Well here I go!

[mollie]

Husband decided against the request of a dog for birthday gift!

Decided on tropical fish. He agreed!

Everybody has an opinion, and has kept fish at one time or another

like Alien Anna's advice, however you don't recommend a particular hardy fish in your cycle thingy. Birthday not until December, but best to select gifts early, don't you agree? We like the look of black, silver and dalmation mollies. Any particular advice on them would be most welcome.

Look forward to talking more with other fishy friends

 

[BettaBoyz]

everyone has opinions, but lot's of them squished together and dosed with your own make real good ideas and advance fishie-care every day!

^^ hardy fishies? -cough- how's about a Betta? they breath top-tank air, so no worries about clogged gills. only problem is if there's too much ammonia the tips of their fins can burn; my boy experienced this and now has blue fins with white and brown burn-bands.

Mollies breed like Guppies, Swordtails and Platties. they're livebearers and can drop fry every 3 (?) weeks. perhaps a male Dalmation, a male Black, two female Blacks, a female Silver and a female Dalmation would be nice. a mix of all three, and perhaps some crossbreeding will occur and you'll get silver polka-dot black Mollies!

 

[Bol]

I'm also a complete newbie, so get a big block of salt , but have done a lot of research in the last two weeks.

The things I've heard mentioned most often as 'hardy' and 'good for cycling' are:

1) Zebra danios (but they will most likely nibble on 'fan tails' of other fish, especially guppies).

2) Platys (platties?). Most of what I've heard makes them seem almost indestructable.

3) Guppies.

4) Swordtails

5) Mollies are also mentioned sometimes, but from what I've learned, mollies prefer a somewhat saltier environment than other community fish.

 

[Alien Anna]

 

[Alien Anna]

The reason I don't recommend hardy fish for cycling is because

a. No fish can be guaranteed to be hardy enough to survive cycling.

b. It's a welfare issue and a fish health issue - the fish may survive cycling, but his immune system may be permanently damaged by the process. I have no doubt at all that fish actually suffer during the cycling process - ammonia and nitrite burn their gills and partially suffocates them.

c. If you use fishless cycling techniques you don't have to be particularly worried about hardiness. I recently helped a newbie set up a tank including rummynosed tetras and marble hatchet fish, both of which cannot tolerate poor water quality, and he's done just fine with them. My first fish included pencilfish which are also not considered beginner fish and are anything but hardy.

d. If you really must cycle with fish (despite the fact that fishless cycling is actually easier and quicker) then the only fish I'd recommend would be danios. But you'd need to start with no more than 2 fish and gradually increase your stock over the next two months. Like I said - it takes a while.

 

[mollie]

) Sorry Anna, i really did read your cycling thing, maybe i'm being thick but how do the bacteria develop if there is no fish pee for them to live off? i'll have to read it again.

bought the tank today but is 1 inch too big for the suggested alcove !!!! So after a lot of moving the living room furniture about it's in the other alcove. the couch and t.v are in the skip!

Thanks to bettaboyz 4 freaking me out about starting up a nursery for mollies, i will have to do more research other than the current sort i do "ooh, they're pretty!" ) Will try harder!

love Mollie (soon to be simple goldfish)

 

[Bol]

Mollie,

The 'source' in fishless cycling is ammonia that you physically add yourself, every day. This, as I understand it, will simulate the waste normally produced by fish.

A word of caution, you'd want 'pure' or 'clear' ammonia for fishless cycling. Depending on your location, it may be somewhat difficult to find. Most 'ammonia' you find in stores (around here, anyway) also has surfactants in it, to make it sudsy. You wouldn't want to add that type of 'ammonia'.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> bought the tank today

That's a shame, the first piece of advice I always give to newcomers to the hobby is buy the absolutely biggest tank you can possibly aford/house. Big tanks are so much easier to look after then small. A slight upset in a big tank is drowned by the sheer volume of water, in a small tank, it can kill the lot.

 

[mollie]

you miss understood i did buy the biggest tank i could get my fins on, the bloody house is too small, will probably move!

mollie x x

 

[MAM]

mollie, don't let livebearers freak you out. if you don't want to deal with babies or worry about rehousing them, either get all females or simply don't worry about the babies when born, just let nature take its course (the adults will mostly likely eat all the babies before you ever even known she's given birth). sounds a little cruel but its perfectly natural and okay. mollies are great fish, so are platys and guppies. yes, they can be hardy (though in my newbie experience, guppys do NOT survive new tank syndrome, so please follow alien annas post and do a fishless cycle, will save you and family the heartache of dead fish and wasted money, will save the fish a lot of uneccessary pain...............)
what size tank did you end up getting?

 

[gadazobe]

Ah, Mollie, a girl after my own heart. I keep telling hubby that we don't realy need the settee - we can just as easily sit on the floor in front of the 6' tank I want to put there instead
Welcome to the fascinating world of fishkeeping. I see you're already addicted - just know that there is no cure for MTS (mutiple tank syndrome) but, on the other hand, you're in excellent company here with us all.
Hope everything goes well, and it will if you follow the advice given by AA and I look forward to reading more of your fishy escapades.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> i did buy the biggest tank i could get my fins on

You show promise Grasshopper!

 

[Sondan]

One thing that I would suggest is don't by "BIG" store fish like Wal-Mart (Even though my wife is a pharmacist there.) I have found big stores like this have a higher rate of diseased fish. I personally like locally owned pet stores that take CARE of their fish. Yes Wally World may be a buck cheaper but their fish die a lot easier (to me). Find a good CLEAN pet store and buy from them. Also if they take time to take good care of their tanks then they probably have taken time to learn about their fish also.
Signed,
Sondan

 

[mollie]

Hi Sondan

Wow, Kansas must be great!!! I only heard of Wall-mart when they bought out a small supermarket chain called asda, and they only sell the sort of fish that go with chips!

We only have lfs so i hope my choice is not limited, but maybe they will treat me nicely when i ask my dumb questions.

Love Mollie x x x

P.S Lateral Line glad i did the right thing, teach me more laterallinesan