Marine vs Freshwater???

[Jodie]

We have just purchased our first aquarium.

We would like to keep the more colourful variety of fish i.e. Clown Fish, Powder Blue Tang etc.

However we understand that these fish require a salt water environment. There a a few questions we need help with...

1) Will our tank / equipment handle saltwater: We have 125 litre tank with filter heater and pump?

2) If so what treatments must we use?

3) As first time aquarium 'owners' is having this type of aquarium realistic??? Or should we stick to fresh water - what are the pros and cons?

4) If freshwater is better, can you recommend some colourful fish to start with?

Thanks in advance for your help, I'm sure we will have more questions! )

 

[smithrc]

Hi - not meaning to be nasty, but as a beginner - a marine tank is not an easy thing to do.

If your looking for colourful fish that are easier to care for - you could try Chiclids.

They are a fresh water tropical fish that have great colours

 

[OrkyBetta]

Marine tanks are a pain for a beginner. It takes an advanced fishkeeper to have a marine tank.

If you want colorful fish, guppies, chiclids, tetras, mollies, or danios and the like are good choices. Take a trip to a few local fish stores and see what interests you in the freshwater fish aisles.

 

[Bloo]

I suggest you ask the same question to they guys & girls over in the salty section They will almost certainly advise you to consider and proceed with extreme caution if you are entirely new to fish keeping. It can be done, but at great cost (financial) and lots of trial and error. Not really the kind of thing a complete novice fish keeper wants to deal with

I agree with Smithrc that Chiclids would be the way to go - malawi's are very colourful indeed

 

[vantgE]

As said itn is incredibly unrealistic but not impossible with a tonne of research and alot of money you could start off in marine,

But you don't have nearly enough equipment for that, even for a 35 gallon tank in marine your budget should be well over $1000 your limited to only a few fish and maintenca is at least double time


As said a malawi mbuna tank would work out great. These are some very colorful fish to try an intwernet search on or check out the african cichlid section of the fish index on this page

For fresh watter treatment all you should need is a dechlorinater
Consider somewhere between 3 or all of these fish

4 Labidochromis Caeruleus

4 Psedotropheus acie OR Pseudotropheus Saulosi

4 Iodotropheus Sprengerae

and a peacock

 

[Jodie]

Thankyou so much to all that replied, we are finding it so helpful. We have decided that freshwater is definately the way to go.

We loved the suggestions on the fish to have, the number to have in our tank size is something we may need help with also. We have aRio 125l, 81 x 36 x 50cm, 2 x 18W tank.

We have been looking at some freshwater fish and there a a few we particularly like...

Siamese Fighting Fish - We have read you can only have one male???
Honey Gourami FIsh
Dwarf Gourami
Kissing Gourami

The aquatics centre where we got our tank, advised on 6 zebra tetras to start with then add other fish gradually?? Why would this be advised??

Could you advise on whether

1) The fish we have seen are suitable and if so how many should we get.

OR

2) Would the list of Fish posted in reply to my first question be better?

THankyou again!

 

[Bloo]

OK first things first
There are two ways of getting a tank ready (it's called cycling) before introducing fish. But before you start doing this, get yourself a test kit that will measure PH, ammonia, nitrites & nitrates. Depending on where in the world you live, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals have a very good range.

The first (and best) way is a fishless cycle (done by adding ammonia on a daily basis until the bacteria in the filter is built up).
See more here about doing a fishless cycle.

The second way is by cycling with fish and this can really be started with some hardy fish such as danios within 24 hours of filling the tank with water, heater, dechlorinator etc.
Start by adding a couple of fish a time - no more than that. And increase the number of fish slowly once a week.

And lastly, here is a very good article on basic water chemistry - something I've found very useful

Hope that helps and it's not too much information overload to start off with.

There are loads of "pinned" topics that are very useful. The "search" function is also a great tool

Good luck !

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Thankyou so much to all that replied, we are finding it so helpful. We have decided that freshwater is definately the way to go.

We loved the suggestions on the fish to have, the number to have in our tank size is something we may need help with also. We have aRio 125l, 81 x 36 x 50cm, 2 x 18W tank.

We have been looking at some freshwater fish and there a a few we particularly like...

Siamese Fighting Fish - We have read you can only have one male???
Honey Gourami FIsh
Dwarf Gourami
Kissing Gourami

The aquatics centre where we got our tank, advised on 6 zebra tetras to start with then add other fish gradually?? Why would this be advised??

Could you advise on whether

1) The fish we have seen are suitable and if so how many should we get.

OR

2) Would the list of Fish posted in reply to my first question be better?

THankyou again!

Yes, you can only have one male and they shouldn't be kept in community tanks either. They should have their own tank of 5gallons or so.

Gouramis are nice fish but some can be aggressive and the kissing gourami gets very large and aggressive (9", someone on here had one).

You were given good advice. Cycling, as discussed by bloozoo, can be done either with artificial amonia or with hardy fish. Zebra danios (I assume that's what they/you meant) are often use for the second one. You need to produce a little amonia in the tank (well, not you! lol) so the filter will begin to house bacteria. Over this time amonia will be converted to NitrIte and NitrIte to NitrAte (this process contuinues when the tank is running) but in the begining the bacteria needs to grow and this take time. Putting a few small hardy fish in gets the bacteria going but not too much to cause problems.

Once the tank is cycled (you'll know by a nitrAte reading, nitrate can only be removed with water changes) you can add a few fish at a time taking care not to overload the filter and let the bacteria catch up.



125litres is 27UK/33US gallons. I am not sure if you are aksing how many zebra danios you should get or how many you can put in the tank. If danios 6 should be fine. If the other, that is more complex. Different fish reach different sizes and have different compatibility. It's important to not overload one area and have a good balance between top, middle and botom dwelling fish so to not overcrowd.

How many fish basically comes down to which ones you want.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gazman]

OK first things first
There are two ways of getting a tank ready (it's called cycling) before introducing fish. But before you start doing this, get yourself a test kit that will measure PH, ammonia, nitrites & nitrates. Depending on where in the world you live, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals have a very good range.

The first (and best) way is a fishless cycle (done by adding ammonia on a daily basis until the bacteria in the filter is built up).
See more here about doing a fishless cycle.

The second way is by cycling with fish and this can really be started with some hardy fish such as danios within 24 hours of filling the tank with water, heater, dechlorinator etc.
Start by adding a couple of fish a time - no more than that. And increase the number of fish slowly once a week.

And lastly, here is a very good article on basic water chemistry - something I've found very useful

Hope that helps and it's not too much information overload to start off with.

There are loads of "pinned" topics that are very useful. The "search" function is also a great tool

Good luck !

Jodie as a beginner myself, i can vouch for all the above info!! I feel i had some duff info when we 1st got our aquarium 3 months ago. I have learnt more in the last 2 days than i have in the 3 months! I got the exact test kit that bloozoo recommended. Luckily all my levels were ok, and they are getting better.

All the questions i have had have been answered and answered well here, so i recommend this place.

Good luck with everything and enjoy!

 

[vantgE]

I am going to mention that you won't need the ph tester your tight on cash, maybe just amonia and nitrite