What To Do?

[cheekysbabe]

Hey.
Im 17 from Australia and im just starting got with freshwater tropical fish.

I have two tanks
1. a 20L which has 3 guppy's one male and two females(everything seems to be going well with it at this point in time).

2. the other is about 260L (L - 122cm, W - 47cm, H - 46cm. ) But i dont now what to do with this tank. I dont now what plants/fish/etc.

If you could help with me this it would be great.

Thank you so much for reading this.

Jade

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there jade

the 260l is a nice tank, you've scope for an awful lot of different things in there really. so many possibilities we couldn't list them all! can you gve us some hints of what you like in fishtanks (fish .... duh ) and we'll point you in the right direction from there.

for me, i like community tanks with not too many species but lots of each species so I'd do something like this

10 corydoras
15 congo tetras
15 dwarf neon rainbows (melatona praecox)
couple of pairs of dwarf cichlids something like apistogramma agassizi or anacara anomala

that's just personal preference though, do you like small colourful fish, big ones with personality, something a bit unusual, something easy and low maintenance or something that#s a bit of a challenge?

 

[cheekysbabe]

I Love community tanks. They are just so different, your not just looking at the same type of fish all the time.
I have always had a thing for Angels and little colourful fish.
I have been told that I can put a male fighter fish in the tank as long as I dont put Guppy's in there, is this true?

Jade

 

[Miss Wiggle]

personally i don't like seeing male fighters in community tanks, there's a lot of mixed views about weather it's OK or not. Basically fighters are called fighting fish for a reason, despite their small size they are very aggressive, particularly to their own kind. So you never ever ever keep 2 males together, they'll just kill each other if you do. and you have to be v careful with you put with male fighters, if they see something like a guppy with long flowing fins, they're often inclined to think it's another male fighter and as such will kill it. now fish have their own personalities just like hman's do, you get some who obviously haven't read the fish behaviour book and act out of character, with fighters this is very much the case. so generally when people say that they've got a male fighter in a community tank and it's fine it's because their fighter is unusually docile. The other things to consider are tha fighters have long flowing fins and any fin nipping fish will have a field day with them, because of the fins they are also not strong swimmers (their natural environment is shallow muddy puddles/pools) so when you put them into a large tank with a big filter on it, they can get blasted around and sometimes can't swim properly in it, ultimatley this can kill them.

soooo all that equates to, yes occasionally it will work out, all the factors come together and you successfully put a male in a community tank, however it's unlikley and not something i would risk. your call though.

well the good news is that the tanks big enough for angels, generally they don't do well in brand new tanks, need the tank to have been cycled and stable for 6 months or so before adding them, but if you have a little patience you can have some so that's a good start! I'd go for 4 in that size tank.

angels can eat really small fish (neon tetra's are their natural food) however if you go for some of the slightly larger tetra's and rasbora's that'll work just fine. keep to groups of 6+ as they'll be much happier like that. Look for any that get to around 2" adult size.

i'd recommend a group of cories, cos they are such fun playful fish and dead easy to keep. again groups of 6+

and just a suggestion out of the blue, do a google imagine search for threadfin rainbows. I think a group of them with some angels cories and a few shoals of tetra's/rasboras or similar would make a lovely set up.

 

[ckulahci]

That would depend on personal preferences of course but I would proceed with livebearers if I were you. Since you already got a trio of guppies, you will soon find out how quick these lovely fishes are in reproduction. So you can consider from day 1 the 20L tank be your breeding tank in the very near future. I would stock some swordtails (1m/several f), mollies, several guppies more and a few bottom dwellers (I like clown loaches in particular) in the 260L as the main tank and make it heavily planted.
If you do so, I suggest you visit the livebearers section in this forum. Plenty of good readings are in there.
wish u luck...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the 260l isn't big enough for clown loaches. there are certainly some smaller species which could work though.

if your into breeding livebearers then yes that could work. if you're not that bothered about breeding then think of it as a food source. when one of the females is pregnant and about to drop her fry put her in the main tank until she does, then pop her back in her little tank. the fry will get eaten by the fish in the community tank, natural selection and a free meal.

it may seem calous at first, but once you've tried to find room to keep all the livebearer babies and failed miserably you'll soon realise it can be a necessity

 

[cheekysbabe]

Thank you so much. That has helped me so much.

Sorry to ask so many ask q's but i dont want to do anything wrong and kill any fish,
what plants would i need?

Jade

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad to be of assistance

best thing to do now is search for more info on the species discussed, go to some fish shops and see what you like, then get together a list of all the species you'd like, post it up here and we'll let you know before you get them if there's any problems that you've not spotted.

there's a fish species index on this site which will help you out with your research.

the other important thing to know is cycling, have you read up on this yet? if not there's pinned topics at the top of this forum which will tell you everything you need to know about preparing your tank for fish.

i'd recommend doing a fishless cycle before adding any fish, it's the safest way IMHO.

regarding plants you don't need to have any, you will need some cover in the tank of some form, but it's personal preference weather you achieve this with ornaments and fake plants or with stones, wood and real plants. plenty of people find the thought of keeping aquarium plants alive as well as the fish a bit daunting so start out with fakes, then when they've got the tank running and the hang of the basic care of the fish will change it over to real plants and a more natural look.

but honestly, the fish won't really mind either way! some species will need caves and so on, but they don't care in the slightest if that's made from stones or from an ornament of a sunken ship. totally your choice.

 

[cheekysbabe]

I have been reading a bit on cycling. Still trying to get it all together on what i have to do an when.

What are Pelvicachromis Pulcher aka Kribensis, Purple Cichlid like?
Are they good in a comm. tank?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah they're a nice little fish, fiesty as community fish go but peaceful for african cichlids!

can go in most community set up's although you have to be a touch careful. don't put them in with anything really shy and make sure they have some caves to take as their own territory.