keeping tropical and cold water fish.

gourami's tend to eat algea rather than snails, snail can be good for a tank eating dead plantation and food, adding a copper based treatment for snails will kill the good bacterial filter in you filter so should be removed while treating then you have to rid the water of the copper you can either do a regular 20% water change daily or one massive change, i recomend using a polyfilter http://www.cheappetproducts.net/POLY_FILTER_PAD_4_X_8_-UKP45826.html these things can be expensive in aquarist shops like pets at home the standard size can be £16 so hunt online for them cheapest standard size ive seen is £7 with free delivery then just leaving water as is and let the polyfilter do its job.

i have a poly filter in my one filter now and has improved the water quility no end as i baught a second new filter that needs establishing as my fluval decided enough was enough i cant do no more!

i have a good veriety of fish guppies,gourami's,swordtails,silvertip tetra's, blackwidow tetra's, some unknown snails (i keep the ones that are about the size of 10p peices and crush the little ones some snails have wierd markings on them too quite pretty) i have swordtail fry at the moment about 37 fry in a nursery tank from one female my other female is about to drop also and will be taking them out and raising as my local aquirium shop and i have come to an agreement he cant get them from his supplier only silver one's and they die mostly in tranportation out of 50 ordered only 12-20 survive the trip and then some die after settling into tank but the rest of his supply are fine, so we've agreed that i supply him some samples for the first month and see how they do my swordtails are silver and black orange and black all black all orange black and orange all silver if they do well he'll and sell he'll provide free food including frozen foods monthly, filters and treatments, provide me free tropical fish replacements when mine die.


aslo a good way to rid a tank of snails is to weight down a peice of lettice in your tank before you turn off the lights and go to bed, in the morning before you put lights on is to look under the lettice there should be a good dose of them on it take out lettice and snails wrap it in a peice of clingfilm and bin outside, repeat precess till no snails are on the lettice. then repeat again when you see small snails no need to use treatments or get rid of filter media, this method keeps them in check of overpopultion.

siemese fighters are very pretty and if your thinking of getting one dont just hop to pets at home or pet wise search for rare pretty one's they will have been looked after, not inbred,and come with their original temperment it will be worth paying that 2-3 pound extra if it lives for 5-8 years.

your tank should be of at max a 10 gal (110 litres approx) in size, at least 3-6 months old, have hiding places and not too much water movement, there will be no need to oxygenate the water as they are of labyrinth species (they breath oxygen from air outside the tank like some gourami's as well as in the tank) can survive hard water types they are quite hardy if you find the betta splenden that isnt inbred. do not house with brightly coloured fish it will make it display and get aggressive, and if its displaying constantly then its stressed and we dont want the poor thing stressed 24/7, do not put a mirror or any reflective object near the tank so it can see itself itle display and try and fight its reflection! betta splendens do not like a big tank! they like a small ish tank and will choose its territory in that tank, gravel should not be brightly coloured, have a few pebbles in there for it to bask on, and a caved area for it to sleep in. feeding, they love guppie fry live foods i know sounds horrible to feed them live food but a happy fish is one that has correct dietry requirments, they are meat eaters so brine shrimp frozen live freeze dried hikari bites etc. but loves guppie fry and a shop that has guppie fry may sell you them but dont tell them their live food!!

just a sample of the ones you can find out there this is the half moon butterfly betta.

Lirin wrote: »

Thanks both-

There's less than 10 goldfish (really more for the little one), so they should be okay in that size tank. They're not that young, we've had them for quite some time now.

Wasn't aware about sandstone- will buy alternatives. Our water's fairly soft anyway, so shouldn't harm them for a bit.

The betta seemed alright at first, wasn't until I went to a pet store- wasn't even there to buy fish, and just got talking... they told me the neon's colours were distressing the betta probably. It's been rehoused and seems a lot happier. Thanks for the info as well! We did have frozen bloodworm for the betta, fish shop told us he'd like it, but appears not so- he rarely touched it. There was no problem with reflections- we were careful about that.

Have had no snail problems since we cleaned it out, and have made a few additions to the tank- some shells to provide hiding, and next time we're down we'll get some live plants again. I do plan to create caved areas as well, thanks for suggesting.

The half moon butterfly is gorgeous- very nice colouring.

Filter- we do have a filter (in addition to the two Eheim's) but I'm unsure about what type.

OP SAYS THERES LESS THAN 10 NOW HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?
i agree with the advice froglet and other are giving, ammonia will soon start eating your goldfish slowly and painfully, doesnt matter what filter you have its the amount of fish in the tank and the tank size and fish size and how often their fed, that needs to be calculated, if their fed often they secrete often (more ammonia-nitrite-nitrate), in a tank that size with goldfish bigger than inch and half i'd say 3-4 maximum on fed everyother day ragime. small fancy's id say keep upto 5 in 2ft tank.

at the moment you water conditions will be fluctuating because the filter is playing catch up constantly, your filter will soon be clogging up with secretion, and not giving the good bacteria time to flourish before you have to clean the filter and replace the pad, so your water condition will endlesly suffer and cause damage to your fish slowly and painfully. plus your fish are likly to suffer allot of diseases and stress coat will be stripped away (if you see them scratching themselfs againt the tank and objects often this has happened and disease is setting in). cut back a few goldie's youll soon see improvements in the fish.

siemese fighters will get along with neons, its all bright fish they dont like male guppies, red honey gourami's, rainbow tetra's etc.
neons can be fin nippers so may have picked on your fighter, some neons are placid and should leave other fish alone if the schoal is big enough, 5 neons is not big enough schoal by the way 6-8-10 equal numbers you need or a battle for top dog commences and bullying begins towards other fish.

if a siemes fighter has bred properly its breeder will feed it meat guppy fry, bloodworm whiteworm. commercial suppliers feed flake they get used to this flake food and will turn the other fin to thier proper foods. hence why i wont by a fighter from pets at home, you look at them and think nice colour on them but untill you get a proper bred fighter you see the colour difference and think how dull these fighters in pets at home really look to the trained eye.

the reason for 6-10 neons is that they can fight amoungst themselfs for head schoaler (the one that is allways leader of the pack) then they become placid and laid back not fin nip terrorise other fish for the head of the pack, they'll scwabble amoungst themselfs if the numbers are right. same with penguin tetra's, glowlight tetra's,rainbow tetra's,blackwidow tetra's
silvertip tetra's are ok from 4 onwards any less they chase eacher but no ther fish but can cause stress to other fish with their chasing eachother.

THOSE LOOKING FOR A DECENT SIZE TANK WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK TRY LOOKING ON GUMTREE! some are complete setups and have established filters (hard job done already for you).

while i keep repeating dont go pets at home for fish go there to test water!! its free!