Suggested Fish For My Aquarium

[ufo 550]

I have had my aquarium set for about 3 months now. I have had the usual 'New Tank Syndrome', white spot, algae etc. etc. Using this forum and help from my LFS, I've managed to weather the storm, and now have a pretty balanced tank. (78 litre tank)

However, my problem has been choice of fish. I had originally bought 4 male swordtails and two Blood Red Molly’s. The Molly’s died pretty early on. One of the male Swordtails was top dog, and chased all the others around. I then bought some 8 female swordtails after being told the male swordtails are bullies. But hey hoe, a female died. Then I bought 4 Guppies and 6 Cardinal Neon’s. This weekend, one of the male Swordtails died, as a result I think of being beaten up by top dog. Then the 4 guppies and 2 Neon’s went. The advice from my LFS was the Swordtails are very aggressive and they agreed to have them back.

I now have:
6 x Cardinal Neon’s
2 x Lace Fin Widows
2 x X-Ray Tetras
4 x Zebra Danios
4 x Harlequins
4 x Red Plattys

I'm going to see how this little lot get on but would like advice on what fish to get in the future. We quite like the Neons, and would like a small shoal of them and would probably increase the numbers of the rest proportionally. We would like to have a couple of bigger specimen fish. As a kid I had Angel fish and Gourami’s. Advice please.

 

[ufo 550]

Quite like Clown Roaches as well. Forget that I've just read they can grow to 8-12" long!

 

[rob158]

kuhli loach are nice, also green neon tetra, amano shrimp, and Spotted Butterfly Plec (Beaufortia leveretti) but the plec need's well oxygenated water,

 

[OldMan47]

Please take the time to wait and see how your present fish fare. Many of the fish in your tank are rather sensitive to water conditions so I would not be too surprised if you lost a few more in a fairly new tank. Even so, waiting until things settle down and all fish seem to be thriving would be a good idea. After that will be soon enough to let us know what you have surviving in your tank and what interests you.
Most of us, even the more experienced among us, have fish that we would like to have but that do not suit our locally available water. The wiser ones among us take that into consideration when deciding what we should next bring into our tanks. We end up with fish that look great and do well in our local waters without bringing in fish that are doomed by that very same water. Whole groups of similar fish exist for any among the fish that you have that survive. Simple survival of specific fish will go a long way to telling us what the nature of your water is.

 

[ufo 550]

Thanks for yor replies. I am going to wait and see how my present stock fair. I'm using RO water, and my LFS are helping me to manage my PH, which is a bit high at 7.2, at the moment.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for yor replies. I am going to wait and see how my present stock fair. I'm using RO water, and my LFS are helping me to manage my PH, which is a bit high at 7.2, at the moment.

7.2 is not high for PH.

 

[ufo 550]

Thanks for yor replies. I am going to wait and see how my present stock fair. I'm using RO water, and my LFS are helping me to manage my PH, which is a bit high at 7.2, at the moment.

7.2 is not high for PH.

Sorry, it was higher than that 7.6 and rising, but with the aid of using RO water and API water softner pillow it has come down to 7.2. The fish I have now (granted after only a day) seem alot more community settled than the Swordtails. I'm keen to give it a few weeks now and see how they get on. I'll report back in a month and seek advice.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for yor replies. I am going to wait and see how my present stock fair. I'm using RO water, and my LFS are helping me to manage my PH, which is a bit high at 7.2, at the moment.

7.2 is not high for PH.

Sorry, it was higher than that 7.6 and rising, but with the aid of using RO water and API water softner pillow it has come down to 7.2. The fish I have now (granted after only a day) seem alot more community settled than the Swordtails. I'm keen to give it a few weeks now and see how they get on. I'll report back in a month and seek advice.

It is probably not a good idea to mess with your PH. If you do then you will have to match every single water change to the PH you have artificialy created. just stick with what you have coming out of the tap then you will always have a perfect match.

 

[ufo 550]

Just taking advice from my LFS, when the PH was rising to 7.6. Now at 7.2. So I guess that's fine now?

 

[ufo 550]

I've just done a water test on my tank. The result was: Nitrate 20-50mg/l, Nitrite 0.1mg/l, Amonia 0 and PH 7. Am I right in thinking that a water change is not required today. I have been doing them previously twice a week (30%), but I'm thinking of reducing this to once a week (last one was done on Sunday). I see from the Fish Cycle thread that it's a good thing when the Nitrate rises and Amonia/Nitrite fall.

 

[ufo 550]

I've just done a water test on my tank. The result was: Nitrate 20-50mg/l, Nitrite 0.1mg/l, Amonia 0 and PH 7. Am I right in thinking that a water change is not required today. I have been doing them previously twice a week (30%), but I'm thinking of reducing this to once a week (last one was done on Sunday). I see from the Fish Cycle thread that it's a good thing when the Nitrate rises and Amonia/Nitrite fall.

I have lost a couple of fish, three neon’s and one Zebra Danio to some sort of haemorrhage thing (did a separate thread on that). I'm happy to leave things alone at the moment and not add any more fish.

I would like some advice on my Nitrate levels, which regularly seem to be 20-50mg/.l I've been doing 25% RO water changes, but they never seem go below 25. I reduced the feeding intervals of my fish to twice a day, as I was getting quite bad brown algae. I've used PhosGuard, which has seemed to stemed the brown algae. I also do good gravel cleaning with my water changes and make sure my filters are clear (using tank water). My tank originally had a carbon filter, which I had to remove because of using medical treatment for fungus. I'm going reinstall the carbon to see what effect that has, but do you think that will help alleviate the high Nitrates? My Ammonia/Nitrite levels are consistently 0.

 

[fluttermoth]

Carbon won't remove nitrates (or nitrites or ammonia either come to that!)

Your nitrates will come down if you do larger water changes, but 20/50ppm is really nothing to worry about anyway. Just do larger water changes (say, 60 or 70%) if they start to get any higher than 50ppm.

 

[ufo 550]

Carbon won't remove nitrates (or nitrites or ammonia either come to that!)

Your nitrates will come down if you do larger water changes, but 20/50ppm is really nothing to worry about anyway. Just do larger water changes (say, 60 or 70%) if they start to get any higher than 50ppm.

Thanks

 

[ufo 550]

Went to my LFS to buy some plants and get some some more RO water. Problem was my wife came with me and we ended up with a male and female dwarf guramie, I'm going to blame her! No probs at the moment but have we made a rod for our own backs?

 

[Rynofasho]

More than likely you have, yes. Dwarf gourami are especially sensitive fish, and you were already fairly well stocked before. What filter do you have on the tank. You're building quite a fish load for a 20 gallon tank.

Personally, I would say that it is much easier to keep larger numbers of less species than it is to keep 4 of 7 different species. Community fish are typically just that, community fish, however many are not comfortable in groups as small as 4, hence some of the added aggression you are probably seeing. Also, like OM47 said, if you are continually having fish die on you, it would be best to figure out why they are dying rather than just throwing more fish at the tank.