keeping tropical and cold water fish.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Jellicat wrote: »

Really its principally for clownfish, and from what I have read they tend not to stray far from their anemone in the wild for safety reasons. In fact most marine fish are actually coral reef fish, not open water fish. I'll be searching high and low for captive bred ones to, there's no way I'm getting wild caught ones. I wouldn't say its morally much different from keeping any fish that would naturally live in a larger body of water. I'm guessing this includes goldfish from the size of them, not to mention many cichlids. I also don't plan on keeping corals, just a couple of fish.

i know nothing about water conditions of a marine tank. but i do know that clown fish tend to choose their own anemone instead of one chose for them. wich will be the case if you buy a setup for them. they take ages to accept the anemone, and this stresses them out during bedding in period.i dont think they like to be on thier own either as tank setups ive seen has had 2 in them with other marine fish. my favourate marine fish must be the porcupine puffer fish, they are so cute with big beady eyes a smiley mouth and their really inquisitive also, will follow anyone who passes a tank will follow a finger through the glass.

no1catman

Froglet wrote: »

Most interesting question and i really don't know the answer.Try asking here

http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/

is it still it's original colour,ie black? Could be a throw back to the common carp which is where all goldfish originate from.Some goldfish never colour up.If crossed with a koi,well,it could grow rather large!

In the spring, the mix of coloured and 'brown' fish was almost 50/50, but as time has passed, most of them have changed, and there is only about two or three fish that are still dark.
The 'mystery' fish has changed colour, except for the dark ridge on its back, main colour is a sort of cream (though different to the pinky/white of the other fish), with a few splashes of pale orange. Yet as I said before, it's the mouth that is different, it's like comparing a ship with a car-ferry. That is - a goldfish mouth from the 'shoulder' comes to almost a point, whereas this fish has a mouth twice as wide as other fish of nearly the same size!
So far, its behaviour is no different to the other fish.

Mankysteve

Jellicat wrote: »

Does anyone have marines? Toying with the idea of setting up a marine tank with some of the hardier fishes, but it all looks so complex in comparison to freshwater. I think its just keeping the salinity level stable that's freaking me out. Not to mention the cost of the equipment and live rock :eek:.

You don't necessary need live rock or corals, to have a salt water tank, but you will need a source of pure water not tap water.

You can do that by buying premixed amount or by using RO water. But even for fish only salt-water tank your talking ££££. There very fincky about water quailty.

~Chameleon~

The biggest mistake you made in all this was going to Pets at Home!!!

Jellicat

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

i know nothing about water conditions of a marine tank. but i do know that clown fish tend to choose their own anemone instead of one chose for them. wich will be the case if you buy a setup for them. they take ages to accept the anemone, and this stresses them out during bedding in period.i dont think they like to be on thier own either as tank setups ive seen has had 2 in them with other marine fish. my favourate marine fish must be the porcupine puffer fish, they are so cute with big beady eyes a smiley mouth and their really inquisitive also, will follow anyone who passes a tank will follow a finger through the glass.

Occellaris clownfish don't require an anemone, they do very well without one, especially the CB sort. Anemones are really, really difficult to keep in the aquarium apparently.

Mankysteve I plan on using Live rock because I prefer the look of the Berlin system and I have friends who use it so I think its the best way to go for me.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Karl_Chapman wrote: »

Here's a money saving tip, should you go through this, which I hope not. I have a Juwel Rio 180 Litre aquarium (tropical) I have had it about 1 year and it is my first one and I am a novice tropical fish keeper, I know the basics like putting dechlorinator in the water, bacteria and changing the filters reguarly, I opted for blue light bulbs which shouldn't be kept on as regular as white ones as they attract algae. Anyway my mum said that I needed more plants and places the fish could hide in as I have just one ornament and an artificial plastic plant, so I sent her to pet's at home to buy me a live piece of plant weed, to oxygenate the tank and keep the algae away as this is what live plant weed does, after a week after I introduced the plant weed to my aquarium I noticed a snail on the plant and a week later after it had laid it's eggs, lot's of baby water snails infested my tank, there was hundreds, I phoned pets at home and explained what had happened and she said I would need to totally clean the tank out and put fresh gravel in, fresh filters, everything and pets at home provided me with all the replacement stuff free of charge as it was their fault and there was no warning about snails by the live plants. I went to pet's at home and the manager provided me with a bag of gravel, the 7 filter sponges, a bottle of bacteria, a bottle of anti-snail all totalling around £60-£70, free of charge. She probably would have given me a bottle of dechlorinator aswell had I needed it. Anyway the aquarium is back up and running and there is no water snails in my tank anymore. I would never buy live plant weed again. I only stick to artificial plastic plants, as the majority of live plants come with water snail eggs attached to.

the above is why i only have my water tested by them, in propper advice or lack of. you could of bought yourself a snail eater (suckling loach or common plec or similar species of fish) they would of eaten the eggs and snail to keep the population down at a minumum and would of been a good food source for them that way you could of kept your established tank the way it was.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

update: my now repaired tank is holding water at full level and not leaking, my stand should be completed tommorrow afternoon so i will be busy setting up. i still havent taken pics yet but as i go along with the setup i will take them and post them as soon as possible.

no1catman

When I looked out the bedroom window this morning I saw a frightening sight - a male heron gazing into the pond!!

So if you value you pond fish, an effective method I have found, is pond netting, fine enough to see through, but strong enough to stop a heron. Though, I have seen magpies walking over it - picking off uneaten food!

An alternative to fish food, is cat dry food biscuits e.g. Go Cat - soak in warm water for 20 - 30 mins then into pond - fish love them!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

grrrr, been a delay in the stand, the fellow only stained it this evening and its still wet and will required a few coats for desired colour. i have everything waiting to go now. have tested the water in tank and all is fine so sealer has no affect on conditions. so i have drained the tank ready just waiting now definately tommorrow will have all set up and going. and hopefully some pictures for you guys

Mankysteve

Snail population are not a bad thing. They don't tend to eat to plants just the allege and grot in the tank.

Key oxygenator in a tank is not plants it water movement on the surface, plants will make little difference to co2 level as the aspire co2. Then at night the oxygen production stops all together.


I've got small population from bringing in live plants, there so worth it compared to plastic tat ones.

I have even deliberately added http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Melanoides_tuberculata.php. They live in the gravel during the day and come out to feed.

They out compete the other snails reducing there numbers.

To deal with snails best way is to simple crush them, add an copper based snail killer. There also fish and even other snails that will eat snails.

Those bacteria kits don't work PFK did test with some and found little no difference so in striping down your tank you would have interrupted the Ammonia cycle and certainty had a ammonia and nitrite spike. The advice PTH gave you was incorrect.(I must admit that they are my source of fish but only because there is no where else.)



A bit of basic housekeeping would have dealt with the snail population.