Would be a bit shy at this stage. Also would not be great on the language of fish keepers. Tank is going about 7-8 weeks. Did not read a book or anything first and only found the site after I'd got fish!
Week 1
Got a Juwel Rekord 70 with the internal filter. Bought coral sand and some plants the same day. Had to dump the sand after a week as I discovered it would cause higher ph than I wanted. Had a big row with the shop who sold me the sand, tank and plants, as the sand was for marine and they knew I was looking to keep freshwater. Also wanted to charge me for a new bag of gravel. Wont be ever going back there...
week 2
Bought some dorset gravel and laterite from one of the sponsors and re did the tank without to much disruption to the filter. After two weeks and a free water test from the sponsor bought 4 platys (1m 3f)and 2 (1m 1f) dalmatian mollies. Within a week there were little things darting around the tank and getting caught in the internal filter. To my horror I saw one of the mollies eating a baby fish. Thats when I discovered what a live bearer was... Bought a floating tank and caught 12 fry.
Week 3
Bought and read a book, damn should have done this first... Also had some bad luck as I noticed some bits of string hanging from the male mollie. It had a little v at the end, and after looking on the Internet I discovered it was anchor worm, a crustacean ... Went back to the shop to confirm it, and he killed both my mollies, was gutted. Male Platy now had full run of the tank, and ate some babies, so he started getting bigger fast. Got 2 more mollies from the shop and guess what, more worm. Bought a test kit. Made a DIY carbon thingy.
Week 4
Watched the tank carefully to make sure no worms appeared. Noticed male Platy was BIG and bashing into his females a lot. He killed one so I sent him back to the shop. Got 2 dwarf gourami (1m 1F) and 7 neons, gender unknown. Noticed 3 mollie fry and 3 orange platy fry. Also bought 3 Platys (female) from a different shop! Big mistake. Released all the fry, figured I could not keep them all in the tank.
Week5
All going well, but needed more fish and plants. Water has been consistent at
Hardness: Tough!
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 05-10 ppm
PH 7.8
Plants looking yellow. Solution: Good plant florescent tube, plant tablets to go into substrate. Turns out the 3 Platys (3f) were in fact 1 black mollie, 1 female Platy and 1 male Platy! Sent black mollie back to the shop and bought 2 masked corys. Took out the green sponge (nitrate) from the filter as I figured from this site the plants needed more nitrate. Took out the black carbon sponge as well. Replaced both with blue sponges to increase filter surface area, got 5 blue sponges in there now. Two of the Platys had some babies...
Week six
Made a diffuser from a tablet bottle, carbon working ok now. Using check value as I almost had an severe accident one day when the yeast bottle was below the tank and I turned off the powerhead and heard what sounded like water draining onto the sitting room floor! Got some more plants, its really hard working in a small tank, not to mention the stress to the fish. Discovered most fish shops have a fridge, and guess whats inside, Ben and Jerry's for my babies! Bought some bloodworm and shrimp. Fed some bloodworm after a water change, the dwarf gourami male, who showed no interest in the female, could not leave her alone.
Week Seven
Have now been to all the fish shops in Dublin. I'm sure you all have your favorites. I've got mine, even if they did sell me mollies with worms! Still I got credit, and have got more fish there. I'm sure he knows who I am by now! Dont know how much petrol I've used go to all these shops. Need to buy some new furniture to put the tank on. Was in one shop and all the staff sat on a sideboard (500kgs) to prove it would take the weight! Been doing 10% water changes every second week? Not to sure if I need weekly. Water has been
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm
PH 7.8
so I think I'm OK. Noticed little bubbles on the underside of one plant. Could see littles shapes inside. Disappeared the next day.
Week Eight
Cleaning the filter I noticed a clump of 5 little bubbles, they were tiny fry, I assume from the dwarf gourami. Dont think they will survive as the current is to strong. Fish count at the moment is
Platys
1 male
4 female
3 fry all female I think
Mollies dalmatian
3 fry all female
Dwarf Gourami
1 male
1 female
fry all dead I think
Neon Tetras
7
Cory Masked (Matae)
2 need help with gender identification
Guppies (sorry wife made me buy them)
1 male
4 female
Dont all give out at once, I guess thats a lot of fish, but the increased filter surface area seems to be coping. If required I'll give some back to my local shop. My next purchase is 2 fighting fish and 2 dwarf otties.
Then I need a 400 litre tank.
Warning... I'm a beginner, be gentle on my choice of
a) Fish
b) Plants
c) Tank
d) Decor
e) Camera
f) Photographical skills
My first photo, did not know it, but I already had a snail
Oops will post photo later
