First fish tank, please help

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chicclidkid

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
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2
Hi, I recently recieved a 20 gal fish tank as a gift and the filter and lighting came with it along with the usual starter kit stuff, i also purchased a water heater and everything seems to be working fine

I decided to make it a freshwater tank because the guy at the pet store told me they're pretty much easier to maintain since ive neer owned a tank before and i filled the tank with 2 parrot cichlids and 3 smaller convict cichlids

My first question is how can i tell if my parrot cichlids aren't dyed fish because one of them is pink and one is green (i bought them because they reminded me of cosmo and wanda from fairly odd parents)

my next question is what type of food should i feed them the parrots are about 2-3 inches in size and my convicts are 1-2 inches

my third question is am i able to add more fish in my tank and if yes what kind?

Please let me know if i seem to be missing important equipment or if theres anything i should know about keeping these fish. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. :thanks:
 
Hi welcome to aa! So the fish that you have are unsuitable for a twenty gallon tank they need about 55-60 gallons as a minimum depending on the person you ask. They get big and are aggressive fish. A parrot chiclid that is green is dyed for sure as well as the pink. Dyed fish are a terrible thing that has left a stain on this hobby. Please do not purchase any more if given the opprotunity. So take all of the fish back and well start from scratch with some suitable fish. A good stock list for you would be: 6 neon tetras 1 dwarf gourami and 3-5 pygmycory cats. I assume you are unaware of the nitrogen cycle in tanks. You will need to add an ammonia source (pure ammonia that can be bought at almost any hardware store) and an API ammonia, nitrate, nitrite liquid test kits. The idea is to build up beneficial bacteria that destroy waste. The ammonia is their food but toxic to fish. No fish are to be added until you are fully cycled that can take 1-2 months. Add ammonia up to 4ppm (use the test kit to determine this number) and keep testing till it drops to 0 ppm now test for nitrite as it is the product of the bb. You will eventually see nitrates and then do a water change and dose more ammonia. This goes on until you show 0 ammonia a day after dosing the 4 ppm of ammonia. This is a rough outline of cycling and may be very confusing. For help just look up how to cycle a fresh water aquarium without fish and you have all the info you need. Thanks for finding us here at aa!:)
 
Ok Thank you so much for your help even though its pretty disappointing to hear that but ill be sure to fix it

ANd im not sure if you meant i can put all those fish together or those are 3 different options
 
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You can put all those fish together. I agree that the neon tetras can be a bit sensitive to water conditions. I have had really good luck with male guppies. Of course, I'm partial to male guppies. I think they're incredibly beautiful and come in a wide variety of colors.
 
First you don't add ammonia to the tank. If you are going to have a fish tank let's do it right. Set your tank up let it get the correct temperature. By that time you're water will be De chlorided. After the water is ready go buy 3 or 4 fish. Put them In the tank in about 6 weeks it should be cycled. You can get a test kit so you check you're tank to see when the amonnia starts to rise and fall the same with the nitrite and nitrate. After that the tank will be cycled the nitrate doesn't fall it just rises that why you change about 10 to 20%of the water weakly. I have dealt with fish since 1981
 
The green Parrot fish isn't painted he just hasn't turned yet.
 
The green Parrot fish isn't painted he just hasn't turned yet.

My parrot is pink and I don't know if its dyed and if so is that going to harm my Angel fish in terms of sickness.

2 lage Angel fish
1 medium parrot fish
 
If he is pink then he has already turned. I haven't heard of the Parrot fish being painted. Other fish have been painted I don't think it would hurt your other fish
 
First you don't add ammonia to the tank. If you are going to have a fish tank let's do it right. Set your tank up let it get the correct temperature. By that time you're water will be De chlorided. After the water is ready go buy 3 or 4 fish. Put them In the tank in about 6 weeks it should be cycled. You can get a test kit so you check you're tank to see when the amonnia starts to rise and fall the same with the nitrite and nitrate. After that the tank will be cycled the nitrate doesn't fall it just rises that why you change about 10 to 20%of the water weakly. I have dealt with fish since 1981

That's the wrong way to cycle a tank. Buying ammonia is the safest, cleanest way. When you expose fish to ammonia it encourages disease. That can linger and affect other fish you buy down the line.

Any parrot that isn't blood red, marbled, or convict-like pattern is dyed btw.
 
That's the way I have cycled tanks in and had no Problems.
 
If he is pink then he has already turned. I haven't heard of the Parrot fish being painted. Other fish have been painted I don't think it would hurt your other fish

What do you mean that fish being painted dosent hurt them? You are obviously aren't very informed. Just look up tattooed fish and tell me that those don't look painful. The cycling style that I described is used by all of the most reputable people on this site and is the safest way to do it.
 
What do you mean that fish being painted dosent hurt them? You are obviously aren't very informed.

Yup. What they do to "paint" fish is first soak them in some sort of acid or caustic solution that melts their slimecoat off. Then they dip the fish in dye. Then they dip the fish in artificial slime coat. Very stressful. And completely pointless.
 
That's the way I have cycled tanks in and had no Problems.

But it's a very 1982 way to cycle a tank. If you can cycle it without harming or endangering any fish, why wouldn't you? Best case scenario for fish in cycling, fish get severely burned and inflamed gills due to ammonia in the tank. Not worth it IMO.
 
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