keeping tropical and cold water fish.

covlass

Not been on for a few days but.......................
DH kept on eye on the tank for me ammonia peaked and dropped over night water readings all came out fine but we took a sample to a LFS and they asked lots of ?'s tested the water and gave us the all clear. I am now a very proud owner of Guppy's. It has been 72 hrs now fish are very happy and water is testing fine.
How long should I now wait before purchasing some more fish and which ones would you recommend? Also how often do I need to do a water change ?

I would also like to take this chance too thank you all for your help

louisdog

Yay nice one!

I like to add fish every week or every other week so I can build it up slowly, that also makes the pleasure of buying them last as long as possible. I test water first before adding new ones.

Good rule of thumb is to change 20% water every 2 weeks.

Most community fish are ok with guppies, just be careful not to get any fin nippers like tiger barbs.

Cheers
Alex

bethie

hi, quick question.


i have a 5? 6? year old black moore goldfish. a few years ago he decided to become gold/bright orange. fair enough.

however, i have noticed today that he is starting to turn black again! i haven't done anything different to his tank.

he is in a 15 gallon tank, flueval plus filter (one that is for a BIGGER tank than he is in) and gets fed just bog standard goldfish food.

past few days he has been more active than usual, but besides that nothing else happening.

any ideas? (haven't done any water testing or anything, but i didnt know if it was unusual for fish to go back to their original colour or not!)

Froglet

I have an idea,but you won't like it.That poor goldfish should be in a much larger tank,it is way too small.It also should not be on it's own.Even goldfish like company.

Double the size of the tank,get a bigger filter and give it a bit more variety in it's food.Would you like to eat the same basic food for your whole life?

I can't answer your original question though.It is not as important as giving it better living conditions.

bethie

oh dear. how much larger of a tank will he need?

we never planned on having any fish, - we inherited the tank and an old sick fish. when they died, we got some more, and poor glen is the only one left of his lot. i'm afraid of getting into the only 1 fish left cycle if I get any more. his friend died last year, and we thought that glen would pass away soon after, but he hasn't.


he does also gets an aglae tab every once in while, as well as having cucumber pieces about once a week or so. i wasn't quite sure what else i could give him? he does have a live plant in there as well which he nibbles on.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

bethie wrote: »

oh dear. how much larger of a tank will he need?

we never planned on having any fish, - we inherited the tank and an old sick fish. when they died, we got some more, and poor glen is the only one left of his lot. i'm afraid of getting into the only 1 fish left cycle if I get any more. his friend died last year, and we thought that glen would pass away soon after, but he hasn't.


he does also gets an aglae tab every once in while, as well as having cucumber pieces about once a week or so. i wasn't quite sure what else i could give him? he does have a live plant in there as well which he nibbles on.

gold fish/fancy fish like the odd veriety now and then such as frozen daphnia and bloodworms, even some has liked the odd bit of frozen cockel (all available in local fish stores such as pets at home) some even like the odd bit of shelled prawns cut so it can easily eat it.

do agree with froglet you should need a bigger tank and a companion if you have a fancy blackmoor then stick to fancy's as the normal bog standard goldfish tend to nip the tails of the fancy's but you can get some goldies that will tollerate them.

fancy fish also like to dig especially the blackmoor a small lightweight gravel will give him his need to dig quite happily.

fish keeping can be relaxing to watch and theraputic.

head over to gumtree for a bigger second hand setup that your budget will allow, for sale in your area. youll be suprised as to what tank sizes you could afford with a budget of £50 on gumtree that comes with filters and airpumps etc some even still have fish in them so a bonus for companionship!!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

covlass wrote: »

Not been on for a few days but.......................
DH kept on eye on the tank for me ammonia peaked and dropped over night water readings all came out fine but we took a sample to a LFS and they asked lots of ?'s tested the water and gave us the all clear. I am now a very proud owner of Guppy's. It has been 72 hrs now fish are very happy and water is testing fine.
How long should I now wait before purchasing some more fish and which ones would you recommend? Also how often do I need to do a water change ?

I would also like to take this chance too thank you all for your help

hi covlass, keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite and nitrate now with the gup's in the tank, try not to purchase anymore fish for about 3-4 weeks just to give the filter a chance and you some confidence, 10% water changes per week for the same period, it wont affect the cycling process at all if anything gives the good bacteria a chance to thrive in the media, try not to over feed it is tempting to feed them everytime you pass the tank with gups as they group together and follow you when you pass or stare at the tank expecting you to feed them, i would suggest getting a substrate vacuum and do a 10% change and clean the mess and left over food at the sametime to keep the water in tip top!!

guppy's will get allong with most livebearers mollies, bubble mollies,platy's,swordtails.

others.

danio's, snakeskin guorami's,dwarf guorami's, blackwidow tetra's, whitewidow tetra's, neon tetra's,penguin tetra's,glowlight tetra's,

to name but a few.

feed the guppies frozen,freeze dried or frozen bloodworm to keep their colours vibrant prefurably on the day of 10% waterchange just give them chance to eat it and expell it first lol.

good luck and have fun relax and enjoy and congratulations.

DKLS

After a recent holiday where I did some scuba diving and lots of snorkelling in the red sea and spotting many species that are often seen in shops (fantastic to see in their natural habitat and how territorial they were), although you dont often see foot long stonefish for sale!, I so want a big marine setup, but until I move house I will stick with my african cichlids.

I have stopped using most aquarist shops as "advice" can vary hugely I tend to buy direct from breeders who advertise on http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk

atrixblue.-MFR-.

DKLS wrote: »

After a recent holiday where I did some scuba diving and lots of snorkelling in the red sea and spotting many species that are often seen in shops (fantastic to see in their natural habitat and how territorial they were), although you dont often see foot long stonefish for sale!, I so want a big marine setup, but until I move house I will stick with my african cichlids.

I have stopped using most aquarist shops as "advice" can vary hugely I tend to buy direct from breeders who advertise on http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk

evertime ive tried to make contact with a breeder etc i get no reply through this site.

Froglet

bethie wrote: »

oh dear. how much larger of a tank will he need?

we never planned on having any fish, - we inherited the tank and an old sick fish. when they died, we got some more, and poor glen is the only one left of his lot. i'm afraid of getting into the only 1 fish left cycle if I get any more. his friend died last year, and we thought that glen would pass away soon after, but he hasn't.


he does also gets an aglae tab every once in while, as well as having cucumber pieces about once a week or so. i wasn't quite sure what else i could give him? he does have a live plant in there as well which he nibbles on.

Can't add anything to what atrix blue has recommended.Worries me that you have lost fish before,i think it proves the tank has been way too small for any more than the one fish.If you improve the living conditions,the fish should last a lot longer than 5 or 6 years.And the more live plants you can put in the tank the better.