Starting off

[Barry P]

Im new to the Tropical Fish world but i am very passionate about it. I have started with a 60L Tank, with a good size Rock in it with plenty of cover....I have no real plantation (only fakes) with 2 Clowns, 2 Mollies,4 Cardinals (2 died last night) and 14 tiny new mollies which appeared this morning. I will put the 2 dead cardinals down to the bright light and stress of moving to a new tank.
My questions are.
1.Who will take the 14 babies off my hands.?Whats normal procedure
2.Should i be using live plantation
3.Is the combination of fish i have a successful one.
4.What could i add to my tank to increase lifespans.

All replies welcome....cheers
Baz

 

[Clairel]

Welcome.... I am quite new to this game aswell, i have a 90 litre tank set up with the fish in it from my signature...

And i am the proud new owner of a 180 litre Juwel vision, currently cycling without fish.

Cant you keep the fry? all may not survive, if you cant keep them, have you got any friends who would like them? Or cant you take them to you local fish store?

Did you do a fishless cycle, or cycle with fish? Sorry 2 of your fish have died

Good luck...

Claire xx

 

[Barry P]

Thanks for ther reply Clare, im only starting off and the last thing i need is another tank to keep the fry.My plan is to keep the 60L tank for 1 year, and then expand to a larger tank. I might give the fish to a friend who is willing to take care of them.My local Fish suppliers wont take anything back....

"Did you do a fishless cycle, or cycle with fish?"...Not sure what this means sorry???

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

by clowns do you mean clown loaches? they will grow too big for that tank and need to be in bigger groups

 

[Barry P]

Is it ok to add an extra Loach to the 2 already there.And what size do Clown Loaches grow to? They place i bought them from said they wouldnt grow and that they are great fish for starting off..? Although it would be a nice excuse to purchase a bigger tank...ive only been at this 2 weeks and already i want something bigger....

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

clown loaches grow to about a foot long in the wild and they are very slow growing. something like this is always a good excuse for a bigger tank
if you got a bigger tank you could probably fit another one in

 

[Clairel]

The reason i have upgraded is because of my lovely Clown Loaches, they are only 2" at the moment, but can get as big as 15", they grow about 1-2" a year, so i am moving them into my lovely big tank, once its cycled.

How did you set up your tank? How many days was it running before you added fish? All at once? Or a couple at a time?

Do you put dechlorinator in your water?

Unfortunately from what i have read up, clown loaches are not good fish to cycle with, and should be added once your tank is established, and cycled....

Claire x

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

and they are very prone to ich so watch out for that

 

[Clairel]

Luckily mine have never contracted ich or white spot etc.....

C x

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

Luckily mine have never contracted ich or white spot etc.....

C x

[snapback]919230[/snapback]​

 

[flips]

yeah, from what i've read (as i don't have any clown loaches but would like to someday)... they should be added to a mature tank; not good starting out fish. but hopefully yours will be alright. if you can, get a breeding trap for the baby mollies so that they don't get eaten

 

[ncjharris]

Hi Barry.

Welcome to TFF!!

First things first - you say you are new - the first thing I would recommend is that you read all the pinned beginners posts on the forum. There is a wealth of information there, esp for newbs. You mention that you didn't understand cycling. Have a read of the pinned post on this - its quite important to the welfare of your fish.

OK, a 60l tank is roughly 15 gallons. While your clowns will look good in there at the mo, they will get big - up to a foot as said, and I'm afraid your tank is a too small for this.

As for your questions

1.Most local fish stores (LFS) will take fry off you, if you don't want to keep them. Give them a ring first to make sure.
2.You don't have you use live plants - there is a certain degree of satisfaction from people who use them succesfully, but plently of great looking aquaria don't have plants at all!
3.Other than the clowns you have some nice fish. Generally cardinal tetras should be kept in bigger schools. I'm inclinded to believe that the two that died did cos of new tank syndrome rather than stress.
4. A well suited tank, healthy diet and frequent water changes are the top tips for keeping your fish alive!

Hope this helps - the golden rule in fish keeping really is research, research and research. Read until your eyes glaze over!

 

[dwarfgourami]

Just to expand a little on point 4 of ncjharris' excellent post:

Apart from their standard fare of prepared fish flakes/pellets/tablets or whatever, most fish appreciate a change, with perhaps vegetables once or twice a week (spinach, peas- boil frozen peas, deshell and mash slightly, blanched cucumber or courgette) and maybe bloodworm or daphnia once a week. You don't have to serve live bloodworm; the lfs will sell it frozen or jellied. Fish that will eat flakes in a fairly casual manner will go ecstatic over a piece of pea or a bloodworm; it's great fun to watch!

Once the tank is established, most fishkeepers like to keep to a routine of a weekly water change (perhaps 20% or so). During the first month or so, however, you will have to be prepared to do more frequent changes, when the ammonia or nitrites shoot up over 0.5 (so keep testing!).

Your baby mollies will want crushed flakes at first but will soon be able to eat adult food; I saw a 2-day old platy try to tackle a whole flake in my tank last week(!) and the 1-month-olds were demolishing half a pea in a most competent manner.

 

[Barry P]

Great replies, thanks. In reply to Claire , i had the tank for a week then cleaned it , changed the filter and added 2 x clowns and 4 mollies. The 2nd day one of the mollies was dead at the bottom of the tank.But there where 14 live fry from one of the remaining mollys.I seperated them for a while but then let nature take its course.I cleaned the tank again after 2 weeks and added 6 Cardinals.They looked great and really stuck together, until this morning.2 dead lying in the same place at the bottom.I feed them flakes twice a day but crunch up a few for the fry, and every 3 days i feed them a block of frozen worms.The loaches get into a frenzy when this happens and attack everything...maybe this is another reason why i have lost 3 fish.....if only i had CCTV at night.

 

[ncjharris]

From reading your set up im inclinded to guess your fish died as it is a new tank, rather than any kind of agression.

Something that we haven't mentioned is testing your water. Its an important part of your tank regieme.
If you haven't got one yet, I'd suggest you get a testing kit asap, test your water and post back the results. This could go a long way to explaining whats going on in your tank.

Also, what kind of filter do you have in your tank?