What Fish To Buy?

[angelkatelyn]

hi everyone my tank cycled about two weeks ago and we bought fish from petsmart then as well, unfortunately all ill, only ones that have survived are platies and guppies, so any suggestions as to what fish are compatible with them, me and my partner were going to get 4glass catfish as he likes them, any other ideas? i like cichlids will they be suitable when there eggs hatch or too aggresive to other fish??
thanks in advance Rach

 

[angelkatelyn]

oh i forgot to mention tank size is 200L

 

[meguro]

You could put a whole bunch of different fish in with platties and guppies, they're more or less ideal community fish. You should find out which cichlids interest you and post back.

Also, adding your tanks dimensions, and pH and hardness of your water, would help quite a bit.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Rachel!

I took a look through all your threads here on TFF so far and I'm concerned that (possibly anyway, I could be completely wrong, lol) the issue of truly cycling your tank and perhaps fully understanding testing and the nitrogen cycle have somehow always been skirted around ever since you got here. Having a really good working biofilter and a real feel for testing and the nitrogen cycle is something we work pretty hard on in the beginners section with newcomers. Most, if not all, of the fish illnesses and deaths discussed in your threads seemed like they could have been related to lack of true cycling.

Did you eventually get a good liquid-reagent test kit (perhaps the one many of us like and use, the API Freshwater Master Test Kit?) How did you end up cycling your filter, was it a Fish-in Cycle? Most of those take at least a month or longer and I'm wondering where we are in your time frame? Did anyone ever carefully go through your different types of media with you to be sure there's nothing in your filter interfering with having a good biofilter?

Sorry to be off-topic from your question.. there are many good fish one might discuss to go with platies and guppies, but I just was concerned maybe we should give these basics another go or a check or something? I'm sure the members here will help me, most of them know this stuff too.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[angelkatelyn]

tank dimensions im not to good with, i no its 50cms wide, 100cms long and thats about it, its fair size one,
i like black convict cichlids, is there any others that would be better? we like colourful fish so its nicer to look at.
Ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate 10, PH - 7.5-8, KH i dont no, i dont even no how to test that i just have liquid test kit

 

[waterdrop]

We can help with tank dimensions and water volume if you have a ruler in cm or inches. Its a pretty fundamental thing for us all to start out knowing your tank dimensions and volume for sure.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[meguro]

zzzzzz
She gave us total volume and 2 dimensions. Her tank is 100cm long, 50cm wide and 40cm high, with a volume of 200L. Easy. =)

 

[angelkatelyn]

hey waterdrop thanks for ur concern. yes i have had alot of problems with cycling, originally was a platy cycle - so fish in lol, then everything was fine apart from nitrite, only slightly high so man at shop said it would be fine to add more fish, which we did, problem was 2 died morning after we got them back and me and my partner pointed out one other fish looked ill in shop (apparantly it wasnt), since then the others went to, i presume from whatever the two original ones had, the confusing thing is - we took fish out and put them in another tank as cycle went mad and re-cycled, water was perfect wen we put them back in and the last two fish went last night, thats what made me think the others must have caught whatever the original two had, iv had tank about 4weeks now, cycled about 2, as other fish were moved in other tank to re-cycle, checked water yesterday with the liquid testing kit and
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
PH - 7.5-8.0
K.H - ???

does that sound ok? the man in shop said platies were hardy fish so would be good to get during cycle
four fish we got are still going strong but in other tank, 1 blue rainbow,fighter, 2 algae loaches


lol thanks guys

 

[sic0198]

Angelfish are suitable as with most dwarf cichlids. Kribensis Cichlids. Convictd are quite aggressive. Rams are suitable. Apistogramma's are good for a community setup.

 

[angelkatelyn]

ok thankyou, will these cichlids look after there eggs and babies for first few days or eat them?

 

[meguro]

You need a source of ammonia for a cycle to be able to complete. If there are currently no fish in the tank (which sounds like it) and there hasn't been for a week (which also sounded like it), you're back at the very beginning again. Sorry.

Maybe waterdrop would kindly divulge into further detail?

 

[angelkatelyn]

no we took the fish out for a week, the platies and guppies are in the tank. the man at fish shop said ammonia and nitrites had to be clear when its cycled and read 0 on colour chart and it does

 

[waterdrop]

Thanks for clearing that up meguro, sorry, didn't mean to be boring and put you to sleep, lol! OK, great, 200L is a nice size!

And Rachel, also apologize if I'm belaboring the question of cycling!

Four weeks is barely enough time to be barely cycled from a fish-in cycle, let alone 2 weeks, so I'm not sure what the reference to 2 weeks is referring to? The one set of stats is great (no ammonia or nitrite, other stats good) but one set of data doesn't actually tell one enough to know if a filter is really cycled. If you could go a whole week without water changes and continually have stats like this when taken daily and taken with a good test kit, then I'd agree you're cycled.

Just sort of going on about this because the LFS people have already made a mess out of your first fish purchases and its not entirely clear from the posts whether us TFF members have managed to make sure your system is well-cycled yet either! A tank that's only 4 weeks to this world is not one I'd expect anyone to be likely to be adding fish to very much yet.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[angelkatelyn]

i think i get why ur confused lol, when i meant i bought the fish and they died i meant angels and rainbow fish lol, not platies. they'v stayed alive the whole time and been brilliant, so it wasnt the platies that died. incase iv confused u more ill copy and paste bit i mean lol:

only slightly high so man at shop said it would be fine to add more fish, which we did, problem was 2 died morning after we got them back and me and my partner pointed out one other fish looked ill in shop (apparantly it wasnt), since then the others went to, i presume from whatever the two original ones had, the confusing thing is - we took fish out and put them in another tank as cycle went mad and re-cycled, water was perfect wen we put them back in and the last two fish went last night, thats what made me think the others must have caught whatever the original two had, iv had tank about 4weeks now, cycled about 2, as other fish were moved in other


it was the batch of fish from petsmart we got that died, the platies and guppies from garden centre are all still alive and well thats why i thought it was an infection in fish not problem with water?

i think iv just confused everyone more lol

 

[angelkatelyn]

ok thanks WD, well i put the fish back in tank yesterday and before i tested water yesterday i tested it 2 days before and stats were the same without doing a waterchange in between, i thought it was ok? ill give u a few ideas of how we tried getting tank in cycle which will hopefully help.

we did 25% water changes every week and washed filter in old water like it says to keep old bacteria and keep cycle in progress
* we added denitrol like shopman said and the dechlorinator, and biological filter supplement after every change
*when we added plants or decor we washed them thoroughly first - we have real plants for more oxygen.

also we aren't getting fish until wednesday so we can see over next couple of days if water stats stay the same, its monday here btw in case anyones in america and its a diff day (dont no time diff lol)

have we done anything wrong or been given wrong info??thanks alot for ur help everyone much appreciated