Fish Tanks

[Lloyd90]

Anyone got one? What fish do you have?

 

Got a strong suspicion the gf has gone me one for my birthday (I've been peaking in the cupboards ) lol!

 

I really enjoyed the tank her friend got a few weeks back and enjoying seeing the fish, hoping to get a Siamese fighting fish in there

[Dougy]

Can be time consuming. Siamese fighting fish are nice to look at but can loose all the nice fins if they get the smallest of infections. Plus fin nippers will have a field day.

They can also be very therapeutic.

[manthing]

We have a midsize I suppose you'd call it,2ft long x 14" deep and 18". Have 6 small cold water fish in there and 2 decentish shuns.

Very relaxing to watch them floating about

[TaxiDriver]

It's worth checking your local water type ie hard/soft,

You can buy simple test kits at aquatic shops or most helpful shops will test it for you cheaply enough.

From there you can rule out unsuitable fish (those with more specific requirements in either ph or hardness)

 

For good effect a couple of shoals of small tetras will have plenty of movement and colour as they're always on the move,

Be warned though, it's like guns, Ones never enough for long. At one point I had 72 tanks ranging from 2ft X 2ft upto 6' x 2' X 2'

Edited February 9, 2017 by TaxiDriver

[Dougy]

Very relaxing to watch them floating about

 

Are they dead

 

I find the ones that I had that floated about were brown bread.

The healthy ones were still swimming about.

[Lloyd90]

Are they dead

 

I find the ones that I had that floated about were brown bread.

The healthy ones were still swimming about.

😂😂

 

Yes very nice to sit and watch them, her friend had some guppies I think.

 

Anyone know any real nice looking ones that live well together?

[TaxiDriver]

Yes very nice to sit and watch them, her friend had some guppies I think.

Anyone know any real nice looking ones that live well together?

Guppies, most small tetras eg Neons, Serpae tetras, lemon tetras, in shoals of 6-12, smal Angels (50p sized)

Some barbs (NOT Tiger barbs)

 

If your water is hard with higher ph then platies, mollies, guppies will do well.

[toxo]

Match the fish to the hardness of the water. If it takes a while to rinse the slimy feeling off your hands you have soft water - below ph 7.

 

Don't get neons, tetras or other, they die easily. If you want easy colour go for Guppies.

 

Siamese fight. If you put two males in you'll soon only have one.

 

If you want the best from a tank just put in one pair of almost any species. Watching them gear up to breed and the raising the young will give hours of pleasure. Not many will breed in a community tank.

 

If a small tank, maybe dwarf Gouramis. Watch them build a bubble nest in 8 inches of water and raise the fry. You get a headache trying to see the first born fry mind.

 

Mouthbrooders like Tilapia Mozambique are facinating. He's like a JCB when scooping out breeding sites. A month later ish she'll open her mouth and a swarm of babies come out like a cloud. Any sign of danger and she'll hoover them all up again.

 

A single pair of Angel fish are easy to keep and will give you a lead in to the king of tropical fish, Discus for when you're more experienced.

 

If hard water, a colourful tank compromise could be Malawi Cichlids from Lake Malawi in Africa. They are territorial and you can set up a tank with lots of small caves etc.

 

Keep us informed.

 

atb.

[Fifegun]

I used to have a large mixed community fish tank their alot of work far better than watching TV, Moved on to keeping koi carp a good few years ago so have a large pond now.

Cheers Alec

[Lloyd90]

I'm in Bristol, we get scales in the kettle and water so assuming it's hard water?

[TaxiDriver]

I'm in Bristol, we get scales in the kettle and water so assuming it's hard water?

Suggests it would be hard and alkaline rather than softer and more acidic (but testing will give accurate measure) Your aquatic shop will be able to tell you what he stocks/sells that'll do well in the local water.

Many tetras are quite tolerant as they're often farmed rather than wild caught, but guppies, platies, swordtails come to mind should do well, mollies can do well if waters very hard/alkaline, maybe with a little additional salt.

[Grazy]

It's a great hobby to have. I've had tanks since I was 6 and over the years had everything from simple goldfish, to community tanks, tiger oscars and mixed chiclids tanks as well as a 6ft tank with 20 piranhas. They do take up a lot of time in maintenance, which I why I sadly no longer have one. Find a local shop and get a good relationship with the,, as it make everything a lot easier.

[digger]

I have a 20 litre cold tank with four non descript fish. They are utter cowards, had them six months and they never show themselves except at food time. One may swim three inches then hides if I move a finger. When my daughter is here they swim about like normal fish.

It's not nice having pets that don't like you.

[Winston72]

I am speechless guys, i had no idea so many people were into fish

[toxo]

It's a great hobby to have. I've had tanks since I was 6 and over the years had everything from simple goldfish, to community tanks, tiger oscars and mixed chiclids tanks as well as a 6ft tank with 20 piranhas. They do take up a lot of time in maintenance, which I why I sadly no longer have one. Find a local shop and get a good relationship with the,, as it make everything a lot easier.

 

Reminded me of a time, many years ago when I had Oscars. They were about 8 inches.

My uncle came to visit with his young son and I offered to let the boy feed the fish with some strips of ham. He declined, clearly frightened and no amount of cajoling from his father would change his mind. Eventually he said to the boy "They won't hurt you son. Look I'll show you" and dangled some ham in the water. He turned to the boy and said "See! They won't hurt you". One of the Oscars bit him and he actually screamed and jumped a foot up in the air.I wish I had videoed it. Took me half an hour to stop laughing. I've got tears in my eyes whilst writing this.

[SuperGoose75]

We have two Musk terrapins for the kids 'Donatello and Michelangelo' aka Mickey and Donnie and a few months back I spent around £20 on tropical fish Guppies ect. It was more for adding interest for the terrapins and I didn't care if they ate them or not. They were pretty to look at but all died in a space of a couple of weeks. The tank has water heater,filter and lamp for the terrapins and I also put in water conditioner.

I don't know if the terra's snapped at them or not but they would not eat them as I left them out on the tray to see if they would.

Thinking about getting a few basic Gold fish soon to add interest.

[toxo]

We have two Musk terrapins for the kids 'Donatello and Michelangelo' aka Mickey and Donnie and a few months back I spent around £20 on tropical fish Guppies ect. It was more for adding interest for the terrapins and I didn't care if they ate them or not. They were pretty to look at but all died in a space of a couple of weeks. The tank has water heater,filter and lamp for the terrapins and I also put in water conditioner.

I don't know if the terra's snapped at them or not but they would not eat them as I left them out on the tray to see if they would.

Thinking about getting a few basic Gold fish soon to add interest.

I don't know too much about Terrapins/turtles but I do know they can be very toxic. They can carry bad bacteria. Google is your friend.

[loriusgarrulus]

I have a 400l corner tank set up with an island at the back for basking for 2 musk turtle and a small male false map. They have guppies and corydoras catfish in with them and are all fine.

With turtles in you need a much bigger filter than you would for a fish only tank and more regular water changes.

The bacteria they can carry is salmonella, so not good childrens pets.

 

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Edited February 10, 2017 by loriusgarrulus

[kyska]

Hi,

 

This is the Jewel tank in the animal unit i manage, we also have a 45,000 litre Koi pond, we use this for water chemistry and habitat maintenance teaching, if you need any help, just ask!

[Snoozer]

If your a first time Aquarium owner make sure you cycle the tank properly before introducing Fish.

[Lloyd90]

If your a first time Aquarium owner make sure you cycle the tank properly before introducing Fish.

Apologies but I don't know what that is 😂

 

I'm glad I'm asking though because I intend to know what I'm doing (atleast somewhat) before I get any fish.

[kyska]

Apologies but I don't know what that is 😂

 

I'm glad I'm asking though because I intend to know what I'm doing (atleast somewhat) before I get any fish.

You'll need to make sure your water chemistry is right, that the ammonia is being broken down effectively by the filter system.

 

Then put a couple of sacrificial fish in and they will really start the nitrogen cycle going

[arm3000gt]

Fish keeping can be as expensive or cheap as you want. I had a marine tank a few years ago and I still miss it. I could spend hours watching the creatures and fish, then spend a few more running tests etc. I would love to set one up again but the costs rapidly increase as the size of he tank increases.

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by arm3000gt

[Bigbob]

I used to have a four foot tank at the top of the stairs in the old house full of different cold water fish when somebody went to the toilet and didn't come back you found them sitting on the stairs watching the fish

[peek-at]

I've kept fish since I was a kid and ended up spending a lot of money on a custom made marine set up.

It seems that you are just starting out and so should stick to easy to keep/hardy/cheap fish.

As some have already said, Guppies are an ideal starting point as they can live in a muddy puddle and come

in various colours. Get a mix of types and watch them breed and their young will also vary to their parents.

(its the males with the colour and females are drab)

mollies & Platties will also be easy to keep. Bronze catfish will eat rubbish from the tank and loaches will also help

Avoid siamese fighting fish. Again the colourful ones are male & you can only have one male as they will kill eachother.

 

Your tank - you will need adequate filtration

you can get external canister filters where your water is pumped out of the tank, filtered and pumped back in. However, I would recommend using and undergravel filter which is a plastic perforated sheet that sits on the base of your empty tank. Your gravel is then put on top to a depth of a couple of inches or so. At either end there is an outlet tube onto which you can fit a small powerhead which has an impeller inside and draws the water up the tube and into the tank. The gravel is the filter medium so will on occasion will need to be cleaned which is an easy process with a gravel syphon tube.

 

Water Chemistry - there is a lot of test kits which you can get for nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, general hardness, pH level. Your head will spin if you try and take on all of this from the start and you dont need to. Your PH is ideally kept neutral (not alkaline or acid) and if your Nitrate levels are kept under control your will be fine with the type of fish mentioned above. You might want to get test kits to monitor these but the usual remedy for rising levels is a clean and a water change, so if you do these regularly anyway you should not run into much trouble. Do not overfeed as this is just leads to more waste in your tank

 

Bio Cycle - this is just the natural build up of the right bacteria in your gravel that filters your water and breaks down waste. These can be introduced to your tank with a culture which you can buy at your aquarium shop (follow instructions) or you can do it naturally by introducing a few (not many) fish to the tank. Their waste will kick start natural bacteria to start things off but this will take more time and there is a chance for pollutants to build up as they are not being broken down efficiently to start with. Hence only using a few fish before properly stocking up.

 

Lighting - ask your shop about lighting tubes for your tank. You can get flourescent tubes with various light wavelengths which will show off the colours in your fish to their best.

 

Heat - the fish mentioned above are tropical freshwater fish so you will need an adequate sized heater for the size of your tank

 

Algae - you can get algae cleaners (two magnets which sandwich the glass) and you can clean off algae without getting your hands wet or you can get simple scrubbing pads on a stick.

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by peek-at