Introduce Yourself!

Hello!
I currently have a 190L Juwel corner aquarium with:

2 bronze catfish (Corydoras Aeneus)
5 Kribensis (1 male 4 females)
1(was 2) tiger hillstream loaches
3 clown loaches
2 pearl gouramis
4 small angelfish
If any tips on keeping these fish come up please notify me!
Thinking about getting some Otocinclus
My catfish laid eggs on the glass so any ideas how to get them to lay on a piece of glass to be moved into a breeding tank would be helpful!

Apache6467 

You did ask.....

The cories need to be in a group of at least 6 of the same species. Bronze cories also come in an albino form so you could mix standard and albinos if you don't want 6 that look the same.
Kribs - if you get a pair, the other 3 might get picked on
Clown loaches grow huge, and should also be in a shoal. be prepared to get a much bigger tank, or find a new home for them before they get too big or they'll get stunted.
Angelfish - see comment on kribs

Otos are nice little fish. You'll need a shoal of them. They commonly just die shortly after purchase because of the way they've been caught and handled in transit. Otos need to be fed carefully and they often don't get the right kind of food after capture. Once they reach a certain stage of starvation they can't start eating again. Buy fish that have been in the shop a couple of weeks so the weak ones will already have died, and choose the ones with rounded abdomens as those are eating OK. And make sure you have plenty algae in the tank before you buy.

As for the cory eggs - see your other threads.

Adding more cories will probably encourage breeding as they'll be happier with more of them. Provided they are all the same species, that is.

Hi Paddy 

Test kits - liquid reagent ones work out cheaper per test than dip strips (though they cost more to buy initially, they do more tests for the money) and the strips don't test for ammonia. I use the kit by API which contains ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and high range pH.
I've also heard good things about the JBL set but not having used it myself I don't know exactly what's in it.

With pH, test your tapwater straight from the tap and let a glass of water sit out on the worktop and test that after 24 hours. You'll probably find them to be different. You need to know both.

Liquid nitrate testers have 2 or 3 bottles (depending on the make). One of the bottles needs shaking well as a reagent tends to settle on the bottom of the bottle and the shaking is important to redissolve the reagent. Failure to shake enough is the main cause of inaccurate readings. The instructions will say which bottle it is.


Those are the main things you need to test for. Hardness is also useful to know and you can either buy a separate tester, look on your water company's website or ask a shop to test a sample of tapwater for you.
GH (general hardness) is what fish websites mean when they talk about hard or soft water, and that's what water companies mean by hardness. There are several unit in use; fishkeeping uses two but water companies can use any of half a dozen. If you find the info on their website, make a note of the number and also which units they use so if necessary it can be converted to one of those used in fishkeeping.
If your water turns out to be soft, it would help to know your KH (carbonate hardness). Most water companies don't give this so you have the choice of buying a tester or getting a shop to test for it. Carbonate buffers against pH changes. If it is low, like mine, it is possible to get a pH crash; if it is hard it will be impossible to change the pH so get fish that like hard alkaline water.





Your father probably never cycled a tank as the understanding of that is fairly recent. A lot of shops don't believe in it so they may well ridicule the idea.

Welcome, Paddy 

Sounds like you're doing everything in the right order in terms of doing the reading/research first, etc, and Sue's excellent advice should keep you on the right tracks.  I'll leave Sue/others to answer your further questions but just wanted to say hello in the meantime. 

Great info, thanks again Sue and @fcmf cheers for the welcome 

Having checked the water tables for my supplier, I appear to have a very soft water supply so I foresee some challenges with the pH levels... Time will tell, I suppose.

I reckon I will go for live plants and leave for 2 weeks , then cycle, then get the fishies  It's going to be torture for my 5 year old daughter who expects the tank to arrive then off to Pets at Home to pick out loads of fish 

Looking forward to the process though and of course, the reward once it's up and running 

Aah yes we keep a stock of baking essentials in the kitchen so good to know there is a low-cost solution to the pH problem I probably will have since my water carries a KH of 1.94 German degrees 

Your water hardness is very similar to mine. Take a look at my signature and 'community creator' tanks for some ideas on fish which are suitable for very soft water aquariums.

Welcome aboard Paddyc. 

One thing you might want to consider adding to your plan is 2cm of John Innes No 3 potting compost beneath your gravel substrate.
This will act as a relatively cheap but effective slow-release fertiliser for your plants.

The recommended ratio is something like 2cm depth of soil and 3cm of gravel on top.

Good luck.
I look forward to hearing how it goes and hopefully seeing some photos of your set up in future.

It's freshwater testers you need, they cover both cold water and tropical. The kind to avoid is marine testers.

That sounds a nice sized tank for starting. Bigger tanks get out of control more slowly than small ones giving you time to do something about it  It's bigger than my biggest tank! 70cm tall sounds quite big, I hope you have long arms 
At just 80cm long you will need to stick with smaller fish though as they won't have the swimming length usually associated with 200 litre tanks. [For example, my old 125 litre was 82cm long and my current 180 is 107cm long]

New Fishkeepers sounds fine for a journal. If you want to do a photo journal rather than lots of text, try Gallery Showcase.

Hi PaddyC
I am also a bit of a fish keeping newbie!
What fish are you hoping to get?

Thanks Apache, many thanks for the welcome. My fish shopping list is still under advisement. I intend to be sensible from the outset and I aspire to collect some of the prettier species once the tank has matured. Initially I'm thinking of some Barbs (not Tiger) and Mollies, a few plecs and MAYBE a hardier species of Tetras. I have a soft spot for the Neons but these won't appear for at least a few months without any issues.