Bruno72
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi all, been lurking here for a week or so and thought it was time to say an official hi. I am a newbie in the aquarium world, but trying to learn what I can and enjoying the wealth of information here. Now the long story of what brought us here...
I had tanks as a kid, but none faired real well and as I read on here I can see why. Recently my 8 year old son convinced us to get one. I went to our LFS seeking advice as I wanted to do it right this time. Unfortunately the advice I was given, and sadly followed, didn't accomplish that.
We bought a 20G Marineland LED kit, and were told to set it up, dechlorinate our water and come back the next day for fish to cycle it with. We went back and were advised to get danio's so we picked out 3 Kyathit Danios and put them in the tank. One jumped out of the back of the tank a couple of days later, and when we went to get a replacement we were advised they like being in large groups, so we bought 7 more for a total of 9. The first 2 weeks we took our water in for testing, explaining each time how long the tank had been in use and after 2 weeks were told our water looked great and that we could go ahead and buy more fish. My son liked the look of sharks (what boy wouldn't) so we asked about the red tail sharks as they were his favorite and they said sure, they would work. He wanted 2, and again we asked if having 2 in a 20 G with the 9 danio would be ok, and were told sure, no problem.
We brought them home but over the next couple of days noticed one was being quite aggressive and the other one, who was being picked on, had no red in his tail and even the black was washed out. I went online and found a couple of sites with better advice then the LFS, (though still not great advice as I was told having 1 in our 20G would be fine) so we took the one who was losing color back to the LFS.
Feeling a little sore about not getting good advice I kept searching online and soon realized that a Red Tailed Shark was going to be too big and aggressive for a community 20G tank, so we later returned him as well.
I also started reading about fishless cycling, and wished we had tried that
Thankfully we are now 6 1/2 weeks into our cycle and no more danios have been lost, in fact they seem to bee doing good.
I did buy a Nutrfin test kit and have been checking my water almost every day and doing large water changes also every couple of days.
My water has now been at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites for a few days, so on the weekend my son picked out 3 guppies he liked (sadly one died yesterday, water still shows to be fine so not sure what happened there).
Since starting a friend found out we had gotten into this, and gave us his 37G tank. At first we were going to get it up and running and transfer our fish over but my son has decided he would like Angel fish and I have read danios like cooler water then Angel fish. So as it stands right now, we have the 37 G up and running as of last weekend and have started a fishless cycle on it, and it looks like the 20G and Danios will go downstairs to grandma and grandpa who live with us and we will help them stock it and when the 37 is ready we will be looking at getting Angel fish- how many and what else will be the topic of a new thread soon
Looking for advice on these fish brought me here and I am liking the advice I am reading and the general feel of all you who post here.
I had tanks as a kid, but none faired real well and as I read on here I can see why. Recently my 8 year old son convinced us to get one. I went to our LFS seeking advice as I wanted to do it right this time. Unfortunately the advice I was given, and sadly followed, didn't accomplish that.
We bought a 20G Marineland LED kit, and were told to set it up, dechlorinate our water and come back the next day for fish to cycle it with. We went back and were advised to get danio's so we picked out 3 Kyathit Danios and put them in the tank. One jumped out of the back of the tank a couple of days later, and when we went to get a replacement we were advised they like being in large groups, so we bought 7 more for a total of 9. The first 2 weeks we took our water in for testing, explaining each time how long the tank had been in use and after 2 weeks were told our water looked great and that we could go ahead and buy more fish. My son liked the look of sharks (what boy wouldn't) so we asked about the red tail sharks as they were his favorite and they said sure, they would work. He wanted 2, and again we asked if having 2 in a 20 G with the 9 danio would be ok, and were told sure, no problem.
We brought them home but over the next couple of days noticed one was being quite aggressive and the other one, who was being picked on, had no red in his tail and even the black was washed out. I went online and found a couple of sites with better advice then the LFS, (though still not great advice as I was told having 1 in our 20G would be fine) so we took the one who was losing color back to the LFS.
Feeling a little sore about not getting good advice I kept searching online and soon realized that a Red Tailed Shark was going to be too big and aggressive for a community 20G tank, so we later returned him as well.
I also started reading about fishless cycling, and wished we had tried that
Thankfully we are now 6 1/2 weeks into our cycle and no more danios have been lost, in fact they seem to bee doing good. I did buy a Nutrfin test kit and have been checking my water almost every day and doing large water changes also every couple of days.
My water has now been at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites for a few days, so on the weekend my son picked out 3 guppies he liked (sadly one died yesterday, water still shows to be fine so not sure what happened there).
Since starting a friend found out we had gotten into this, and gave us his 37G tank. At first we were going to get it up and running and transfer our fish over but my son has decided he would like Angel fish and I have read danios like cooler water then Angel fish. So as it stands right now, we have the 37 G up and running as of last weekend and have started a fishless cycle on it, and it looks like the 20G and Danios will go downstairs to grandma and grandpa who live with us and we will help them stock it and when the 37 is ready we will be looking at getting Angel fish- how many and what else will be the topic of a new thread soon
Looking for advice on these fish brought me here and I am liking the advice I am reading and the general feel of all you who post here.
