Any other fishkeepers out there?

gingin_2

roddydogs wrote: »

Goldfish=Cold water!

eek thanks .

pulliptears

gingin wrote: »

Too late , I ordered the biorb but husband was pushing for the biube, it is classy........hmmm, maybe I might be able to call them in the morning and change the order. Decisions, decisions!

How many fish in total do you have in yours? I just google imaged the Ruby Barb and they do look beautiful. I went for the biorb with the heater and led. I used Charterhouse as recommended by Basill as they were indeed the best value and next day delivery included. I am hoping we might be able to set it up this week (next day delivery) and choose our first fish at the weekend, if the water has had time to settle.

I really am grateful for all of your advice and very excited at getting out new fishies. I do have a 2 1/2 year old goldfish in a bowl, am not sure if he will be suitable to add?

When it was fully stocked we had about 6 tetras, 4 Rubies (they are stunningly red!), 4 guppies, 1 catfish and a couple of ghost tetra's.

Stick with Tetra's to begin with, they are a hardy fish. If you take a sample of your tank water to the aquatic center they will test the water for you. See how the tetra's go for a week or two then you can start introducing more

If you buy guppies dont buy females as they breed for England! And if you stick with the biorb have a look at the "volcanoes" that cover the bubble tube as they are great little hiding places as well.

Good luck! Keep us updated!

sassi

yey, i'm not the only mser who keeps fish then

i have a tropical tank, and am still quite a newbie. been keeping them about 2 years now.

one valuable lesson i have learned is not to trust my local fish stores advice.

one example of many...they sold my partner 2 elephant nose fish and two marbled headstanders at the same time... the elephant noses were attacked by the headstanders and the 2nd one died tonight.

i think we have a very incompatible community tank, as my partner has always chosen the fish without researching first:mad:

we have 2 neon cardinals
a large grumpy catfish
2 glass catfish
2 marbled headstanders
2 kissing gourami
6 penguins
2 little albino sharks i think thats what they are called, they are at the bottom and are small.

we have a few other types of fish too and again only up to 3 of each. i can't seem to find info on them even after trawling through for hours on fish sites looking at pictures...so don't know what they are, but they are 18 months old and doing fine!

i probably sound like an awful fish keeper, but i do look after them. my partner doesn't clean the tank or do the water testing or changes, i do, so i think its time for me to stop him doing any purchasing in the future.

I never would have purchased the elephant nosed fish, as they are beautiful but need spot on water, and were not going to be with the correct tank mates.

so now i am concerned about my 2 cardinals being the next victims of the headstanders. i tried to catch them to return them to the store, but they jump out of the way and hide under things. i do like them, they are great to watch when the catch the bloodworm etc, am just concerned for my other fish.

I would like a tank of fish with larger numbers of the same species of fish, with a max of 3 species....but this is what i have, and for now thats all i can house.

sorry i have run on so much.

roddydogs

Actually its a good source of "live Food" to keep a few live-bearer femails in the tank, this is the "perfect" food for the bigger fish!

pulliptears

roddydogs wrote: »

Actually its a good source of "live Food" to keep a few live-bearer femails in the tank, this is the "perfect" food for the bigger fish!

It is, but, not all the babies are eaten. I had this conversation with my sis in law who assured me that keeping her 2 female guppies was fine and the other fish would eat the babies etc etc

4 months on she is overrun with guppies and has had to take out the females. Quite a few of them escape being lunch unfortunately!

bulchy

I've noticed that theres a lot of fish keepers on the forum, so just thought I'd ask you all, what your thoughts are on over the counter fish remedies. Our coldwater fish have whitespot, my OH noticed it on late in the afternoon on new years eve, he bought Protozin and they have so far been treated twice, and the 3rd will be administered late this afternoon. Yesterday, the fish were lifeless, and we feared the worst, but today they do look a lot happier. Yesterday, I had said if they didnt look any better today, I would ring my vet and ask them for some advice. One of my dogs is due at the vet on saturday anyway, and I intend asking them if they stock any fish treatments and would be willing to sell me some to keep in the house for emergencies, as noticing your fish are ill at 4pm on newyears eve is a bit late to be ringing them to go and ask for some help iyswim. I know you arent allowed to give medical advice on the forum, I just want to know what other fish keepers do when there fish are ill, do you buy over the counter or consult the vet?

Sue xx

feesh

Smaller tanks are actually a bit trickier to look after as the water conditions can be more unstable, bigger tanks are usually better for first timers.

There's a lot to learn - it's a very rewarding hobby, but you do need to do a lot of reading and research first, as you need to understand things like the nitrogen cycle in some depth to be able to care for fish properly, and also other aspects of water chemistry at a more basic level so that you can monitor your water's pH, hardness, ammonia levels, nitrate and nitrite.

I would really recommend getting a good book and reading up on things first, and also try buying a few copies of Practical Fishkeeping to help understand things in more depth. Their website www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk is brilliant - I would really recommend you read up on fishless cycling as a more humane method of establishing your tank.

HTH,
Feesh
x
(Have been keeping fish since I was 11, hence the name!).

feesh

pulliptears wrote: »

When I do change the pads in the bottom I just empty a quater of the water and replace the filter. It is possible to rinse out the old filter and reuse it again, but probably only once, wouldnt recommend much more than that.

That's not actually true - the really important thing with any filter media, whatever type, is to maintain the population of good bacteria contained within. That means replacing it as infrequently as possible (only when it gets physically clogged up) and in the interim, just rinse it out in a bucket full of water which has been taken FROM the tank. I have used my current filter media for over a year and it is still not looking clogged at all, as I do a partial water change every 2 weeks and rinse it out in the old tank water.

The manufacturers want you to change it more frequently, but only because they make lots of money from such consumables.

If you wash your filter media in clean water (especially if it has not been dechlorinated) or you replace it, then you are effectively putting the tank back to square one, having to re-establish itself as a new tank would.

If you do daily tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate you can actually see this effect happening, and if you cause an ammonia spike the fishes lives are at stake and at the very least they will feel ill and stressed.

I'm also a bit concerned about keeping a catfish in a Biorb - he might be surviving but it seems a little cruel to me. Does he have enough room to swim freely?

There are fish tank capacity calculators on the Practical Fishkeeping website which are really helpful - the forums over there are helpful too.

onejontwo

Opinions please, do these nitrate removal filters actually work? or are they just another selling gimmick to extract our hard earned cash from us.
I have ran a Juwel 125 litre tank for approx 10 years and everything is running fine, but I've recently noticed a nitrate removal filter for sale which replaces the top course sponge in the filter set-up. As this is recommended to be replaced every 3-6 weeks, this seems to me to be a sales fronted promotion, rather than a benefit to the tank set-up.
At the moment I am still on the original filters(although I do clean them out on a regular basis!) and so therefore are actually costing me nothing to run, whereas replacing one of them with a nitrate removal filter would cost me substantially more!
I would not mind paying the extra if there was some benefits to doing so.
So have any of you fishkeepers out there actually used them? and if so have you noticed any improvement? or are you sceptical like me?
Opinions please.

pulliptears

feesh wrote: »

I'm also a bit concerned about keeping a catfish in a Biorb - he might be surviving but it seems a little cruel to me. Does he have enough room to swim freely?

Hitler has plenty of room, he is a Cory Adolfi Catfish and only about 2 inches long and is somewhere near 2 years old. Its not cruel in any way! There are only a few fish in there now, aside from a couple of tetra's and rubies he has a 30L Biorb to himself.

In what way is that cruel?