New To Fish Keeping And Need Some Advice

[newtofishs]

I am interested in keeping some fish in my room in a 18L tank. I really would like to keep about 2 corydora catfish and have researched into them and have decided that they will be a nice fish to have. But I have also been told that they can be a bit boring as they like to just live at the bottom of the tank and crawl around so I have been looking into what can live with them. I have found out that yellow acara fish would be a good fish to add to them but I was just looking for some advice to if they would be ok to keep together or if the catfish will get along with any other fairly easy to care for cold water fish? thank you in advance

 

[fluttermoth]

Hi there, welcome to the forum

 
Have you actually bought the tank yet?
 
If you haven't, I would suggest you look at something larger. An 18l tank is very small, and there are very few fish that would live in there happily. It is far too small for most (in fact, probably all) corydoras or any sort of acara.
 
If you have got the tank already, we'll think of something, but you might be limited to a single betta (Siamese fighting fish), ora few male guppies or Endlers or perhaps some freshwater shrimps, but it depends on the actual dimensions of the tank (which are more important for fish than volume, as they all need a certain amount of room to swim around in).

 

[newtofishs]

I havent got the tank yet and there is a 24l tank avalible  which I have thought about i dont really want a betta fish as my friends have had 3 between them and they have all died of fin rot  

Are there any fish who are nice to watch in the tank and will get along with a couple of corydoras?

 

[fluttermoth]

Well...corydoras are very social and really need to be kept in shoals of at least six.
 
Is there no way you can run to a bigger tank; something in the 60-100l range? Even with a 24l tank, your chocesare goingto be very limited. It's basically a betta or a shoal of 5 or 6 small (and by 'small' I mean less than an inch, adult size) fish, like guppies, Endlers or microraboras.
 
It is very common for people who don't know much about fish to have them die of things like whitespot and fin rot. This is nothing to do with the fish being 'weak' or 'poor stock', but the fact that the people keeping them (not to say anything bad about your friends, of course) don't know what they're doing.
 
I expect none of them knew anything about cycling a tank or the nitrogen cycle, or the importance of water changes, things like that. If you keep them properly, bettas are very hardy.

 

[newtofishs]

I really cant get a much bigger tank because I will have no where to put it and my budget is pretty small and I am not offended by what you said because my friends definatley didnt know much about fish they just liked the look of the bettas

 

[fluttermoth]

Fair enough; I know times are hard and a lot of people have limited space!
 
I'd suggest you make yourself at home on the forum. Have a look around at the threads, a read of the things written in the 'Cycle your Tank' sub forum and you'll learn a lot of stuff that will help you when you finally get the tank

 

[newtofishs]

OK thank you Do you think that 2 corydoras can live with 1 micro raboras? thank you in advance

 

[fluttermoth]

No. As I said, corydoras are very social and most people consider it very unfair to make them live in just pairs. Don't forget that these fish have evolved to live in shoals of literally hundreds, or even thousands, in the wild.
 
Same with the microrasboras, except even more so! They are very small and shy. I have eight dwarf emerald danios (they used to be a microrasbora but have recently been reclassified; still the same type of fish, behaviour-wise though) in one of my tanks and, even in that sized group, they are very skittish and don't swim out in the open much. Just one would hide all the time; it might even starve itself to death; they need others of their own kind to make them feel secure enough be out and about.

 

[newtofishs]

What about the common gold fish? what other fish are there that will happily live on there own or in a small group? 

If I got my dads old 50l tank which i could easily use, should I add the 2 micro rasburas at the same time as the corycats?

 

[fluttermoth]

Common goldfish do not belong in fish tanks (well, unless you have the space for a five or six footer, anyway!).
 
Fancy goldfish (that's fantails, orandas, black moor and the like) grow very large and need a tank that is at least three foot and 100l.
 
We recommend doing a fishless cycle (you can read up on that in the 'Cycle your Tank' sun-forum that I've mentioned (it's here; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/291-cycle-your-tank/ ); once you've done that, you can add all your stocking in one go, but only if you've done a proper, fishless cycle using household ammonia and some test kits.
 
And to reiterate; neither corydoras catfish, nor microrasboras should be kept in pairs. They have evolved to live in large groups and it is bordering on cruel to force them to live in pairs.
 
A 50l tank is a good size tank for a beginner and there are quite a few fish you could have in there, but I've been trying to avoid recommending specific species because I don't know the dimensions of the tank, or the hardness or pH of your water.
 
Please have a read through the 'Cycling your Tank' sub forum that I've linked to, because if you don't understand that, your fish will live short, unhappy lives and most likely die of fin rot like your friend's bettas

 

[kiwifeather]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/418749-nano-fish/  <-- A nano fish list that may be helpful!
I really recommend using that 50L tank if you can, gives you many more options. I had a tank a bit bigger than that (60L) and it was brilliant. As fluttermoth said we'd need to know tank dimensions and water chemistry before recommending certain species. Would you be having live plants? What substrate would you be using etc?
All of fluttermoth's advice is good, so I don't really need to repeat it.  

 

[newtofishs]

As I am only 13, I am in top set for science and i understand the pH scale but i dont fully understand the fish less cycle thing I wouldnt have plants that would grow in the tank but I would by some nice plants from the pet shop which my old fish that I had 3 years ago loved  

Thank you so much for that list it was an amazing help  

 

[newtofishs]

Also are microrasboras a breed or are they a group? if they are a group what breeds of fish are there that fit into that group? I will get about 5 then maybe add more at a later date thanks for all your help

 

[fluttermoth]

As I am only 13, I am in top set for science and i understand the pH scale but i dont fully understand the fish less cycle thing

Okay, let me try and explain it simply for you

Fish produce ammonia, in their wastes (like pee and poo). Ammonia is toxic to fish and will make them very sick, or even kill them, if it's allowed to build up in the water.

However, there are bacteria that live by by eating ammonia and turning it into nitrIte. Nitrite is also toxic to fish, but luckily for us fishkeepers there is another family of bacteria that eat nitrite and turn it into nitrAte, which is only dangerous to fish at very high levels. Keeping the nitrate down is one of the reasons we do weekly partial water changes.

Cycling is the process of growing those helpful bacteria inside your filter.

Fairly obviously, you can't get any bacteria to grow unless there is some ammonia in the water for them to eat.

In a fish-in cycle, you add the fish to the tank before any bacteria are there and let the fish's wastes produce the ammonia. The trouble with this is that, while you're waiting for the bacterial colony to grow, your fish are in danger of being poisoned, so you have to do lots of water changes (usually every day, or even twice a day in smaller tanks) and, even with lots of water changes, there is still a risk that your fish will get sick, or even die.

In a fishless cycle, you use a small amount of household cleaning ammonia added to the tank as food for the bacteria. You don't need to change the water often, or worry about any fish being hurt. The bacteria don't care where the ammonia comes from so they will grow away, inside your filter.

Eventually (it does take a few weeks) you be able to add ammonia to the tank and when you test the water a few hours later, it will all have been eaten. Then it's safe to add your fish, as you know you have enough bacteria to eat all the ammonia the fish will be excreting and they won't get sick at all

There is a little bit more to it than I've said, but that should give you a rough idea of how it works.

Apart from keeping your new fish safe, doing a fishless cycle means you can learn all about water testing and how to do water changes (you usually need to do one or two water changes during a fishless cycle, but not every day!) without having to worry if you get it wrong.

Microrasboras are a group, not a species. Actually some of the fish we talk about have recently been moved, from a biologists point of view, to the danio family but we still look after them the same

Some of the most popular ones are; celestial pearl danios (lovely looking, but quite expensive), dwarf emerald danios (a close relation of the celestials and often nearly as expensive; lovely fish though, I have some and I love them to bits, even though they're very shy), chili rasboras (which are a bright red/purple colour), neon green rasboras (silver, with a lime green stripe along the side.

And, of course, there are all the other lovely fish on that list; guppies or Endler's are great if your water is hard (you should know if your water is hard, because you'll get a lot of 'limescale' in your kettle, or on your showerhead) and ember tetras never look much in the shop tanks, but once you get them into a nice planted tank, they glow a beautiful bright copper colour.

There are loads of plants you can grow in your tank and fish do like live plants; they also help a little bit with keeping your water good as well.

Hope that helps some. I know there is a lot to take in when you're new to the hobby, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it

 

[newtofishs]

Ok thank you so so much I understand the water cycle now and have a good idea of what sort of fish I want and how many thank you so everyone