Archived message board.
Just General Advice for a beginner
Badmans Tropical Fish Message Center: archive:
Just General Advice for a beginner
|
Anonymous
|
Thursday,
July 19, 2001 - 02:31 pm
I have a 30 gallon tank which is lightly planted with no
decorations. I have 12 neons, 12 guppies, 2 platies, 2 sailfin
mollies, 1 Red Tailed Black Shark, 6 Harlequin, 6 Rummy-nosed
Tetras, 2 Black Widows, 4 Bristlenosed Catfish, 2 clown
loaches, 1 rainbow shark and 2 baby guppies.
Any advice on maintaining my tank. I do regular water changes
and a very large oxygen pump. My LFS has also offered to
take back any fish I wish or need to return.
|
|
Anonymous
|
Thursday,
July 19, 2001 - 02:32 pm
I meant I HAVE a very large oxygen supply AND PUMP.
Sorry...thanks.
|
|
Anonymous
|
Friday,
July 20, 2001 - 02:49 am
holy!...that's quite a tank and combo there..just a
bit crowded I believe...noticed any signs of stress in there?..
|
|
joycedonley
|
Friday,
July 20, 2001 - 07:33 am
You definately have too many fish in your tank. What do
you mean by an oxygen pump? A filter is needed to cycle
a tank and provide good bacteria to absorb your fish and
food waste. If all you have is oxygen from an airstone or
such and no filter you will soon have dead fish. I would
suggest purchasing a good test kit and testing your tank
for ammonia, nitrate, etc. You need to find out very soon
if these levels are approaching a critical point.
|
|
Kick
|
Saturday,
July 21, 2001 - 10:18 am
Whoa! You and Tina must shop at the same place. Instead
of retyping things, check out post of Ick on the disease
section. You have this tank way overstocked, and if it is
new, and you are not very careful, you will soon have a
tank full of dead fish.
There is more to keeping fish than just setting up a tank
and throwing a bunch of fish in. And I, along with Joyce,
are not quite sure of what you are talking about when you
say "large oxygen pump". An oxygen supply is needed,
but you also need some type of mechanical and biological
filtration. If this tank is sparsely planted, you are soon
going to see an overabundance of algae as there is too much
waste for the plants to handle and the algae will soon appear
to take advantage of it.
Check out the main site of Badmans and start reading.....when
you have finished there keep looking for more information.
There is not enough space here to tell you all you need
to know about being successful at this hobby.
I don't mean to be rude or to scare you off the site,
but I wish people would think and ask before they "do"
not "do" and then start searching for the correct
way to do things. The fish deserve more respect than the
LPS's are giving them for selling you (and others)
so many fish with no guidance whatsoever!!
|
|
joycedonley
|
Saturday,
July 21, 2001 - 07:13 pm
I just spent half an hour explaining to a novice fish keeper
how to help with her sisters 75gal new tank. I showed her
a python, told her what fish to not keep, what fish were
hardy, not to put bettas in 75 gal tanks with other fish,
not to get angels with tiger barbs,to stay away from African
mbuna when starting out, to wait until the tank cycles before
adding lots of fish etc,etc...this was while the store's
fish guy sat on the floor with his mouth open. I think all
he did was say so what fish do you want? It's a wonder
anyone can start a tank sucessfully following advice from
todays LFS stores.
|
|
Anonymous
|
Saturday,
August 04, 2001 - 11:48 am
sorry, i wasnt very clear. i do have a wet/dry filter. what
i meant was that i have a powerful air pump attached to
it. the filter itself is strong and thorough. one or two
of my fish have begun to die (2 guppies and a black
widow) and i wonder if it is due to overcrowding. as
i said my lfs have offered to take my fish back and so i
intend to confront them on the matter. any advice on which
fish to return? i think perhaps my mollies are an option.
but as an answer to the first reply, no...myfish show no
signs of discomfort as of yet, apart from the few deaths.
|
|
joycedonley
|
Saturday,
August 04, 2001 - 04:58 pm
Your RT shark may look neat but he will probably bully some
of your small fish and eat baby guppies. The mollies definately
need salt, but the tetra won't like it at all. Neons
are very hard to keep and I am suprised if they haven't
died in a new uncycled tank.I have no idea what a black
widow is??? Anyways either go with tetra or go with the
hardwater, salt loving fish like guppies and mollies. Mixing
the two is a bad idea.Kick or someone else will have to
comment on your loaches, I have never kept them. I also
think 4 bristlenose catfish is way to many 2 would be better.
They get 5 inches!
|
|
Anonymous
|
Sunday,
August 05, 2001 - 05:28 am
thanks joyce,
i have returned my shark as he was being a bully with everyone
and i think i shall return my mollies. i do have a cycled
tank, i probably just have been a bit unclear about explaining
this. my fish shop say they will swap my bristle-nosed cat's
for littlies when they get too big, and they will also swap
my loaches as they get pretty big too. so far my rummynoseds'
have been the easiest to care for, along with my neons.
a black widow looks a bit like a bleeding-heart tetra but
smaller and it has a clear caudal fin, a jet black anal
and dorsal fin and two stripes over each side of its body.
it's body itself is kinda silver, and it has a little
black eye.
thanks so much for the advice
|
|
Anonymous
|
Sunday,
August 05, 2001 - 05:32 am
i'm not trying to be rude myself or anything but are
u.s. gallons any smaller/larger than u.k. gallons (cos
i'm from newton aycliffe, county durham, england).
just wondering... thanks so much for your help, i really
appreciate you advice.
|
|
joycedonley
|
Sunday,
August 05, 2001 - 09:16 am
If you know how to convert in liters there are 3.78 liters
in a US gallon. There are 128 fl oz in a US gallon. I cheated
and looked on a container of HI C drink!! Yes I think you
should return the mollies as they need the salt to stay
healthy. At one LFS store here they won't sell mollies
unless you will add salt to the water. Tetra don't like
salt. I have some African red eyed tetra that cycled my
first tank and are now about five years old. Except for
neons/cardinals tetra are pretty hardy fish and usually
live quite awhile. Livebears (mollies, guppies, swords)don't
live as long.
|
|
Anonymous
|
Sunday,
September 02, 2001 - 11:53 pm
Are there any hardy, pretty fish which can be kept in a
setup that has a filter, but don't need the temperature
to be regulated painstakingly? I know that goldfish are
suitable, but they are so dirty--that is to say they are
big poopers.
Thank you.
|
|
joycedonley
|
Monday,
September 03, 2001 - 11:35 am
White cloud mountain minnows will do fine in a ten gallon
tank and prefer cooler water. You should keep them in a
small school.
|
|
|
