Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Hodgepodge on September 08, 2019, 04:25:19 PM
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Hi,
I'm pretty much a newbie. Had a tank a number of years back but just starting again now after couple years without. Currently cycling atm and not far off being ready so trying to start planning but I'm so overwhelmed with choice I don't know where to begin.
240L tank with external filter. Soft water (west Scotland) bumping KH up to 2 with coral in filter...KH had been 0-1 before. pH sitting around 6.5 comfortably. Got some plants growing happily in there just now looking healthy.
Last time we had a tank we had black phantoms, harlequin rasboras, neon tetras, Cory's, shrimp and honey gourami.
I have 2 little ones now so would like it to be interesting to them too. I don't really want to be dealing with breeding so if I remember right that immediately rules some species out.
Hoping for a peaceful community with a bit of colour. Not fussed about having gourami again but having considered likes of celestial pearl danio.
I'm just so confused and feel like I'm going round in circles trying to figure it all out with our water conditions. Help much appreciated!
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Welcome :wave:
You are correct in that you have a great deal of choice to suit the very soft water that almost all of Scotland has (apart from Orkney, Mull and Tiree, I noticed, while recently checking the hardness data for all areas). Oh, how I wish I had your tank volume, as that again provides a lot of options.
What you had before, with shoaling fish and cories (and honey gourami) sounds ideal. I'd imagine that the patterning of harlequin rasboras, sterbai or julii cories, and the colouring of cardinal tetras (hardier than neon tetras) or ember tetras (best in a heavily planted tank), might be attractive to the 2 little ones, assuming you're referring to humans. :D
Celestial pearl danios require a hardness of 90–268 ppm (source Seriously Fish), so you might find that they require harder water than you have. Check https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/en/Your%20Home/Your%20Water/Water%20Quality/Water%20Quality
In terms of breeding, you'll at least be able to avoid the prolific breeders which require hard water ie mollies/guppies/platies which are livebearers. Your cories might breed (Nan has had success, I didn't) but you could always avoid breeding amongst other breeding-prone fish (e.g. dwarf cichlids) by having one or single-sex groups.
Hope this helps as a "starter for ten".
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Thanks for the reply. As of this evening, looks I'm officially cycled :-) won't be able to buy anything til next weekend, so a week of continued dosing to make sure and keep the cycling going.
Would I be ok for dwarf rainbowfish? Saw them on a fb page or something and they look lovely - rather than the celestial pearl danios? Think I read that they were not so recommended ethically anyway. I'm at the point I've read so much I can't quite retain it anymore :rotfl:
yes, I've deliberately not even looked at the livebearers :-)
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Dwarf rainbowfish would work week in your tank I think... nice schooling behavious and not too shy. They need to be in a group of 6+. 8+ even better. They tend to stick to the top 2/3 of the tank. So it might be nice to look at a bottom dweller next to keep the whole tank interesting.
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Hi @Hodgepodge and welcome to the forum. :wave:
I can't give you any advice on soft water fish as I live in a very hard water area. I'm looking forward to hearing what fish you decide to go with, and hopefully seeing pictures when they are settled in. :)
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:wave:
think will definitely start with the dwarf rainbowfish. The more I read about them, the more certain I am they are a good fish for us. Will probably aim to get 8-10 of them as a first purchase. Considering some diamond tetra as well. I *think* I had sterbai cory's before - depends what the lfs has of course. Any other suggestions what would work?
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I am also a fan of cories. I have kuhli loaches too which are a little different, though seen less often.
Are you planning on having a cleaning crew? Nerite snails, shrimps, and otos?
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A shoal of dwarf rainbowfish will look great.
I'm also a fan of corys, they are lovely fish.
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I had amano shrimp before so thought would go with them again. From vague memory, I thought I was limited on the shrimp front due to soft water? Happy to be correct cos love the shrimp. Never had otos - don't they grow to be a fair size? Only had pest snails before as well - don't nerite snails sometimes end up as pests themselves or am I thinking of a different species?
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Otos are small fish, they only grow to a couple of inches at most. But they are shoaling fish so you'd need at least 6 of them. They also can be tricky to settle in. If you wanted otos, it would be better to wait until your tank has grown enough algae for them as it can take some time before they will eat such things as algae wafers so they need a fair amount of algae in the tank when they are first bought.
Nerite snails will not overpopulate a tank. Yes, they will lay sesame seed like eggs all over the decor if you have a female but they will not hatch in fresh water as the newly hatched snail larvae need salt water. The downside to them is those sesame seed like eggs which don't hatch. A lot of the wood in my tank looks as though it has measles ;D
One of the hardiest shrimps is red cherry shrimps. Their newly hatched eggs are miniature shrimps and they don't need salt water like newly hatched amano larvae.
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Nerite snails will not overpopulate a tank. Yes, they will lay sesame seed like eggs all over the decor if you have a female but they will not hatch in fresh water as the newly hatched snail larvae need salt water. The downside to them is those sesame seed like eggs which don't hatch. A lot of the wood in my tank looks as though it has measles ;D
:rotfl: Couldn't agree more. And they lay their eggs on the glass panels just above the substrate. They are not the easiest to remove. But a decent scraper works well.
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Hi Hodgepodge,
Welcome to the forum!
You may wish to have a look at https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/melanotaenia-maccullochi/ - if you haven't done so already.
JPC
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Thanks Sue. That's really helpful. If I'm ok to get red cherry in soft water then might have a look at them this time 😀
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My water is not quite as soft as yours but they thrive in my tanks.
We have a member on here who has snails in very soft water and she uses Shrimp King Snail Stixx for them. looking at the ingredients ( https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/shrimp-king/1125-shrimp-king-snail-stixx-4001615061222.html ) they sound as though they could be suitable for shrimps as well to help them grow their exoskeleton.
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Ah - thanks for that reminder as I had meant to mention the Snail Stixx which are a big 'hit' with my nerite snails (and some of the fish too, who have a tendency in the evenings to hover near the snail foodpot and take it in turns to peck food from it). I'd imagine the shrimps would avail of it too and the calcium would be good for them. Happy to answer any questions you have about it or even send you a few pieces to trial out (just PM me your address if interested in that).
If you want to buy a food pot for it, then you can buy the 60mm or 90mm shrimp feeding dishes from Pro-Shrimp or one of these smaller bamboo dishes https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143224641821 which I replaced mine with a few months ago as it's a bit more natural-looking.
My tank is getting increasingly covered in snail eggs - this didn't happen when I had one snail on its own for a year but started a few months after I got a second snail (and there's now a year's worth of eggs over the wood and increasingly the tank surfaces). It doesn't bother me but I'm happy to show you a photo of the tank so that you can decide if you think it would bother you.
The mention of red cherry shrimps reminds me that cherry barbs might be a potential fish of interest. The species profiles like the one JPC included (and others from that site) are very helpful as they'll confirm what the most up-to-date data is on the water hardness range is, as well as other requirements, so you can work out if your water would be suitable for them or not.
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Lots of great advice, thanks everyone. I've been checking compatibility on here then going over to seriously fish to double check info and get more detail about right conditions.
A pic of the effect of neurite snails would be very helpful if you can. Will have a nosy at the cherry barbs...not looked at barbs for some reason
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Here's a close-up photo of the nerite snail eggs on the decor - mainly the wood and stones. I don't find it particularly bothersome, perhaps helped by the fact the sand (Unipac tana sand) contains beige and white grains and so, in some respects, the nerite snail eggs don't contrast too much with that.
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To provide some perspective, here is a photo of the tank taken from further away. NB. Please do NOT use this as an example of how to decorate your tank - look as others' photos instead for that purpose :D. However, the photo might be useful to you to:
* dissuade you from buying an algae magnet remover as you'll see the scratch marks on the tank of what damage tiny grains of sand, unperceptible to the human eye on the algae magnet itself, can do to the glass on a tank - this is far more unsightly to me than the snail eggs;
* gain a perspective of the nerite snails' eggs - NB. the snail foodpot, the leaf and a stone behind the wood near the filter have sand on it (hence the beige and white), but the white dots elsewhere are the snail eggs, with the ones at the back of the tank particularly evident due to the dark blue tank background (and black would also provide this contrasting effect), so it might be worth considering a different type of background if you opt for one rather than a plain-/dark-coloured one.