New Tank What Fish?

[lukegeorge]

I'm a complete Newbie to fish keeping so apologies for my ignorance.

I bought a 60L Tetra Aquarium. It has a pump filter,heater and light. I left the tank for a few weeks to cycle (on the advice of the shop). I then added 3 guppies to speed up the cycling and in the last couple of days have added 2 gouramis (one is a male dwarf, not sure about the other).

The main reason I have got into this is my son (15 months old) really likes watching fish, or at least thats my excuse!

What I want from the tank is lots of colours for my son to watch and for me I want variety and interesting or unusual fish (goldfish/tetras etc being what I would call usual). I'd also like at least one plec/catfish style fish and maybe a shrimp to keep algae down.

My 2 gourami's are so far not getting on so I may be returning one of these to my LFS. Although the advice I got was that these fish would be ok together.

Can anyone recommend fish that would go together and fit the above bill. Apologies for the length and detail of the post but I want to make sure I get this right as I fear I may have already made a mistake with the gourami's.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

 

[fishlover500]

Okay, basically the store screwed you by telling you to just leave it for a few weeks.

You might as well do a cycling with fish apposed to fishless cycling now.

Once those guppies and gouramis have been in there for 4 weeks your cycling is finished.
I have had the same problem with gouramis. Not sure why but one eventually killed the other one.

Guppies- make sure you don't have any females since they aren't as colourful and breed like mad.
If you want breeding make sure you have a breeding thing that floats around in your tank. Also it
might be interesting if they breed but your son may be upset when the adults start eating the babies.

I wouldn't get a standard pleccostomous because they will grow too big for the tank. Instead I would
recommend 2-3 algae eating shrimp. And I wouldn't add the shrimp for 2-3 months.

Some good colourful tetra once you are finished cycling are neon tetra and cardinal tetra.

An okay rule if you have small fish (you shouldn't exceed 2 inches in length) is one inch of fish for each gallon of water.

Hope this helps

 

[locust267]

Hi and welcome to TFF!

Please read this: http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

Your LFS lied to you and your tank will not yet be cycled. Most LFS dont really understand the need for fishless cycling.

The filter needs to build up enough bacteria to cope with the fishes waste products. Just leaving a tank standing and adding nothing will do sod all.

It is highly likely your fish will die in their own waste products (not so nice for a 15 month old) so I would recc taking them back and doing a fishless cycle. If you cant do that you will need to do daily water changes of about 30% maybe even 2x per day. You will also need to buy a liquid test kit API Freshwater Master test kit is very good. This will test for the deadly Ammonia and Nitrite and help you keep track of your water conditions.

If you have one make dwarf and one female dwarf the male will harrass the female until she most likely dies. You will need to add another female to stop this behaviour. Really as you cant get away with adding anymore fish until the tank is cycled these should go back to the store.

With regards to catfish and plecs, you could go for a small group of otto's or a Bristle nose plec, both of which are great at keeping down the algea but BN's poop alot.

Unless your filter is very mature (which it wont be for at least 6 months), has a good filtration rate, your water conditions are good and your environment is fairly natural you should keep up to 1" fish per US gallon. I beleive 60litres is about 15US gallons so you can keep up to 15" worth of fish (not including the tail). This doesnt apply to 2x7" fish lol.

Keep us posted on what you do.

Vicki

 

[brandon13]

you could get some african cichlids they have great colors but they are aggressive so im not sure what they get along with

 

[locust267]

you could get some african cichlids they have great colors but they are aggressive so im not sure what they get along with

Generally speaking Cichlids should be kept to a species only tank with a few exceptions.

Dont cichlids need pretty stable water conditions? If you want to look into cichlids further for their colour I'd pop into that section on this forum

 

[NonstickRon]

Might be a tight fit...

 

[Corleone]

you could get some african cichlids they have great colors but they are aggressive so im not sure what they get along with

Generally speaking Cichlids should be kept to a species only tank with a few exceptions.

Dont cichlids need pretty stable water conditions? If you want to look into cichlids further for their colour I'd pop into that section on this forum

Depends, cichlids are very diverse - some are very sensitive (discus are probably one of the most sensitive freshwater fish in the hobby), some are very hardy. A good few are ok in general tropical communities (angelfish, keyholes, apistos, rams, some others), some are better kept in specialty communities with other fish from the same environment (a lot of rift valley cichlids fall into this), and some - definitely not most, but possibly most of the big cichlids - are best alone or species only.

 

[minxfishy]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Unfortunatley you were given some bad advice, but its not the end of the world, you've also come to the right place to get it sorted out

Have a good read of this link: http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...eady-have-fish/
it will guide you through the maintenance required to get your fish through the cycle of a new tank and hopefully prevent any illness in your fish.

If you dont already have one, can I suggest you buy a good liquid based test kit - API freshwater master test kit is one of the most used by members here as it will give you all the results of your water you will need to help your fish. Its a good investment.

At the top of the 'new to the hobby' section is a beginners resource centre, in there are many topics which are helpful to the new fishkeeper, as well as a species index for fish, which will guide you through the care. size and compatibility of many different varieties of fish, after you have read through some of the species you like, we can advise on the fish you particularly like and could possilbly add to your tank once your cycle has finished

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, welcome to the forum and to fishkeeping

as others have touched on the main issue for you to concentrate on for now is not what fish to choose but how to get the tank cycled, leaving it for two weeks does absolutely nothing. i'm afraid the fish shop has given you some poor advice on this.

the link minxfishy gave earlier takes you through the cycling process, have a good old read of that which will explain some more and then post back if you've any questions from there.

regarding the fish you have already you've not the best selection to be totally honest.

guppies are notoriously weak, they're selectively bred to make all the fancy tail varieties, as a result of this the gene pool has been weakened and they are not very resilient fish. So (while no fish will be 'good' for cycling) they are probably one of the worst fish to be going through a fish-in cycle with. You should try to prepare yourself and your son as some of them may not make it.

the gourami's are relatvely agressive fish, sometimes them being in a pair works but not always, generally it's advised to try a trio (1m 2f) or to keep just a single fish.

In all honesty I would be very tempted to return all the fish to the store and go through a fishless cycle, it's safer for the fish and your son won't have the heartache of seeing his pets die.

sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings

 

[OldMan47]

If you have your heart set on keeping some of the fish while you cycle the tank it can be done. It takes lots of testing and frequent water changes but can be done with good success and without harming any fish. To do so would require you to always change enough water that the ammonia and nitrite levels never get as high as 0.25 ppm. That can be a challenge and will be harder with more fish so you need to decide if it's really what you want to do. As MW suggested, the fishless cycle is much easier except for one point. It is hard to watch an empty tank for a month or more while you do it. More than one gourami is probably not a good choice especially in a small tank. They are territorial and there is no room in a tank that small for more than one territory. As others have noted, guppies are no longer the tough little fish that they were when I got into the hobby. Platies are till fairly resilient which is surprising because I think they have had as much selective breeding done as guppies.

 

[Ficious]

keep your stock light...

i would let your tank keep cycling, and take back the gourami thats not the dwarf...but if you have a dwarf and a honey gourami...decide which one youd rather have because both dont get very big. do your water changes ever other day or so until your readings begin to move. dont add any more fish until then

as for the stock...if you wana do it right, sex your gourami and find out what it is. if you can get a male and a female...you shouldnt have any problems with them fighting.

you can only have unusual fish if your lfs's have unusual fish. (unless buying online)


most petsmarts/co's dont have anything very unusual. sometimes they have bichirs and butterfly fish...etc but generaly its hard to find anything too exciting and unheard of.

family owned or well established local stores will have a variety of good fish...try to find these.



anyway as for fish...

i would say a pair of halfbeaks, which stay only on top 24/7...rarely come any lower...so they only need your surface area


since your tank is on the smaller end id say a small school of neons or white clouds. you could get away with 6 or 7 neons and pry 8 or 9 white clouds

now that top and middle are covered...something to make the bottom move.

a shrimp is a good community critter. blue lobster, vampire shrimp..i dont know much about those two but i have a 4 inch flower shrimp which is awesome. try to stick to the larger individual shrimp, not ghost or cherrys...amano..etc

instead of buying a common pleco or algae eater...find something less common. i have a rubbernose pleco and a whiptail pleco. both IMO look better than common plecs, they dont grow to 24'', and are very peaceful.

now there isnt more very many more you can add...but you could add dwarf or pygmy corys to the bottom...if no corys then maybe 1 or 2 small species of loach.


if you are planning on upgrading to a larger tank in the future then you could add some fish that when in adult hood get bigger. keeping while young then transfering to a bigger tank is possible.

your colorful aquarium fish are going to be

starburst danios, cherry barbs are a very beautiful rose red, cardinal tetras, guppies...most i can think of right now.



good luck

 

[OldMan47]

Ficious, this is a 15 gallon tank. You have it overstocked by 2 or 3 times if I'm reading it right.
No fish until you are cycled and then a slow build to about 15 or 20 inches total of fish would be about it. Almost any gourami is 3 or 4 inches by itself, a single guppy is 1 1/2 to 2 each, a typical cory is another 2 but a pygmy/habrosus/hastatus cory would only count as 1. You can see how fast the numbers add up. The fact that fish spend time at different levels does not reduce their biological load on the tank. It does make the tank more interesting to look at but the total still needs to make sense.

 

[Ficious]

yea my bad...i was thinking it was a 20 for some reason but still got carried away

 

[alysonpeaches]

yea my bad...i was thinking it was a 20 for some reason but still got carried away

When your cycling is complete, your son might enjoy some Mickey Mouse Platys. Both my kids love them, and love looking for the mickey mouse head and ears on their tails. They also seem quite tough.

Also, endlers are tougher than hybrid guppies:

I bought these from a local breeder that I got to know from a local forum. He only charges 50p each, but they are all good strong fish.

 

[tyyrlym]

I have a young son and he loves my aquarium. I'm stocking mine with small colorful fish for just that reason. Platys, guppies, and most tetras stay small and are brightly colored.