All i'll say is that after being in your position a few months ago, don't under estimate the effort and diligence you have to put into keeping fish, it's not the hands off experience we were expecting for our sons first pet.
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Your current Fish tank Setups!
- Thread starter Malt_Vinegar
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Thanks. Where did you end up going to get the fish and tank. I'm that might be a useful starting point for us, to visit a few times and then make the choice and decision.All i'll say is that after being in your position a few months ago, don't under estimate the effort and diligence you have to put into keeping fish, it's not the hands off experience we were expecting for our sons first pet.
I just went to a local fish shop and picked up the bits and pieces needed there. We went with a simple 60 litre tank for guppies - however if you search my posts in this thread, you'll see I had some starter issues including losing 4 of the 5 initial fish. Also I say simple but the tank, filter, heater, lamp, substrate, fish, food, plants, tap water chemicals, bacteria and so on was easily over £200.
However a couple of months on, surviving fish is doing well with a load of babies and i've learnt quite a bit more.
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Man of Honour
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Coral has opened fully for the first time
Yikes. This is an expensive hobby!My list of tangs for the new build, not sure if i can afford all of these but would like a few, have one yellow tang already £45 it cost me, they sell for £250 now.
Tell me about it, i could have a nice Porsche sitting outside the house if i didn't get into marines
Man of Honour
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Fishing/export ban on yellow tanks. Shame as I really wanted one. May get a blue tang.
Sits better when your employer pays for it though
Sits better when your employer pays for it though
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my LFS are holding 3 at the moment for me, unless someone comes in and buys the lot.
Who told me the snail eggs wouldn't hatch on here, i've counted at least another 7 baby snails around the tank this morning
Also, we have 20+ new baby guppies, the remaining female definitely got herself pregnant again retaining sperm as there are no other males in the tank.
This takes us up to 1 full grown guppy, 15 juveniles and 20+ babies, going to have to give some away.
Also, we have 20+ new baby guppies, the remaining female definitely got herself pregnant again retaining sperm as there are no other males in the tank.
This takes us up to 1 full grown guppy, 15 juveniles and 20+ babies, going to have to give some away.
Nerite snails shouldn’t breed in fresh water, they need brackish water (salty between fresh and ocean water) to breed. They lay those hard egg’s everywhere but they shouldn’t hatch.
Pretty sure you said you also had pest snails and I said to nuke them from orbit immediately or they’ll breed and you’ll have loads in no time. Once they take hold they are pretty hard to get rid of without consequences.
So are they nerite snails or common pest snails? The advice makes a huge difference depending on which.
A large explosion of pest snails can indicate over feeding but you have fry so reducing food is easier said than done if you want them to live.
It’s also time to start finding someone to take some guppies off your hands, your tank will get overwhelmed with fish in no time. Fish stores do take them but don’t expect much for them.
Some people use larger fish as predators to deal with the fry when they arrive every few weeks. You might find that the adult hippies do that themselves once they are mature. It depends what you want really.
Pretty sure you said you also had pest snails and I said to nuke them from orbit immediately or they’ll breed and you’ll have loads in no time. Once they take hold they are pretty hard to get rid of without consequences.
So are they nerite snails or common pest snails? The advice makes a huge difference depending on which.
A large explosion of pest snails can indicate over feeding but you have fry so reducing food is easier said than done if you want them to live.
It’s also time to start finding someone to take some guppies off your hands, your tank will get overwhelmed with fish in no time. Fish stores do take them but don’t expect much for them.
Some people use larger fish as predators to deal with the fry when they arrive every few weeks. You might find that the adult hippies do that themselves once they are mature. It depends what you want really.
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Finally back in the thread I created many years ago, with a new tank 
My Daughter had a small tank in the playroom. It was just a circa 50L that was not really very well setup, so after moving house, we decided to get something a little nicer, as the room also doubles as a guest room. I needed no excuses to get something new going!!
Found an 80 litre locally, and went to grab it.
Decided to go sand based, planted, with bogwood, and reused a lot of this from the old tank. We also wanted to see if we can get some plants growing aquatically, out of the top of the tank, and this design was going to work nicely:
I have 3d Printed some plant baskets that hook into the rim of the tank, and dangle the roots into the water. As well as planting some fast growing stuff in the sand.
So far the plants are enjoying the environment, and the fish are doing ok. We have 3 swordtails, and also 6 Rummy Nose Tetra. Currently running a new Fluval 207, with some matured filter media.
I also 3d printed some light risers for the tank to bring the light further away from the plants, as they were starting to brush the bottom of the lens.
Tank top detail:
You can see some of the baskets, the light for the fish, and plant varieties
The business end:
Not happy with the cylinder planter at the back, so will design/print something a little shorter to keep the roots only in the water, like the others!
My Daughter had a small tank in the playroom. It was just a circa 50L that was not really very well setup, so after moving house, we decided to get something a little nicer, as the room also doubles as a guest room. I needed no excuses to get something new going!!
Found an 80 litre locally, and went to grab it.
Decided to go sand based, planted, with bogwood, and reused a lot of this from the old tank. We also wanted to see if we can get some plants growing aquatically, out of the top of the tank, and this design was going to work nicely:
I have 3d Printed some plant baskets that hook into the rim of the tank, and dangle the roots into the water. As well as planting some fast growing stuff in the sand.
So far the plants are enjoying the environment, and the fish are doing ok. We have 3 swordtails, and also 6 Rummy Nose Tetra. Currently running a new Fluval 207, with some matured filter media.
I also 3d printed some light risers for the tank to bring the light further away from the plants, as they were starting to brush the bottom of the lens.
Tank top detail:
You can see some of the baskets, the light for the fish, and plant varieties
The business end:
Not happy with the cylinder planter at the back, so will design/print something a little shorter to keep the roots only in the water, like the others!
I was only posting tongue in cheek about the breeding
I guess I misidentified them - I assumed their species I was down to a single snail 10 days ago after an over-zealous water change and I thought that was that, guess it's just pest snails but my god, they are everywhere all of a sudden - just counted 10.
My boss is adamant that he got snails in his tank from fish food, said the food can contain snail eggs on occasion, does that seem likely?
I'm happy to give them away if anyone else wants them, will put some adverts on local facebook for any takers. With regards capacity I believe I should be aiming for 1 fish per 5 litres or thereabouts?
Ok, my pest snails were bladder snails and between my post early last week and yesterday, they got out of control. While I was told here clearly to get rid, I never really appreciated how fast they could become an issue.
Spent well over 2 hours yesterday finding as many snails as I could in the tank, checking ornaments, substrate and plants and removing them, count below was circa 50 snails - this morning, already found another 9 snails, albeit very small.
Off to get some assassin snails shortly, should hopefully keep things in check.
Spent well over 2 hours yesterday finding as many snails as I could in the tank, checking ornaments, substrate and plants and removing them, count below was circa 50 snails - this morning, already found another 9 snails, albeit very small.
Off to get some assassin snails shortly, should hopefully keep things in check.
Man of Honour
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My fish tank guy was away this week, so I’ve been on my own. Of course with our current weather the auto top up water has fallen significantly and we haven’t installed a 25L reserve yet. So I had to go pick up water to top it up, having also bought the worlds leakiest 25L jeri can.
Then ended up with an outbreak of what I now know is Aiptasia. We’ll add some peppermint shrimp shortly to take care of it.
Hoping to install the auto feeder this week and I think more coral.
I’ve also requested £4K for our next tank. Fingers crossed. We’ve found a custom tank builder in London and have plans for plants, fish, waterfalls, terrapins in a 5ft or so tank that also includes a basking area.
Then ended up with an outbreak of what I now know is Aiptasia. We’ll add some peppermint shrimp shortly to take care of it.
Hoping to install the auto feeder this week and I think more coral.
I’ve also requested £4K for our next tank. Fingers crossed. We’ve found a custom tank builder in London and have plans for plants, fish, waterfalls, terrapins in a 5ft or so tank that also includes a basking area.
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Good work, I do totally feel your pain. I’ve very much been there.
Given how quickly this escalated, assassin snails is probably the right way to go. If you can, reduce the amount of food you are putting in a bit as it is fuelling the population explosion.
If you can re-home the nerites, do so because the assassins will get them and it would be a shame to loose them.
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I'm unsure now if any actually are nerites, just me making an assumption I think.
Nerites are big, , round and usually have orange our yellow with black stripes, spots or patches. They are very distinctive, have a look on Google.
If you had them, you would have bought them from a shop rather than had them as hitchhikers as they have resale value.
If you had them, you would have bought them from a shop rather than had them as hitchhikers as they have resale value.
Fishing/export ban on yellow tanks. Shame as I really wanted one. May get a blue tang.
Sits better when your employer pays for it though
Captive bred yellow tangs are available, also not cheap though. Blue (regal) tangs get big and need a lot of room, I don't think I'd put one in a tank less than 6ft. Even the smaller tangs like kole/tomini/yellow will do better in 5ft imo.
Look into flasher wrasse if you're after some colour - peaceful, easy to keep, happy in 3ft+ tanks and look amazing.
Also, you may know this already but that GSP will grow like a weed and completely cover the rocks it's on. Looks pretty cool but you'll rapidly run out of room/be forever trying to rip bits out.
