Some Questions...

[Erica86]

I realize that the topic is for "freshwater" tanks, but I was wondering if you guys also know a lot about saltwaters, because I am also very interested in starting one of those soon. I realize they're time consuming and expensive, but they're absolutely beautiful.

Other then that, I have a 30g tank of which just finished its cycle about a week ago. I wanted to get some cool fish in there like the Discus for example and stuff like that. I was just wondering what a good mesh of fish would be, I have 5 sword tails, 2 red tails, 3 ghost shrimp, a plec, and an elephant nose and a catfish. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Erica

 

[Irishfishowner]

What type of set up are you looking to do ? Are you hoping to keep a brackish set-up,a community set up,south american etc..

If you decide the type of set up you want you can work from there,also you water parameters will help influence your choice of fish.

Gavin

 

[Erica86]

I was going to do another community tank. My last tank sprung a leak, near the bottom so most of my fish died, but I wasn't completely settled with it. I have a decently planted tank, about 6 plants, and some rock caves. Its "natural" I guess.

 

[Irishfishowner]

red tails ? Are these red tail catfish ? I hope you know the size these guys get to?

 

[Erica86]

I think that there actually called red fins, they are black(gray)fish that have all red fins. Do you know what I am refering too? I can try and get a photo, they're kinda cool

 

[james_fish]

I think that there actually called red fins, they are black(gray)fish that have all red fins. Do you know what I am refering too? I can try and get a photo, they're kinda cool

Maybe the sharks? Red tail or Rainbow. Pray to god they aren't Red-Tail Catfish

I wouldn't add Discus to the 30gal setup either. You'll need AT LEAST a 60/70 gal for a few adults.

James

 

[Erica86]

I think it is the shark... also, do you know of any like.. out of the norm, kinda fish I could add to my tank? I don't like most tetras, guppies, and stuff like that... they're kind of boring, even though that doesn't make sense. Its kind of why I was considering getting another tank and trying to do a saltwater. I love their colors, I love the coral, the live rock, and the marine aspect of it all. Its so much more in depth.

 

[hillmar77]

I know there is alot of people setting up a African Cichlid tropical fish tank. mbunas, Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika have really colorful fishes but you need to do alot of work to set it up. Discus is also a good choice but they can run you up to 200 dollar + for a good size adult one that has a really nice color scheme from a reputable breeder and since you need a group of them say 5, that could ring up the total to over a 1000 dollars. Another high demand sought after fishes are pleco's if you want to go that route too, L273 Titanic, L330 Watermelon,L190 Red eye royal, and of coarse the sought after Golden L 56 ( cost about 250 dollars each) . I mean there is alot of rare and beautiful fishes if you go tropical freshwater too but like marine fishes there is a hefty price tag attached to them.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Erica86 and welcome to our little beginners subforum!

I was thinking about your query up there and about this thread and I realized a lot depends on your experience. People come in to our freshwater beginner section with all sorts of very different experience, which makes it hard sometimes to know whether one is giving the best advice or the right comments for the query. In my own case I had the weird combo of having many prior years of basements full of fish tanks, some breeding and a lot of reading and trying, but in fact I had been away from the hobby too many years and was really a beginner again when it came to many of the modern things of the hobby that are very helpful and core to the hobby.

All that's just to say that if you happen to be inexperienced in the hobby in general then we might advise caution on a number types of tanks and approaches that you are discussing. Discus tanks, tanks with some of the more rare species and certainly the entire marine hobby could all fall under the heading of "Advanced" or at least "Intermediate." Of course, terms like that are usually generalizations and one can't rule out the really ambitious beginner who truly has the energy and means to go directly in to the more difficult things. But -usually- the caution is well-founded in that its very, very easy to get discouraged in this hobby if you get yourself in to the more difficult fishkeeping situations too early and grow frustrated when the results turn sour. Just plain community freshwater fishkeeping takes a whale of patience and work. Intermediate and advanced problems can go way beyond that!

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to press forward for about 2 years (I find this a good learning period) purposely practicing the keeping of what would be considered a relatively easy freshwater setup, then what happens is that you can have some very happy success and be kind of subconciously absorbing a set of basic skills in the hobby. Then, when you branch out, you'll find you can recover better from setbacks or problems that occur more often from the more advanced attempts.

We have some great stocking members who frequent here and I'll bet they can dig up some rather nice and unusual freshwater fish (perhaps some dwarf cichlids of various types?) that are both unusual but would also qualify for getting through those first couple of years. Then if you were still really strong on the hobby, you'd be set with the skills to branch out even more.

Now you'll probably tell me I got it all wrong and you've been at it for quite some years! Not to mention that it sounds all preachy or something. Yuck!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome aboard Erica. I am afraid that most of us here in the "New freshwater Tank" area are not much help with your desire for a saltwater tank. The forum does have a well moderated saltwater section where you can probably get all of your saltwater questions answered by people like Simonas, but most of us here have no salty experience to draw on. When it comes to freshwater, I don't think you will easily find a better person than WD to guide you through the early stages of getting your tank up and running.

 

[Erica86]

Thank you, and you all are really helpful. You'll have to excuse the sloppiness of this post because I'm typing it up on my phone. But I have been keeping tanks for awhile so I'm not new but by no means do I know everything. I didn't find any preachyness in your message either I just want a good combination of fish in my tank, like a good combo of top mod and bot swimmers but I don't know of many top swimmers except gormis so I find I have mostly middle and then a shy elephant nose and a busy plec. I have shrimp in the bottom because they were kinda different and I worry if I get a cat that it'd eat em. I was also thinkin a crab or something... Just so my tank isn't like all the others. I like puffers too. I feel like I'm so unbelievably complicated! I guess it's why I'm a woman. Haha.

Erica

 

[Timmy_Bee]

the more 'interesting' fish often mean you have to have a species specific tank. Examples of this are puffers and most cichlids.

Another thing to take into account is where to get your fish from! i'm with you on the dislike of 'boring' fish like tetras (even though i got a few myself...) but the fact is all my LFS's (local fish stores) sell tetras and mollies by the bucket load, and i cant find any interesting fish!

I went down a middle road and got some barbs (check out my pics in the 'memebers fish tanks' sub forum) - these are an interesting species that come in a variety of sizes / colours, but can be kept with (some) other fish - and i can usualy find a new variety when i go to a different LFS

 

[waterdrop]

Reading over your posts again it occurs to me that perhaps it really -is- time for you to explore what would be involved in a medium small saltwater setup (assuming, like most people you will want to limit the expense and time/effort involved.) I could picture you with a 30-40G fairly bare salt setup, maybe one or two large rock decorations and then maybe two large striking (either in color or in unusualness) fish moving about the tank.

I'm not sure whether you could stir up some interest among the salt hobbyists in our marine sections here on TFF, but if you could, I'm sure it would be a reasonable sort of setup to discuss and help you with. Perhaps if you accomplished it you could even come back to this thread a year later and report to other beginners what the expense and effort was like - many would be interested to hear!

Anyway, just a thought, given the interests you've described,
~~waterdrop~~

 

[Erica86]

Hey, the reason I'd be interested in salt is for coral and stuff I love marine biology and how it works. But to respond both post I live in maryland and am fortunate enough to have a house of tropics and they're an awesome fish store. I think marylands the only state with it but I don't know for sure. They have a ton of fish stuff such as coral live rock etc and I like the natural thing as I stated before. I might consider the chilid field before starting the saltwater. I quit working 60 hrs a week and now have so much time I have nothing else to do. So times not an issue now.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

60 h / week. that sounds fun... i dont know how i make it through 35...