Best Fish For A Starter

[VictoriaM]

What are the best fish to start with. I am a complete beginner as i want a tank i can be proud of. I believe i have a tank that could be anywhere from 20-40 gallon's though i am not fully sure(I am going to get my husband to take some measurements today) I want something that can be hardy but not grow up to be really huge but something that is actually nice to look at(I have had mostly tetra's and guppie's and all though i like them they are never that interesting to look at)

 

[Owen386]

Welcome!

Are You PLanning a Fish in Cycle or Fishless?



-OWen

 

[Lolly123]

Hi,

If I were you, i'd complete a fish-less cycle and recommend you have a little browse if you haven't already, some good info on here.

Some nice starter fish are danios, they are your usual, but very active and playful, they provide a lot of movement and are quite nice to watch when they are zooming about. They don't grow too big and are hardy little buggers. There are quite a few types and look nice when kept in groups, as they should be. Once your tank is over the cycle, you could add a group of danios, wait for your tank to mature a little and then go on to something a little more adventurous.

The only thing I will say with danios is that although they dont grow in to monsters, I find that the more room the better, because they are like fish with ADHD, they dont require masses of space, but I think most fish will always appreciate the extra room, plus it gives you more scope for fish and stocking.

 

[VictoriaM]

I am not fully sure what that is? When i had guppies and tetra's they told me to cycle the tank for 4-5 days. But that's all i know.

I was looking at the danios. They looks like a really cool breed so that is most likely what i will start with. How long should i cycle my fish tank for?

This is the size of the fish tank i have. Up/Down is 18 1/2 inches. Side/Side is 29 5/8 inches and diagonal line is 34 3/4 inches(so i have no idea how big that is)

 

[Joller]

so its about a 2.5ft tank.
you can read about fishless cycles http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861
you can find out alot more by looking through the fish index on this site, it has good info

 

[VictoriaM]

How many fish would i be able to keep in there then? Like if i wanted to get some white cloud or zebra danio. Thanks i will check that out.

 

[minnnt]

Hi Victoria, welcome to the forum! I would suggest a few Mollies and/or Platty's too to add a bit of colour as Danio's tend to be of a similar colour. I had some Zebra Danio's and the blue on them is really intense and vibrant when in good health.

Your tank should be around 120-125 litres i think going by the measurements you have given.(give or take)

If it was my tank i would stock it like this:

6 Bronze Corydoras
3 Leopard Danios
3 Zebra Danios
3 Balloon Mollies

Once the tank has settled in and matured for a few months you could add some neons to add more colour.

I am by no means an expert and people may disagree with my suggestions but i don't see any issues with what i have suggested. Add your fish over a period of time to allow the filter to accomodate the extra waste being produced.


Good luck!!

 

[Lolly123]

To give an overview, fishless cycling is basically using bottled ammonia from somewhere like boots to supply a source of 'waste' instead of putting the fish through a fish-in cycle. With fishless cycling, its actually generally quicker than fish-in because you dont have to do soo many water changes, or risk the health of your fish.

You'll just need to get a good liquid test kit such as API for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH which are the most important ones.

I think if you go down fishless you should bump up your tank temp to about 29 in the cycling phase. It normally takes about 4-6 weeks and then once you are sure the ammonia is being consumed by your friendly bacteria, you should be getting double zeros at the end of the process for about a week before you add stock. The timings of when to add, when to test will be detailed in the guides on this forum, which will go into more detail about the whole process.

As someone else said, to add more colour, you could always wait a while and go for some neon tetras, if you leave enough room for a group of them, they can look really nice. Some people advise not adding these fish until your tank is atleast 6 months old and some people haven't had too many problems. All I would say is, start with something hardier than those and then look at your options once your tank is a little more mature.

What type of filtration will you be running?

 

[VictoriaM]

Someone on another forum sent me a calculator type thing for the size of my tank though it came back that it was only an 8.8 gallon tank but that can't be possible as it's pretty heavy and long.


Thanks i will do the fishless cycle then(makes more sense to me) Not fully sure on that yet. We are heading to our local petstore to see what type of filtration's are the best for our tank.


I have attached a picture of it when it was used for a hamster(a couple month's ago though it's been cleaned out 5 times to make sure nothing was left.

I guess it didn't upload. This can't be an 8.8 gallon tank?

 

[minnnt]

T8.8 Gallons? Thats why you shouldn't go on other forums!

If it is somewhere around the 110 - 125 litres which i think it should be with the measurements you have given (i have a 125 litre tank with similar dimensions.) then this works out at around 25-27 UK Gallons, 30-33 US Gallons. As for the filter system, i would suggest a Fluval U3 or U4 which will have more filtration than you need, but then more is better! These can be had for around £30-£40 depending on the shop and the model. Fluval media is cheap enough when it comes to replacing too! They have an intergrated spray bar also which is a really handy feature for circulation of the water. They're very quiet and really easy to maintain.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and 8.8 gallons is 33 uk litres... or a us tank would be 40 litres.... It sure as hell ain't one of them! lol.

 

[VictoriaM]

Thanks. All of this has helped alot. I plan on getting my tank set up hopefully soon or by the middle of april. When i can get all the parts for it. I am very excited about it.

 

[mhoppe.spink]

I got a used tank from the classified ads and it came with everything i needed. I am also fairly new to being a fish owner, and when i went to PetSmart to ask about the best fish they said ZEBRA DANIOS are by far the easiest. They said that they are hard to kill, and this is TRUE (at least for my experience) I feel like i have put my fish through EVERYTHING and they will not die. Hot water, Cold Water 8+ ppm ammonia, cloudy water, you name it, and all my zebra danios are still alive. I haven tried to kill them, i have just been unfortunate to have these situations happen, but Zebra Danios are the best fish starter fish. Hope this helps!

 

[codheadjohn]

I got a used tank from the classified ads and it came with everything i needed. I am also fairly new to being a fish owner, and when i went to PetSmart to ask about the best fish they said ZEBRA DANIOS are by far the easiest. They said that they are hard to kill, and this is TRUE (at least for my experience) I feel like i have put my fish through EVERYTHING and they will not die. Hot water, Cold Water 8+ ppm ammonia, cloudy water, you name it, and all my zebra danios are still alive. I haven tried to kill them, i have just been unfortunate to have these situations happen, but Zebra Danios are the best fish starter fish. Hope this helps!

Zebra danios prefer cooler water than most tropical fish.

They are hardy little buggers, but that doesn't mean you should abuse them.

about the tank size, the calculations were probably a problem with the units. There's a popular stocking website that always messes up the units when I've put my tank size in. 33 US gallons sounds right to me