My First Tank And Some Questions Which I Have. :)

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

HI everyone,
I'm new to fish keeping, having bought a 4ft tank and setting up a 1ft tank underneith about a month and a half ago with a month of filtering in the main tank and 3 or 4 days in the 1ft tank and getting the ph, chlorine+all the NIT+ leveling chemicals(sry not gona name them lol but yous know what i mean) and the good bacteria growing i finally got to the fishy part yesterday lol. The 2 ghost knives and 2 silver dollars i put in are thriving after a bit of touch and go with the silver dollars who seemed stunned at the begining are now thriving on bloodworms and i can see the smaller of the 2 getting alot bigger fast and becoming dominant lol.

Just a few questions ive sort of come across over the last day or so of researching my fish. Although they seem quit happy and healthy i just want to make sure on a few things but i'm confident i've done everything right and their off to a good start .

First of all is regarding bumblebee gobies, i've read from a few sites i've looked at that they seem to thrive on brakish water with a ph of 8 or so. To anyone who may keep or know alot about bumblebee gobies a few query's have arisen for me.

1) currently they seem very happy and communal and im wondering if i add little hidie holes and a number of houses if this will cause them to loose their communal behaviour but i also want to know if this is more beneficial to have this behaviour for them or whether they will be just as happy hanging out together on the sides of the small tank? i ask this because the consensus on behaviour seems to be that they will dart around constantly claiming new territory as they are never happy with what they've got. I do think i will leave them as they are for now because they seem very happy hanging out on the side of the tank and on the blue gravel stones ive got in there.

2) As i mensioned i had read that bumblebee gobies prefer water of ph8+ and brakish in makeup, currently they are living in ph 7 water with freshwater treated with the same chemicals as my main tank to remove nitrates and chlorine just in lower quantities and they seem to be quit happy hopping around the tank, so should i change it to brakish or just continue them as they are? I only ask this because some sites mension that they won't last long in fresh non brakish water, but at the moment i dont see this to be a problem. I believe the sites may have been refering to a brother of the bumble bee gobi which i read thrives on the brakish water which is recomended.

3) if i was needing to make the water slightly brakish if problems arose due to death or sickly behavior, i am guessing that its just a matter of adding a small amount of aquarium salt, yes? If so do i need specialty equipment for such a small tank as you would for a salt water tank like protien skimmers and sumps etc. or will i be ok with my setup i currently have which is a typical tropical freshwater setup with a heater, air and hanging cannister filter?

Now onto my ghost knives, just one little thing i wish to check with anyone who may keep ghost knives or know a fair bit about.
1) I have noticed during feeding this morning that they seem content hanging around the suction caps or the heater and the filter. My question is are they feeding off the bacteria growing on those suction caps? and is it enough to supplement their feeding because as i noted the silver dollars chomped all the food down as they do with my cousins who are massive, and the ghosts just sat at the suction caps. Also is it ok that one of them seems to hang around the suction cap of the heater, this wont aris to any problems with him being burnt or over heating will it? as i cannot seem to stop him going back to the suction cap. i have no doubt they will come back to feeding on worms as they excelled in this department the first day i fed them while the dollars just sat there.

Thanks to anyone who replys and i look forward to a happy future and many more tanks to come ==

i also posted this in the brakish forums but thought i would leave it here to so that i get a variety of answers and as the discussion refered to both brakish water and tropical aquariums in general

 

[missigfunk]

I have heard a fair few people say the same thing about bumble bees. I have 2 of them and they have been living in my community tank with a PH of around 6.8 - 7.00 for over 6 months now. I just have mollies, platys and the like in there.

I have taken a pic of the type of bumble bee that I have. They have seemed happy this whole time, despite his sad looking face

As for the ghost knife, while I only had mine for 3 weeks (lost him due to a treatment) I never saw him eat, so I use to hand feed him, just to put my mind at ease.

Hope that helps you a little

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

hey just adding stuff to this forum i added to the other one i have under brackish to build on my lil piece of space in cyber space.... replys to questions from the other thread.



hey guys thanks for the reply's.

First of all the gobies are in a 1ft tank underneith my 4ft tank, which has my 2 black ghost knifes and 2 silver dollars, so no need to worry there, you can put down your stress balls as you threat for the life of the poor lil bumblebees. This was already apparent to me as id read ghost knifes trying to consume pictus catfish which got stuck half way and killed both of them, poor lil thing!.

by chemicals all i meant was that i use 2 products one called PRIME(deals with chlorine+ the different parts of the nitrogen cycle) and one called STABILITY(kick starts good bacteria growth at like 100 000% or whatever) which my cousin has been using for the last 6 months with great success when he first started and of course i do my ph testing and balancing LOL.

As for the 2 silver dollars im currently saving to get about 6 or 7 discuss fish of which im hoping i will get atleast 1 breeding pair which im planning for next year. Of course i understand all the discusses needs and because of these fish and their large size, is one of the reasons i only got 2 silver dollars as opposed tp 6 or 7 as recommended above would create over crowding with the amount of discus im hoping to introduce next year over time. Discuss fish were one of the main reasons i decided to get into tropical aquaria and i can't wait for the first day that i add some in. Of course the reason im leaving it go till next year is so that i can make sure that the current fish are happy with the water so it only costs me like 9$AUD instead of 150+$AUD if a problem arises and so that when it comes close to time i can get the water checked and balance the hardness of the water and setup some breeding ceramic pots which im hoping to get soon so the ghost knifes, and soon to addition pictus and pleco's can live under.

Of course im aware of the problem of keeping pleco's and discuss fish as their skin secretion may tantelise the pleco's to try to attach themselves to the discuss. I will be monitoring this when the time comes and if a problem arises the pleco's will be put into the 6x2x2 tank i am planning to put into my garage befor hand. If no problems arise then the tank will become a 6x2x2 marine aquarium instead XD.

I may reconsider and add more silver dollars, but at the moment my cousins tank which has only 2 seems full enough although he also has 2 angels and 2 black ****** lol cant remember their name but theyr like an angel and 2 very large plec's and 2 large pictus im sure my own fish will grow into the tank as his did within the first month and as i said the discuss will fill the void next year. And of course this was only the first introduction of fish on saterday as money was an issue as im planning to go to the snow soon and of course more tank mates will be added soon, maybe 2 or 3 more sd's XD.