Very Basic Questions From A Relative Newbie

[ghostship]

I'm not a total newbie and have been in the hobby for over a year, but there's just a few things I probably should have known from the start but just never have learned. My tank is a smallish community tank mainly of small fish.

If it helps, the fish I have currently are
1 swordtail
1 white cloud mountain minnow
2 neon tetras
5 flame tetras
4 guppies
2 harlequins
1 misc catfish (will try and get a picture of him up and see if anyone can identify him, he's pretty elusive though)


Firstly, how often should various foods be fed to them? I have the usual tropical flake food and a variety of frozen foods such as bloodworm etc, but is it a case of the flakes being the usual staple food and the frozen foods an occasional thing? my fish seem to do alright on what i give them (generally some flakes every day and other stuff every now and then) but I could do with knowing what would keep my fish in the best health. if there's any other food i should buy, please say so.

Also, how often should water changes take place and about what percentage of water should be replaced each time?

many thanks in advance for replies

 

[bucksgill]

I feed my fish once a day with pellets. Then about once a week I feed them bloodworm or somthing less common. With fry you need to feed them 3-5 times a day on finely crushed flake or liquifry(sp?). Fish can live fine on flake but there best colours come out when they are feed things that are more like they would eat in the wild.

Hope that helps.

Bucksgill

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

What you are doing with your feeding is fine. Once a day is good with occasional treats fo bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc. Fish can easily go several days without food. As for water changes, most people change 15 to 25 percent every week or 2. It really depends on your filtration and stocking level.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Feeding wise variety is the key. A small pinch of feed once a day that is completely eaten in under a minute is enough. Only feed 6 days a week with one day off for scavenging. Try and feed a different brand of troical pellet / flake on each of your feeding days then once a week feed a frozen food. Frozen blood worm and daphnia are popular as are fish eggs.

Water changes should be done on a weekly basis. Around 20% is fine. I do my gravel vac at the same time as water is removed.

What volume is your tank, as it makes a difference to how much water you are replacing.

With regard to you stocking there are a couple of things you should really look to improve. You have a number of schooling species kept in groups that are too small. The Harlequins and the WCM should both be kept in groups of 5+ but without knowing your volume I don't know if you have room for them.

 

[ghostship]

Feeding wise variety is the key. A small pinch of feed once a day that is completely eaten in under a minute is enough. Only feed 6 days a week with one day off for scavenging. Try and feed a different brand of troical pellet / flake on each of your feeding days then once a week feed a frozen food. Frozen blood worm and daphnia are popular as are fish eggs.

Water changes should be done on a weekly basis. Around 20% is fine. I do my gravel vac at the same time as water is removed.

What volume is your tank, as it makes a difference to how much water you are replacing.

With regard to you stocking there are a couple of things you should really look to improve. You have a number of schooling species kept in groups that are too small. The Harlequins and the WCM should both be kept in groups of 5+ but without knowing your volume I don't know if you have room for them.

thanks, i'll definitely sort that out. it looks to me like there's still plenty of room for new fish in my tank. i'm not sure how to work out the volume but its dimensions are 3ft x 1ft x 1ft...how can i work out the volume from these?

many thanks for the advice!

 

[ollyhtafc]

22 US gallons or 84 litres going by those dimensions.Definately if i were you i'd get some more white clouds, they're a great beginner fish, and one by themselves won't really be happy.

In my opinion too it'd be worth getting a picture of the catfish...many will grow much too big for this tank. (it's not always the case though) and some others will do better in groups.

You also might be interested to know that white cloud's tend to prefer slightly cooler than standard tropical temperatures (mine do well in 18 degrees), they can tolerate higher temperatures but i wouldn't go too high.

 

[ghostship]

i'm pretty much certain he isn't growing anymore. i got all my hardware and a few fish and my original tank (which i have since replaced) from an ebay seller and this catfish was one of these fish, which is why i don't know what he is. i've had him for well over a year and i don't think he's got any bigger in that time. it's hard to get a picture of him as i only really see him when the light's off but then its hard to get a coherent picture without the light on.

my heater is set to 24 degrees and my white cloud seems to be fine (he was also one of these i have had for over a year), wouldn't i be running the risk of the other fish being unwell if i lowered it? 18 seems quite low compared to what is recommended for the other species i have...

thanks for the help with the volume, whats the difference between US and UK gallons?

 

[pifaffle]

i'm pretty much certain he isn't growing anymore. i got all my hardware and a few fish and my original tank (which i have since replaced) from an ebay seller and this catfish was one of these fish, which is why i don't know what he is. i've had him for well over a year and i don't think he's got any bigger in that time. it's hard to get a picture of him as i only really see him when the light's off but then its hard to get a coherent picture without the light on.

my heater is set to 24 degrees and my white cloud seems to be fine (he was also one of these i have had for over a year), wouldn't i be running the risk of the other fish being unwell if i lowered it? 18 seems quite low compared to what is recommended for the other species i have...

thanks for the help with the volume, whats the difference between US and UK gallons?

US Gallons are smaller US Gallons 22 approx = UK Galons 18.3

 

[ollyhtafc]

my heater is set to 24 degrees and my white cloud seems to be fine (he was also one of these i have had for over a year), wouldn't i be running the risk of the other fish being unwell if i lowered it? 18 seems quite low compared to what is recommended for the other species i have...

thanks for the help with the volume, whats the difference between US and UK gallons?

White cloud's will do ok in higher temperatures but they prefer cooler temperatures (white cloud mountain minnows...found in streams apparently in china i think...which gives you an idea of their original climate).The fish will also survive alone but they prefer to be in groups and they're generally much more colourfull and active, mine seem to spend 24 hours a day displaying to each other.
On the basis that all the other fish are tropical with the exceptions of the white clouds i probably wouldn't lower the temperature as you'd be potentially damaging more fish than you'd be benefiting.If that makes sense.

It's upto you though i guess...i'm not an expert by any means...i just have white clouds

 

[Matt_northants]

Your fish will feed quite happily when fed twice a day in the morning half and hour after the lights go on and in the evening half an hour before the lights go off. Flake will keep them in the peak of health as its nutrionaly balanced but most fishkeepers prefer to give their charges a treat, unless your planning on breeding frozen food 2-4 times per week in place of a meal of flake will give you very happy fish.

Your tanks volume is

3ft x 1 ft x 1 ft = 90cm x 30cm x 30cm = 81000 cm3 = 81 l

So IMO its best to do a 8l water change once a week or 20l water change once a fortnight. When you do your water change make sure to vacuum your substrate to ensure you remove any detritus.

 

[waterdrop]

ghostship,

There are web sites like www.onlineconversion.com (and there may be quicker ones) that you can open in another instance of your web browser while reading on fishforums. These let you plug in the numbers and quickly jump back and forth between us gal. uk gal. liters, inches cm mm, F degrees C degrees etc.

waterdrop

 

[waterdrop]

ghostship,

There are web sites like www.onlineconversion.com (and there may be quicker ones) that you can open in another instance of your web browser while reading on fishforums. These let you plug in the numbers and quickly jump back and forth between us gal. uk gal. liters, inches cm mm, F degrees C degrees etc.

waterdrop

Looking back I now realize TFF has the "Aquarium Calculator" sitting right there on the home page which does this stuff for you much faster (or you can have it as another tab in a "tab group" when you open up TFF, sheesh!