Fish Keepers / Lovers General Chatter

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Who else out there has or is hoping to have a nice aquarium setup?

What do you have (tank, lighting, equipment etc)?
What do you hope to have?

Any tips & hints or essential ideas for people wanting to start?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

What do you have:
We currently have 1 4ft tank with 5 goldfish (1x 10cm & 4 smaller) 1 sucker fish & a random yabbie from the dam in there at the moment.
1 in tank filter (can't remember brand or power etc) Single tube 30w fluro & 1 air cord (upgrading soon)
Basic rocks, small castle ornament 1 rock & some PVC tube for them to hide in.

1 small (2ft tank) currently housing Murray the Murray cod
1x Air cord, Fake plant & barrel ornament.

We are looking at buying a 4ft or 6ft tank for Murray and setting it up with some gorgeous dark rocks, fake plants (plenty of hiding space) some PVC tubes covered in gravel (to blend in) and some drift wood if we can get a decent price.

We are also looking at adding about 4-5 10cm goldfish to our bigger tank, a nicer air tube AND an air rock, more plants and bigger ornaments (eventually)

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

We have a large quarter-circle tank, about 300L in size I think. The radius is about 90cm-1m and it's about 1m in height as well.

Plumbed in so the water changes are all run through the filters first and done automatically so the floor doesn't get wet. Large strip light at the top and a large heater.
We have some rocks, old ceramic pipe things and pottery, petrified wood and about 10 plants.

Fish: 2 cooli loaches, 3 clown loaches, 10 neon tetras, a plecko, a dwarf gourami and 3 hatchet fish. We had some "golden wonders" but turns out they are predatory (the fish shop did NOT tell us that and knew which other fish we had) so we did have more fish but they were attacked. DH got rid of the nasty fish and we'll put some more in in about 6 months' time.

The fish know when it is time for food (6pm) and if they are forgotten (DH usually feeds them, but sometimes he's busy) and I sit down after we've eaten they will come and shoal near me. The second you lift the lid of the tank they're all up near the hole in the condensation catching bit of plastic ready for food, it's quite cute. They learnt a trick!

Tips for new starters: Plan your tank. Pick your favourite fish then ensure you only stock your tank with fish they will get on with: predatory fish can cause distress, especially to young children who don't want to see Nemo being eaten when they wake up (didn't happen to us thankfully!). Also try to get a mix of top, middle and bottom dwellers in a large tank otherwise there will be large areas with no fish in. If you need to treat the water, don't stock immediately, let the tank mature first.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Sounds beautiful TFB - am going to start an album for ours.

Before & After pics etc.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

[Novella]

I currently am fishless but I had a 6 foot tank with Veil tail angels, clown loaches, rummy nose tetras (I was up to 15) a breeding pair of german blue rams and the odd one out-my rainbow shark. I also had a 3 ft tank but that was stopped a few years ago in that tank I had a beautiful common pleco which I sold on as I had not realised how large he would grow. I used canister filters for the main filtration and a small internal filter to help with surface agitation as I needed to keep the oxygen up as I kept the tank around 28C. I had two heaters as the tank was so large and I liked having a back up. I used a timer for my lighting as I am shocking at remembering to turn it on. I did have live plants and a lot of driftwood, Ill see if I can find a pic to post.

We had an unfortunate incident where my DH decided to let off bug bombs in the house to kill spiders without telling me and he killed off over half my tank. I got home from work and luckily I looked in on the fish as half were dead and the other half fading fast. A massive water change (330L) at 11pm at night and daily water changes after meant of the fifteen still alive when I got home I only lost another 5 in the following days. We have since moved and I sold my ish and am planning on waiting a few years beore starting again as I dont have the time I would like to maintain the tank

My dream tank would be ull o australian natives including rainbow fish and gonies

Tips
-The MOST important thing about fish keeping is understanding the nitrogen cycle, if you google it there is lots of educational pieces out there. If you have a problem with your tank this is the first thing to review

- Good filtration is important as is adequate oxygenation. Oxygen enters through the surface of the water therfore the larger surface area of the tank the higher oxygen levels you will have, also keeping water circulting helps improve oxygenation by turning over the water at the surface. Circulation can be increased using filters, powerheads or airstones.

- The solution to polution is dilution (if there is a pollution problem with your tank eg excess food, chemicals, high nitrite/nitrate, rotting fish the best way to improve conditions is to change the water)

- slowly increase the population of your tank so as not to throw out the nitrogen cycle

- do not over feed your fish it can be harmful to the fish through over eating and through leftover food polluting the tank
-know your fish species and consider the temprament of the breeds you keep and if they are likely to fit into your tanks community
- dont take pet shop advice as gospel as they are trying to sell you something (unless you find a great aquarium store)
- when buying fish check all the tanks in the store as many pet shops use syst4ems where water is circulated through multiple tanks so ill fish in one tank can be spreading germs to the currently healthy looking neighbouring fish
- pH is better left alone unles you are breeding certain species. Most fish can live in a wide pH range but wont breed unless the pH is clsoer to their natural habitat or the environment they have been spawned in. Changing pH removes the waters capacity to buffer and playing with it too much can then lead to a drastic swing in pH that can be fatal to fishies
-Dont flush a live fish even if it is on its way out. Placing the fish in a small container and then placing them in the freezer allows them to slowly reduce their metabolism and researchers believe it is less stressful painful to the fish another option is clove oil diluted in water is a kinder way to euthenase fish if necessary


sorry that might be a tad too much info

[Maruschke]

We have a big tank 8' x 2.5' x 2.5', with a 4 x 2 x 2 refugium (planted tank) underneath and a 3' sump (and 1' trickle). We love it! We have a 2.5' giant gourami, about 30 clown cloaches, 30 yoyo loaches, 30 silver sharks (some of which are huge), 4 large sailfin pleco's. We breed bristlenose and cherry red shrimp and grow java moss and plants. In the refugium are rare L's, danios, flying fox, cherry red shrimp and ... I can't remember, LOL.

[sepata]

I'm fish less at the moment but we had a 5ft tank previously with a Pleco named plectrum (want to say gold spot but can't remember exactly), silver sharks (all called sharpie lol), tiger barbs (Trevor and his girlfriends), a red tail black shark (twink), a ghost knife (well really two, first one died on the way home, he had already been named Caspar so his replacement was caspars ghost), and we inherited a single dwarf gourami who we named Neville.

One day while I was at work the heater malfunctioned and the tank was at like 40something degrees when we got home. We lost a lot of fish in the days after that, only twink and Neville survived and they decided to hate each other. Twink eventually died while I was pregnant with ds (I cried all day, I lived him so much) and Neville was rehired.

I want to set our tank back up but the only place I can put it at this house has way too much sunlight and I don't want to constantly battle algae

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We have a big tank 8' x 2.5' x 2.5', with a 4 x 2 x 2 refugium (planted tank) underneath and a 3' sump (and 1' trickle). We love it! We have a 2.5' giant gourami, about 30 clown cloaches, 30 yoyo loaches, 30 silver sharks (some of which are huge), 4 large sailfin pleco's. We breed bristlenose and cherry red shrimp and grow java moss and plants. In the refugium are rare L's, danios, flying fox, cherry red shrimp and ... I can't remember, LOL.

WOW hun, i would LOVE to see pics

[Jennifer13]

I have one poor old goldfish who is getting too big for his little tank. He's about six years old. I want a new tank for Christmas. I could use some advice!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We might have found a 6ft tank on e-bay
If we get it i'm going to leave it out in the sun for a few days then clean it out, pop the water in and leave it filtering for a week with the rocks and everything (no fish) would that be the best way to do it do you think?

Am off to the pet shop today to buy some new pH tester liquid, a new airstone and longer cord (as i cut ours to make 2 cords) and any other testing stuff i need

[Novella]

Sounds good ZF. If there is a filter in the tank he is in now use the filter material in that to seed the filter in the new tank. This will take the good bacteria from his current tank and put it in the new tank. The bacteria in the filter breaks down the nitrite (very harmful to fish) from the ammonia fish produce as waste and turns it into nitrate (less harmful). Do this at the same time you move Murray as the bacteria need the waste he produces to keep them alive I would get a nitrate/nitrite testing kit.

Have you checked out the Native ish Australia Website? Their fish profiles have a lot of general and aquarium info

Wow marushke that sounds awesome, must have taken a lot of work to get it where it is now. Your clown loaches must be so happy in such a big group, I love the noises they make and they are so playful. My friend bred cherry shrimp in his discus tank, the are tiny and very cute!

Jen sounds like a good christmas present! My tips were in my first post. Main thing would be to transfer the filter material and most of the water from the old tank, with your fish so your new tank doesn't take so long to establish a good bacterial filtrations system. For a big tank I like using a canister filter as it can do chemical, mechanical and bio filtration. Ive never kept goldies before so dont have any specific advice. Hope he like his new home

You girls are making me want to get started again lol. Maybe I should get my 90L hospital tank out and set it up as a proper tank with a pair of Rams

[Jennifer13]

Great info Novella. Thanks! We got goldies as starters to see how well I could keep fish. Turns out we might not be perfect, but we had two for six years and this one still going at seven. Kinda wish we'd gone straight to the big tank and the full she-bang!

Gumtree has heaps of tanks, but I think DP wants to get a new one on a stand. What do you need for natives and what are the easiest to start with?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Haven't checked out that site hun but i have had a look at aquariumlife - seems to have some ok info there.
No filter in his little tank but i would be putting in his rocks & his plant and can tip some of his water?

I keep thinking i should have put our goldies into the little tank and him straight into the bigger tank on his own until we get the new tank.. feel so horrible for him being in the tiny tank all alone with no space.

[Novella]

these are my rams spawning on youtube. She is laying then the male comes over the top and fertilizes each egg. The eggs hatched and it took about five days or my angels to clean the babies up . I cant find any of my tank pics at the moment, I think I may have lost them

Jen Im not sure about the easiest natives but rainbow fish are quite popular and there is lots of info out there about keeping them. Well done for keeping your goldie going for seven years, goldies can live a long, long time if well cared for

ZF the plants and rocks will hold some bacteria and moving them in will help establish the bacterlial colonies needed in the tank

[Jennifer13]

Haha Novella, I think this one clearly thrives on not too much!

He does appreciate the fresh plants though. And they last a bit longer now there's only one fish instead of three. I'll google rainbow fish. DD1 is going to love that they're called rainbow fish!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We added to our goldies tank - 6 12cm red comets & 1 big fat fantail
Will try and get pics of the tank as it is NOW and then will show a few more once we add some more decorations and the like to them.

Murray is STILL in his little tank and seems to be going well, will take pics of him and his little tank soon and then show pics of his big tank once we actually buy it.

We were looking at buying new rocks and then making our own PVC caves and the like until we realised we have a creek on our property, after the last lot of rains a lot of creek stones washed down, so this morning the girls and i spent the morning collecting rocks - big ones, little ones and ones in between... he is going to have the greatest natural tank possible... well within budget and timing.... am going to try doing him a PVC tube AND building him a rock arch out os some of the bigger rocks we collect.

Quick question - how best do you guys clean any ornaments, i tend to take them out when i do a water change and scrub them with a tooth brush?

Anyone else got pics of their tanks, i would love to see some links.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We bought a new tank. It looks huge. Lol
Going to go in the lounge so cleaning the stand tomorrow, DP needs to get the wool stuff for the backdrop filter (any ideas how to clean these?)

Will take pics as we set it up but Murray is not going to know himself, he's going to love it!

Need to get some fake plants, we collected rocks from the creek and we should be all good!

Going to set it up & filter it for a week, adding some of his tank water & plants... YAY! Will take pics as I go!

[Butterfly Dawn]

if you have a big tank- get some real plants for fishy to munch on
I was told not ti use river/ sea stones etc as sometimes they have minerals etc that can hurt you fish in a tank environment. I would suggest talking to your local pet/fish shop about it

how big is your tank? dimension?
tanks are exciting to set up and you can do great things with layering colored sands/ stones and plants