DanioDan
New Member
Hi, I'm new to the forum, just thought I'd say hello and let you in on my albeit odd set up. I've just started to keep fish again after a 15 year hiatus. I've been reading a few posts on here and I've learned a few things, most importantly it seems is this "cycling" - never heard of this before, amazing as it may sound! I kept fish for approx 10 years first time around and never once did I come across this, but this was before the internet (at least for me anyway).
SO this time around I set up my tank as before and started slowly expecting a couple of fatalities (and I did get some) but I put this down to "new tank syndrome" which was all I knew of the cause previously!
My set-up - I have 13 danios, 4 american flags, 2 bristlenose cats, 2 paradise fish and 1 shubunkin - yes I know it's odd, there's a story behind this
My wife decided it might be fun for me to set my tank up again for the benefit of our 3 year old son. I agreed having had many a thought of starting up again over the years but due to work commitments I couldn't do it (working away a lot). So I set the tank up and let it run for a couple of weeks and then we went to Pets At Home to choose some fish, at this point we were arguing over tropical or cold water fish, so as it was there was no heater in the tank, I wanted tropical, she wanted cold water. Well as is usually the way my wife won and we left the store with 3 goldfish (one of which being the shubunkin).
I was still secretly still wanting tropical fish at this point, so the next time we went to the pet shop we noticed that the Danio's were not in heated tanks - this was new to me, I'd always previously had them in a heated tank! So we spoke to the guy at the pet shop and he told us they were cold water fish and that they'd be fine with the shubunkin, now I knew they were comfortable at the lower end of the tropical scale but I didn't know they could live without a heater. So we got a few (don't remember how many) and we slowly kept adding a few more until we had 14. By this stage my wife was starting to get interested in what else could go in cold water and so one day she came home with 2 bristlenose cats. I was a bit shocked as I'd had them before previously and as far as I knew they were tropical.
Meanwhile I had been doing a little research about keeping bristlenose cats in cold water as I just didn't believe it, I read a few things on the internet and I asked in 3 different pet shops 2 of whom said it was ok, the third said 75% of bristlenose cats die early in cold water (where he got this figure from I have no idea), but this coupled with what I had read (that the cats are used to a short spell of cold water during mating season only) combined with what I suspected made sense to me. As it was still summer at this time and the water in the tank didn't feel too cold I dropped a thermometer in just to see what the temp was - it turned out it was 20 degrees C. So at that temperature I guessed there could be some crossover with the upper temp scale of cold water fish and the lower temp scale tropical fish (as I would previously had thought of them), that now seem to be sold as cold water fish! So (sorry - bare with me) I decided as the temperature outside started to cool down and as we weren't using the central heating 24 hours a day, I decided to put a heater into the tank to maintain that previously recorded 20 degrees C, worried that it might get too cold at night or when we were out.
Now these bristlenose catfish were tiny, I mean REALLY small, about 10-15mm long. I wouldn't have bought them this small personally, however there they were and the guy in the pet shop had again assured my wife that they would be fine in cold water. Dubiously I put them into the tank and kept my eye on them. Unfortunately for them whenever they moved away from the bogwood (which I got just for them) they were spotted by the goldfish and soon scurried back, I feared that they were just too small and too scared to move and after a while, yes they both died. Soon they were replaced by another pair of bristlenose cats (much more mature this time) and they're still going strong.
NOW onto the Paradise fish - again I had kept these previously before and again I was surprised to learn that these too were being sold as cold water fish! We told the guy in the pet shop about our tank set up and he said they'd be fine so we got what I hoped were a pair (male and female) but this leads me to another problem, I think the paler one of the two (which we were told was female), is actually a male but the less dominant one of the two as after observing them in the tank, they stay at opposite ends and if they meet the brighter coloured dominant fish attacks the other one, as a result the paler one of the two spends most of it's time hiding around the filter - not sure what to do here! Also I read that Paradise fish are one of the few fish that can catch and eat danio's! - any truth here? They're too small to eat one right now!
Oh and recently we got the American Flag fish as well - same scenario - ok in cold water etc. We got 5 but one didn't look too grand from the start (deformed spine - I should have noticed in the shop!) and soon died.
So there you go folks - sorry it's such a long first post
. I would love to hear views / advice. Can anyone recommend a good test kit available from Pets at Home (most local to me). I'm particulary interested to hear your thoughts on this whole cold water / tropical debate, I don't understand how fish I used to buy and keep years ago as tropical are now being sold as cold water. Also I'm tempted to give the shubunkin away (and turn the temp up a bit) but he seems to be thriving and not bothering any other fish so...... besides him being a "dirty" fish he seems fine as do the rest of them temperature wise. And lastly what to do with the scared Paradise fish? and do they eat danio's!!??
SO this time around I set up my tank as before and started slowly expecting a couple of fatalities (and I did get some) but I put this down to "new tank syndrome" which was all I knew of the cause previously!
My set-up - I have 13 danios, 4 american flags, 2 bristlenose cats, 2 paradise fish and 1 shubunkin - yes I know it's odd, there's a story behind this
My wife decided it might be fun for me to set my tank up again for the benefit of our 3 year old son. I agreed having had many a thought of starting up again over the years but due to work commitments I couldn't do it (working away a lot). So I set the tank up and let it run for a couple of weeks and then we went to Pets At Home to choose some fish, at this point we were arguing over tropical or cold water fish, so as it was there was no heater in the tank, I wanted tropical, she wanted cold water. Well as is usually the way my wife won and we left the store with 3 goldfish (one of which being the shubunkin).
I was still secretly still wanting tropical fish at this point, so the next time we went to the pet shop we noticed that the Danio's were not in heated tanks - this was new to me, I'd always previously had them in a heated tank! So we spoke to the guy at the pet shop and he told us they were cold water fish and that they'd be fine with the shubunkin, now I knew they were comfortable at the lower end of the tropical scale but I didn't know they could live without a heater. So we got a few (don't remember how many) and we slowly kept adding a few more until we had 14. By this stage my wife was starting to get interested in what else could go in cold water and so one day she came home with 2 bristlenose cats. I was a bit shocked as I'd had them before previously and as far as I knew they were tropical.
Meanwhile I had been doing a little research about keeping bristlenose cats in cold water as I just didn't believe it, I read a few things on the internet and I asked in 3 different pet shops 2 of whom said it was ok, the third said 75% of bristlenose cats die early in cold water (where he got this figure from I have no idea), but this coupled with what I had read (that the cats are used to a short spell of cold water during mating season only) combined with what I suspected made sense to me. As it was still summer at this time and the water in the tank didn't feel too cold I dropped a thermometer in just to see what the temp was - it turned out it was 20 degrees C. So at that temperature I guessed there could be some crossover with the upper temp scale of cold water fish and the lower temp scale tropical fish (as I would previously had thought of them), that now seem to be sold as cold water fish! So (sorry - bare with me) I decided as the temperature outside started to cool down and as we weren't using the central heating 24 hours a day, I decided to put a heater into the tank to maintain that previously recorded 20 degrees C, worried that it might get too cold at night or when we were out.
Now these bristlenose catfish were tiny, I mean REALLY small, about 10-15mm long. I wouldn't have bought them this small personally, however there they were and the guy in the pet shop had again assured my wife that they would be fine in cold water. Dubiously I put them into the tank and kept my eye on them. Unfortunately for them whenever they moved away from the bogwood (which I got just for them) they were spotted by the goldfish and soon scurried back, I feared that they were just too small and too scared to move and after a while, yes they both died. Soon they were replaced by another pair of bristlenose cats (much more mature this time) and they're still going strong.
NOW onto the Paradise fish - again I had kept these previously before and again I was surprised to learn that these too were being sold as cold water fish! We told the guy in the pet shop about our tank set up and he said they'd be fine so we got what I hoped were a pair (male and female) but this leads me to another problem, I think the paler one of the two (which we were told was female), is actually a male but the less dominant one of the two as after observing them in the tank, they stay at opposite ends and if they meet the brighter coloured dominant fish attacks the other one, as a result the paler one of the two spends most of it's time hiding around the filter - not sure what to do here! Also I read that Paradise fish are one of the few fish that can catch and eat danio's! - any truth here? They're too small to eat one right now!
Oh and recently we got the American Flag fish as well - same scenario - ok in cold water etc. We got 5 but one didn't look too grand from the start (deformed spine - I should have noticed in the shop!) and soon died.
So there you go folks - sorry it's such a long first post
. I would love to hear views / advice. Can anyone recommend a good test kit available from Pets at Home (most local to me). I'm particulary interested to hear your thoughts on this whole cold water / tropical debate, I don't understand how fish I used to buy and keep years ago as tropical are now being sold as cold water. Also I'm tempted to give the shubunkin away (and turn the temp up a bit) but he seems to be thriving and not bothering any other fish so...... besides him being a "dirty" fish he seems fine as do the rest of them temperature wise. And lastly what to do with the scared Paradise fish? and do they eat danio's!!??
