here are my tanks, please help

[aquatic-Bizkut]

as you can see those are my tanks, i do work at a petstore, but however, i work in the dogs section, not the fish, so i have started this new expensive hobby and people at work are very helpful, and same here, thanks to you guys who helped me before on the forum... B)

well i have some questions for you, mostly about my second tank, its got two amazon swords ( the little one grew off the big one, so i cut it off and placed it in the center, kinda next to me drift wood) the other amazon sword is in the far right back corner, my other live plant is in the up close right corner, not sure what it is, it was potted, but cant tell what it is, can you? the other three are fake, (grass, big sword, little red plant)

and i have 25 gallons in my second tank( the one im typing about )
i have a 15 watt lightbulb, which says it works for both plants and fish... and i will be getting my first fish on monday (tiger barbs, clown loaches, silver dollars, red tailed shark, ect.) but here are the real questions...

CO2:
- what is it
-what does it do
-do i need it
-is it expensive
-where do i get it

lighting:
-do i have enough lighting

rocks:
( have gravel, but i want larger stones (maybe 2'') for decoration )
-should i get regular oval shaped rocks out of the ground and clean them
-should i get pond rocks (rocks that are in a small lake already)
-is it necisary to spend money on these, or can i get em' for free

plants:
-can i get live plants from a local small lake
-do they have to be store bought?

drift wood:
-can i get a good piece of regular drift wood from a lake side shore
-can i get one from a lake and clean it well, will that work
or do i have to get it form the store (the fake stuff)



please help, it took me forever for this thread, but please help me out, this is all the questions i could think of for now... thank you for your kindness its apreciated

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I love your tanks

and i have 25 gallons in my second tank( the one im typing about )
i have a 15 watt lightbulb, which says it works for both plants and fish... and i will be getting my first fish on monday (tiger barbs, clown loaches, silver dollars, red tailed shark, ect.) but here are the real questions...

Have you cycled your tank yet? This means more than just letting the filter run for a few days, you need to grow good bacteria in your tank before you add the fish or else you will end up cycling with fish, which can kill them.

Second, the clown loaches and silver dollars would get way too big for your tank, as well as silver dollars are impossible to keep with plants from what I've heard as they seem to be living lawn mowers. Before you buy any fish perhaps you could list what all you would like to get and then we could save you a lot of hassle by mentioning any problems with any of your selections? Fish look easy but you would believe some of the nightmares people have run into by sticking together the wrong fish, or not realizing how big or the behaviour of the fish they've selected until it's too late.



CO2:
Can't really help you on that, as I don't really know for sure myself lol.

lighting:
For fish, yes, plants, no. If I remember correctly the rule is divide your watts by the gallons in your tank, for low level plants it's like 2 watts to the gallon, high light plants 5 watts to the gallon, but I'm still not entirely sure about the whole light deal....

rocks:
( have gravel, but i want larger stones (maybe 2'') for decoration )
-should i get regular oval shaped rocks out of the ground and clean them

You can, IF they are the right kind of rock. There is a pinned post about testing rocks out for the tank, but I don't know exactly where.

-should i get pond rocks (rocks that are in a small lake already)

You can, but you should scrub them first with very hot water, then make sure they are the type of rock that can go in the tank.

-is it necisary to spend money on these, or can i get em' for free

Depends, sometimes you find a really neat looking rock on the bank of a creek, but at the store you can sort of have a choice of colors and shapes... It really depends on how you want your tank to look, and how much you can spend.

plants:
-can i get live plants from a local small lake

Depends on where you live, I don't think coldwater plants do so well in tropical waters, of course, I could be wrong.


-do they have to be store bought?

No, but you have more of a selection, and possible less chance of some fish killing/eating/just annoying pest catching a ride in, although it can still happen with store bought plants.

drift wood:

-can i get a good piece of regular drift wood from a lake side shore

Yes, but you'll need to scrub it and bake or boil it before it goes in the tank. Certain woods don't do well in aquariums and can make a mess.

-can i get one from a lake and clean it well, will that work
or do i have to get it form the store (the fake stuff)

Yes. If you do get it from a store you usually have two choices, real wood that is already boiled and stuff, and realistic plastic poly/whatever stuff that can look very real as well.


Hope this helps...

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

ninja..................i love you


you helped quite alot, i have been thinking, i love clown loaches soo much, they look like tiger barbs, and work well with them, but i will look into it, and probably not get them...... same with silver dollars....

here is the list you asked for: the fish i would like to get for my 25 gal.

tiger barbs
silver dollers
clown loach
rainbow shark
rad tailed shark
zebioouse fasciouse (not sure how you spell it, its a bright yellow fish with many black stripes, kinda like a shark lookin thing)
crab(s)
pacostimist, rubber lipped
angle fish (maybe, hard to keep alive)
and bunch more, but i will narrow it down, please help me do so..!

thanks for your help mr. smurf

 

[simonbrown403]

Your tanks look good..............

like said above stay away from silver dollors, they dont mix with plants........ also like the clown loach and silver shark they will grow quite large.

Co2 is an important part of plant growth but it is not nessasery, you will find thet some plants will grow well for you and some wont, you just have to find the ones that will.

adding co2 can be a tricky business if your not sure on your water chemistry........ it is ecencal to understand the relasionship between PH and KH... http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

ROCKS i,ve used rocks from rivers and the sea... all you have to do is test them with viniger to see if they fizz... if they do dont use them as they will alter you PH..... boiling them is the best way to clean them.

PLANTS i have used them from ponds and rivers myself, but be carefull you can bring things into your tank you dont want, ie parasites.... i,ve had personal exsperance with dragonfly larve.. which are preditors to small fish, i lost 3 tetras befor i noticed.

BOGWOOD personaly i'de forget it unless your sure of what your doing....... the wood you use has to be full dead, the sap in live wood will posion your water.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I know red tailed sharks can sometimes be grumpy and you can usually only have one per tank, grow I think to 5 or 6 inches, and may bully other fish. Angels would be nice, but your tank has to be at least 18 inches deep for them, as they grow very tall, and I don't think you could have them with tiger barbs, as the barbs are very nippy towards anything with longer fins. Plus, if ou would want barbs, I believe six is the minimum to get, as they can be terrors if in smaller groups. I don't know anything about rainbow sharks except they might get big too.

Pleco-wise research them throughly before you purchase, as most of them get very big, as much as a foot or two. Bristlenose plecos, clowns plecos and I believe bulldog/pitbull plecos (they vary on the exact name) stay a decent managable size, clowns like company or other clowns and they need to have wood in the tank. The only thing with plecos of any type is the fact that they are poop machines, so having a lot can limit your choices on other fish.

Crabs.... if it is a fiddler I will tell you right now you won't be able to do it, I got my brother two of these before finding out they are actually brackish (last time I don't research before buying lol). I'm not sure what all crabs there are that are freshwater and won't pick off any of your fish if they get the chance, I'm sure someone would be able to help you on that.

The zebra thing... I have no idea

The thing is, you can only stick so many fish in a tank, they each need a certain amount of room to be comfortable, plus remember, they poop in the water, so too many and your tank will be a cesspool. Don't think I need to tell you fish won't last long this way. Basic rule size-wise is any fish two inches or under you can use the inch rule, one inch of adult size of fish per gallon of water. So, say, guppy, inch and a half, would need at the least a gallon and a half of water. However, it needs more swimming room than just a gallon and a half, so you would stick it in something that small.

This inch rule doesn't really work on anything bigger than two inches, because there is no way you'd be able to fit a ten in oscar in a ten gallon.... (though some people have tried )

I'd check out all sorts of fish before deciding on any, I know what it's like to get some fish only to find out about a fish I would have liked even more but didn't know about when I first started up.

Oh, and read about doing water changes and syphoning gravel, those are huge things to do when you have a tank.

 

[WILDER]

Great looking tanks well done.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

thanks for all your info, yeah our shipment of fish comes in tomorow, and i will be getting these for starters...

for my community (already have around 10 inches of fish)
-2 red fire dwarf guarmi's (around 2'' fullgrown)
-2 african dwarf frogs ( around 2'' fullgrown)
-1 rosy barb (around 6'' full grown)

so that is around 20 inches right there, but i will be ading a newt and a pacostimist later on, i heard if you have a air pump it can double the rule (2 inches a gallon) and that is probably true, its not just the size of the tank that matters, its the air in the tank..... so i have a 15 gal. air pump.... works well with the fish.

in my semi - aggressive tank, i will have these following fish:
-1 rubber lipped paco. (around 5'' full grown)
-2 red tailed sharks (around 4 1/2'' full grown)
-6 tiger barbs (around 3'' full grown)
-1 dwarf puffer (around 1'' full grown)
-2 blue paradise guaramis (around 2'' full grown)
-1 leporiurus Fasciatus (around 7'' full grown)

that is around 43'' in my 25 gallon tank, but remember the rule with a air pump and enough air plus space is 2'' of fish per gallon..so that will fit right??....

i will most likely by the barbs and the red tailed sharks first for my semi aggr. tank

and buy the whole list for my community to add them in with the fish i have now......does that sound good, hit me up with comments... thanks for all your help you have provided..

 

[cheekeyarab]

I have never heard anything about the airpump idea. It sounds strange to me so I will be interested to hear responses.

As far as I can gather it is possible to "overstock" a tank but it is a technique that comes with experience. You need to have the right combination of fish and also the right ratios in the three layers (bottom, middle and top) as you wouldn't want to crowd the sections.

I would advise you not to buy any fish until others have had time to respond to your last post. I only have experience of the fish I have so unfortunately can't help you on your choices although I have read puffers can be dodgy.

I love your tanks and hope you semi agressive tank comes together well for you.

Good Luck.

 

[qwikimpss]

Your plans for the 25, sounds VERY overstocked to me. With semi-agresive to agressive fish the inch per gallon rule doesnt really work. You need to look at the temperments of each speciaes of fish and the final size they'll get to (IME Tiger Barbs are easily a community fish). I feel that tank would be trouble waiting to happen. And, rosy barbs are a schooling/shoaling fish, with one it may be nippy, unhappy, show crappy colors, be skittish and suffer.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

alright thanks for your replys and comments, i will not be getting all the fish today (truck comes in soon, cant wait) but i will most likely getting 6 tiger barbs, and 2 red tailed sharks for now, and some fish for my community, i will slow it down a bit.... i apreciate the comments, although i still need some more information..... all info from ranges of people would be great... thank you for all your help!

 

[SarahBravo]

Dwarf puffers, in fact any puffer, needs to go in a tank only with other puffers (and some of them won't even tolerate each other!). All you'll find is that the puffer terrorises the small and medium size fish (even if it is smaller than them) and when it tries to bite chunks out of the bigger fish (cos it will) they'll kill it. They are also sensitive to water quality, so a definite no-no for a new tank even on their own.

Have you read the threads on cycling here and here? You must either prepare your tank before you put fish in, or add a few fish very very slowly. You will part ways poison these fish if you choose to cycle with fish, so you must take it slow and easy otherwise you will all out kill them!

I'm not sure fish and frogs and newts will all go well together in one tank, you'd be best posting a question in the amphibian forum asking about that.

A good rule with most fish is "if it can fit it in it's mouth it will eat it" so putting a 7" fish with a 1" fish means a tasty snack for the 7" fish and bye bye dwarf gourami. Of course this isn't applicable with every fish, so either research every fish you want in depth, or use this rule to avoid casualties of war!

I know how exciting it is with your first tanks and how badly you want to put fish in. But it is also heartbreaking when they get beaten up or killed by other fish or die from disease because your tank wasn't ready for them and weakened them.

Please take it easy adding fish, do as much research as possible, and keep up with your good start, which was coming on here and asking questions!

 

[RabidChild]

alright thanks for your replys and comments, i will not be getting all the fish today (truck comes in soon, cant wait) but i will most likely getting 6 tiger barbs, and 2 red tailed sharks for now, and some fish for my community, i will slow it down a bit.... i apreciate the comments, although i still need some more information..... all info from ranges of people would be great... thank you for all your help!

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From everything I have read you should NOT get two red tailed sharks. They are peacefull twords other fish for the most part (when they are young but for a lot of people that changes when they get older) but they are VERY agressive twords their own species and usually other sharks as well.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Um, one more thing to add, make absolutely sure they really are african dwarf frogs and NOT african clawed frogs, or you will have HUGE problems. Dwarves are usually brown and they have webbing between the toes of their front feet, while the clawed frogs don't have the webbing between the front feet and are usually white, not to mention they get pretty big and eat anything they can fit in their mouths.

And ditto about getting two redtails, they work as babies but they get big enough and the fights break out, you'll most likely end up with one dead in the long run.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

ok well today i bought small baby tiger barbs (6 of them ) and i bought two little puffers, the puffers seem fine and they are enjoying the tank greatly i love them very much already, and am confident on keeping them alive.... but i will watch out i decided i will only keep one red tailed shark, and if that works out ok, maybe try another in the future..... i will just conversate at work with my coworkers and see what they think.....

i apreciate the help and was wondering where i can buy some more puffers, of all kinds (for tropical tanks) is there an online site?

 

[OohFeeshy]

You got puffers? Oh dear. What type are they? They should be in a species tank. DON'T get any more fish. Do proper research. Don't just go by the inch per gallon rule. And don't take what your co-workers at the fish department say for law-ever. Ask people who aren't trying to sell you things, like us.