What Fish?

[bowya]

Hi all. My girlfriend and I are the proud new owners of an AquaOne 510 - 20 gallon tank.

We're currently doing a fishless cycle and have been told to take a water sample in 10 days time and see if we can introduce some hardy fish.

anywho... we have a rough idea of the fish we want.

5-6 Tetras, neon or cardinal
1 silver/bala shark (or the smaller red fin black shark) I know it's a fairly small tank but it's going to be replaced soon with a bigger one.

We're also looking at clown loaches and "small" angel fish.

Would these be suitable for the tank? And if not what would be better both for the fish and the tank?

As I said please note that we'd like fish suitable for big tanks, but when they grow we will replace the tank when and as necessary.

Any further advice or fish recommendations would be grand!

 

[chibi]

When you say you're going to get a bigger tank, how much bigger? Bala sharks can get over a foot long. You're better off with a red-tailed black shark. They can be slightly aggresive, however. Be careful. An angelfish would be okay, as long as you get a bigger tank eventually. Clown loaches get pretty large as well... I wouldn't get them, personally. Unless you plan on getting a 50 gallon or larger, that is.

 

[bowya]

Well the plan is to get a BIG tank - but I guess it depends on funds

How long (months or years) would I get if I bought several of the "bigger" fish as babies before they outgrew the tank?

 

[45 gallon tank]

i suggest getting the big tank before you add any of those other fish than the tetras in it. Even a 20 gallon is not enough for most sharks, try first cycling your 20 gallon then add the fish 2 by 2 the hardiest tetra i recommend is the black skirts. Then use them to cycle your bigger tank (once you get it). Btw bala sharks are schooling fish and need 125 gallons or more.

 

[Breeze7050]

hello and congrats! Clown loaches are also schooling fish you need a minimum of 3 and preferably 5 or 6 and these babies can grow to about 12 inches in a home aquarium!! So, I would recommend holding off on those unless you plan on getting a very large tank. However, there are plenty of loaches that can start in a 20g and are just as cool. Kuhli loach, yoyo loach, dojo loach ect, ect. just do a search on loaches! As for neons, they are a fairly weak fish and I would not recommend them for starting off a tank. Try something hardier, zebra danios usually work well. Let us know what you decide on and best of luck!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well the plan is to get a BIG tank - but I guess it depends on funds

How long (months or years) would I get if I bought several of the "bigger" fish as babies before they outgrew the tank?

depends on the individual fish, but unfortunately you often don't see that they're struggling in a little tank.

they're growth will become stunted in a small tank so they will stop growing, however this will severley weaken them, they will become prone to disease and will not live anywhere near they're life expectancy.

plenty of people say they're gonna upgrade when they see the fish is getting too big, in most cases you simply won't see it, the fish will just start getting sick and die

really if you want big fish, get the size tank they need as adults and grow them up in there, they'll be much happier

you said your taking a sample of your water into the lfs for testing in a week or so. this has confused me a little as if your doing a fishless ccyle you really need your own test kit. you need to add ammonia up to 5ppm, how are you doing that if you can't test the water? don't mean to be funny i might just be being dim. just wondering what exactly your doing to cycle the tank.

neon's are notoriously weak due to years of inbreeding I wouldn't advise getting them in a new tank.

there are plenty of other tetra's that would be fine though. IMO 20g is a little small for danio's, they like a lot of swimming space. Something like platyies or dwarf gourami's could be good as well

 

[Nerwign]

When I was younger, a pet store opened up near my house, and I went for a visit. They had a massive aquarium, maybe 10,000 gallons, a big cube looking thing 8 ft to a side and 8-10ft tall. Inside was the bigest clown loach I'd ever seen. I thought they only got to be 3-4 inches. This sucker was over 2ft long!

Unless you want to convert your bathroom to an underwater adventure, I would stay away from the clown loaches and the bala sharks. They should be living in giant pools, not home aquariums.

The angel fish will get big, but not *that* big and should do OK in a big aquarium. I also agree that you should start with your final size, do not buy fish that only fit today, but not in six months to a year. You don't know if your situation will change. If you don't have the money to buy the big tank now, you might not later too, things happen. Get some cool fish that fit with what you have, and you might like them so much you get a bigger aquarium and then have 2 totally different set ups!

I'm finding that many of the fish I would love to have are incompatable (aggressive and passive) so it would be cool to have two tanks so I could have different kinds of fish that can't get along in one tank.

Just my thoughts.

-Nerwign

 

[bowya]

Well, we're cycling with "CYCLE" and "AQUA PLUS" additives. I know I know - some people don't like these, but we shall see if it works.

As for the fish - I think I'll get very hardy fish to start with, and then buy a bigger tank before buying the big uns

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I'm finding that many of the fish I would love to have are incompatable (aggressive and passive) so it would be cool to have two tanks so I could have different kinds of fish that can't get along in one tank.

that's how mts (multipe tank syndrome) starts

we got up to 8 tanks at one point... back down to 5 now.... but it'll be 6 again soon

there's people on here with 30+ tanks

always starts cos you fall in love with a fish that you simply can't keep with everything else you have