New To The Forum & Aquariums - Help Needed!

[ARH]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum and I have a couple of questions and a few fish I want to identify if possible.

I am also new to Aquariums as a whole as this is the first tank I've owned after buying it from a friend and my interest in tropical fish has grew from there, so if I sound like too much of a novice, that's because I am one

I have a Juwel Trigon 190 Aquarium which consists of Malawi's and two other fish that I would like identifying, it has been set up for around 8 weeks now and I have had the water checked at my local Aquarium store and all is good according to them.

When I bought the tank from a friend he also included around 6 Malawis with it but I was told the size of the tank required a lot of more fish so I went out and bought another 6, sadly I have had a few fish die on me since starting the tank which is now starting to worry me as I actually went out yesterday and bought 5 more Malawi's and 2 have them have died already? The one's that have died have been a orange and a white colour (I will post pictures below) which I bought to add more colour to the tank, and now they have died within 1 day, could there be a reason for this?

I have taken a few pictures which will give you an idea of the set up, I would also like some advice on how to smarten the tank up because I am not a fan of the cheap ornaments and fake plants and rocks etc, even pictures of peoples own set ups would give me a lot of ideas.

Also since I have this tank I have not done a water change or filter change so if I could get some advice on how to maintain my tank that would be great.


Here are the fish:

1


2


3


4


5


6


7


8


9



10 (these are the two fish that have died since yesterday?!?)


11



There are a few more fish which look exactly like number 3 & 7 so I thought there was no point in taking even more pictures, plus it's hard to take good pictures when they're constantly moving

I have also noticed the white spots on the fish number 9 (need to know the name of this fish and number 5 please) is there anything I should be worried about? If so, what can I do to cure it?

Help and advice would be great as I'm a beginner and I need to start learning from somewhere!


Aaron

[Krogman]

Hello!! Welcome to AA! Great community here and LOTS of info. I do believe fish number five is a parrot cichlid. I think they look great when they get big, a little funny when small.
I would start by going to the freshwater getting started forum. Learn about the nitrogen cycle and cycling your tank. Invest in a liquid test kit, a lot of us use API freshwater master test kit, it is way more accurate than test strips. And idk about your lfs but the petco near me just uses strips to test so I don't take my water there. After 8 weeks of no water changes you probably have a nitrAte build up and this is not healthy for your friends.
Just remember that lots of research pays off, and you can't and won't get all the answers at once.

[AtHomeWithTwins]

First things first, get urself a length of hose and a bucket and change like 40% of the water. Make sure you use your conditioner when u add the new water. If ur levels are off, this will at least move them in the right direction. When ur done, off to pet store and get the test kit mentioned earlier. Go home and test ur tank. Post ur results here and people will be happy to help, especially with more info.

[ARH]

Originally Posted by Krogman

Hello!! Welcome to AA! Great community here and LOTS of info. I do believe fish number five is a parrot cichlid. I think they look great when they get big, a little funny when small.
I would start by going to the freshwater getting started forum. Learn about the nitrogen cycle and cycling your tank. Invest in a liquid test kit, a lot of us use API freshwater master test kit, it is way more accurate than test strips. And idk about your lfs but the petco near me just uses strips to test so I don't take my water there. After 8 weeks of no water changes you probably have a nitrAte build up and this is not healthy for your friends.
Just remember that lots of research pays off, and you can't and won't get all the answers at once.

Hello

Ye I have learnt about the Parrot now, currently trying to rehome him/her.

I have bought myself a test kit from eBay (API Freshwater Master Test Kit) and I'm just waiting for it to arrive, but I went to another local store today and had another test, I watched him do it and he seemed to know his stuff as he keeps a lot of Malawi's himself, he said the results were fine, nothing to worry about.

I have been told it's due to territory issues and especially the Albino Malawi, I was supposed to add them in groups not just on it's own.

Originally Posted by AtHomeWithTwins

First things first, get urself a length of hose and a bucket and change like 40% of the water. Make sure you use your conditioner when u add the new water. If ur levels are off, this will at least move them in the right direction. When ur done, off to pet store and get the test kit mentioned earlier. Go home and test ur tank. Post ur results here and people will be happy to help, especially with more info.

Hi, I am going to do around a 30% water change on the weekend, and then a 25-30% water change every 2 weeks, this is what I've been advised to do.

Once I get my test kit I will start testing the water every two weeks by my self and I will post some results to make sure they're fine

[Krogman]

Them darn aggressive fish lol. Let us know how the fish do. Hopefully you don't lose more, they are pretty. Best wishes!

[Huro]

Welcome to AA

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

[90galWavefront]

Welcome
I wish you the best of luck
You came to the right place, just keep poking around and asking questions. The people on here are great.
They helped me a great deal when I first came on board with a wealth of knowledge and pointers I hadn't even thought about.
Be patient is the best advise I can give .

[ARH]

Thanks for all your reply's

I will post some pictures up in the future when I get the sand and rock sorted but for now I can't do much as I have to move house soon so I don't want to disrupt the fish twice in a matter of weeks!

[uelissa]

Welcome!!!!

[ARH]

Originally Posted by uelissa

Welcome!!!!

Thanks

My Red Zebra (Number 6) looks like he is about to die, swimming sideways and staying at the bottom of the water and not eating or socializing with the other fish

[90galWavefront]

Have you done a water change?