anyone here with tropical fish
- Thread starter ^TANK^
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 9,637
- Location
- Xbox Live
My advice is to buy the biggest money money can buy. This includes Tank, hood, lighting, filter, gravel, heater, declorinator, cleaning tools and decorations.
Wash the gravel very very thouraly use a sive 2 buckets and a sink. cover the bottom of one bucket in gravel add water and swirl around visicously with your hands. Pour out water through sive into sink. Rince repeat until water going down sink is clear. Trancfer gravel to other bucket. Continue until enough gravel clean.
put the gravel filter and heater in the tank. Add water (declorinate it) turn on electrics once submerged.
Leave for 2 weeks to a month.
buy a few small hardy cheap fish eg neon tetras let them swim about in happyness for about a month
add a few more cheap fish.
keep adding more fish until you reach the magic total of 1inch of fish body (not incuding tail) for every square foot of surface area.
Once you start adding fish make 2 water changes a week until about 1- 2 months after you stop adding fish when you can reduce this to once a week and then possibly less depending on capacity.
Wash the gravel very very thouraly use a sive 2 buckets and a sink. cover the bottom of one bucket in gravel add water and swirl around visicously with your hands. Pour out water through sive into sink. Rince repeat until water going down sink is clear. Trancfer gravel to other bucket. Continue until enough gravel clean.
put the gravel filter and heater in the tank. Add water (declorinate it) turn on electrics once submerged.
Leave for 2 weeks to a month.
buy a few small hardy cheap fish eg neon tetras let them swim about in happyness for about a month
add a few more cheap fish.
keep adding more fish until you reach the magic total of 1inch of fish body (not incuding tail) for every square foot of surface area.
Once you start adding fish make 2 water changes a week until about 1- 2 months after you stop adding fish when you can reduce this to once a week and then possibly less depending on capacity.
Damn right - place some Neons in a tank with two adult Oscars, and watch them disappear over night!penski said:
That was an accident of my Dad's, placing Neon's in the same tank as the Oscars - he just wanted to add a little bit of colour!
I fed mine with goldfish (kept in a seperate tank [which also had a quarantine tank] for at least a month before feeding time) back in t'day.
My cousin asked if he could feed the Oscars. I told him "Just one".
I turned my back, he grabbed a net, picked up an Oscar and dropped it in the goldfish tank.
I heard sloshing water and *WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!* noises and by the time I'd walked about 20 feet, it had polished off two dozen goldfish.
It was sitting in the middle of the tank, facing me, looking like the cat that got the cream, surrounded by thousands of floating goldfish scales.
Biggun was about 11" long and nearly 2" thick.
Littlun was 8" long and 1.25" thick.
*n
My cousin asked if he could feed the Oscars. I told him "Just one".
I turned my back, he grabbed a net, picked up an Oscar and dropped it in the goldfish tank.
I heard sloshing water and *WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!* noises and by the time I'd walked about 20 feet, it had polished off two dozen goldfish.
It was sitting in the middle of the tank, facing me, looking like the cat that got the cream, surrounded by thousands of floating goldfish scales.
Biggun was about 11" long and nearly 2" thick.
Littlun was 8" long and 1.25" thick.
*n
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 9,637
- Location
- Xbox Live
penski said:
10- 25% twice a week.
Generally I just do a gravel clean and once there is no filth coming out of the gravel then I am done. If I haven't done a water change in a long long time (very naughty) then I can take out as much as 200% water (had to refill the tank twice before gravel was clean)
But by doing it regularly the gravel remains tip top and the water is crysital clear
basmic said:Damn right - place some Neons in a tank with two adult Oscars, and watch them disappear over night!
That was an accident of my Dad's, placing Neon's in the same tank as the Oscars - he just wanted to add a little bit of colour!
lol yeah there bleeders will eat smaller fish , but so do blood parrot fish they eat my clown fish :/
I had a 4ft setup with mbuna (lake malawi/tanganyika cichlids) and they are the most interesting fish you can keep (imho) as they have all types of breeding and eating. I kept the mouth-brooders and it was great seeing the fry (baby fish) popping in and out of their mum's mouths. Sold quite a few to pet-shops.
Also had a 4ft S, American setup that was colourful too - hatchetfish, 2 schools of tetras, 3 discus, a scool of panda's and some frogs.
My advice would be to buy the largest tank you can afford, and Juwel do good complete setups. A 4ft with cabinet is around £300 online. Use tetra's when aclimitising the tank (black neons are better than ordinary ones for this) about 2 weeksa after you've added the plants and water. And don't do the classic and over-stock like most new-comers.
Also had a 4ft S, American setup that was colourful too - hatchetfish, 2 schools of tetras, 3 discus, a scool of panda's and some frogs.
My advice would be to buy the largest tank you can afford, and Juwel do good complete setups. A 4ft with cabinet is around £300 online. Use tetra's when aclimitising the tank (black neons are better than ordinary ones for this) about 2 weeksa after you've added the plants and water. And don't do the classic and over-stock like most new-comers.
Add me to the list of juwel lovers! Awesome tanks, very easy to maintain and they look good, just nice and plain. Hate all this tacky looking tanks that detract attention from whats inside them.
I used to keep tropicals, had some great fish. If you go tropical then you have to get some clown loach, at least 3, they are great fun. I also had an elephant nose they look cool with their 'trunks', not a beginner fish, they are quite fussy.
I agree with the getting the 'biggest and best-est' you can afford, makes it much easier in the long run, no point buying a small tank as you will only end up longin to get a bigger one, and upgrading fish tanks it not easy, lol.
Desperate to start keeping fish again, had to give my tank and its contents to my dad when I went to uni, and now I live in a rented apartment and so a big old fish tank is not a great idea
Keep us posted on how you get on and fire any questions this way.
I used to keep tropicals, had some great fish. If you go tropical then you have to get some clown loach, at least 3, they are great fun. I also had an elephant nose they look cool with their 'trunks', not a beginner fish, they are quite fussy.
I agree with the getting the 'biggest and best-est' you can afford, makes it much easier in the long run, no point buying a small tank as you will only end up longin to get a bigger one, and upgrading fish tanks it not easy, lol.
Desperate to start keeping fish again, had to give my tank and its contents to my dad when I went to uni, and now I live in a rented apartment and so a big old fish tank is not a great idea
Keep us posted on how you get on and fire any questions this way.
Try and get the biggest tank possible, its far easier to maintain. Any mistakes and there is a lot more water to dilute it.
I would go for one of the rena tanks instead of jewel since the built quality is far higher and they actually look nicer.
Buy a set of test kits, they cost less than £20 for a set and you will know exactly whats going on. I would change 10% of the water every 2 weeks.
I have had tropical fish for years and now im moving up to marine
I would go for one of the rena tanks instead of jewel since the built quality is far higher and they actually look nicer.
Buy a set of test kits, they cost less than £20 for a set and you will know exactly whats going on. I would change 10% of the water every 2 weeks.
I have had tropical fish for years and now im moving up to marine
I used fish - SAE (siamese algae eaters) are the undisputed best fish for this. Shrimps are good too. I can't comment on chemicals, as I steered away from these, in favour of biological control. I think UV filters would combat it to, but never used them, so can't really comment.
weeble said:
I always found i got green algae growing in mats on the gravel which the SAE and other fish wouldnt eat. I spent all my time getting rid of it by hand. Also for removing algae from the glass you can buy magnetic things where you move the outside part and the inside part moves with it removing the algae. Only took 2 minutes to clean a 3 foot tank.
I had quite a few tropical fish in my tank for a few years. I had to let the tank empty naturally for the last year though as i was going to uni. When I finish i will almost certainly stock the tank again though. My favorite fish was the siamese fighting fish, one male and a female in a tank full of tetras and other small fish. The siamese male is really colourful and completly dosile if you dont stick it with other male fighters.
One of the pet shops in my town used to have a tank full of red bellied piranah!
I really wanted some.