Any other fishkeepers out there?

Miss_Money

how are things going with the fish in your tank teenage drama? i hope you let the tank settle beofre putting in anymore fish. let us now how your getting along.

teenage_Drama

its going great although today i noticed one of my old fishes was chasing another fish but as i approached the fish tank, it stopped instantly : | oh and they are loving the food...gotta make sure i dont over feed them

JasonLVC

Keeping fish is actually very hard until you understand the basic mechanics of it all. My first fishtank was about 3 years ago and my fish were continually ill. I then bought a book about it, spoke to my local aquarium folks and they were beter in days and never had a problem since.

Simple tips that worked for me (and I'm not a fish expert by any means).

Two or three flakes per fish, every other day. They really don't need feeding that much and they'll only eat the flakes from the top, as soon as they sink they'll likely not eat them unless bored/desperate. Rotting food creates bad bacteria in the water - basically you'll poison them to death and even a filter will not help so don't feed them all the time. They always look hungry as they're fish!. They'll follow you around the tank with mouth open as they just associate you with food - doesn't mean they're hungry - but as you've already noted they don;t eat what you put in. So don't put it in. It does sounds cruel to feed them every other day but it'sworked for me. My goldfish (the original poorly ones) are still in the tank, fat and happy. (the fish food tin sasys feed three time a day but that's only becuase they want you to buy more fish flakes. A small tin will last bloody ages!)

I do a half water change every other month and a full tank change every 4- months.

Use special water dechlorination chemials. I use StressZyme. It removes the chlorine and also add other good nutrients to the water. It's about £5 for a bottle but lasts a long tiem and keeps your fish happy.

Filter. Essential. Basically recycles all the crap in the tank and the good bacteria in the filter (which builds up over a period of time which is why a new tank has no good bacteria in it thus leaving your fish vulnerable) keeps the water balanced between good/bad bacteria.

You can aslo buy medicine for fishes, depending upon what they've got. As noted earlier, mine had fin rot, bought some anti-biotics basically for them and they were fine in a few days.

Bottom line is, 9 times out of 10, if you're fish are unwell it will be the water. They live and crap in it and if the balance isn't right between the good bacteria in the filter and the bad bacteria from the rotting food and waste then they'll get ill.

Hope that helps - and enjoy them!

TheWaltons_3

We are getting a 360 litre aquarium with the purpose of keeping Tropical fish.

The cycling bit - does it take 8 weeks before you can put the fish in.

we want to keep an Oscar... the tank wont fit 2.. but there are other fish it will live with - or eat!

Also, I am so confused now with reading so many sites... is it Tropical fish that require coral or is this Marine fish?!

gillian0808

Hi I don't really know much I'm afraid as its my Husband who's in charge of the tank but we do have an Oscar fish. Ours is approx 3 years old and is now over a foot long. He is beautiful but very aggressive. We have 4 other fish who occupied our tank before him, of varying sizes and he has never attacked them but he does sort of threaten them.
We have never managed to successfully add another fish to our aquarium. The only newcomer since him is a blue clawed lobster who hides!
We wouldn't part with him now, but we would think twice before buying another as they are quite a long term commitment and can live for about 15 years!
Hope some of this helps.
Regards
Gillian

gillian0808

Hi also the coral is for marine fish who are considered much harder to care for

lesley1960

We obtained an established aquarium from someone else , we had about 12 fish in there , different types and sizes , one of which was a very large Oscar , he was no problem at all and there were some fish in there he could have easily eaten ! , though i have heard some people have had problems with their oscars being destructive .

Cycling and water quality is vital , do a search and you will find some very useful tropical fish sites out there .

kr15snw

You definately need to let the water cycle for about 2 months before putting any fish in it.

Have you got any specialist tropical fish shops around you? Your likely to get some great advice from them. Our locals ones are very honest and very useful

TheWaltons_3

kr15snw wrote: »

You definately need to let the water cycle for about 2 months before putting any fish in it.

Have you got any specialist tropical fish shops around you? Your likely to get some great advice from them. Our locals ones are very honest and very useful

There are about 6 where I live.. one told me today you can put the fish in straightaway with some Water/Bacterial cleaner :eek:

Another one told me yesterday let the tank settle for 4 days...

I do not want to rush this as I do not want the fish to die.

We have only just managed to get the Goldfish living fine and happily - after 3 casualties.

I don't mind having the Aquarium set up for 8 weeks or more, I am in no rush. We aim to keep 2 Oscars together alone.

More advice given was to but 6 Oscars and pair two off.. then get rid of the other 4 :eek:

There is so much conflicting information - alarmingly received from so called Aquatic centres.

keelykat

My hubby is the one in our house who is fish mad and has tropical fish in our living room-so i'll ask him tonight.

keely.