Anybody got any tips on tropical fish?

RuneBrush

RuneBrush

New member
I'm currently considering getting myself a fish tank for my house and some tropical freshwater fish - I say contemplating, I've pretty much decided on the tank already ;)

I've never kept fish before, so it's a new venture and I just wondered if anybody here had any tips, as although the Internet is full of useful information, there's nothing quite like personal experience.

pete.
 
cassar

cassar

BALLSCRATCHER
steer clear of black mollys and siamese fighting fish very prone to disease get a good air filter and a sucking loach this will help clean the tank. nice start off fish are neon tetra tiger barbs marble angels and guppies they look nice and bright and they arent too expensive if anything goes belly up if you pardon the pun. get quality gear filters heaters etc.
havent had tropical fish since i was a wee lad of ten so hope my vague help is of some assistance.
 
PegaZus

PegaZus

Stealth Freak
Growing up, we always had the little rectangular tank with an air tube and an under-gravel "waste" collection.

Wouldn't recommend that at all.

Two years ago we got a very large tank for our kids (selves, whatever). Went with an external filtration system. LOVE IT. I believe it was about $50 or so, but it is SO much quieter and easier to keep things clean. Even with a small tank, I'd recommend it.

Fish wise? Tiger barbs could be a bit aggressive. Haven't really had a problem with ours. Guppies are great... until they start breeding and fill the tank with themselves. A few were fine, but then the wife felt sorry for all the babies and put 20 of them in another tank. Ugh. Now she wants me to flush a few down the toilet every time I need to do a funeral. Finally solved that with a couple of angel fish which have grown quite large (started out about the size of a round base, now are larger than a coffee mug). They're absolutely hilarious with their piggy-ness. About the only thing I could really recommend is to get fish that are different colors. We had at one time all orange colored fish, and were really disappointed in that. Now have some blue, grey, and other colors so it's much prettier to look at.

EDIT: And re-reading that last line, think about the fish tank as a painting. Pick the colors and highlights you want, and pick the fish appropriately.
 
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Master of fact

Master of fact

Member
Im a big fish keeper. Get the biggest tank you can afford/fit as fish need space!

Cleaning the tank is easy if you do it weekly (10% water change) and monthly filter clean. When you clean the filter (sponge) DO NOT CLEAN IT IN FRESH WATER use water from the tank this keeps the biological filter that builds up alive.

When you get the tank take it home fit, fill ect. Dont be tempted to put fish in right away. Leave everything running for a week and every morning put a tiny but of fish food in, this should build up the bacteria (good). The water may go cloudy, just leave for a day or 2. When adding fish (the good bit)

Always check the eventual size of the fish as some get monstrous, i had a ghost knife fish cus it looked cool at 2inchs now it is over a foot!

Starter fish

You COULD get a siamese fighting fish as they are awesome to look at and there are many diff colours, if you do they can be mixed with fish such a loaches and female fighter fish (not guppies, horrible dirty nippy critters!) also stay away from Cicilids unless you want a species tank which i also have meet Bob the Malawi cicilid!

29122010057.jpg
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
I've had 55 gallon tank full of mollies. Very easy to maintain.

Later, we went dipping in one of the local ponds and filled if full of minnows we caught. Some very interesting things there indeed.

Now, I've got a 125 gallon tank that takes my bait overflow. Shrimp, finger mullet, pinfish, etc.
It has had a stingray (about 4" across) and a pipefish (looks like a straighened out seahorse).
But the blue crabs are the coolest. Drop in a piece of lunchmeat and they go nuts.
 
JesterzUSMC

JesterzUSMC

Recovering Megalomaniac
Remember that it's 1 gallon per inch of fish.
males has limp bottom fins, females have erect bottom fins...you know, ladies flaunt it....etc.
Good general rule.
 
RuneBrush

RuneBrush

New member
Cheers for all the comments, I knew there would be people here who had more idea than I did!

I've gone for a 36 litre (8 gallon) tank with an external filter as this fits in the space I've got in the living room and shouldn't dominate the area. Have also ordered the gubbinz for the water (forgot the dechlorinator - doh!) including test kits, so with luck should have everything in time to get it cycling this weekend so that the week after Easter I can get some fish. Just need to find a nice table or similar to put it on now!

It's a fairly small tank, but I really like the small breeds of fish (1" long ones) and shrimps, so with luck should work out reasonably well :)

One thing that I'm currently not sure about though is if I need to test for water hardness? I live in a medium to hard water area, but my main kitchen tap has a water softener on it, and any water I put in the kettle goes into a britta water filter.

p.
 
Master of fact

Master of fact

Member
Hardness can be a factor but for the type of fish you will get (1 inch kind) are pretty hardy so you could just use tap water, heck i do.
 
JesterzUSMC

JesterzUSMC

Recovering Megalomaniac
RuneBrush said:
One thing that I'm currently not sure about though is if I need to test for water hardness? I live in a medium to hard water area, but my main kitchen tap has a water softener on it, and any water I put in the kettle goes into a brita water filter.
p.
Click to expand...

If there's a Petco or Petsmart close by, they test your water and can help you make any arrangements to make it perfect.
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
8 gallon is hard to maintain.
The ammonia cycle fluctuates so crazy.

The larger the tank, the easier it is to care for.

with 8 gallons, I'd use:
1 corey cat (bottom feeder - keep the excess food vacuumed)
1 small pleco (sucker fish to keep the glass clean)
10 neons or cardinals
1 male beta if he is smart enough to realize the neons are not a threat.

Don't change more than 1 gallon per week. Get a tank vac (siphon tube). Poke it down in the gravel and let all the stuff come up through it. Don't try to do all of the tank in a week - a quarter is fine.

Add the fish slowly. Start with the cat and a few neons.
After the algae starts, then the pleco.

I'd put the Beta in last and watch him. I had one that thought male guppies were betas and he'd kill them.

YMMV
 
RuneBrush

RuneBrush

New member
JesterzUSMC said:
If there's a Petco or Petsmart close by, they test your water and can help you make any arrangements to make it perfect.
Click to expand...

Sadly not. We do have a tropical fish shop in town but that's it within walking distance. I'm getting most of the equipment off the good old internet, but will get fish from a large garden centre about 20 minutes away which has a very well stocked aquatic & reptile centre within the grounds when my better half is over again in a couple of weeks.


airhead said:
8 gallon is hard to maintain.
The ammonia cycle fluctuates so crazy.

The larger the tank, the easier it is to care for.

with 8 gallons, I'd use:
1 corey cat (bottom feeder - keep the excess food vacuumed)
1 small pleco (sucker fish to keep the glass clean)
10 neons or cardinals
1 male beta if he is smart enough to realize the neons are not a threat.

Don't change more than 1 gallon per week. Get a tank vac (siphon tube). Poke it down in the gravel and let all the stuff come up through it. Don't try to do all of the tank in a week - a quarter is fine.

Add the fish slowly. Start with the cat and a few neons.
After the algae starts, then the pleco.

I'd put the Beta in last and watch him. I had one that thought male guppies were betas and he'd kill them.

YMMV
Click to expand...
Cool, thanks for the info! One thing that has just dawned on me is that it's 8 UK gallons - which is just shy of 10 US gallons. I know it's going to be a bit of a bugger to maintain, sadly my original plan was to have a large tank hung on the wall (saw them at the Gadget Show Live last year), but that idea was scuppered because all of the walls in my house are stud partitioned so I would have had to knock holes through the plasterboard to get access too solid brick - which I felt was a little mental :D My little bit of research had said to use a syphon and change around 10% - which with your knowledge sounds a done deal!

Going to write down all of the fish suggestions before we head to buy anything and see what they have.

p.
 
RuneBrush

RuneBrush

New member
Another random question - should I be thinking about putting in live plants? Somebody in the office just turned round and said so are you going to put castles and bubbly rocks and plants in, to which I looked at them blankly as I'd not thought about it :D
 
Master of fact

Master of fact

Member
Planted tanks look amazing, even a bit of java fern tied to rock looks really nice. Betta's are cool fish, i had 2 but had a glass partition in the tank.

PS if you see a gorgeous orange and black fish called a clown loach dont get him, they are nice fish that GROW to over foot, i know i have 15 of them :)
 
cassar

cassar

BALLSCRATCHER
Master of fact said:
Planted tanks look amazing, even a bit of java fern tied to rock looks really nice. Betta's are cool fish, i had 2 but had a glass partition in the tank.

PS if you see a gorgeous orange and black fish called a clown loach dont get him, they are nice fish that GROW to over foot, i know i have 15 of them :)
Click to expand...
where do you live again? sea world! lol by the way thought bob didnt like you lol
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
malt vinegar - yes... unless it is fresh.. then marinate a couple of hours in a gallon zip lock.
Marinate:
1/2 cup olive oil (or drawn butter if your arteries can stand it)
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 white wine

Cook over coals about 10-15 minutes.

7-31dinner.jpg
 
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