I'm getting a small aqarium......help me pick fish!!!!

[ut0pia]

Wow, now I know why I can never succeed in keeping a tank..The water always, always gets cloudy and it just looks ugly that way! Jeez, and to think all I needed to do was some research as to how it's done properly!

 

[nekkiddoglady]

I always let my tanks run at least a few days to a week before adding fish.. I also used a bioenzyme tho when I set up the tank.. I'd only add one or two fish at a time, and wait about a week before adding more.


One thing I highly suggest is that you buy a bottle of ich medicine to keep on hand.. my favorite is the brand name Jungle. Ich is a common problem, expecially when you are learning how to care for fish... it does not take long for it to wipe out your entire tank if not treated.. however if you have medicine on hand, you can treat as soon as you notice symptoms, and you may be able to save all or most of your fish.

 

[twstychik]

Originally Posted by nekkiddoglady

I found they were pretty effective at keeping the tanks clean of algea tho.

I tried snails and just didnt have luck with them... I was told at the petshop they were pretty hardy and good tank cleaners.. but I just couldnt get mine to live. Maybe something in our well water that the snails were sensitive to?

I had the exact opposite problem. I can keep plecos alive to save my own life but I do fine with snails.

I'm actually getting ready to repopulate my little 5 gal tank so I've been loving this thread. Originally I had a beautiful crown tail betta but he got dropsy and died over Thanksgiving weekend.

My tank has been running since then and I think I'm ready for new fish but I can't decide is I want a small group or another betta.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

Its been awhile since I had a tank.. but I dont want to mess with one unless I can have a BIG one.

When I was in school me and my older brother were both into fish tanks.. between the 2 of us, I think we had about a dozen tanks of various sizes running at one time.. from a 2 1/2 gallon up to a 40 gallon. Now that I think of that, Im not sure if I want to know what the electric bill was like with all those pumps and flourescent lights!

 

[aussie_dog]

I just want to add that even Goldfish (and other cold-water fish) need heaters too, because they have a range of temperature that they do best in (the heater just needs to be set lower, at the temp coldwater fish like). Temp gets too low, thats not good. A heater helps keep the temp steady and consistant. Changes in temp equals stress in fish.

I would ditto the Betta suggestion. They're great for newcomers and are relatively easy to care for (and they're hardy, so the beginner mistakes don't kill them so easily). They also have a nickname of being a dog of the sea for a reason (they have personalities too). You can get between 2-5 gallons, and even up to 10 gallons (in a 10gal, you can add in some Ottos, which will take care of algae, or some African Dwarf Frogs, NOT to be confused with African Clawed Frogs). If you decide on female Bettas, you can start up a sorority, getting a 10 or 20 gallon tank and stocking it with a minimum of 4 girls (any less and they may start fighting with each other; the more girls there are, the more spaced out the aggression is. 6 girls seems to be the peaceful number). Just keep a watch for the one that's sold as a girl, but turns out to actually be a male Plakat, because he'll need to be moved out to his own little tank (males cannot be housed with other males, or females, unless you're going to breed them. Then there's a certain program you have to go through with them, and even then you may end up with some beat up, or even dead, fish). I've got one of those. Named him Sudoku because it was a puzzle trying to find all the evidence of whether he was a boy or a girl. On the plus side, a Plakat would no doubt be sold for higher than a Crowntail (which is selling for $8 here), but I got Sudoku for the female Betta/male Veiltail price of $4. I have one female Plakat (actually, turns out all 3 of my girls are Plakats) that was sold as a male Roundtail at one place (I wanted her because she was OBVIOUSLY a female, and she kept looking at me), for $19.87, which is extortion. I got a REAL Roundtail at Petsmart (my very first fish ever) for $4, which is how I knew this girl was no Roundtail. But I still love Paprika. She's the steady old lady of the bunch amongst little spitfires.

But yeah. I would research cycling of a tank (which does NOT mean leaving a tank alone for a week; it's a process of adding a certain amount of ammonia so that certain types of bacteria are created to eat up the ammonia and make the water safe for the fish. It takes about a month to complete, but your fish will be happier for it. Breathing in the Ammonia can kill a fish, or harm it for life). But once it's cycled, you never have to cycle another tank again. Just take a bit of the filter media (sponge or something that's in the filter) and put it in a new tank's filter, and the bacteria in the sponge will carry over into whatever filter media is in the new filter, and presto! A cycled tank!

Here are a couple of good forums to help you out.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php
http://www.petfish.net/forum/index.php


I've only been into fish for a year, since my sister's friend had us fishsit her Betta, and since I wanted to change his filty disgusting water, I changed it, but didn't realize he needed water conditioner, which the friend hadn't brought with her. So a day later, he was dead at the bottom of the little container. I did research, fell in love, and got Sweeney a few months later. He choked to death on some brine shrimp a couple of months ago and I'm still gutted. He was my favorite.

 

[yosemite]

This is my daughter's little dog-face fish. His name is Kiwi.

 

[keith p]

I'd got for a single betta, 5 gallons minimum is good. If it's only 5 gallons I wouldnt ave any other fish with it, have it by itself, but you can add aquatic plants to to liven up the tank's look!