I'm New, Hi

[chrisbassist]

Hey, I'm pretty new to keeping fish. I did have a couple of goldfish when I was younger like most kids, and at the time didn't realise that the small tank (must have been somewhere around 5 - 10 gallons) wasn't good for them.

I deceided to get some fish for my 2 yr old daughter, since anytime we're at a pet store or garden centre which has fish, she goes nuts, she loves them.

So I got a Roma 125 (with cupboard/stand) which fits nicely into a recess in a wall and looks great, and fits in with everything already in the room. It's about 35 gallons.

So far, I've got 7 Guppies, of which 5 are leopard tail guppies, which are beautiful. 6 neon tetras, and 2 corys (arcuatus). All added over the course of several weeks. My calculations tell me I've got about 10 inches left, which I'll probably use for a few more tetras.

Thankfully, now we have some fish at home, my daughter doesn't go quite as mad when she sees fish, but still loves going up to the tank and watching them. And it's part of her routine now to say goodnight to the fish and turn the light off when she goes to bed.

I signed up so I know i've got somewhere to go if things go wrong. And to browse info and get ideas.

Hopefully I'll get lots of useful info here for years to come.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum! How long have you had the tank set up? Im a little worried that the tank might not be fully cycled. How long did you wait before adding fish and did you add ammonia before adding the fish? If not theres a chance your filters are not ready to deal with the poop the fish are producing.

The 125 is a good tank, I had one a while ago before I upgraded. With the stock that you have at the moment, they are all small fish and I would say you are no where near fully stocked. I would consider upping your neons to 10 and same for the cories, a group of cories is as important as the neons. Then you have room to add in some feature fish like Cockatoo Cichlids (apistogramma cacatuoides) or any of the apistos really. Bolivian Rams would work as would Dwarf Golden Cichlids (nannacara annomala). Though suitable for the tank I would avoid Angelfish as they can often clash badly with guppies and also their food in the wild is neon tetras.

 

[chrisbassist]

Hey

The tank was set-up with water, scenery, filter etc for about 2 weeks before we got around to getting any fish. Unfortunately, I didn't do much reading on fishless cycling before getting fish, so didn't add ammonia or anything, but lesson learnt.

Did the first water test, everything was fine so went to LFS to get first fish. We got 5 guppies, which I stupidly let my wife introduce and she went far too fast, and 2 died (I think from PH shock). Then a week after adding those fish, did another water test, and found the nitrite was getting a bit high. So I didn't add any more fish that week. Instead started daily water changes of about 20-30%

After a week of that, I tested the water again, and it had dropped back down to safe levels, but to be on the safe side, I left it a few more days before adding any more fish.

Then got the tetras, which I added myself, and they have all survived and are doing great (except one of them seems to like being alone every now and then, but will school with the rest other times)

then added a few more guppies, which so far so good. And finally today added the 2 corys. fingers crossed.

And I'm keeping up the daily water changes for now, since I'm still in the process of stocking the tank, but once it's fully stocked hopefully I can drop that down to weekly or less...

Thanks for the tips on fish, I'll be looking them up after I put my little girl to bed.

 

[Wills]

Hi yeah you definitely sound like you are on the right track! Just keep an eye on your test results and when the ammonia or nitrite gets above .25 do a water change and you should be plain sailing now. The process your tank is going through is a fish in cycle and should last 6-8 weeks from when you started the tank so when your tests show constant 0 readings of ammonia and nitrite you can cut down to weekly water changes.

 

[chrisbassist]

cheers, not looked properly at information, but i've seen a few pics and those bolivian rams look nice.

my LFS has a nice little system. Basically, on the tags that have the fish names etc, they also have a picture of a fish, anything suitable to go with guppies, has a picture of a guppy, or if it's not suitable for guppies it has the same picture but in a red circle with a red line through.

my experience there has been mixed, most of the workers seem to know very little and have given conflicting advice, but there is one guy (who I think is the manager) who really seems to know what he's on about. and will happily talk you through what fish you have and what might be suitable to go with it, and even suggested to us that we keep a notebook of what's in the tank so when we go in for more he can look and see what we've got so he can point us in the right direction.

I was thinking about a few more corys, since everything I've read seems to say that they do best when in groups of 4 or more. I just thought I'd start with a few and see how I like them before upping the numbers too much.

the only real problem I've had so far was some bogwood making the water turn yellowy. which the water changes have helped with, and I was going to get some activated carbon media for the filter today but forgot about it while I was there. #40## all those fish, they're too distracting. It isn't too bad though. I didn't even notice it until I was doing a water change and the water coming out was yellow.

 

[steelhealr]

You'll love this place. SH

 

[Wills]

Im not going to put down all LFS workers cos a few members here are LFS workers but its often a good idea to go to the shop having researched the fish you want to keep. Using the forum is a fantastic way of researching as you have a lot of members being able to tell you their experiences.

You get all sorts of bad advice at times and members here see new members coming with small tanks full of fish that will grow to a foot long and in some cases recently 5 foot even though they are 2 inches right now.

With the bogwood, it will keep releasing the tannin for a while if you leave it in the tank, the carbon will help though. But if you take it out the tank and soak it in boiling water it should get rid of all the tannins in a day or two.

Wills

 

[chrisbassist]

how big will it get is one of the pieces of info I like to have first. I don't know a lot but I know enough to know that If a fish will grow to 2 ft long then it's no good in my tank.

And that 1 guy is good at the LFS, and there is another who seems ok, but he's usually too busy cleaning tanks and stuff. which is why I think the other guy is the manager, he never seems that busy... lol

 

[Wills]

Yeah thats what I mean Im not knocking your LFS but sometimes an LFS will get in a fish their not sure of and just sell it as max size of 6 inches when in reality its a giant. Its just best to learn the monsters like panaguis catfish, common pleco, clown loaches, bala sharks, gibbiceps, oscars and severums just for a few examples of foot long + fish that are sold all the time to people unaware of their max size.

 

[chrisbassist]

from the looks of it i'll have to wait a while before getting any of your suggestions since they will need an established tank to go into.

forgot to mention, the tank kit came with nutrafin cycle, which apparently contains the benficial bacteria. I've been following the instructions on that, I used a bit of it before adding any fish, and I add a little with each water change. Hopefully that helped.

 

[Wills]

Ah afraid to tell you this but those products are absolutely useless. Just a dud product Im afraid, its a totally uncontrolled system so theres no way that the bacteria can survive that long to make it to our tanks. If you want to keep using it for now with the water changes if it helps at all its not an issue and its not doing any harm but I wouldnt bother with any more after this bottle.

When people say the fish are fragile it usually means they wont survive a new tank, meaning they wont survive a fish in cycle situation when its not being controlled in a similar way to how you are. And to be fair Neon Tetras are one of the weakest fish available they have been bred on such a mass scale that the commercial strains are really weak on a genetic level now. But I would agree that while you are in the cycling stages maybe hold off adding any more fish for a while.

Wills

 

[chrisbassist]

good to know.

How about the aqua plus (the one which removes/neutralises the chlorine and chloramine in the water) which supposedly also has the stuff to help coat scales etc, and has their stress reducing formula. Any better options out there for making water safe before adding to tank? since I need new stuff anyway, may as well get whatever is best.

 

[Wills]

No no the dechlorinator works really well Its the best way to sort the water out at change time. I use API stress coat but they all do pretty much the same thing I think. The stuff that helps coat the scales is pretty good as well in my experience especially if you have fish that can sometimes fight or challenge each other (like mine ) But if you ever get serious damage to fins or scales best thing Ive found is Melafix heals up most stuff in a week or so.

 

[chrisbassist]

Cheers.

Just found out a pet shop about 60 seconds walk from where I live does fish. Not sure about buying any fish from there,I'll have to see about that, but it does mean I can get accessories and dechlorinator stuff a lot easier without using the car.

I've been thinking about your suggested stocking...

if I followed it I would end up with 10 corys, 10 tetras, 7 guppies, Plus the centrepiece fish...

so without the centrepiece, that's about 45 inches plus without the centrepiece.

I realise, they're small fish, but the corys grow to about 3 inches so they'd be a fully stocked tank (pretty much) on their own.

So, any specific reasons it's ok to take it above the inch per gallon rule in this situation? Sorry, I trust that you know what you're talking about, you obviously know a hell of a lot more than me, and you have experience with my tank, I'd rather just understand exactly why the limits could be pushed that much in this instance...

although I did read on another site that some people follow a 2 inch per gallon rule...

Is it purely down to the fact that my fish are small and live in groups, so they only need 1 territory for the whole school? Or is it more down to the fact that they produce less waste per inch of fish than other types?


on another note, I've now had a chance to watch they corys, and they have real personality, still not the best looking fish but they're great fun to watch. So I'll be happy to add a few more. (they kind of remind me of a cat i used to have, the kind with paws, not fins)

 

[Wills]

Every forum has its own kind of boundries with regards the inch per gallon rule. And even within those forums you get people disagreeing. Personally I count tetras and guppies as 1 inch because so they have such basic waste production they just dont impact stocking until you get to schools of decent numbers. I also feel its important to balance schooling groups with the bio load and while people consider 6 to be the minimum I would always promote 8-10 as being acceptable, in many cases they form parts of schools into the hundreds so you can kind of work out just how important numbers are based on that. Also cories are pretty small fish and the Arcuatus is documented as growing to 2 and a quarter inches and its important that you stick to all one type, when you start to get a big group of cories the fun really starts to show with them

But just to kind of highlight the inch per gallon rule and why I disagree with it. How closely can you follow the inch per gallon rule? Do you add all your substrate, plants and decor then count the jugs in and realise that in a 30 gallon tank you only have 20 gallons of water. Its accepted that the inch per gallon rule is based on small fish but even small fish in my opinion are so diverse that its hard to pin an inch of one fish and apply it to all fish. I think a stocking of a tank is pretty unique to each set up there are template set ups around but each tank is going to have different species mixed together in varying quantities and you do quickly start to recognize what is good and what is bad - both in understock and overstock. But then it also comes down to the keepers experience and also the amount of time they have to tend to the tank usually I recommend tanks that need around 1 40-50% water change a week which in mid sized tanks like yours is good but once you hit 50 gallons moving 25 gallons of water is a pain lol. Also as you mentioned about territories, tetras, guppies and cories wont take up territories they just move around as a constant where as if you added something like the bolivian rams or apistos they would take up a territory and make somewhere home usually around the bottom of the tank.

Wills