Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: fdm on May 15, 2014, 10:38:06 PM
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Hi!
So, we've bought a starter tank (40L), got it filled and the filter running, put the ornaments in and are now in the process of thinking what our first fish are going to be in a week or two!
I understand that we don't want to ram whatever we can in so using the fish profiler we were thinking of starting out with a couple of colourful platies.
The idea then being to add a couple of mollys in a month or so, then a male fighting fish after that.
Using the fish stocking guide on this website, that doesn't seem to cause too many problems, but I would very much appreciate any advice seasoned pros may have!
We'll be testing the water prior to first stock ( bought the strips etc ) of course.
We've lined the bottom with sharpish gravel and have lots of hiding places set up in fittings and plastic plants.
I've also bought a small airpump and stone as I thought it was required ... reading more it seems I'll be using that for aesthetics as the filter will sort out the oxygen :) ( Note to self .. read before purchase! )
I've currently got the temperature set to 25 degrees.
Also, can we add a shrimp and/or snails at any point without issue?
Many thanks in advance!
Fdm
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Hi fdm,
I'm new here too. Getting my first tank tomorrow all being well!
Are you cycling the tank at the moment? How's that going? Do the strips you bought measure ammonia, or just nitrate, nitrite and pH? I bought some and found they didn't measure ammonia so have ended up ordering the API test kit online (£20) on amazon much, cheaper than in the shops!
My tank is small too - 55l, so I'm looking at small shocking fish to go in there.
Have you considered ember tetra? See my thread "bought a tank" sorry I've no idea how to post a link! For more ideas from others. Not sure your tank will be big enough for some of the fish you have in mind.
Good luck, happy cycling!!
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fdm, you need to cycle the tank before getting any fish. Here (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,483.0.html) is the method.
If you really don't want to do that then here (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,17.0.html) is the way to cycle with fish in the tank. Note that you can only get a few fish to start with and no more for several weeks until the filter bacteria can take care of the waste from those first fish. Future additions need to be small as well so the bacteria don't get overwhelmed.
Mollies are not suitable for a 40 litre tank. They need a tank at least 36 inches/90 cm long. And platies need 24 inches/60 cm minimum. Figures from Seriously Fish.
A betta is fine though.
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Hi fdm,
Yeah, 40l is a bit small for any of those fish except the betta. My advice would be to stick with the betta and add some white cloud minnows which will give you more liveliness (although admittedly not very much color). My favourite fish in the entire world are panda cories. You couldn't have them if you were to keep the sharp gravel, but if you replaced that with very, very fine gravel, or sand if you're feeling brave, then I'm sure you would find them well worth the effort.
I have no idea if you could have shrimp; you would have to check that the betta wouldn't eat them. A snail would be fine in your tank, just be really, really careful that you choose a variety that won't reproduce. Believe me, you don't want 50 snails on your hands!
Best of luck!
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Btw I'm getting small shoaling fish, not small shocking fish! Not sure what those would be!
My tank is small too - 55l, so I'm looking at small shocking fish to go in there.
Have you considered ember tetra? See my thread "bought a tank" sorry I've no idea how to post a link! For more ideas from others. Not sure your tank will be big enough for some of the fish you have in mind.
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Hi fdm,
Yeah, 40l is a bit small for any of those fish except the betta. My advice would be to stick with the betta and add some white cloud minnows which will give you more liveliness (although admittedly not very much color). My favourite fish in the entire world are panda cories. You couldn't have them if you were to keep the sharp gravel, but if you replaced that with very, very fine gravel, or sand if you're feeling brave, then I'm sure you would find them well worth the effort.
I have no idea if you could have shrimp; you would have to check that the betta wouldn't eat them. A snail would be fine in your tank, just be really, really careful that you choose a variety that won't reproduce. Believe me, you don't want 50 snails on your hands!
Best of luck!
To be honest, I wouldn't keep a betta with white clouds as bettas need a higher temp at 26 to 30 deg than white clouds at 14 to 22 deg.
A 40 litre tank is unlikely to have a big enough footprint for panda cories unless it is a long shallow tank. A lot of 40 litre tanks are cubic which wouldn't be suitable.
Shrimps might be do-able, especially larger ones like amanos, though a betta might still eat them. I wouldn't trust mine with shrimps after seeing what he did to a woodlouse that got into his tank :-\
Snails are indeed fine with bettas. Nerite snails won't breed in fresh water although females will lay sesame seed-like eggs. I have a small black and yellow striped nerite with my betta.