Newbie (probably Looking For The Usual Advice)

[umlaut31]

Hey there - i'm new to the hobby (after recently recieving a 64 Litre tank for Christmas)

I've had a lot of trouble getting the levels of nitrite and nitrate right , but I finally managed it on the weekend - and picked up a Bristlenose catfish, and today 6 Longfinned Zebra Danios. My aquarium is well planted, has small pieces of bogwood and a large hollow pirate ship (which my bristlenose has taken up residence in!).

Providing the cycle starts properly and nothing un-toward happens, could I just pick your brains on what fish to consider? I'm really interested in getting 1 or 2 more shoals and another single fish (or a pair)..

I was thinking:

• A betta (1 male 1 female)
• or maybe a Red Tailed Shark
• A shoal of (some sort) of barbs - perhaps cherry
• Harlequin Rasboras
• Guppies (if i didn't get the betta)
• or even Mollies (but nothing else needs salt)

apart from that - I can't really think of any other species that attract me, but I'm open to any and all suggestions! I really want angel fish but I realised that my tank is slightly too shallow for fully-grown ones, so I think i'll wait until my next tank!

Cheers for reading

 

[Davo86]

Hey there - i'm new to the hobby (after recently recieving a 64 Litre tank for Christmas)

Hi, Welcome

I've had a lot of trouble getting the levels of nitrite and nitrate right , but I finally managed it on the weekend - and picked up a Bristlenose catfish, and today 6 Longfinned Zebra Danios. My aquarium is well planted, has small pieces of bogwood and a large hollow pirate ship (which my bristlenose has taken up residence in!).

Providing the cycle starts properly and nothing un-toward happens, could I just pick your brains on what fish to consider? I'm really interested in getting 1 or 2 more shoals and another single fish (or a pair)..

Sorry i don't understand this part? you say you had trouble getting the levels right but now your hoping the cycle starts properly?, what have you done so far in order to be monitoring levels?

I was thinking:

• A betta (1 male 1 female) - never keep male and females together, one will be killed
• or maybe a Red Tailed Shark - tank is way too small which will seriously increase the aggression of the shark
• A shoal of (some sort) of barbs - perhaps cherry - barbs will nip at the bettas fins
• Harlequin Rasboras - ideal
• Guppies (if i didn't get the betta) - will get nipped by the danios (and barbs if you choose these)
• or even Mollies (but nothing else needs salt) - really need a bigger tank

The tank is only a 16USG so i'm afraid your highly overestimating your stocking i'm afraid, Ideally both bristlenose and danios should be kept in a larger tank than this,

apart from that - I can't really think of any other species that attract me, but I'm open to any and all suggestions! I really want angel fish but I realised that my tank is slightly too shallow for fully-grown ones, so I think i'll wait until my next tank!

for that size tank you could also look at honey gouramis and various shrimp,

Cheers for reading

 

[umlaut31]

erm basically - i started the tank, cycled with some fish from my LFS - but they all died and the levels of nitrite shot through the roof. Since then i had been monitoring it along with the nitrate, and trying to get my filter to cycle using the bacteria supplements (such as filter start), i did a couple of water changes and it came down considerably. =]

Oh yeah, i didn't want everything on that list - i was aiming for about 15-18 fish, but the guy at my LFS said that the bristlenose and the danios would be okay in my tank

Thanks for the advice on the fish species though - I've read so much conflicting ideas and opinions its nice to have a clear and concise yes or no! Yeah I really like Harlequins, and there are some species of tetra that are nice too - do you think there are any oddballs, or different (colourful and vibrant) fish that I could perhaps keep as 1 or a pair? Just for something else to name and look out for especially - I like the idea of gouramis, but what about a pair of swordtails?

Thanks very much =]

 

[waterdrop]

So you sound to be a little over half the number of inches of fish for the tank (about 9 inches of fish body so far and you could have about 8 more sounds like.) The usual guidelines here for beginners are one inch of fish (body only, not fins) per one US Gallon of volume. Your tank would have a max vol of 18g, actually a little less considering substrate and decorations but that doesn't matter too much.

When you say you had trouble getting the nitrites and nitrates right, could you tell us more? Are you familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle? Did you "fishless cycle" the tank with pure household ammonia? How many days total did the tank go before fish were added?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[umlaut31]

Basically, I put the fish in - the cycle started, but they were too weak (I got them from the skanky LFS down my road) and i reckon they all succumbed to new fish syndrome. After that the Nitrites were very high, so I bought 2 decent test kits (NO2 and NO3) and preceeded to monitor the levels, as one of the guys in the nice LFS told me that my filter had probably already started cycling.

It took around 3 weeks of adding supplements, water changes and cleaning - but i eventually got the levels down. I presume that te cycle started, but there were no fish actually to stimulate it - so it was almost in a 'lull', but it all seems to be okay now - hopefully the Danios will be hardy enough to survive!

If the 8 inches left is about right, can you suggest a nice finishing touch (or touches in the form of a shoal) for my tank? There are just sooo many fish to choose from! I have so many ideas in my head - like i really want a tiger barb species tank (they would probably nip my Long finned danios) and also an angelfish species tank in the future too! haha! All in good time i think

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome Umlaut. Where it sounds like you are now is in a fish-in cycle. The levels have finally come back down far enough to encourage you to get more fish. I will not say that is a mistake but it will make the next few weeks more difficult. Where you need to go next is to keep a close eye on oyur ammonia and nitrite levels. If either one gets close to 0.25 ppm, you will need to do a large water change. The change needs to be done using a proper dechlorinator like Prime or Stresszyme. Once the filter starts to take care of your fish's ammonia production on its own and nitrites are staying down, you can start to back off on the water changes. At that point you will start to monitor for nitrate build up. When nitrates are about 20 ppm above the tap water levels, it is time to do a significant partial water change, not a tiny 10% one but a 25% or more. After that point in time, you can start to think about adding more fish but until you reach that point it would only make your work more difficult to get more fish.
BTW, most of us feel the filter supplements you have been using are virtually worthless. The typical bacteria in such products are dead by the time they arrive at the local fish shop for you to buy and use. The only ones that sometimes help are bactinettes in the UK or Biospira in North America. Even those are not very reliable but at least occasionally they do work.

 

[umlaut31]

Cheers for the advice! I used erm Nitrazorb and Filter start, as well as another one off bacteria supplement encouraged by my LFS.

So if I continue doign water changed - say like 25% every other day or something, that should be okay? What about the fish already in there - will it affect them? More stress or whatever?

 

[OldMan47]

The fish in your tank are being affected by the ammonia or nitrites that your filter can't process properly yet. As long as you do enough water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down, the fish should be OK. The only way that I can tell if I am doing enough is by testing my water. Otherwise you are eyeballing the bioload in the tank and estimating how fast the levels might be building, then basing water changes on your guesses. If you have gone through several new tank setups, you might possibly get a feel for how much is enough, but I would not try anything less than 30% daily without a test kit.

 

[chefrossco]

hello there!

yep would have to agree with the 1st post advice - however i have kept 1 male betta and 2 female together for a few yrs now , and no killing !
HOWEVER- this does depend on the aggressivness of the male - if you get quite a chilled out one you should be fine - i know im gonna get a verbal beating for telling you this but - gotta give u my own experance and advice!!

the barbs are not good with betta - they WILL nip the fins.

however hope you enjoy the experiances as much as the rest of us on the forum do - and hope everything goes well - good luck

oh yeah - and the shark-- not the best - as it grows - it will bully the rest of the tank!
and please do not listen to the guys at the LFS--- they will say anything for a sale!!!

 

[Davo86]

Cheers for the advice! I used erm Nitrazorb and Filter start, as well as another one off bacteria supplement encouraged by my LFS.

So if I continue doign water changed - say like 25% every other day or something, that should be okay? What about the fish already in there - will it affect them? More stress or whatever?

Ok, at this time I would personally stop adding the 'bacterial aids' and simply concentrate on water changes,
best thing now would be to get yourself a test kit and monitor the levels, doing a water change whenever one is needed. provided you can keep the nitrite and ammonia levels at zero and the nitrate level under 40, the danios should be ok, (can't be certain about the plec however, this would depend on how far the cycle is)

 

[umlaut31]

Okay, well thanks everyone =]

I've got myself both a Nitrite and Nitrate test kits, plus a dipping stick which has everything on it - would it be best to pick up an ammonia one too?

The fish all look brilliant after their second day, still feeding well and the levels are fairly okay - i think i'll try to do a water change tomorrow evening - about 30% ish.

If I can't get a betta (or its just to risky) - can anyone suggest anything else to add lots of colour and attractiveness to the tank - i was thinking a pair of dwarf gouramis, as they're lovely too - and then maybe a small shoal of cherry barbs (perhaps 2) and some rasboras or tetras.

 

[OldMan47]

The paper strip type testers are not well thought of. The problem is that they are not very accurate. They could make you think that things are OK when they are not. You would be best off just breaking down and getting a proper ammonia testing kit that uses a liquid reagent.
As far as getting any more fish, it would be best to wait until the cycle has been established before getting any more fish. Each new fish will add t the ammonia production. That ammonia production is what is making you change so much water and is the source of the poisons that are affecting your fish. Until the tank takes care of itself regarding ammonia and nitrites a new fish means just that much more difficulty. The "new fish syndrome" that you refer to is fish dieing as a result of that poisoning, it is because you did not recognize the ammonia build up before it became lethal. Now that you have the information needed to prevent those deaths, it would not be very responsible to go ahead with new fish regardless.