Newbie with an aquarium

[zantetsuken]

Hi my name is Matthew and I'm new to having an aquarium. My wife and I just recently bought a 30 Gallon Hexagon aquarium. It is quite impressive just to look at without even putting fish in it. A new Petco just opened up last week near me and we had 40 dollars of fish credit from getting the tank so I decided to pick canidates for a community tank. After the water had cycled I got 5 fish. I should have gotten less at first but I got a little carried away ya know... Anyway, the fish I have now are as follows:

• 1 "Dinosaur" Eel (Some species of Bichir but I have no idea which)
• 1 Common Pleco
• 1 Bala Shark
• 2 Neon Blue Dwarf Gouramis

It's been 2 days now and everything has seemed well except for the Bichir which I had yet to see eat anything. After finding the little I could about Bichirs I learned that they are noctournal so tonight, I plugged in a night light in the room to create enough ambient light to just see him and then put a pinch of brine shrimp in the tank. That's when I saw him pig out which made me quite happy. Anyway as far as the "Dinosaur" Eel part, does anyone really know what kind of Bichir this is that Petco is referring to this way and where I can find a good source of info on how to best care for it. It is the centerpiece of my aquarium which I picked all other fish to compliment it and not become food for it. Anyways I just thought I'd share that and say a hello to everyone.

 

[Alien Anna]

Welcome to the group.

Two questions: firstly, is your tank cycled? (if you aren't sure please follow the link in my sig and read up about the subject).

Secondly, are you aware of the adult size of your fish? Common plecos for instance can grow to 2.5 ft long, silver sharks to 12" long. My additional concern is that silver sharks are schooling fish and should be kept in groups of at least 6, plus they need plenty of swimming room which they can't get in a hex tank. So you will need to consider getting a much larger tank in the fairly near future.

Another issue to be aware of when stocking hex tanks is that their relative surface area is smaller than a standard tank which means they have less oxygen and can stock fewer fish. The old "one inch of fish length per US gallon of water" rule-of-thumb doesn't really apply to hex tanks.

 

[zantetsuken]

Yes my tank is cycled. I tested all levels and they all were good. I'm sure by 6 months to a year I shall have at least a 55 long if not larger. I'm planning on getting at least 2 or 3 Balas in the next few weeks as well. I don't know how much this counts for extra oxygen but I have a bubble wand in the back of the tank. Thanks for your questions.

 

[Alien Anna]

I'm sure by 6 months to a year I shall have at least a 55 long if not larger. I'm planning on getting at least 2 or 3 Balas in the next few weeks as well. I don't know how much this counts for extra oxygen but I have a bubble wand in the back of the tank. Thanks for your questions.

You see some people I know deliberately buy fish too big for their tank so they can con their spouse into getting a new tank ("Well it wouldn't be kind to keep him an unsuitable tank, now would it darling?").

This is the more pernicious version of Multiple Tank Syndrome.

You didn't do this on purpose though, did you? You don't have severe MTS, ofcourse!

 

[zantetsuken]

No I did it with the help of the guy at Petco. Probably he wanted me to get a bigger tank soon as well. LOL