Woohoo! Finally cycling!!

[littlerob904]

After several long weeks, and several headaches. I finally hit the nitrite spike in my 75g freshwater today. I had numerous problems, wrong ammonia first to begin with. But it was about 3.5 weeks ago that i started over with the right type of ammonia. This time it worked and I am pumped! Was really losing faith after day after day of no ammonia drop and no nitrites.

Anyways....

While I wait for my nitrites to drop I need to start picking out fish. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO START! Can someone provide me with some friendly advice as to what I should go out and buy first?

I have a 75g wet/dry trickle filter setup. Gravel substrate with lego structures. Any advice would be appreciated, I've already learned so much from this place!

 

[neurotik]

Congrats on finally getting your nitrite spike! I just finished cycling my new 55 gallon tank earlier this morning, it took just under a month to finish and I'm really pumped about it!

As for picking out fish, I'm still in the process of doing the same thing, but I probably won't make any final decisions until next weekend because I'll be out of town all next week, so no fish until I return However, I've been using the tropical fish care guides that Elmer's Aquarium (a LFS about an hour away from me) have listed on their website. They have a pretty extensive list of tropical freshwater fish with nice detailed, informative care guides for each type of fish. Each guide lists the adult size for fish, some suggested tank mates, feeding habits, etc., so that should help you to decide which fish will be best for your new tank.

They also have a freshwater handbook that lists some example ideas for community tanks depending on what type of tank you are planning on setting up (peaceful, semi-aggressive, livebearer, etc.), so you could check through the community setups they have listed on that page as well to maybe get some ideas of which fish to put together.

Goodluck! Let us know which fish you decide to get first and I'll be sure to post what I decide to get when I get back in town next weekend

 

[fisch]

Are you looking for a community aquarium with small groups of different fish? Or are you looking for just a few larger aggressive fish like cichlids?
I suggest going to your LFS and checking out what they have and what you like. Write down the names and come back here. If there is a certain fish you must have we can advise you to stocking numbers and compatible species of other fish.

 

[littlerob904]

Are you looking for a community aquarium with small groups of different fish? Or are you looking for just a few larger aggressive fish like cichlids?
I suggest going to your LFS and checking out what they have and what you like. Write down the names and come back here. If there is a certain fish you must have we can advise you to stocking numbers and compatible species of other fish.

Thanks thats not a bad idea. Unfortunately for me I've been searching the area for any true LFS' and haven't been able to find one. There is one in the next town over, but they were blasted in reviews online. Is going to a place like petco an absolute no-no? I imagine the selection won't be very good but what about the quality of fish, health, etc.?

Also I really like the idea of a community tank, I'd really like some fish that will like to hide in the lego structures I built and put in the tank. I made a few "cave" like things and a tunnel and was hoping I could find something that would use them

 

[fisch]

People have different opinions on Petco or Petsmart. I've been to some where the fish and tanks look great and been to some where they look terrible. It really just depends on the staff they have at a given store. The all tend to stock the more common varieties (guppies, platys, mollies, tiger barbs, tetras). Its worth checking if that is all you have nearby.
Plecos, corries, loaches will all probably utilize the structures.

 

[littlerob904]

People have different opinions on Petco or Petsmart. I've been to some where the fish and tanks look great and been to some where they look terrible. It really just depends on the staff they have at a given store. The all tend to stock the more common varieties (guppies, platys, mollies, tiger barbs, tetras). Its worth checking if that is all you have nearby.
Plecos, corries, loaches will all probably utilize the structures.

Well, I took a trip to petco today and I was pretty surprised at the amount of freshwater fish they had there. There were a few things that caught my eye as future pets:

Bamboo shrimp - I thought these were super cool and would love to have a few of these

Pleco - Definitely going to get one of these

African Cichlids - They had a few really cool species, bumblbee, venestus, tiger oscars, red oscars, gold severum.

Redtail sharks - Thought these were pretty sweet, would they survive with african cichlids?

I was thinking about maybe going for a semi-agressive community of african cichlids? If I stick with semi-aggressive fish of a similiar size would this work?