Small freshwater fish

[ClownLurch]

I’ve been reading more about them, 6/10 would be a good number for my size tank I’ve also found a sort of local supplier 1 hours drive called sweet knowle aquatics? Never heard of them, family business with good reviews as far as I can see.
They may be a good choice yet.. hope they can eat the small snails I don’t mind catching them on cucumber slices to help

Sweet Knowle are good.

 

[Naughts]

Sweet Knowle are fantastic. Scenic drive too.

 

[WetPetMum]

they do appear to come across as being very good.
I’ve decided on the fish now I’m going to go for 6 x Rosy Loach and 6/8 celestial pearl danios as they both live together in the wild
Doing my water change tomorrow as the nitrate is getting quite high, I might put some bottled plain water in to see if I can dilute the nitrates in my tap water? Will test it again on Wednesday and see where I’m at.
Last water change the day before I had 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 40/60ppm nitrate
Day after I had ammonia and nitrite readings of 0.25?? No idea why that happens? Tap water has no ammonia but 20ppm nitrate.
Today again 0 ammonia and nitrite 40ppm nitrate.

 

[Byron]

I’ve been reading more about them, 6/10 would be a good number for my size tank I’ve also found a sort of local supplier 1 hours drive called sweet knowle aquatics? Never heard of them, family business with good reviews as far as I can see.
They may be a good choice yet.. hope they can eat the small snails I don’t mind catching them on cucumber slices to help

This is not in the best interest of either species unfortunately. You need to have 10 of the loaches for their well-being, which is OK here. You need 20 of the Celestial pearl danios for their well being. These numbers take into account the inherent requirements of the species.

The nitrate is too high for the fish being contemplated. Different species are affected differently by nitrate, and both the loach and the CPD are more sensitive. Nitrate in the tap water is one issue, and unless that water is diluted or other action taken, this is not going to lower in the aquarium. But it will increase, from the sound of things, and this is dealt with by more frequent water changes (keeping in mind the 20 ppm already there), substrate and filter cleaning, not overstocking and not overfeeding, and live aquatic plants, floating being ideal for this (and benefits for both fish species too).

@Essjay may know something of Knowle, I'm in Canada and never heard of them.

 

[WetPetMum]

This is not in the best interest of either species unfortunately. You need to have 10 of the loaches for their well-being, which is OK here. You need 20 of the Celestial pearl danios for their well being. These numbers take into account the inherent requirements of the species.

The nitrate is too high for the fish being contemplated. Different species are affected differently by nitrate, and both the loach and the CPD are more sensitive. Nitrate in the tap water is one issue, and unless that water is diluted or other action taken, this is not going to lower in the aquarium. But it will increase, from the sound of things, and this is dealt with by more frequent water changes (keeping in mind the 20 ppm already there), substrate and filter cleaning, not overstocking and not overfeeding, and live aquatic plants, floating being ideal for this (and benefits for both fish species too).

@Essjay may know something of Knowle, I'm in Canada and never heard of them.

Thanks Byron I’m so glad I found this site.
My tank won’t get fish for at least another three weeks.
I cycled upto 4ppm without any water change, when I got 0 ammonia and nitrite I added two Amano and did a 25% water change, that was a week ago.
So one water change so far as instructed by aquatic habitat, I’m changing out another 25% this afternoon and will test again tomorrow.
I agree with you about the pearls, I kind of thought 10/12 would be plenty. which is a shame because they’re so pretty, such a shame that certain info on the internet doesn’t match. I’ve been sort of dissuaded by the pearls after more research last night as I don’t think I can afford anymore plants, and they love the cover.
Back to the drawing board for now..

 

[Essjay]

I think @AdoraBelle Dearheart has mentioned knowing fish shops at the Bristol end of Gloucestershire. I'm several hours drive away so I have no idea of shops in that area, I'm afraid. (It takes 5 hours each way to visit Monmouthshire relatives, too far to go fish shopping )

 

[Cato]

Have you thought of adding a spray bar to your filter

 

[Naughts]

SWEET KNOWLE AQUATICS ONLINE SHOP

Welcome to the Sweet Knowle Aquatics Online shop. ______________________________________________ We are a family owned and family run business situated just outside Stratford-upon-Avon in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside. We are dedicated to providing top class fish and plants which has...

shop.sweetknowleaquatics.co.uk

They are an online family run shop in Warwickshire, they are also open to the public.
They ship ethically (licensed couriers only) and do not stock balloon fish, glofish, hybrids like parrot fish, nor do they sell tank busters/ monster fish.
They breed a fair proportion of their own stock such as endlers strains and dwarf cichlids.
I won't go anywhere else for fish as this is the only place that has never sold me diseased fish.

 

[WetPetMum]

Have you thought of adding a spray bar to your filter

not sure what that is? I have a fluval u2 and I can select where the flow comes out top bottom or the holes in the middle which I thought was a spray bar the shrimp seem to like it at the top.
I’ve also got one of those air tubes with multicoloured lights on which I’m going to swap out for an air stone.

 

[Byron]

The filter (Fluval U2) is fine for this tank. It does not have a spray bar feature (according to their website), but this is a small tank and that is not a problem. I believe you can adjust the flow from the filter return (where the water comes out). This will depend upon the fish. Most nano fish will not need strong water currents. Usually, you want sufficient surface disturbance (created by the positioning of the water return) which will provide good gas exchange (oxygen/CO2) but not strong currents in the tank itself.

 

[Essjay]

I think the U series has 2 outlets, one at the top and one at the bottom. Using just the upper one to create surface disturbance is all you need with sedate fish.

 

[Essjay]

Re the spray bar, that term usually refers to a long tube with holes in it attached to the filter output but in the case of the U2 they use that term for the series of holes in the filter casing between the upper and lower outlets.

 

[WetPetMum]

Re the spray bar, that term usually refers to a long tube with holes in it attached to the filter output but in the case of the U2 they use that term for the series of holes in the filter casing between the upper and lower outlets.

I had it on the series of holes between the upper and lower outlets, not sure the shrimp liked it much, they’re much happier with it coming out of the top

 

[WetPetMum]

Today I went to get some spring water for the tank, the idea was to drop in a bottle every two days but that’s just two jugs and I normally remove around 14 jugs of water each time, so I swapped out 8 jugs in total, will test again tomorrow and see how the no3 is doing..
I may still get some celestial pearls and leave the loach for now, the website aquavisor says I’ll be at 43% stocked with 13 pearls and to do a 10% change weekly, I’d stick to the 25% weekly and see how it goes, I can always get more if they’re unhappy, but from what I’ve read the schooling wears off in a tank over time.

 

[WetPetMum]

Today I went to get some spring water for the tank, the idea was to drop in a bottle every two days but that’s just two jugs and I normally remove around 14 jugs of water each time, so I swapped out 8 jugs in total, will test again tomorrow and see how the no3 is doing..
I may still get some celestial pearls and leave the loach for now, the website aquavisor says I’ll be at 46% stocked with 13 pearls and to do a 10% change weekly, I’d stick to the 25% weekly and see how it goes, I can always get more if they’re unhappy, but from what I’ve read the schooling wears off in a tank over time.