Nano Cube 24

Hi,

Just picked up one of these and I know nothing of keeping fish, tanks, lighting or heating.
My daughter was desperate so we put an advert in our local Free Cycle this morning and tonight we are proud owners of something we know nothing about.

The tank is working, it has some black lumps of I presume coral or rock, it has a big orange fish in it and 2 small black ones that apparently don't come out much.

~~The guy who gave it didn't tell us a thing, I have a feeling he may have got it with the house and just wanted rid.

The water heater is in the corner and is working, it has 4 light strips in the lid 2 of which work and the other doesn't, there is a switch in the top of the lid on the outside that doesn't seem to do anything.

I have tried to do a PDF and print the manual but keeps falling down on me.

Any info on any of this would be great, the fish food is for tropical fish and we got something to put into tap water to make it usable apparently.

Ohh I can here you all sighing now as to where to start but honestly any info will be great.

Mandy

Where too start... do you have a camera? I reckon most people here can ID pretty much every common piece of equipment and every common fish. So picture would be great... if pictures are a no no then we need good descriptions.

Orange fish... shape? Is it a goldfish? It could be a common goldfish, comet goldfish, fancy goldfish (google for pics)

Black fish... again any shape, size + patterning would be good. My guesses are that it's a common pleco or a red tailed black shark. Judging by the fact you say it hides. Alternatively it could be a black moor goldfish possibly...

What are the actual dimensions of the tank? If it's a 24" cube then that's pretty big and a fantastic starter tank, particularly for free!

The filtration needs clarifying to make sure it's suitable, although it's probabaly doing the job for now.

The heater is working so that's fine, just check the temp isn't too high, if they're tropicals then I'd set it to 24 to be on the safe side.

And as for the lighting. Chances are the switch outside was the switch for the lighting once upon a time. But then it either broke or the person wanted to change it so they just left it in situ and added more lighting around it.

That's great I will go and check out orange fish, it is the colour of gold fish, it is around the size of my fist with large flappy tail. Which to me is quite big!!

The tank has removable strip lights in 2 x 2 combination and I think you could be right that one of them has blown, the other has a blue bulb in it which is supposed to be for night lighting but we cannot get the blue to work alone. I am thinking that the switch on the top is for the light that isn't on and that should be 2 blue bulbs for night time and the other 2 should be normal lights for day time. I will have another look through the manual on line and see if I can spot it.

Will the fish that are there be ok if we just leave them to settle for a while before adding new ones. I am guessing having a quick look through here that I need to know the names of them before I can find out what I can put with them.

We can do pics so will try and sort that later, black ones will be impossible to capture but will try and get a closer look, didn't want to cause them any more stress after their car journey here.

We know there is one piece missing from the tank which goes over the filter grid and not sure if it is important or not so will have to find out what it did. Also have large black sponges which I have read some people removed or never used as they attract some-things they shouldn't and they only put one in the middle filter section at the back of the tank. If anyone has a clue what I am on about advise on that would be good.

Enough of my witterings so early in the day, thanks for taking the time to read this.

Mandy

You shouldn't add anymore fish until you know what you've already got And the orange fish sounds like a fancy goldfish.

Pictures of everything (including the filter etc) will be helpful. And if you have to take all the decor out then so be it. The fish will be fine for 20mins while you take pics.

And the black sponge is activated carbon. You only use it for removing chemicals like medication from the water. The rest of the time it serves little to no purpose and it only lasts for a few days anyways then it's just regular sponge.

The black one has just come out long enough to see it, it is long and shape and features of a cat fish , also has cream stripe along its side all the way to the tail and is more brown that black

All very exciting, daughter doesn't want to go to school now

Thanks again
Mandy.

If you go here which shape would you say it most resembles...http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/families.php

Catfish could maybe be a humbug catfish or a Sorubimichthys planiceps.... don't know really. Need a bit more to go on such as size and shape (referring to the link I posted).

some quick snaps to help

1st pic you can see both the fish that stay down the bottom

2nd pic the big goldfish

3rd pic poor attempt at one of the spots

I apparently don't have permission to look at them... any chance you can upload to photobucket.com then paste the urls?

dont have a web folder unfortunally , there were displayed a minute ago but have gone back to the none permission status , will try to sort something else later

Photobucket is free, and you can then store all your photos online. To be honest when you keep fish it's very useful/fun to have a photobucket account to show them and your tank off. Alternatively upload onto imageshack and then paste the urls here. I don't think you even need an account on imageshack.

quick try of another pic


nope dosent like that either

I do think it'd be a million times easier to fill out the new account form on photobucket and then upload your photos. Alternatively you can e-mail me via my account, attach your images to the e-mail and then I'll upload them for you?

try this
photobucket link

added the orginal pics now so photos 1-8 are a better size to view

Gold fish is a parrot fish, a very nice looking parrot fish actually I don't normally like them.

Black fish looks like a bristlenose to me...

Are those the only two fish in there? And is it a 24" cube?

Overall I've gotta say 1. Very nice looking tank and an absolute stunner for free! 2. Kudos on the pictures, they're really clear. The catfish is a bit hard to make out so if you could steal it's hiding places for a few mins to get a proper pic that'd be great, but I do think it's a bristlenose.

Edit: Just noticed the 3rd fish which looks like some sort of synodontis maybe...