Newbie Needing Advice

[consultantwan]

Ok, we are complete novices at keeping tropical fish.
Any advice about with regard to our current set-up's would be greatly appreciated.

We have a 120 litre tank which is home to:

3 Silver Dollars (1 is 4" and 2 are about 1")
1 Parrot Fish (3")
3 Angel Fish (all about 2")

we have some bogwood, rocks and artificial plants in there with them.

We also have a 80L tank which is home to:

2 Blue Lobster (crayfish.. we are in the UK so presumably these are redclaws?) (currently Little H is about 3.5" and Houdini is about 4.5" after a moult)

in this we have a deep layer of medium pebbles on the bottom (Little H likes digging) and lots of rocks and tall plants (Houdini likes climbing)

Houdini moulted (if thats the right word) for the first time last week, Little H hasn't yet. We have had them for 4 weeks.
They seem happy with a diet of flake food, the odd algae wafer and cucumber now and again.

Had a quick read through this forum and it appears we need some kind of iodine supplement?? So will be looking into that tomorrow. Anything else I need?

When we bought these we were told that they would be fine in a community tank (soon became apparent that wasn't the case.. when Houdini began climbing the plants and laying in wait for passing fish!) Luckily no damage was done as the lobsters were not quite big enough to do any damage.
We were not advised of any supplements and were told to just feed them "whatever we fed the fish"
On reflection, I think we were told what they thought we wanted to hear and not the facts (If they even knew them!)
Still, we had grown rather attached to the little fellas so we purchased a tank for them and they seem quite happy.

Would love any advice anyone can give with regard to the best care we can provide for the Blue Lobsters (Crayfish?) and also advice on how many more (if any) fish we can have for our 120L tank and advice on which fish would fit well into the community. (The parrot fish is the dominant one in the tank, though he chases rather than attacks and as yet has never actually harmed any of the other fish.. he also only seems to behave that way if someone is looking in the tank and one of the other fish comes to the front.. almost jealous behaviour lol)

Sorry for the essay!!

Regards.

S & T

 

[mommyof2bettas]

the only advice I'll give you is to cycle your tank.
You really should have cycled it before adding any fish, cycling makes water safe for fish, if water isn't cycled the fish will become stressed and probably die. So it would be best to rehome the fish, and buy some more when the tank is cycled, or do a cycle with fish (which might result in some fish deaths ) Look at the pinned topic on cycling for more info.

 

[consultantwan]

the only advice I'll give you is to cycle your tank.
You really should have cycled it before adding any fish, cycling makes water safe for fish, if water isn't cycled the fish will become stressed and probably die. So it would be best to rehome the fish, and buy some more when the tank is cycled, or do a cycle with fish (which might result in some fish deaths ) Look at the pinned topic on cycling for more info.

we did cycle before adding the fish.. and had the lobsters tank set up for two weeks before we moved them into it.
Sorry didn't think to mention that.

cycling and water levels etc we have found plenty of info on.

just not sure on how many fish, what varieties etc we should have. Our main problem, i guess is that we are not sure how big any of our current fish will grow.
Don't trust what we were told in the fish store as they told us the lobsters only grew to about 6" max and from what info i have gleaned online it's more like 8-10"

 

[matt295]

do you have any bottom dwellers for your 120 litre like plecos, cories, suckermouths, those kinds of guys? if you dont you should probably get some becasue they are a big help.

 

[piratedninja]

just not sure on how many fish, what varieties etc we should have. Our main problem, i guess is that we are not sure how big any of our current fish will grow.
Don't trust what we were told in the fish store as they told us the lobsters only grew to about 6" max and from what info i have gleaned online it's more like 8-10"

they do that so you buy more fish and hope that your fish die so you go back and buy some more
the best thing do to is do your research before you go buy fish
i tell people to go make a visit to the store first and write down the names of the fish they like then go home and do some research on them
this way you know some info about the fish and it will help you decide which ones to get

 

[consultantwan]

do you have any bottom dwellers for your 120 litre like plecos, cories, suckermouths, those kinds of guys? if you dont you should probably get some becasue they are a big help.

we don't no, thank you will look into some

they do that so you buy more fish and hope that your fish die so you go back and buy some more
the best thing do to is do your research before you go buy fish
i tell people to go make a visit to the store first and write down the names of the fish they like then go home and do some research on them
this way you know some info about the fish and it will help you decide which ones to get

Thank you.

 

[dwarfgourami]

do you have any bottom dwellers for your 120 litre like plecos, cories, suckermouths, those kinds of guys? if you dont you should probably get some becasue they are a big help.

I would be careful with dishing out advice like this without specifying: most plecos commonly on sale grow too large for a 120 ltr tank- a common plec would spell disaster here. If by suckermouths you mean Chinese algae eaters, they are not suitable for a community tank. And cories, though very charming, are only of "help" with anything if you overfeed, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.

Nobody has mentioned it yet, so I will just ask consultantwan- what are your future plans for the fish in the 120 ltrs? Silver dollars grow so they will need a bigger tank eventually. I believe the same applies to the parrot fish, though that probably doesn't need quite so much space.

With the angel fish, look out for territorial problems if two of them pair off.

As for the blue lobsters- have you checked out or invertebrates forum below? There are some very knowledgeable people there, and I'm sure I've seen blue lobsters discussed in there before.

 

[consultantwan]

do you have any bottom dwellers for your 120 litre like plecos, cories, suckermouths, those kinds of guys? if you dont you should probably get some becasue they are a big help.

I would be careful with dishing out advice like this without specifying: most plecos commonly on sale grow too large for a 120 ltr tank- a common plec would spell disaster here. If by suckermouths you mean Chinese algae eaters, they are not suitable for a community tank. And cories, though very charming, are only of "help" with anything if you overfeed, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.

Nobody has mentioned it yet, so I will just ask consultantwan- what are your future plans for the fish in the 120 ltrs? Silver dollars grow so they will need a bigger tank eventually. I believe the same applies to the parrot fish, though that probably doesn't need quite so much space.

With the angel fish, look out for territorial problems if two of them pair off.

As for the blue lobsters- have you checked out or invertebrates forum below? There are some very knowledgeable people there, and I'm sure I've seen blue lobsters discussed in there before.

Thank you!! I really appreciate that, will have to do some very thourough research regarding this!

We also have a 240L tank and a 420L Tank which we will set up some time in the future once we have completed some house renovations we are having done. The dollars will most certainly be moving eventually as we were aware they gre substantially bigger than they are now. I wasn't however aware that the parrot would.. I have never seen any very much bigger than he is now so that info was very useful.. though in all honesty he would have probably moved with the dollars anyway as he has been with our larger dollar since they were both very small (with a previous owner) and they kinda hang out together.

I did a lot of reading in the invertebrates forum last night and it had a lot of conflicting advice really.. just different peoples opinions. I'm confident that we have water levels good and food right.. just need to do a little more research on supplements really, they are moulting etc which they don't do in the wrong conditions, so i guess for now we have it right.

I think we will maybe hold off getting any more fish at all for a while.. need to do a lot more research first!!!

Thank you!