Introduce Yourself!

Total beginner here (if you don't count the fairground goldfish I kept as a child!)  My husband has kept one or two small tanks a while ago, but hasn't had any for at least 10 years.

We've started with his old 50l hexagonal tank, planted a few live plants (which look SO much better than plastic!) and acquired about 4 or 5 snails in the process.  First batch of fish were 6 neon tetras, followed by some guppies and peppered corys a few weeks later.  We've lost a couple of fish so far 

Currently trying to cope with the basics and not lose any more fish.  Rapidly learning that you don't just get a tank populated and sit back to admire it - there's a fair bit of maintenance to do!  Already asked a couple of questions on here and very impressed with the knowledge and friendliness of the site

Welcome Roomjj and good luck going forwards!

@fcmf  I would absolutely recommend sparkling gourami - they are my latest addition and they have quite unique characters, they interact well with both me and the other fish in the tank, they will appreciate some hiding spaces and floating plants. The ThinkFish profile picture makes them look a little 'dirtier' than in real life, mine are silver with blue neon spots and a striking blue eye.

I haven't heard it no, I found a video of them doing it at one point - it was like a clicking, barely audible above the other tank equipment.

hi my names jack and have recently set up my juwel rio 180 and have added 6 harlequin and was wondering what fish would go well in a community tank i have been looking at:
electric blue rams
emperor tetras
platys
mollies
1 green phantom pleco
1 blue phantom pleco
2 silver sharks
dwarf gourmi
and so on please help
I also have a external filter which is a 1000EF< and thats all i know about it? would be very greatful if someone could tell me where to get the media or what not for it?
and sorry if this is on the wrong page i have no idea what im doing on this forum...

Hello Jack, and welcome to the forum.

The first, and most important, question is.... have you cycled your tank? If you haven't, then it's vital that you do for the health of your fish. We'll help you with all you need to know, but please don't be tempted to add any more fish until that's all sorted out.

EDIT: I see Fiona's beaten me to it!

i kept goldfish years ago i know people that have fish ive done a hell of a lot of research
ive put 7 real plants 1 bog wood and an air pump in my tank and thats about as much as i know but my tank was second hand and came with mature media which was only stopped about 2 hours before i set it up

i dont have a tester kit but i did take my water to pets at home they tested it for me and said the water was fine

I am a big fan of my local aquatics centres. The staff are friendly, they all keep fish and are very tolerant of us newbies. The local Maidenhead aquatics is staffed by quite young people, but they all seem to have been keeping fish since they were barely out of nappies, will chat for hours whilst showing pictures of their own fish tanks, and are quite happy to have a chuckle about the addictive nature of fish keeping. At the other one I go to (Amwell Aquatics in Soham) the staff I have met there seem to be obsessed with fish and have an apparently encyclopaedic knowledge of them. It never ceases to amaze me. They are also kind proud of some of their more unusual tropical fish and (on a good day) will feed them so that you can see unusual behavioural characteristics. Last Friday I saw a leaf fish yawn, it was amazing. They were also quite cool when they were feeding. Before anyone asks, no I didn't buy any.
I have even (only once mind you) met a member of staff at P@H who was an avid fish keeper and spent quite some time discussing aquatic plants with me.
It is great to get the information from this site and the experienced keepers on this forum. It is also very useful if you manage to find a local aquatics place that you can trust. 

Hi Jalot 

Every fishkeeper does really need heir own test kits - to test for ammonia, nitrite and pH at the minimum. Liquid reagent testers cost more to buy than strips but work out cheaper per test. And master kits contain ammonia testers which a lot of strips don't. The problem with getting water tested by a shop is first they aren't open 24/7 and something usually goes wrong when they've just shut; and shops tend to say things like fine when they're not fine.

If the tank came with mature media that was running with fish right up till the time you took it, you should still have the majority of the bacteria. You'll probably have lost a few during transit but not many.
Don't forget though that you'll have only enough bacteria to deal with the ammonia made by the number of fish the last owner had in there. If it was lightly stocked, you'll be OK adding fish to the amount he had, but go slowly from there.


You have both hard and soft water fish on your list - mollies need hard water while tetras and gouramis prefer soft water, though some species would be OK in middling hard. Do you know how hard your tap water is? You should be able to find it somewhere on your water company's website.

But looking at your fish list in general -
Silver sharks, Balantiocheilos melanopterus, is a shoaling species which means at least 6 of them but they are HUGE fish. They grow up to 35 cm long and need a tank with a footprint of 240 x 60 cm.
Dwarf gouramis are often infected by an incurable disease by the time they reach the shop. If you really do want these fish, look very carefully at all the fish in the tank and don't buy any if even just one looks a bit iffy. or get another type of gourami - honeys and pearls would be fine for your tank.
One or other of the plecs.
Emperor tetras. I used to have some of these and they were like a swarm of locusts in the tank. They drove me nuts so I part-exed them for some pencilfish. If you don't mind hyperactive, greedy fish, they're fine.




fcmf just beat me to it, so I'll end by agreeing with her - once we know how hard your water is, we can go from there.

This might help you find a more accurate reading:
https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/household/my-water-supply/water-quality/water-hardness (go to "Water quality zones" on the lower half of the page)
or
https://www.stwater.co.uk/my-supplies/my-water-supply/water-quality-in-your-area/