Help!!!

[mpeaks]

Hi guys & dolls, I'm new to this game, my names pete, can someone pls advise?

I've been given a fish tank, all setup working, with quite a no.'s of fishes. The problem is I don't know anything about fishes & how to look after them, I only feed them once a day and thats it! o and change the plants inside the tank once a month.

I've had this tank for about 10 months now, surly I have to do something else?
In my tank their is 2 parott fishes, 2 cat fishes, 2 clown loaches, 8 brown fishes, 8 small blue with red stripe fishes and 2 silver fishes. ( sorry, I don't know the proper names, I'm still investigating)
Please can someone point us in the right direction?

 

[b.c.f.c]

do the fish which u have 8 of have blue at the bottem of them then a red strip in the middle and then brown on top?and how big r the silver fish?

 

[mpeaks]

Thanks for your reply, the 8 small ones are I found out called tetra, and the 2 silver one's are called gouramis, so I'm told.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

you need to change out about 10% of the water in your tank every two weeks or so. get a gravel vacuum and use it to remove both old water and dirt from the floor of the tank. when you add the new water, be sure to use a dechlorinator.

replacing plants once a month? i've not heard that before. is there a particular reason you do that?

 

[sylvia]

You'll want to do a 25% water change with de-chlorinated water at a similar temperature to that of your tank weekly. 10% every 2 weeks is realy not enough. How big is this tank? Some of the fish you mentioned get pretty big and will probably need to be re-homed in time. A gravel vacuum weekly is also a good idea.

If you want to take good care of the fish, I'd read through all the links in my signature and the pinned articles in the beginners forum. Since your tank is established, you wont realy need to worry about a lot of the stuff but still try to read it all through and make sure you understand as it's all important for the long-term health of your fish and their longevity.

The red/blue fish are either cardinal tetras or neon tetras - are they blue and red only (blue on top, red underneath) or are they blue red and white (blue on top, and underneath the back half is red and front half white)?. The silver fish, since you say they are gouramies, must be moonlight gouramies or female dwarf gouramies - how big are they? What color are the two long thread-like fins under their heads? How big are these catfish? Can you describe them a bit? Are they active a lot and always looking for food during the day? I'd also like to establish what these 'brown' fish are How big are they and can you describe them a bit more? As for the parrots - you should probably look in the hybrids forum - I'm sure people have posted pics and there's plenty of information. Also, clown loaches get to 12". This should all help you with researching your fish a bit

Good luck! And welcome to this addictive hobby