Newbie To The Forum

[SOOTY]

Evening all,

I'm new to fish keeping and just put together my tank.

It's a 16g hexagon tank. I was hoping to get a 4 foot standard one but I didn't have space in the living room so went with the one in the picture.

It's tropical with white silica sand in the bottom, a few pebbles on the large left and a white rock with holes on the right. It's not bright as it looks. It's just the way the camera phone has caught it.

I've got two guppys in there already and it was setup up a week ago with the guppys going in on Monday just past.

What options do I have??

I was hoping to put the following in:

guppys,
tetras,
Blue Ram Chiclids
Some kind of bottom feeders, catfish I think I saw at the fish place.

Not sure what else.

Any suggestions about the fish and what you think the tank is lacking, if anything?

My tank:

Thanks

 

[MHunt]

It all looks good, with the soft substrate some corydoras catfish would be ideal for the bottom. The cichlids can be territorial, so make sure there's enough places for them to hide, caves etc.

 

[SOOTY]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah heard that about Ciclids. Is there certain breed of Chiclids that won't be so territorial or are they all more or less the same.

Only caved bit I have is the hole in the middle of the rock, might be best I get something else sorted.

 

[TigerIssey]

Can I just ask, have you cycled the tank? Have a look at the pinned articles on cycling. Especially Fishless cycling or have you added bio-spira? You need to test your water parameters first if you are considering cichlids, some such as German blue rams require soft, acidic water. If you have not got a test kit I would recommend getting one, the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals freshwater manster test kit for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate will do. If not get your LFS to test for you.
If you post the results we can help further. Be careful with your cat fish selection as well, some grow huge, check out the different fish listings on the forum. Alternatively find out what type your lfs has and ask us if it will be ok, don't trust the lfs till you know whether you can trust them, some will try to sell you anything!!

Are you considering plants, I have a 23G (UK) octagon, it looks stunning with live plants. You may like to add bog wood or mopani wood, they give a lovely natural look aswell.

The other thing with guppies, if you have a male and female you should expect lots of babies, guppies are livebearers and very prolific. If you want babies keep several females to one male. If you don't keep all male or all female.

Rams are one of the more relaxed cichlids aggression wise, kribensis and some apisto are ok aswell as are I think keyhole. You could only keep one pair though, two males is not a good idea.

For caves you could go with flowerpots or for a more natural look try slate, the rams if you can have them, like flat slate for spawning, they lay eggs and are not as prolific as guppies.

 

[SOOTY]

It's not fully cycled yet.

I'm going down the route of adding a couple of fish to cycle the tank slowly. All this advise was from the guy at the tropical place.

This is how I have done it.

Last thursday I bought all the tank.Had it running until Monday so a good 4 days before I added a couple of fish.

With the recommendation of the tropical fish place I added a couple of hardy fish in there after 3 days to start the cycle process. The fish I have put in their seem happy as larry.

Is there anything I have done wrong or is everything been ok up to now??

Another question is that when I came home tonight the water seems cloudier than normal. I did read somewhere that this will happen as the tank starts to cycle after adding fish for the first time. Is this true??

Another quick thing, my white silica sand seems to be getting like a yellow tinge. Any reason why?? I intend on getting some Cories when the tank is cycled so they should distrub the sand regularly. Could this be the reason the sand has a yellowy tinge on the top, because the sand is just sat??

Thanks.

Look forward to the replies.

 

[wendywc]

I thought that rams needed soft water and guppies prefered hard water... I guess the guppies will have to be hardy.

 

[xostrawberryox]

Thats the same tank as mine except mine is silver finish. I have mollies and platies in mine, IMO they are really entertaining to watch, i think mine have a lot of personality anyway. How about some of them? x

 

[SOOTY]

I thought that rams needed soft water and guppies prefered hard water... I guess the guppies will have to be hardy.

Hope not, I was told guppys and rams would be fine together.

 

[MHunt]

Out of the two, i'd set the water chemistry for the rams, the guppies are probably the more adaptable of the two.

 

[dwarfgourami]

As the bottom are is quite small, I would choose either the rams or the corys. And if you do corys, do some small ones- not a lot of bumbling around space down there. Or you could try some other small catfish (no plecs though).
For the same reason, maybe a pair of rams might be a bit much, just because of the shape of the tank, nowhere for them to get away from each other. A single ram might be better.
I would go for rather small, not too active fish in this tank, small tetras (non-nippy because of the gups- avoid serpas and black widows!)