What Fish To Get?

The fish you had in mind sound like marine fish. I know very litlte about marine fish but, someone correct me if I'm wrong, I think they need bigger tanks than you have.
Does your Edge have a heater? You'll find that there are no cold water fish suitable for a tank that size, so if you don't have one, you'll need to get a heater and tropical fish.

The Edge is a very small tank, and isn't suitable for some fish recommended for tanks that size. Siamese fighting fish (bettas) are the usual recommendation for small tanks but the Edge has a very small bit of water exposed to air, and with SFFs needing to breathe air, they can have trouble finding that small square.

You need to look at a shoal of fish that stay very small - don't forget the ones in the shops are babies and will grow. Some of this list will be easier to find than others.

Celestial pearl danios (also known as galaxy rasboras) Note: the word celestial is important as pearl danios aren't suitable.
Ember tetras
Boraras merah
Boraras brigittae
Danio erythromicron
Endlers livebearers - males only (females are bigger, plain grey and will have loads of fry, overpopulating your tank in no time)
Shrimps eg cherry, tiger, red or black crystal

You could safely have 6 to 8 of ONE of the fish species above, plus half a dozen shrimps.


If you haven't seen my reply to your other post yet, I mentioned cycling the filter. Lots of shops fail to tell you about this, but it is very important to setting up a tank successfully.

I should have mentioned that shrimps should only be added once the filter is definitley cycled. They are even more sensitive than fish to ammonia and nitrite.

And I forgot about hardness    Jesnon - you can find out how hard your water is from your water company's website.

Natalia, would glowlights and tinwinis be OK in a tank that has a footprint of 43 x 26cm? I know Seriously Fish recommends 45 x 30cm for tinwinis, which is only a tiny bit bigger than the Edge, but mine are all over my 60 x 30cm tank. And SF recommneds 60 x 30cm min for glowlight danios?

Cycling is one thing you do need to get your head around because if you just add fish and do nothing, the fish could well die.

In simple terms, fish make ammonia as their waste. It goes straight into the water and unless there are any bacteria to remove it, it builds up and burns the fish's skin and gills, making it hard for them to breathe. Eventually, some bacteria grow in the filter which use ammonia as food, and they turn the ammonia into nitrite. As more and more ammonia eating bacteria grow, the nitrite level builds up. This is also dangerous for fish as it binds to their blood stopping them absorbing oxygen. Eventually another type of bateria grows which eats nitrite and turns it into nitrate. This is only toxic at high levles, and once the filter has cycled (grown the two bacteria) we remove it by doing weekly water changes. The trouble is that these two bacteria grow very slowly, several weeks is the usual time to grow enough.

The safest way to grow the bacteria is to add ammonia solution with no fish in the tank so the bacteria have grown when you finally get fish. But it does mean you have a couple of months with an empty tank and I can hear your parents asking why there are no fish in it yet 
The alternative is to cycle with fish in the tank. This can be done if you are prepared to do the necessary water changes. With 23 litres, it won't be hard. I have a 25 litre tank with a betta, and when my previous one got finrot after his tail was bitten I did daily water changes for three weeks to keep the water extra clean while he healed. So I know it's not too hard 

Whichever you decide to do, you'll need a tester for ammonia and nitrite. You can get strips which you dip in the water and look at a colour change, though you need to make sure ammonia is included as a lot don't; or there are liquid reagent testers where you put some water in a test tube, add drops from reagent bottles, shake, wait a few minutes and compare the colour to a chart. They sound complicated at first but they are quite easy. I have the API liquid kit. Tip - on-line is cheaper!
With cycling with fish, you test the water every day and do a water change if there is a colour above zero for either or both ammonia and nitrite. The aim is to stop them getting above 0.25.

That's another thing you'll need - a siphon tube. I would advise you to get one before you have fish as they can be a bit fiddly when you first start so you can practice without any fish in there. Some you shake up and down to start the siphon, others you squeeze a bulb to start it, and then there are somewhat more expensive battery powered ones. Have a look at what your shop stocks. You'll need a cleaner like this during cycling and to do your weekly water changes after the filter has cycled. If you have gravel to go on the bottom, you push the wide end of the tube into the gravel, watch all the fish poo being sucked up then move to the next bit of gravel. I promise it gets easier with practice. The first few times you'll only clean a bit of gravel before you nearly empty the tank 
And you'll need a bucket or two, one for the dirty water to go into, and maybe a second for putting new clean water back in the tank.
Did you get a bottle of dechlorinator with the tank? If there's a bottle of Nutrafin Aquaplus, that's it. You'll need to add some of that to new water every time you add it. It'll only be a small bottle, don't foget to buy more before it runs out.
There might also be a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle. That is supposed to add the filter bacteria. The problem is that a lot of people find it doesn't work. If you've got some, by all means use it but assume it won't do anything. That way, if it does you'll be pleasantly surprised 




Sorry, I've rambled on a lot there. I started out by trying to say, don't worry. Yes is is a steep learning curve but once you get into it, you'll want another, bigger tank. I currently have three and the only reason I don't have more is that my husband doesn't like fish!

Thank you for your lovely and very helpful advice! dont worry at all about 'rambling', literally anything you can think of will help even if it seems obvious!

I think this is the water for my area:

 pH pH 7.53

Alkalinity mg/l CaCO3 151

mg/l HOC3 184

Calcium mg/l Ca 92

Magnesium mg/l Mg 5.5

mg/l CaCO3 252

Total Hardness Clark° (UK) 18

French° 25

German° 15

It doesn't mean anything to me in terms of fish! Apparently Bristol has 'hard to very hard water'.

Yes I definitely want to make sure to do everything properly! If I ended up killing my fish I think I'd be pretty devestated!

I quite like the look of real plants and little wooden logs, but my uncle who has kept fish before said these can be toxic to certain fish!?

The tank came with three different bottles from what I remember, so I guess when I set the tank up I'll have a go with the bacteria and see how it all goes! I think I'll be a regular visitor to my local aquatics centre by the sound of it for all my accessories and I can definitely imagine my parents' faces when they see the empty tank ha.

I still need a stand / cabinet of some description for the tank so I can imagine it'll be a little while before I've got all the bits needed and read up enough to get started. My dream of getting stuck on straight away is fading fast ha!

Hi Jesnon,
First of all – plants are NEVER toxic to any fish. What may have influenced your uncle’s opinion was an unfortunate experience of putting a bit of plant into his tank which was treated to remove pest snails. These treatment are very-very harmful, indeed. They “linger” on the plant for some time and when leached into the tank water they can kill all inhabitants – shrimps being much more vulnerable than fish. Having said this, the plants from European suppliers should be free of any contaminants – it is only the cheaper plants brought from Asia and sold on the Internet can be contaminated.
 I have quite a few tanks and ALL of them are densely planted. I cannot imagine keeping any fish without the benefits of having live plants... However, growing plants successfully is another very-very big and complicated chunk of information. I am just worried that all this will seem too much if “poured” onto you in a relatively short period of time....
What I would suggest:
Your Fluval Edge has a lighting limitation and also keeping plants as well as the fish will require some additional care. So, for your specific tank, I would buy a piece of bogwood with some Java Fern attached to it and start with this. The light and nutrients should be sufficient. You will learn more in time and will be able to experiment with plants.
So, if you fill your tank with tap water (don’t forget to treat it with a de-chlorinator – it must say on the “tin” that it remover chlorine, chloramines and detoxifies heavy metals!), put you bit of wood with a fern attached and start cycling your tank – you will be nearly half way there!
As for the fish:
Boraras and Ember tetras are definitely out of your range at the moment.
Endlers and Glowlight Danios are a good choice (Endlers – only males, Glowlight Danios – 2 males and 4 females)
Galaxy Rasboras (aka Celestial Pearl Danios), Danio Erythromicron, Danio Tinwini – a possibility. I am worried that the parameters of your tap water are on the upper edge of these fish tolerance and if your water Company makes even a slight change, your fish may be affected.
Shrimps: Red Cherry Shrimps only. Most of the other shrimps require often much more care than any fish and I would not go there as yet. Another option is Amano (Yamato) Shrimps – they are very robust (much more so than Red Cherry Shrimps) but they are too big for your possible fish, really...

Amano shrimp - as Natalia mentioned, they are a lot bigger than cherry shrimp. My female is about 2 inches long, not counting her antennae!
And they are quite plain and grey.

Did I read that right, I wouldn't put the tank on the washing machine.

Sorry I'm posting from my phone rather than laptop so I'm not being as clear as I'd like!

Jesnon -
I have 2 tanks in the kitchen with a washing machine and there's no problem. The only thing that did cause a problem was my bread maker. It's on the same worktop as the betta's tank and he got quite aggitated when it was kneading. I now move the bread maker to another worktop while it's in use and just store it on the betta's worktop, problem solved.

Maidenhead Aquatics are one of the better shops, but even they don't get everything right. Research any fish they recommend before buying. The one near me does have some unusual small fish in from time to time. That's where I got my Danio tinwinis from. I've seen CPDs there, and at least 2 colour forms of endler.  The main problem with CPD's is they like soft water and may be a bit tricky to keep alive in yours. I still think endlers are your best bet for starting with  If you do get them, just to warn you they'll try to mate with each other in the absence of females. Don't worry about that. One of mine was displaying to a green neon tetra yesterday.

If you want to do a fish-in cycle, get only a couple to start with. The more there are, the faster ammonia and then nitrite will build up. Once the cycle has finished, get one more. If the readings stay at zero for a week, then get 2 more, then wait a week and if you have zeros again, get the last one a week later.
If you do a fishless cycle using fish food, start slowly after the cycle's finished as for fish-in; if you do a fishless cycle with ammonia solution dosed to 5ppm, you can get them all at once.

If you don't want to risk live plants straight away, there are some very realistic silk ones on the market. You will need plants of some sort whatever fish you get as thet need something to hide in. It sounds backwards but you see them more if you have more hiding places. They are more confident to come out if they know there's somewhere to run to if that nasty big predator shows up.


TigzFish -
My amanos leave my java fern and anubias alone. I'm sure I read something about java fern containing something to make it taste nasty? They don't eat the floating plant salvinia either, though they do walk through it upside down looking for bits of food caught in the plants.
Since they are just about the only plants I can keep alive, I don't know if amanos will eat the more delicate ones.

With the Edge, don't they have that little base unit that looks as if it's too small for the tank? So long as you use that, you'll be compying with the instructions. If you don't use their base unit and just put the glass part on a different stand, that's what they'll object to under the guarantee.
You can put that little base unit on anything you like so long as it's flat and level. And strong enough to hold the weight. Don't forget that 23 litres of water weighs 23 kg.

As far as using 'proper' stands go, my Juwel Rio 125 and my Eheim Aquastar are on stands by the manufacturer. But my 25 litre Clearseal tank is on a base mat (layer of foam rubber) on a kitchen worktop. It's the bigger tanks you have to be careful with. The tanks alone way a lot, and then there's the weight of the water and the decor to add to it. You have to be very certain of the cupboard or whatever with big tanks. That's why most people get the matching stand - if it collapses under the weight you have some come-back. Though Chucklett has two very big tanks on cupboards her father made for them.
Small tanks don't usually have that problem 

Artificail plants are down to individual tastes. I personally think that silk look nicer than plastic. Get whatever you like the look of, the fish won't mind what they're like so long as they have somewhere 'safe'. Fish are quite happy with day-glo gravel and plants 

The problem with books is that they are as bad as a lot of shops for bad advice.  Before buying anything, why not take a trip to your library? You don't need to be a member to flick through their aquatics books, though you would need to be to take one out.



If you get stuck trying to find ammonia, look on ebay/amazon. Jeyes Kleen Off household ammonia is pure. It doesn't say on the bottle, but I have some and I emailed the company to check. I got mine from my local indepandant diy shop. It's used as a cleaning product, that's the section to look in.