New To Fish Keeping, My Big Journal

[Anguilla82]

yep totally agree with Tina, all my fish love the flakes.

 

[Sharm]

Yer my clowns seem to love it.

my tank has 2 t5 lights, at 28W each. will this be enough to grow coral? And what is an easy coral to start of with? I was thinking about a toadstool?

 

[rabbut]

In a 125l tank, you'd have enough light there for softies and most LPS, so a toadstool would be fine Toadstools are picky about placement with regards to flow, they need a lot of it, but not directly onto them

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Buddyboy67]

What are these? and are they good or bad?


The one at the front there is quite a couple of these knocking about. And the one at the back, the green see through one there is just one off.

Theres quite alot of this stuff knocking around

Also I saw a hitchiker crab last night, its the first time ive seen it and only comes out at night, but i didnt manager to take a picture of him. It was small and a brown colour?

The top one is banana algae..the other is amacro algae, name escaped me here but will be readily eaten by and veggies in your tank..both are harmless to your system

 

[Sharm]

In a 125l tank, you'd have enough light there for softies and most LPS, so a toadstool would be fine Toadstools are picky about placement with regards to flow, they need a lot of it, but not directly onto them

All the best
Rabbut

Hmmmm, in that case, would you recommend a different softy for my first coral?

What are these? and are they good or bad?


The one at the front there is quite a couple of these knocking about. And the one at the back, the green see through one there is just one off.

Theres quite alot of this stuff knocking around

Also I saw a hitchiker crab last night, its the first time ive seen it and only comes out at night, but i didnt manager to take a picture of him. It was small and a brown colour?

The top one is banana algae..the other is amacro algae, name escaped me here but will be readily eaten by and veggies in your tank..both are harmless to your system

no one seems to want to eat either? also bubble algae is starting to get alittle out of hand. Is there anything that I can get to eat it? clowns, red leg hermits and my snails aren't bothered.

 

[rabbut]

I'm going to pass on the Algaes, but help (or should that be hinder?) with the corals

For good first time keeper soft corals, look at Buttons (zoas), Mushrooms and Xenias. They are available in many colours and forms, each being mainly Photosynthetic, and easy to care for. Xenia will benefit from Carbon and regular water changes with good salt RO, but otherwise they aren't really in need of special requirements in "Low light" tanks

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Buddyboy67]

Add an emerald crab to your set up and it will control your bubble algae for you, also the other two will normally die off over time, however the one in the second pic may be best removed manually as in the early stages of my tank it rapidly choked out some zoas....tangs now devour it on sight so is never a problem anymore

 

[Sharm]

I'm going to pass on the Algaes, but help (or should that be hinder?) with the corals

For good first time keeper soft corals, look at Buttons (zoas), Mushrooms and Xenias. They are available in many colours and forms, each being mainly Photosynthetic, and easy to care for. Xenia will benefit from Carbon and regular water changes with good salt RO, but otherwise they aren't really in need of special requirements in "Low light" tanks

All the best
Rabbut

I'm thinking I'll go for zoas then. Is there anything to look out for when buying them? and how much should I expect to pay for them? I've been looking at the website which I go to, and they range from £15 to £30.

Add an emerald crab to your set up and it will control your bubble algae for you, also the other two will normally die off over time, however the one in the second pic may be best removed manually as in the early stages of my tank it rapidly choked out some zoas....tangs now devour it on sight so is never a problem anymore

Yer the second picture stuff I have now taken out myself because it was taking over, and two snails got stuck in it. Will an emerald brab be okay with the other hermits and snails?

 

[rabbut]

Not much to really say about Zoas. They take a while to fire up properly colour wise, though should open earlyish after adding and range in price by like £10 a specemin to a few hundered...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Sharm]

I went to my lfs and they only had one cleaner shrimp, so I said I'll wait until they get some more, I want 2 or 3. SOOOOOOO, I bought an amzing helfrichi firefish!!!!!! YEY. I just saw her and knew I had to buy her. hahaha. Pictures will be added when I get my camera back.

 

[Sharm]

I'm not sure what to do about feeding now? I have era marine flakes but I also have frozen brineshrimp? Abit of both every day or brineshrimp every other day? It was the first time I fed them brineshrimp and it seemed to go down well, the only problem is that one cube is too big for one sitting? can you just chop the cube in half?

Flow the firefish has settled in now and has made a home under a rock. My only concern is the nemo my hyperactive clown, keeps swimming up to her and making her shoot off. Is this just because she is new and is it a problem?

 

[1entra]

Feeding small amounts but often is the best way IMO. You could always feed a bit of flake in the morning and some brine shrimp in the evening. the only thin with BS however is that it does not contain anything thatwill really benefit the fish so feeding on its own is not advised, but you can always get garlic enriched BS etc tht are better. As far as having the cube goes that is quite easy, you can either cut in half use a pair of side cutters or something similar or hold the cube in your hand as you feed and tanke out the cube and putremainder back in fridgewhen you believe the fish have had enough!

The clown should settle dwn after a day or of trying to show the firefish that it is his territory but just keep an eye on it in case.

Looking forward to th pics.

 

[Sharm]

Feeding small amounts but often is the best way IMO. You could always feed a bit of flake in the morning and some brine shrimp in the evening. the only thin with BS however is that it does not contain anything thatwill really benefit the fish so feeding on its own is not advised, but you can always get garlic enriched BS etc tht are better. As far as having the cube goes that is quite easy, you can either cut in half use a pair of side cutters or something similar or hold the cube in your hand as you feed and tanke out the cube and putremainder back in fridgewhen you believe the fish have had enough!

The clown should settle dwn after a day or of trying to show the firefish that it is his territory but just keep an eye on it in case.

Looking forward to th pics.

okay then, the brineshrimp what i have is a variety pack with different things added to it.
Brineshrimp + Aloe Vera
Brineshrimp + Garlic
Brineshrimp + Omega
Brineshrimp + Spirulina
Brineshrimp ( on its own )

I know what the garlic does, and I know that one of the others helps with the colour of the fish, but not sure which. What do the other things do?

I should get my camera back on sunday, so I'll upload some photos on monday.

 

[Buddyboy67]

the spirulina blend will help with colour to some amount, it' an algae

omega 3 is the benificial component in the likes of cod liver oil and will strengthen their immunity

aloe vera is renound for it's healing abilities and will clean the guts and strengthen your fish

Garlic is for resilience to whitespot, etc..however a lot of research says it is not good for marines and will damagr their liver and kidneys..experts are still undecided on this one yet and it causes a loy of debate at the minute...wombat, a well known marine biologist and fish health expert on many major marine forums is firmly in the anti garlic camp for example.
personally i still use it , but only about once a month

Try a varied diet, not relying soley on brine shrimp , which has limited nutritional value, using mysis shrimp, krill, plankton, asstd molluscs like cockles and mussle, etc...
This will help to bulk up your fish and keep them healthy..

Make flake, marine pellets , etc the bulk of their diet and use frozen occasionally as a treat as these will increase phosphates, nitrates, etc a lot quicker if used daily

 

[Sharm]

the spirulina blend will help with colour to some amount, it' an algae

omega 3 is the benificial component in the likes of cod liver oil and will strengthen their immunity

aloe vera is renound for it's healing abilities and will clean the guts and strengthen your fish

Garlic is for resilience to whitespot, etc..however a lot of research says it is not good for marines and will damagr their liver and kidneys..experts are still undecided on this one yet and it causes a loy of debate at the minute...wombat, a well known marine biologist and fish health expert on many major marine forums is firmly in the anti garlic camp for example.
personally i still use it , but only about once a month

Try a varied diet, not relying soley on brine shrimp , which has limited nutritional value, using mysis shrimp, krill, plankton, asstd molluscs like cockles and mussle, etc...
This will help to bulk up your fish and keep them healthy..

Make flake, marine pellets , etc the bulk of their diet and use frozen occasionally as a treat as these will increase phosphates, nitrates, etc a lot quicker if used daily

Thanks mate, brine shrimp about once a week then sound okay? and flakes the rest of the time. This means the chances are that they will only get garlic once in 5 weeks. It should be better when I get my cleaner shrimp as well, to clean you the lose ends.

I just noticed this morning that the firefish has got abit of tail fin and dorsal fin missing! I'm guessing it must have been nemo, and I've read that if the problem has stopped the fin will regrow. Is this correct? Hopefully Nemo wil settle down. The firefish does seem bothered about it at all, and I haven't seen Nemo go near her at all this morning.