New Tank - Fish And Any Other Advice?

yes you can get a few fish. if i was you, id get 6 of either the cherry or golden barbs if you can find them. you cant really have the cories, they need sand or very fine gravel substrate, your gravel looks to be pretty big and chunky which will damage their barbels. i dont think the M/F ratio matters too much with cherry barbs, certainly my 4 males and 1 female dont have any problems. i think if i was you id get 6 cherry barbs next, leave it 5-7 days, then get 6 rummynose tetra.

the other fish you've mentioned, rams - bolivian rams are much easier to keep and less picky about their water conditions. at first bolivians look less interesting than german blue rams, but after having both id rather have bolivians now. GBR's are hassle unless your tank is tailor made for them. plecs, dont buy a common or sailfin plec, they will get huge. the most likely plec you see in shops is a bristlenose, which will be fine in your tank, though personally i find them a little dull. you could also have clown plecs or pitbull plecs if you find them. if you wanted to spend a bit of money, more exotic plecs can range from 20-200 quid+ easy. plecs need bogwood to eat. rainbow fish - some can get quite big, too big for your tank, so check this out first. i dont know about rainbows though, i think bosemani rainbows will be too big, you can get dwarf rainbows though.

I shall go and get some fish this afternoon, in that case (if they'll sell any to me!).

Two questions: do you disagree with the seller who recommended neon tetras as the best for tolerating unstable water conditions? He wouldn't recommend anything else, even when I mentioned that they're known for being sensitive. He said they are, in some ways, but they're good when it comes to ammonia shifts.

My bigger concern is the ph. I added the buffer yesterday and then, last night, read several articles about how sudden ph shifts can be deadly for fish. My tap water shouldn't be quite this alkaline all the time. Even so, I fail to see how treating the tank once could have a permanent effect, particularly if I then do a partial water change. I will get a test done first and I'll probably pick up some ph test strips (despite reading that they're unreliable - liquid tests are out of my budget).

Moochy - I'm thinking of adding more gravel. The plants don't have enough to root into properly at the moment - getting the current plants to stay in was a Herculean task (one would stay in but then another would pop up). I did wonder about getting a finer gravel but was advised against it as it'd get dirty quickly, apparently (the result of putting fine on top of coarse perhaps?).

I had a pleco years ago but I can't recall the type. Shame about the cories.

Is your tap water 7.9 too?(pH) if your pH is stable at that then I wouldn't mess with it really, you'll just have to look at fish more tolerant Of harder water. Mine is the total opposite, so soft and acidic so I have opted for fish which thrive in this, no mollies for me!

I prepared a sample of tap water overnight. I'll take it for testing today, along with more of the tank water. The IFs knows my area and said that such high ph is very unusual. It's known for being a hard water area though. I'm hoping I didn't fill the tank on a day when they'd treated the local water supply in some way. Another possibility, I suppose, is that we have a limescale build-up in our plumbing system.

Are some fish more tolerant of ph shifts than others?

I'll replace some of the water now, and get before and after samples from the tank. The IFs will think I'm I obsessive at this rate (3 samples to test!) I'm a little terrified of buying and then killing fish.

everything ive read on this forum suggests neons are not stong fish these days. overbreeding and interbreeding to keep up with demand have weakened them. i put 7 neons in my tank after it had been running a year, all my stats where fine. a week later i had 2 left. its possible some got eaten, but i pulled 2 out that ahd no obvious reason for death, and actually caught one taking its last breaths when i got back from work. again, no apparent reason for dying. conversely, i still have one left, doing fine. they really arent a fish i would risk unless absolutly positive my water is fine and ive had the tank running a while.

in my excperience the cherry barbs are hardy little fish, mine have put up with quite a lot, and i havnt lost any. i have to admit, i was oing to tell you earlier about the ph thing, but i think somebody else mentioned it. adding chems to take your water away from what it naturally is is a total minefield. as mentioned ph change can be pretty vicious to a fish, more so than temp change i think. to be honest, i have never tested the hardness of my water, and only tested the ph once or twice. its another thing that may get frowned upon, but i dont really consider it when buying fish. certainly not common, everyday fish. i think my water ph was in the low 7's.

im not even sure what ph buffer is, but ph and hardness i think can be changed with things like bogwood, coral sand, almond leaves, pinecones. all things that get left in the tank as decor. i dont know how they affect, i just know they do.

who told you fine gravel gets dirty ? they're partially right, but only because with your coarse gravel all the uneaten food and fish poo vanishes into and below the gravel. so it might look clean, but it very definitely isnt. at the other end of the scale, if you have sand ALL the uneaten food and poo sits on top, in plain view. good for tank cleanliness, because what you see is what there is. no hidden surprises under the gravel. how much you see depends on the fish you have and how many. i have a lot of catfish, which are messy, so my sand is far from spotless. a normally stocked tank which is looked after should look fine though. its easy to clean. my water change is actually just how long it takes to hoover the debris off the bottom. if i cant see any mess, it generally means there isnt any.

if you want to change to sand or finer gravel, nows the time to do it before you have any/too many fish. argos playsand, 3 quid a bag. give it a thorough wash in a bucket in the garden, running a hose in teh sand, just agitate it so the run off takes the dust. you wont get it all, but it helps. it will make your water cloudy for a bit, its no harm though and will subside. remember, if you add the wet cleaned sand into your tank, it will be icy cold, assuming youre using a hose from an outside tap.

I now have 8 cherry barbs — 4 males and 4 females. They'll be entering the tank once their hour of gradual acclimatisation is over (about 20 minutes from now). Lovely, healthy little fish.

My tap water comes out at ph 7.9, after being left overnight. The tank is slightly lower than that. I'm thinking that I'll leave it at that level rather than creating unnecessary problems.

I've decided to keep the gravel that I have, but I might add a little more to it.

Thanks again for your advice thus far — you're a very, very helpful group of people.

That's a good idea to just stick with the pH you have! Plenty of fish who like that pH and it's so much easier than constantly battling to keep it lower.

Cherry barbs are lovely fish so you should have fun watching them

Wow — I expected them to be shy at first and to hide in the plants. Far from it, they immediately began exploring and they've now covered every nook. I took this video of them when I first put them in (the photography bulb I've been using blew part way through filming this. I had to switch to an overhead desk lamp — still waiting for the LEDs). http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgoNzM3xo3c

thats great. just keep an eye on them, id probably do about a 50% change every other day for a week or so, just to be extra sure the filter is up to speed, then get some more fish, and repeat the changes for maybe 4 or 5 days. unless they start showing signs of being uncomfortable. you will very quickly learn whats normal and not normal behaviour of your fish. if they aren't acting like they usually do, somethings wrong but a water change will probably cure it.

LindseyH said:

Wow — I expected them to be shy at first and to hide in the plants. Far from it, they immediately began exploring and they've now covered every nook. I took this video of them when I first put them in (the photography bulb I've been using blew part way through filming this. I had to switch to an overhead desk lamp — still waiting for the LEDs). http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgoNzM3xo3c

Click to expand...

You have to love Cherry Barbs! Good luck with them. I love mine.

The fish still appear to be very happy and the males, in particular, are behaving as I've read that they should (chasing each other and following the females). I'll certainly follow your advice, Moochy, as regards water changes and the next group of fish.

I think I'm becoming addicted to fiddling with the tank. Now that there's not much to do other than to monitor, I'm finding myself wanting to add more plants!

The cryptocorynes appear to have grown rather a lot and the stems are quite long. I thought they'd stay small but send out runners! I'm guessing it's because they haven't had much light. The elodea are rather droopy. When I did a water change, several of them floated to the surface, along with a couple of the vallis (I'd hoped they'd have rooted).

This is how the tank looks now. What do you think? Is it looking good in terms of the set up? How overgrown will this become and should I add different plants? We'll probably get some floating plants but I thought we'd wait until we have fish that need them.

I bought some test strips yesterday. This is today's result. Am I right in thinking that, without fiddling with the ph, kh, etc, dwarf gourami and rams (even bolivian rams) will be out of the question? Or should they, despite the theory, be ok? Are there other, bright and unusual fish, that'd be better suited to this type of water?

Sorry for all the questions. My daughter is browsing fish on Google again and I don't want to get her hopes up. I decided that I'd ignore the PH readings but those sad smileys on the test strip are haunting me. The lowest of the pink readings (GH) did have blue in the middle at first. That disappeared after ten minutes.