worth it to check that everything is in order in you tank and that theres nothing going wrong, water changes about 15%-25% 1-2 weeks should be fine, you add de chlorinator to the new water to make it fish safe.

if you could get picture of the catfish/alage eaters that would be really helpful to identify and tell you what you have.

also here is link about cycling to help you understand a bit more cycling

Thanks for your help. I followed that link - it seems like something I need to give my full attention to. Im at work at the moment - I will give it a proper perusal later. TBH - nitrate levels have never even been mentioned to me before!!
One things for sure - I want to do this properly. I have spent a lot of money on the various fish and I dont want to keep having to replace them. But more importantly - I want to see the fish happy and healthy in a thriving environment - its only fair.
I will attempt to get a picture of the catfish. Im in the process of buying a digital camera. Incidentally, how do you post pictures on here? Is it a case of putting them on a host site like putfile etc?
Thanks for all your help BOD.

 

[BOD]

most use photobucket.com and then you see the IMG button copy and paste one of the links from photobucket in there....if you have anymore questions just ask...like what to do with the fish that i mentioned etc....

 

[eudielynn]

Welcome to TFF!! Looks like BOD has you on the right track about declorination and cycling. Hope things go better for you now.

 

[lilfishie]

to the forum

 

[Gazman]

Hi mate!!

I was in the same position as you 3 weeks ago. I've learnt so much here and im actually enjoying keeping the water the way it should be. Everything BOD has said is what i have learnt here, i recommend it.

Hope all goes well!!

Gaz.

 

[asumel]

welcome to the forum

 

[rdd1952]

Welcome to the forum. Here is a link to the general rules of the forum. Also, here are a few things to list anytime you post with a problem. It will help speed up getting yu a good answer.

How big is the tank (gallons/litres)?
What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH) in ppm? I strongly suggest buying a master test kit (liquid) so you can test your own water.
What fish and how many do you have in the tank?
Have you recently added anything to the tank (more fish, plants, driftwood etc) or made any change in what you have been doing?
Do you have live plants?How often do you do water changes?
Is the tank near a window and does it get direct sunlight?
How long are your lights on each day?
What chemicals do you use (dechlorinators, pH adjusters, Medications, etc)

Once again, welcome to the forum. There are a lot of very knowledgable people here and the forum is very active so you can generally get an answer to an emergency question pretty quickly.