Betta and Friends

[bsemantic]

I am fairly new to fish and very new to forums. I started with one betta 4 or 5 years ago. I bought one for my daughter and absolutely loved them ever since. I have always had one. I kept them in a one gallon bowl. Well a few weeks ago I happened by a garage sale. I got a 29 gallon tank with an eclipse lid for 20 dollars and a beautiful wrought iron stand for 10. I couldn't pass it up. I don't alot about aquariums, but this seemed like a good deal. I also got a box with gravel, pump, bubbler, plants for free. I moved my male betta in the tank. A few days later my friend gave me a black gold fish. I have since added about 15 ghost shrimp, 3 velvet red swordtails, 4 black mollies, and 6 zebra danios. They are all getting along fine. Any more suggestions for my underwater town? There's still room.

 

[William]

I would not add anything for a while try this article: http/fish.orbust.net/cycling.html you need to stock up slowly this means no more fish for a while at least If you do some tests and some water changes your existing fish should make it through, check your ammonia and nitrIte levels... welcome!!

 

[Tanked]

bsemantic, I high recomend heeding Williams words. you definately want the tank to cycle before adding more stock. enjoy the forum there is alot of great information here

 

[Pufferpack]

Welcome to the forum bsemantic, and welcome to one of the classic newbie mistakes, 2 days after setting up our first 10 gal tank we had 23 fish in it. We got lucky and found a wonderful forum like this one and only lost about 6 of the original 23 (although we now have 6 tanks up and running), looks like you have the same luck, there are some great folks here who not only enjoy helping and learning from each other but like to have fun as well.
As William says check out the article about cycling and things should work out well...enjoy the forum and have fun

 

[bsemantic]

Thanks all. I guess I just got too excited. I did a water change and will do them daily, until it settles down. I keep hearing that I shouldn't put the goldfish in the tank because it is a coldwater fish. I live in South Florida and my tank water stays at a constant 76 without a heater. So if I move him out of the tank he will still be in the same temp of water. Does it matter?

 

[cichlidmaster]

Welcome bsemantic,

Hope you enjoy your time with us.

IMO (In My Opinion) since your water stays a constant 76 degrees, it should not matter.......HOWEVER the black goldfish (probably a black moor) may look at your neons as a snack!!

Although goldfish are not known to prefer a meaty diet, they like most other species may not pass up an opportunity to eat!! Also the black moor will grow somewhat large (up to 6" or so) and will be a very messy fish as goldfish are.

May want to look into another tank down the road for keeping goldfish. Most goldfish keepers recommend a minimum of 20 gallons of tank space per adult goldfish to keep them healthy and happy.

Again welcome and enjoy!!

CM

 

[Kim]

I feel a little out of place, being my first night in here and all, but it sounds to me like you, as I have too, got a little fishaholic. I am by no means an expert, but, I think you have a tad too many fish in there. This is especially true when starting a tank. Unless you had help (say with some old or dirty gravel from , a friends tank) I fear you may have some problems. Even with an established tank it is unwise to add more than 5 small fish at a time. While I think the danios (a very hardy fish) and the betta may fair well, I wonder if the rest will. I also have never kept mollies, because of the fact that they do best in very hard water. I would make sure that the rest of the inhabitants had similar needs. Different fish from different parts of the globe have very different water needs. The sad thing is a lot of people do not know this, and a lot of local fish stores disregard this in order to sell the fish. You are definitely on your way though by coming into this forum. Looks pretty good to me so far. Good luck.