Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: dcarr2 on January 03, 2013, 12:19:15 PM
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Back to fishkeeping after many years - things have moved on, for sure.
I am interested in a set up similar to Arcadia Arc 45l tank and suggestions are
guppies with perhaps something else?
cherry red shrimps with a shoal of small fish eg, celestial danio, ember tetra. particularly appeals.
Any thoughts as to snags, a better plan or tank and what numbers of these fish would be happy, also any advice on planting?
The "desk top" type arrangement appeals from aesthetic and space angle but capacity is limited, isn't it?
Thank you anyone.
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Hello... and welcome back to the hobby.
I've only started in the past 6 months - and I started with Guppies. I lost one about every two weeks, including this week :'(. They're very weak.
I've just got 6 Cherry Barbs and I love them to pieces. The 'boys' dance and flare their fins and go very red when they're establishing their pecking order or showing off to the 'barbie girls' (MrsB calls it willy waiving!) They should be in groups of 6 or more, but that'd be fine for your tank. They're also very hardy and adaptable - always good in a new tank.
Hope this helps.
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thanks, I can remeber barbs generally from the old days, an idea indeed, They are very lively
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Hi, there are quite a few fish that can be kept in 10 gallon tanks. That's US gallons, 37 litres, so they would be suitable for your tank from a size point of view, though it would also depend on what your water is like: soft acid or hard alkaline. You can usually find this info somehwere on your water supplier's website.
Rather than guppies, how about endlers livebearers? Smaller, hardier though they don't have quite the same flashy tails. I would recommend only males (same for guppies) as they both breed like rabbits. These like hard alkaline water.
Celestial pearl danios prefer soft acidic conditions (they are also known as galaxy rasboras) while ember tetras like acid to middling and soft to middling. For fish like this, a minimum of six of any species.
It will be easier to suggest fish if you can find out what your tapwater is like.
Since it's been a while since you last had fish, are you aware of cycling the filter? That is, growing enough bacteria in your filter to take care of the ammonia made by a tankful of fish. The really old way was to get a few fish and see what survived. Nowadays, fishles cycling is recommended, though you can still cycle with fish if you are prepared to do the necessary work - and big water changes with a small tank shouldn't be too hard :)
How to threads for the two methods:
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,17.0.html
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,16.0.html
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thank you very much and will look into these points and ideas.
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I don't know if you've seen this article?
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/first-fish-for-your-tropical-aquarium.html (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/first-fish-for-your-tropical-aquarium.html)
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Interesting link Colin, thanks.
I must spend some time reading the articles - there are some that weren't on the old site. Either that or I've just forgotten them.......
dcarr - have a play with the community creator. Go to the fish profiles, click on a fish you like the looks of and down at the bottom of the page is the way into the the community creator. The fish profiles tell you about the fish's requirements and the CC tells you if there are any problems with the fish you select.
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well done thanks very much.
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Thank you, Sue.You mentioned tap water and from the Supplier website it would be average 7.98. I realise this can be double checked with a home kit. Which of the micro fish types might this rule out?
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I presume you have hard water from a pH of 8. It rules out Rasboras, but allows Guppies and Cherry Barbs.
You local fish shop should keep most of their fish in the same conditions as the local tap water, with a section for (say) Soft Water fish, otherwise people would be buying fish acclimatised to different water than their tap water, and then kill them instantly(ish) when they got home. Wander along to your's, take a note-book, and jot down any fish that they have that takes your fancy then research them.
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You mentioned tap water and from the Supplier website it would be average 7.98.
If that's the pH, that's quite alkaline, which usually but not always goes with hard water. Hardness is actually more important to fish than pH, so it would be useful to know that as well. Most fish can cope better with the 'wrong' pH if the hardness is 'right' for them.
As Colin suggested, cherry barbs would be OK in your the tank you named, around 4 to 6 of them. They can cope with a wide range of water conditions. And I would go with endlers rather than guppies. Males only though as a small tanks would soon be overpopulated if you had any females. That would leave you room for shrimps as well - cherries or perhaps amano (japonica).
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Thanks Colin and Sue. Yes I should have said the water is mentioned as slightly hard, here just outside Nottingham city.
Just down the road is a branch of Maidenhead Aquatics, with a very good fish stock, it seems to me. i would say only a limited range of smaller tanks is there, but no doubt other venues would have the actual tank I finally choose - still keen on the 45l Arcadia for what and where I want. The Hagen Fluval of similar capacity is on show but access looks poor for someone with less than good hand mobility.
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If you mean the Edge tank, then yes, it does have a small opening to do everything through. The Arc looks better from a fiddliness point of view. It does say on Arcadia's website that it has a removable lid. I would recommend using it if you get fish like cherry barbs as they can jump. And shrimps like to climb up wires and can easily escape from an open topped tank.
Don't let the shop talk you into getting fish too soon - either do a fishless cycle by adding anmmonia for a month or two first, or read up on fish-in cycling and make sure you are ready for it before getting fish.