Help me decide what fish to start with! :)

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

MoxieGrrrl

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Dec 2, 2004
Messages
200
Location
New Jersey
Yay! I now have all the items for my new tank either in my possession or on order.

By the way, everyone who recommended Big Al's gets a big ol' smooch from me - I got a canister filter, a 25 ft Python, a sub-heater, a backup heater (for emergencies), an air pump (I hope the Tetra-tec is as silent as they advertise it), air tubing, an air stone, a Mag-Float, Penn Plax Claws, a thermometer, suction cups and FW salt for $166 including shipping. My LFS wanted $165 just for the canister filter and Python!!! (But I did buy the All-Glass 36 gallon bowfront from them for $100).

Anyway, eventually I want a tank with the following: an angelfish, guppies, mollies and a pleco. I also liked the Splashing Tetras, Top Sail Platy and Hi Fin Lyretail Swordtail.

I am letting my daughter open the tank for Yule and will get started setting it up with her (though I do have to wait for Big Al's to ship me all the above stuff - wish they had a shipping upgrade, would have happily paid to get it faster).

So, once I get all the equipment in and do the initial 24 hours or so of running without having any fish in the tank, which fish would you use as the starter fish? I was told the mollies should be able to ride it out, but to stay away from guppies. Agree? Disagree?

Thanks for reading!
 
Happy new tank to you :lol: If you don't want to do a fishless cycle, mollies should work well, just don't get to many. Maybe 3 or 4. If you can find it, bio spira will jump start the tank and allow you to stock it heavier. I think it is the only thing I have found that helps, and I've tried a number of products. Mollies like a little salt, 1 tsp per 5 gal. but it is not required. Most fish do well with that amount. Good luck and remember, there is no cure for MTS :lol:
 
MoxieGrrrl, Big Al's is pretty sweet huh? If I were you, I would go with the BioSpira. I think my LFS sells it for about $25 for a 55 gallon dose, and everyone I have talked to about it says it works great for a quick cycle. Just telling you because mollies were my 1st newbie fish and they unfortunately didn't survive the cycle. Also, I definitely would not add the angelfish during the initial setup process, as I have heard they like established tanks. And BASSNMAN is totally right about MTS, I went from a 1 gallon crappy betta tank to the 4 tanks I have now: a 20 gal, 29 gal, 35 gal, and 55 gal. :lol:
 
Congrats Moxie! (what I wouldn't do to see your daughter's face when she opens this really big present). If you're going with cycling with fish, just remember to be patient. It will take some time to complete the cycle. Did you order test kits (NH3, NO2, NO3 and ph)? If you haven't please do so. Regular PWC's and testing will allow you to monitor the progress and avoid any spikes in water quality. Good luck!
 
I already see it coming - I fell in love with a sweet little nurse shark at my LFS and had to shake myself out of the daze lol. I get the impression tanks are like tattoos. I already have 5 of those.

I've got salt on order with Al's, so I've got that covered, but thanks for the reminder ;) I didn't know freshwater fish like a little bath in some salt.

I still may go fishless cycling. I had spoken with someone today who grew up with fish and didn't do much more than letting the water filter for a day or two and her fish never had problems, but then reading some of the more hardline followers of fishless cycling makes me waffle back. Oh well, more research for me I suppose. I will take a look for that Bio Spira stuff and see what I can do to move things along quickly.

Do you think asking the LFS if they could part with a handful of tank gravel from one of their older tanks would be a good idea or bad?
 
Jchillin said:
Congrats Moxie! (what I wouldn't do to see your daughter's face when she opens this really big present). If you're going with cycling with fish, just remember to be patient. It will take some time to complete the cycle. Did you order test kits (NH3, NO2, NO3 and ph)? If you haven't please do so. Regular PWC's and testing will allow you to monitor the progress and avoid any spikes in water quality. Good luck!

I will try to take a picture of her when she opens it up :)

I bought a TetraTest Laborett? contains 2 pH, 1 KH, 1 GH, 2 NO2 and 1 6ml, 1 10ml and 1 17ml of NH3/NH4. Also a CO2 Calculation Chart. I don't know what any of it means, I just typed the package off.

I am leaning towards fishless cycling again, but getting impatient. I am terribly impatient lol.
 
We don't want to disappoint our little girl do we? The cycle will take time and you must show patience...extreme patience. The KH and GH measure the water hardness (if your tap water contains high levels of metals, the test will let you know. NH3/NH4 is the test for ammonia. the NO2 is for nitrite. You need a NO3 test. These tests will let you know the levels of toxins in your tank during (and of course after) the cycle. A cycled tank will read: NH3 - 0, NO2 - 0, NO3 - 5-10ppm. You also need a ph test to check the acidity-alkalinity of your tank.
 
Drat! Why didn't they give me the other two tests? Argh. I hope I get a good photo though :)

Is that Wolverine as your Avatar? My husband and I were discussing it.
 
I think most people here are big fans of BioSpira. I've never used it, but I do use Seachem Stability. It worked for me. I dropped the fish in 2 days after I started up the tank. I've never tested my water with any kits and I've never lost a fish, but maybe I'm just really lucky. I'm trying to do this the minimalist way.

I started off with 4 guppies. They are pretty hardy fish. Getting them isn't the problem. Getting them to quit popping out babies is the trick! :mrgreen:
 
I wouldn't suggest asking for a handful of gravel for a petstore because you never know what disease that might be lurking about

Congrats on your new tank!

Make sure the pleco that you get won't out grow your tank, also, another great bottom dweller is the cory cat.. they come in all sorts of "designs"
 
lyquidphyre said:
I wouldn't suggest asking for a handful of gravel for a petstore because you never know what disease that might be lurking about

Congrats on your new tank!

Make sure the pleco that you get won't out grow your tank, also, another great bottom dweller is the cory cat.. they come in all sorts of "designs"

I had a feeling that might be the case with my LFS. Bummer. Don't know anyone with an established tank :/

I was browsing through the liveaquaria.com and see that the Snowball Pleco and Angelicus Pleco should be able to stay small enough for the tank. The LFS suggested that if a pleco outgrows the tank, I can sell it back tot he store and get a smaller one again, but unless the pleco has a rotten personality, I would think I'd be attached to it :)
 
Jchillin said:
Yes Moxie...it is Wolverine. Have no fear...he is not representative of my actual personality whatsoever.

Hehe, no worries. :) We're comic geeks over here - I'm sitting across from our 5 shelf bookcase that houses just our trades. The ava just didn't show his claws or fabulous hairstyle (or hood, whatever) :D
 
Moxie, other good pleco choices would be the clown, rubberlip, or bristlenose, as they would not outgrow your tank. And the pics on liveaquaria.com are great, but you will definitely be able to get the fish cheaper elsewhere just so you know. And yes you will get attached to your pleco! :lol: Sweet website, BTW, you and I have a lot in common. :wink:
 
I aquired a common pleco which get to be about 18in.. he is prolly 7 or 8in now and doing well in my 75gal

This gives me more reason to build a pond as soon as we buy a house! (which is a ways away considering my bf and I aren't engaged yet... yet... hehe)

Id feel bad if I had to give him to a petstore!

Also, one thing to remember when starting this hobby is don't always trust people at the lfs =o)
 
I started out with 3 white mollies (female)and a black mollie. Unfortanatly the females died. Pet land told me they are better with established tanks. They got ich about 1 1/2 weeks later and took 7 other fish to the grave with them. I would wait a while before getting the Mollies. They was my favorite fish and my 2 yr olds too. I would hate your little one to have to go through what we did.
 
severum mama said:
Moxie, other good pleco choices would be the clown, rubberlip, or bristlenose, as they would not outgrow your tank. And the pics on liveaquaria.com are great, but you will definitely be able to get the fish cheaper elsewhere just so you know. And yes you will get attached to your pleco! :lol: Sweet website, BTW, you and I have a lot in common. :wink:

Thanks, Mama :) Yeah, I figure getting the fish locally will be best, so I know which fish I am picking out. I was just poking around liveaquaria to see what was out there and find fish I liked.

Stop on back at the website - I love having visitors :)
 
shannon m said:
I started out with 3 white mollies (female)and a black mollie. Unfortanatly the females died. Pet land told me they are better with established tanks. They got ich about 1 1/2 weeks later and took 7 other fish to the grave with them. I would wait a while before getting the Mollies. They was my favorite fish and my 2 yr olds too. I would hate your little one to have to go through what we did.

Thanks for the advice Shannon - I believe I will be going for fishless cycling, so I have a good environment ready for the little guys. It will teach me patience AND teach my daughter some patience too (she's worse than me!).

I will let y'all know how it goes, maybe take some pictures of the steps along the way :>)
 
Definitely get a nitrate test, but I would say that a ph test is optional. I personally have had them but find them useless unless you plan on raising very delicate fish that are tolerant of only a very narrow ph range. The general rule is that a stable ph is better than a perfect ph, therefore don't mess with your ph. The ph isn't going to change if you know exactly what is going into your tank. You're planning on raising fish that are relatively tolerant of a wide ph range. I would simply get your ph tested by your lfs once you have your tank up and running to let you know what the ph is of your water and it really shouldn't change. Plus, if you buy all your fish from the lfs they are 90% of the time(with the common fish) going to be locally bred and thus tolerant of your local water. That's my 2 cents. Some people may disagree though.

If you do cycle with fish, definitely go with something you aren't going to bond with and is undistiguishable (zebra danios are the usual favorites). It can save some heartache.
 
Ok, I got an NO3 and a pH test and I got some Bio-Spira ($10 for a 30 gallon dose)

BTW, what's the shelf-life of tests?

So yes, I will be going with fishless cycling - I'll use the Bio-Spira. If it works like it claims, I should be able to add fish within a couple of days. Now that I have all the tests, I will go test-happy and see how quickly Bio-Spira works.

I can't wait now!
 
Back
Top Bottom