Something Fishy

Hi Team,

Im new to this and think what your doing is great. Fair play. I have read every forum already and found it very helpful. I am just about to buy my first aquarium and am looking for some advice. I am moving house soon and have been waiting for the new house for the aquarium. Been doing my homework on aquariums and dediced on a 350 litre nice one that i found. I just have a few questions regarding start up.

I really want a big mix of freshwater fish for my tank so i suppose i am looking for the best compatible and community fish.
From what i have looked at, the fish that i am interested in are;
Neon Tetra,
Gouramis,
Rainbow Fish,
Odessa Barb,
Red Cap oranda goldfish,
Angelfish,
Catfish,
Rasboras.

I know i wont be able to have all these in the tank together but am just wondring does anyone know what the best mix would be and any other fish that would be compatible with these are?
I also really like the red tailed black sharks but have heard that they are a bit aggressive, and aswell if anyone knew could i put in a male beta with the above and if it would be possible to put a discus in with that lot.

Then i was wondering about the tank. Dont worry i wont put any of those tacky ornaments in it but am wondering about rocks and plants and that.
Am i allowed to put real plants in with the fish above or should i stay fake, and also can i put any type of rock in. Would like to have a tank with a lot of nooks and crannies in it for the fish. Can i do this?

Is a cycling period at the beginning of 2 weeks sufficient and also does everyone keep a quarantine tank for new fish and sick fish?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for your help.

Best Regards,
Ciaran

hi cbtherock good to see you have done some research.

firstly get your self a test kit that willanswer the question about when to put your fish in.

As for quarantine tanks I would say absolutely definitely from experience, you could most likely get away without one but you then leave yourself wide open to a big wipeout and its not very nice. you could put in real plants but I would also quarantine these you never know what little bugs could be hanging around

I would say normal river rocks should be fine as long as you wash them really well. Someone else will most likely steer you better on these as there are other types of rock out there that will change your water parameters.

As for compatibility the tetra gourami rainbows and rasboros I wouldnt see a problem with but if you put in a catfish or an angel they could become dinner. Again some else will probably tell you more then me. I don think the oranda would be too happy in tropical water though

hope this is of some help. I am sure you will get many helpful replies but the best bit of advice I can give is slowly slowly. Take your time setting up and stocking and you will fair better.

Good luck

Hi Ciaran,
Welcome to the forum and the hobby,first good to see you've got yourself a decent sized tank alot bigger than my first so you've a lot of options open to you, everything you have below should go together except the oranda which is a coldwater fish not a tropical like all the rest and while it could live in the same tank it wouldn't be able to compete for food with the others so its a no no..

Personally i'd go for a Malawi setup in a tank this size, the are beautifully coloured and active fish.. but i'm a cichlid fan and its your tank so your decision what goes in it.. as for your selection everything should be fine but be wary of the angels big angelfish see small neons as food.. i have kept them together but only after introducing small angels with big neons and growing them on together.. red tail black sharks are lovely but can get territorial as they mature if you provide plenty of caves / shelter and have distinctive boundries you might get away with one in the tank.

As for live plants over fake..its personal choice your selection of fish shouldn't dig them up but live plants need good substrate and lighting to thrive CO2 is another option to help them grow better and stronger, for a start maybe a mix of both will help.. check the articles section for more on this..

for other decor you can use rock and bogwood / mopani wood from aquatic stores to provide all your nooks and crannies bogwood can stain water (a weak tea colour) so soaking it in a bucket and changing water frequently can lessen that along with some carbon in your filter.

As for cycling your tank i'd personally recommend at least 4-6 weeks(there are commericial products like nutrafin cycle to help mature the filter) to let the bio load get up to strength in your tank unless you can seed your filter from an existing one, even with that i'd still leave it a minimum of 4 weeks before introducing fish and then in small quantities over a few weeks to let the filter get used to the increased load on it. slow and easy is the rule and if you do it right you'll become an addict like the rest of us..
If we can be of any more help just ask
Seamus

Hi Ciaran,

Welcome to the forum and to the fish-keeping world.

350l tank ! wow, this is great. The bigger the better as it's easier to keep these famous water parameters steady.

For cycling the tank, you need to wait until some beneficial bacteria start colonising your filter. There are several ways of doing this. I fed my tank with flake food and added some 'cycle' product for a couple of weeks and then (because it's so hard to look at an empty tank ) I added a small shoal of danio rerios. They are quite hardy and contribute greatly to this cycle. My plan was to go for a community tank, so danios were perfect.
After that, I added more fish in small quantities and all was well.
The main thing is to keep checking your parameters : no ammonia and no nitrites are a must. If there is, a water change is needed without delay.

There are several 'specialties' of fish you can go for with a tank this size. Cichlids are nice and colourful, whereas community are smaller and (IMO) more active. I personally prefer the latter (except for angels which I have in one of my tanks).

I'd like to warn you about gouramis. I had 2 dwarf ones : they were no angels and created some great havoc in my community tank. Once they died, I did not replace them, but this was after they managed to harass fatally some other fish . However, all gourami varieties might not be all that agressive, I'm sure someone else can confirm in a later post.

Where plants are concerned, again, it all depends on what fish 'specialty' you choose to get. Most community fish are ok with plants. Cichlids would not really be compatible with live plants.

As far as the quarantine tank, I would also advise you to get one. It does not need to be big (esp. if you add only small quantities of fish at the time) but I think it's essential as you never know what can travel with new comers and you don't want to eradicate all your stock in your tank because of a bad one .

Though not quite community, I must say I really enjoy my angelfish. They currently have bristlenoses, clownloaches, corydoras, apistogramme macmasterii and some silvertip tetras as companions and all is well.

My two cents ... I hope it helps.
Good luck with your new venture ! Any questions, just shout !

Valerie

Thanks for your help guys,
iS it true so that angels will see tetras as food so i should introduce small angels with large neon tetras and have them grow together.
What about a discus aswell. Was looking at a red dragon discus that was so small at the moment and it was beautiful. Do you think he would survive in such a tank?

Seamus,

Just wondering you mentioned in your post that you would go for the malawi set up. Can you tell me a bit more about this?
And also the difference with the other set up you mentioned?

Cheers,
Ciaran

Hi Ciaran,

Heres a link that will explain setting up a tank for Malawi's better than i can explain it
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/lake_malawi_setup.php
and as for their colours well look at this
www.cichlidforums.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=503

Malawis are imo the most active and easiest to breed given a ph of 7.5 - 8.5, plus substrate which will help this ph be attained like coral sand looks fantastic in a tank, plus plenty of rockwork making caves and tunnels for them to swim through and have as little territories.. they can be agressive to others of their type so this is why overstocking is recommended, so no one individual gets the brunt of the aggression, generally stock 1 male to 4/5 females. Any malawis i have kept have been unbelieveably active, constantly breeding, and almost seem to know your footsteps after a while and dart to the front of the tank when you approach.. im positive they have personalities and again the colours on them wow!!!

As for your thinking of discus they require soft acidic water ph of 6 or lower, they can be delicate and require imo more work than malawis,their setup should be a planted tank,some bits of bogwood yes i said about tannins leaking into the water but for discus this is actually a help as they come from blackwaters in the Amazon so this will enhance their colours, water should be filtered over peat to soften it and help buffer the low ph, they can be stunning.
this site will provide more info on a tank setup for them
www.dallasdiscus.com/tank_setup.htm
yes i've kept these too even managed to breed them but to be honest their lack of activity and sometimes picky nature turned me off them but then again one mans meat is another mans poison