I need your advice

[BabbleFish]

ok. My boyfriend, Russell, had a 10 gallon set up with a red tailed shark, three tuxedo platys (i think they were platy's), and a lemon tetra. all of his platys have died, the sunburst before them died, the irridescent shark before him died (i tooooold him to get a bigger tank for the shark ') and he's become very depressed about the entire thing.

so, now he has his red fin, an angel (who will be returned to the petstore soon), and the lemon tetra. He wants to start a new tank. what would be a nice group of peacefull fish for a beginer? preferably some 'lookers' as well.

all suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

~Liz

 

[FishDan]

Before we can really help, we need a little more help first. The most important thing would be the size of the new "bigger" tank. We can't really suggest fish without knowing this crucual piece of information. Let us know, and we'll help you out!

Unless you mean he wants to start the 10 gallon from scratch. In that case I'd get rid of everything but the lemon tetra. He'll only get to about 1.5" so you could have a couple of them. Other fish that are good for 10 gallon tanks include some other tetras, otos, shrimp and African dwarf frogs (of course the last two are not fish ).

\Dan

 

[clutterydrawer]

for a start, he needs to move the red tailed shark to the new tank (which i presume is more than 10g?) because it needs more space.

do you know why the platies died? it might be an idea to sort that out before getting more fishies.

tell us the size of the new tank and we'll think of some pretty fish for it

 

[Vip]

Same question, how big is big? the bigger the tank the more your choice of fish.

 

[BabbleFish]

pfft. sorry, i can be so absent minded some times.

well, in the near future he's going to be setting up a 20 gallon. he(we) *want* rope fish, but at this point i'de really prefer to start a little slower. I'm more of a betta buff myself. but that has nothing to do with it.
How big will the shark get? Russell was under the impression that they only got 3 inches long.

shrimp huh? How hard are shrimp to keep? that sounds like a fun venture.


The tuxedo platys died in this fashion: first they wouldn't eat, then they would hide under plants and towards the bottom of the tank. Two of the three would actually 'stand on their nose' at the bottom. Their fins became shredded over a period of three days and finally the end. Could it have been the shark ? or the angel fish? maybe they became violent because there was not enough room? or just incompatible?


aaaaaanyways. The new tank will be 20 gallons, fresh water, heated and filtered.

 

[clutterydrawer]

a redtailed black sharkr eaches 6", neds quite a bit of space, and can get territorial though I'm not sure if this behaviour is only directd towards its own species or to others aswell.

fish I would recommend fora 20g (off the top of my head...) are tetras, livebearers, otocinclus, corydoras, cherry barbs, checkered barbs, rams (maybe), kuhli loaches and other small loaches, white cloud mountain minnows, danios...

as far as looks go, both cherry barbs and many tetras are very colourful. blue rams are also lvoely but they can be delicate so do your research ebfore getting any.

I'm not sure what was up with the platies though could it have been a water quality issue? cos shredded fins suggests it...unless the other fish were being aggressive. i dunno.

 

[BabbleFish]

frankly, i wouldn't be suprised if it was the water condition. Like i said, we are both newish to aquariums. He got his water tested at our petco twice, and both times they gave us different responces. The first time the guy said that our PH was the best he's seen and that our amonia was through the roof and all of our fish should have been dead (no one had died at that point) And the second time a different guy said our Amonia levels were perfectly fine, but our PH was out of wack. Russell (the boyfriend) ended up spending a pretty penny on all sorts of amonia and ph remedies. We also have live plants in there. i don't know if this has anything to do with anything though.

6 inches huh? gotta love the valuable info pet stores give you on fish. '

 

[clutterydrawer]

I know, it's awful To get a better idea how big fish can grow, check on here first, or look up the info on fishprofiles.com

I would recommend you get your own test kits. IMO they are one of the msot important things you can own, and if you are going to the effort of setting up a new tank you might aswell be able to test your own water. They can be pretty expensive but they last for a long time. You *need* tests for ammonia and nitrIte, and a nitrAte kit would be nice too. pH realy isn't so important but test it if you want.

another thign worth knowing is that pH altering things usually do more harm than good, they can cause mad fluctuations that stress or kill the fish.

have you read the pinned topic in this forum called "Avoiding and Treating New Tank Syndrome"? It's very useful and explains about ammonia/nitrite and what to do about tehm

good luck with your new tank jsut ask if you have any more questions