Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Cazzybaby on May 13, 2014, 06:18:35 PM
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I was previously cycling a 75 litre tropical tank but I have gone out and bought a 200 litre tank complete with fish, filter , everything. How do I help them to settle into their new home?
My husband wants to put the lights on but I thought I read somewhere to leave them off for the first day is this right?
It is a community tank and one of the residents is a shrimp, not sure what kind it is but it's quite small and pretty much see through with done dal colouring. Will he be ok on his own or should there be a few shrimps together?
My water is soft but where they came from it is slightly hard. Should I add something to the water when I do a water change or will the fish adapt to my water? Luckily we took with us every drop of the tank water so they are ok for now just need to know for future.
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You are right, leave the lights of for the first few hours.
If your water is different from what they are used to, the simplest way is to do a small water change every day to gradually change the water chemistry. It's big water changes that do the harm as they change the chemistry a lot in one step. With 200 litres, I would think changing ~20 litres a day for the first week. At the end of the week, you'll have about half your water, half the original water (sounds wrong at first, but each water change will remove some of your water as well as the original water). Then a couple of days at 40 litres will give you 75% your water and you can start doing weekly water changes of the size you normally do.
If at any point during this gradual change over the fish start looking odd (appearance, behaviour) don't do any more changes till they look better, then start again from where you left off.
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Forgot the shrimp.
Most shrimps do better as a group. Does the original owner know what it was? There are some pics on here (http://www.petshrimp.com/shrimpspecies.php) to help ID it.
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I'm not sure what kind he is. He looked quite plain and mostly see through. Quite like the japonica shrimp on this site. I will get in touch with the original owner though and ask. Is it important he has shrimps the same kind as himself?
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They do better with shrimps of the same species, or at the least, the same genus. Cherry shrimps are Neocaridina; tiger, crystal red etc and amanos are Caridina (amanos are now C. multidenta rather than C. japonica as in the database on here); ghost/glass shimp are Paleomonetes.
The problem you might have, even if you find out what yours is, could be locating more of them. In that case, don't worry too much. My last amano has been by himself for several months now and doesn't seem to be suffering.
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I have been around a few shops today and haxent seen any shrimps like him. All I know is he is quite transparent with some dark patches. We sent a message asking a couple of questions and he didn't reply.
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In that case, I'd just keep it as the one shrimp.
For IDing fish, you could post some photos on here and we can see what we can come up with between us.
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I think I have id'd them all now.i put them in the community creator and they are mostly unsuitable to live together and /or live in my size tank :(
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What have you got?
As Richard said in the other thread some tanks are horribly stocked: fish that shouldn't be kept together, fish with totally different water requirements, fish that are too big for the tank, shoaling fish in ones and twos (though that can be due to the rest of the shoal having died)
Once we know exactly what you have, we can maybe suggest some ways of dealing with the fish.
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Ok here goes 1 x boesmani rainbow, 2x yoyo loach, 2x sword tail, 2x small plec(type unknown), 1x sucking loach, 4x golden barb, 1 ruby shark, 2x black neon, 3x black phantom tetra, 1 x serpae tetra(who likes to bite the rainbows tail) , 1 lemon tetra, 2x harlequin rasbora, 2x red eye tetra (both showing an injury although don't know who caused it), 1x platy, 1 clown loach
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200 litres, that's what - 3.5 or 4 feet long?
As you no doubt realise, the rainbowfish, tetras, loaches (except the sucking loach) and rasboras all need to be in groups of at least 6. Either the previous owner was one of those who get a couple of this, a couple of that; or these fish are the last survivors of larger shoals and could possibly be quite old.
Serpae tetras are well known fin nippers. They are less trouble in large groups when the aggression is more between themselves, but they are still nippy fish. I had some once, but not for long.
Red eye tetras also have the reputation for fin nipping.
The sucking loach is another nasty fish. As they grow, they stop eating algae and develop a taste for the slime coat of other fish. They also get quite large and need a tank at least 150cm long.
The ruby shark (aka rainbow shark) needs a tank at least 120cm long. The only problem with this fish is when it is kept with similar looking fish, or other bottom dwellers.
Clown loaches need a tank of at least 180cm long. Despite being a bottom dweller, Seriously Fish does report that clown loaches can form an alliance with the shark!
Yoyo loaches, sometimes called Botia lohachata, sometimes B. almorhae. Seriously fish recommends a minimum tank length of 120cm.
Plecs. I find these very hard to identify. Some will stay small, others will grow enormous, and there is the risk that yours are juvenile huge ones. Have a look at planet catfish (http://www.planetcatfish.com/) see if you can recognise any pictures.
Swordtails and platy. These fish can interbreed, and a male of one will chase a female of the other. You need either all the same sex or more females that males, in your case 1m 2f.
Water conditions.
The rainbowfish, swordtails and platy all like hard alkaline water. The rainbowfish likes it warmer than most other fish.
The rest will cope with quite a range of pH, from low to around 7.5 and there are no fish that must have soft water. They will all cope with anything other than very hard. Of these remaining fish, the gold barbs prefer it a bit cooler than the others.
What to do.
If this was my tank, I would definitely rehome the clown loach and sucking loach. They both need a bigger tank, and the sucking loach could damage the other fish.
I personally would also rehome the serpaes and red eyes, because I don't like nippy fish.
I think I would also rehome the rainbowfish as its needs, both water and temp, are so different from everything else.
If you got more of: black neons, black phantoms, lemon tetras, harlequins and barbs (to have six of each in total) they, together with the shark, would bring you to just about half stocked. Then there are the plecs. These will add a lot to the bioload of the tank and could wipe out the other half of your stocking allowance at one stroke. And possibly push you well over 100% if they are one of the big species. Try to find out what they are, and if necessary rehome them too.
The swordtails and platy (provided the sexes are right) should be OK with the other fish, and won't add much to your stocking.
Or alternatively, rehome everything and get your choice of fish.
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It's a 3ft 3 inch length tank. Only problem with your first idea is I don't really like to look at the tetras and rasboras. They are just a bit too plain for me :-\ my husband is in love with the shark a we both like the clown loach although I wouldn't want him to be lonely or suffer . He comes out quite a lot and doesnt seem to hide away. I have a friend who has clown loaches in a 5 ft tank so he is a possibility for when he gets too big for my tank. The rainbow fish (who in my opinion is the prettiest) and the serpae seem to cause the most arguements , usually between each other. The yo yo's just chase each other about when they aren't eating. The shark had the odd chase about of the small fish but nothing too bad. Everyone else gets on ok.
This is tough as to who to pick to evict 😖 apart from my friend with the clowns I don't personally know anyone else I could give them to. I am in groups on face book but a lot of them seem like idiots
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Could hunger be causing the rainbow fish to be a pest ? I have been feeding them a small amount if flakes everyday and the had frozen blood worm about 3 days ago. I am primarily a horse keeper so if I go by horse behaviour they can get into trouble when they are hungry . Fish could be nothing like that though!
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It is more likely to be that he is on his own. Lots of otherwise peaceful fish have a Jekyll/Hyde split when kept alone.
You could try advertising the fish you don't want on aquarist classifieds (http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/) (for free gets the best responses) or asking local shops if they will take them. They won't pay you for them, if you are lucky they might give you a credit note.
The tank is 100cm; I know you like the shark but it would be better in a bigger tank :-\ At that length, I assume the tank is quite tall. Tall tanks have to be stocked carefully; they won't hold quite as many fish as a tank the same volume but longer, and they have a smaller footprint so need slightly smaller fish.
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So having got rid of the loaches. Still got the sucking loach and the shark at the moment. I bought 4 mollies 2 harlequins and 2 black phantoms . The mollies because they looked nice and the others to boost the numbers of my existing groups up to 4 of each. I'm getting quite find of the rainbow fish , would it be a mistake to get a rainbow fish friend for it? Not sure whether it would be wrong to attempt to keep mixing between the cooler barbs and the hot rainbow.
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Morning Cazzy,
I think if it was me, I would be inclined to get another Rainbowfish (of the same sort) as the fish profiler does say minimum number 2. Also, Sue ( :isay:) says your one might be being a bit naughty 'cos he's on his own.
Anyway, I think it's a good excuse to go fishy shopping again ;)
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The problem is the temp requirements of the rainbow, and their need for hard water. Despite liking them, I would opt for rehoming it. The alternative would be another tank that you can keep warmer.
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My only worry is that I could get rid and he could end up in a tank of the same temps as mine 😕
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Yes, rehoming a fish can just mean passing the buck to someone else, especially if it is taken by your LFS. Who knows where it might end up?
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I saw my plec today, I wish I had my phone handy for a photo. He is about 3 inches, dark coloured with light spots and either 4 or 6 quite long feelers in his nose . I've looked at pictures of bristle nose plecs but they seem to have short and stumpy feelers.
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I've looked at pictures of bristle nose plecs but they seem to have short and stumpy feelers.
It tends to be that females have short (or no) 'bristles' whereas males can have quite long ones, and they often have a spotted/mottled pattern, so it sounds like you could have a male bristlenose plec. There are loads of varieties of plec around though.
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I've been thinking about the hot fish/ cold fish problem in my tank and I wondered if it would be better to rehome the barbs to one of my work mates who has cold water fish? Would they get in ok with most cold water dwellers?
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It depends on just how cold your work mate's tank is. Gold barbs can go down to 16 deg, so as long as the other tank doesn't go below this, they'd be fine.
And I think they'd be OK with most cold water fish - people usually have goldfish and maybe white cloud mountain minnows. Gold barbs get too big for a goldfish to eat, and not big enough to eat white clouds..
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Ok thanks I'll ask him but I'm guessing it shouldn't hopefully go below that with it being in his house.