What Fish To Choose?

[Cazangel]

Hi,

I have just bought my first Aquarium quite a large one too. Some of my friends have had tropical fish in the past and I have set everything up just waiting now till the water is suitable to add fish.

I am stuck though as to which Fish to go for I want tropical Fish and definately a colourful mixture but can anyone recommend what fish will live happily together and still look good?

Any suggestions much apprecaited !

 

[paul_219]

We need to know the size of tank to be able to help you stock your tank.

 

[Cazangel]

It's about 3ft by 4ft and holds I've been told 86 litres

 

[paul_219]

Well u can have some platies guppies neons tetras cory cats.

 

[Azaezl]

Are you sure that's the dimensions? seems a little large for 86 litres, if it was 4ftx3ftx(say 1ft at the least) that's still over 300 litres. Have you got a tape measure? or failing that a ruler? Or if you could tell us the make of the tank we could probably figure out which size it is as most makes of tank have standard sizes. Or perhaps your confusing litres with gallons as a 4ft x 3ft would be around the 80+ gallon mark(depending on the height).

Your choice of fish will depend greatly on the exact size of your tank. Once you know the size that will determine what types of fish you can have as the fish paul mentioned are all great for 86 litres but if you have 86 gallons then you may as well take advantage and have some colourful large fish.

If you take a look at the fish index, look at all the different pictures write down any you like, post it here and we can advise you what will / won't fit in your tank and what will get along.

Also have you cycled your tank? If you haven't or don't know what that is I suggest you look at / do the cycling process BEFORE you get any fish HTH

 

[Cazangel]

Are you sure that's the dimensions? seems a little large for 86 litres, if it was 4ftx3ftx(say 1ft at the least) that's still over 300 litres. Have you got a tape measure? or failing that a ruler? Or if you could tell us the make of the tank we could probably figure out which size it is as most makes of tank have standard sizes. Or perhaps your confusing litres with gallons as a 4ft x 3ft would be around the 80+ gallon mark(depending on the height).

Your choice of fish will depend greatly on the exact size of your tank. Once you know the size that will determine what types of fish you can have as the fish paul mentioned are all great for 86 litres but if you have 86 gallons then you may as well take advantage and have some colourful large fish.

If you take a look at the fish index, look at all the different pictures write down any you like, post it here and we can advise you what will / won't fit in your tank and what will get along.

Also have you cycled your tank? If you haven't or don't know what that is I suggest you look at / do the cycling process BEFORE you get any fish HTH

Thanks for the advice I have Cycled the tank and I have the filter and tempreture set up so that the water will be ready for the fish, I have the tempreture set to 28 degree Celcius that's the advice I was given.

The tank dimensions are 101cm wide , 41 cm deep and 120 cm height it holds 180 litres of water. I have looked at various fish and would like to get some Angel fish and some Catfish for definate which fish will mix well with Angel fish and not nip there fins? Plus once I get my fish how can I tell if anything is wrong are there any clear signs I should look out for in the first 24 hours of putting the fish in the tank?

 

[scouse_andy]

The tank dimensions are 101cm wide , 41 cm deep and 120 cm height it holds 180 litres of water.

Are you sure these dimensions are right? That would mean the tank is taller than it is wide. It sounds like about the right measurements for a Juwel Rio 180 apart from the height, have you included the cabinet in your measurements?

When you say the tank is cycled and waiting for your fish, how are you keeping it cycled? If it doesn't have an ammonia source (fish food/fish waste) then the beneficial bacteria will die off fairly quickly.

28 degrees seems a little high for most tropical fish, but it depends on exactly what is going in there, I keep my communities at 24-25.

I'm not trying to be negative when I write all these comments, just trying to help you to get off to a good start in the hobby. I was a complete newbie a year ago and it is quite a steep learning curve but most people on here are very helpful and generally give sound advice.

Hope that helps.

 

[Meds081603]

I have a bn pleco with our angels. A friend has successfully kept pictus cats with angels. You could possibly do some cories with angels but generally cories prefer lower temps than the angels like.

 

[Cazangel]

My tank is 180 litres I have checked and doubled checked. !!!

I have dropped the tempreture down slightly and its about 26 now. I got all my water tested last night at a specialist shop and my levels are fine I have bought 2 Congo Tetras to start with and plan on adding more fish later on. How long should I leave these two to settle before I buy more fish? I don;t want to leave them too long as I know they like to school so I would like to buy a couple more but they are male and female so should I keep just the 2 ?

I want to get some more fish already but don't want to rush it so what would be good to introduce next ?

 

[mark.w.jones]

Your levels may well be fine, because you hadn't added any fish. If I took a glass of tap water to my LFS for them to test the levels would be fine. This does not mean that my filter has been cycled properly though. How exactly did you cycle your tank? As depending on the method you could be heading for loads of problems. If you've cycled it properly then you'll be fine but please don't think we're being patronising by asking. We just want your first tank to go smoothly.

to TFF by the way.

 

[DarkEntity]

@Cazangel, how did you cycle the tank?

Did you simply leave it running with heater and filter going, if thats the case the tank isnt cycled and you will need to keep a close eye on it now as you have added fish.

 

[Luketendo]

@Cazangel, how did you cycle the tank?

Did you simply leave it running with heater and filter going, if thats the case the tank isnt cycled and you will need to keep a close eye on it now as you have added fish.

He didn't, he doesn't even know what it is.

 

[Cazangel]

To be quite honest I think I will stop posting I understand people may be trying to help but I seem to be just feeling a lot of negativity from this forum and don't feel like this is helping.

I understand that you are all very knowledgeable on this much more so than myself but maybe instead of asking me what I did then telling me I did it wrong maybe you could post up what I should be doing instead so it will help me.

I added my water to the tank and have had the filter and heater running constantly for the last week I spoke to an expert at my local pet store who keep s tropical fish who told me to by Stress Coat and Stress Zyme and add some to the water to help clear the water of any chlorine. On Tuesday I took a sample of the tank water to my pet shop who tested the levels of Nitrate and Ammonia no Ammonia was found due to the fact I didn;t have any fish or living bacteria in the tank at this time. I have an added Nitrate filter which seems to be working fine. They told me to buy two Congo Tetras which are hardy and can start to give me some bacteria within the tank I am feeding them on Micro Wafers and the occasional Blood worms again as told to by the shop. They seem fine at the moment and I plan to take more water to be sampled this weekend to see how the fish have effected the water.

I think personally for a first timer at this I have been really put of by the criticism of what I am doing everyone has to start somewhere and like I said maybe post up what I should do if I am using two fish to start of with instead of telling me to post then criticising my actions.

 

[aitchvee]

Please don't think that everyone on the forum is so judgemental. I agree that posting about someone in the third person on their own thread in that way is pointless and unhelpful.

If you have a browse of the stickyed threads on cycling in this and other sections you'll find some helpful advice - I didn't know much before I started looking at them and they've really helped me out. If I were you I'd buy an API Testing kit - they do the 3 main tests you need to be doing (ammonia, nitrites and nitrate) and test regularly. I reckon you'll need to do frequent water changes until your test results are zero for the first 2. When that happens you have enough bacteria to deal with your fish waste and can think about adding more.

Good luck with your new fish.

 

[Cazangel]

Thank you for that post I do want to get some useful advice but it's so hard to post knowing that I may be doing things wrong. My fish are doing very well and I aren't overfeeding them so they seem to be happy enough. I am going to buy a test kit tonight and one thing I didn't mention earlier is that when I added my tap water before I got my fish I added a water conditioner to take out chlorine then also added something which you may have heard of called Stress Zyme which is a bacteria filtration solution that you add on the 1st, 7th and 14th day this seems to be having a posstive impact to the tank and I will post up later and let you know my results from the water test. Thank you again