Starting fishkeeping again after years

[SSmith4]

This is my 2nd post on here, as I only saw the Introductions part after asking a question, for which I had lots of useful replies.
I always dreamed of having an aquarium from when I was young, after looking around the aquatics store called The Goldfish Bowl in my town of Oxford, England. Such beautiful colours. So relaxing to watch. Individual worlds in each tank.
Then after I married and we had our own house, he said that he had some knowledge of fish keeping, so I bought him a fish tank for his birthday, when it was really for me too. It was a beautiful tank and we had some lovely fish. However my husband was a jerk and I wasn't happy, so after an argument I went to stay with a friend for a few weeks, and when I got back he had let all the fish die to punish me, but just one fancy goldfish was alive.
After we divorced I kept the goldfish as he was a survivor, but after it died I didn't bother about the tank again. Although I often thought about starting a tank of my own.
Now I have a tank which has been set up with plants, but no fish yet. Just some accidental snails as some eggs must have been in the moss balls that I bought. Still thinking about what fish to get and learning more about fish keeping online
Ideally I would love a marine tank, but heard they're more difficult to maintain, so for now I will stick to fresh water.

[Caliban07]

Hello SSmith

Do you know how many litres or gallons the tank is? This information will help us make some recommendations for you.

[SSmith4]

Originally Posted by Caliban07

Hello SSmith

Do you know how many litres or gallons the tank is? This information will help us make some recommendations for you.

Oh OK. The tank is: 54L, Size 52.8x30.2x46.4cm. I have attached a photo. Still have more work to make it look better. That's a plastic goldfish toy at the bottom from the fish shop, so not toxic.

The tank was given to me by a person I had told about my wish to start another tank. I wasn't sure if to use it at first, because it's taller than my old tank. My old tank years ago was wider and lower. I noticed that most fish I was interested in swim in the middle, and I had put most decorations on the ground. Then thought there must be ways for decorations to be higher, so bought tall plants, and think that would look nice with fish swimming around them.
Have some bogwood, but that's soaking it before adding. Want to grow plants on wood too. Will look at other tanks for tips on other ornaments.

I set the tank up ages ago with gravel on the ground, and then liked the look of planted tanks on youtube videos. I was searching for information on how to have a good planted tank, and was told the only way plants will grow is with soil type substrate. Then had bad advice from a pet store and bought the substrate designed to be under gravel, so the whole tank turned muddy. Then was told that if I just wanted soil type substrate with no gravel on top, there's a kind of substrate with small hard balls where it doesn't make the water muddy. Then I read that you don't need soil substrate to have plants in your tank, as plants get their nutrients from the water anyway. I was fed up, so changed back to gravel now and put real plants in the gravel.

My ideal fish are a school of neon tetra, but the water where I live is too hard, so thinking of getting some kind of mountain minnow instead. I might not even heat the tank, and just keep at room temperature. Or if I decide to heat the tank, would get platy fish.

Although there aren't any fish yet, I have unintentional snails. There must have been snail eggs in the moss balls, as there were suddenly lots of small snails, but they're still too small to tell what type. I think the moss balls were from a heated tank in the store, but the snails seem happy at room temperature, moving about the glass and eating the algae.

[Caliban07]

Pasted from a more qualified friend of mine.

‘It’s difficult to beat white clouds for smaller hard water tanks, both tropical and cold water. They’re just so adaptable. If you can find them the Vietnamese ones are especially nice, but slightly more tropical. Or maybe the smaller danios like nigrofasciatus or tinwini’

By white clouds he means White Cloud Mountain Minnows.

I’d also recommend some red cherry shrimp and a couple nerite snails however if your water is really hard and the total dissolved solid (conductivity) level is high they may produce some unsightly eggs that won’t hatch.

The wood will make a nice addition

P.S I don’t think the plants on the left are fully submersible. They may eventually rot away.

For plants I’d recommend some lesser demanding crypt species and perhaps a nice Amazon sword for the corner. Anubias will work well for attaching to the wood and you could also try some type of moss.

[SSmith4]

Originally Posted by Caliban07

Pasted from a more qualified friend of mine.

‘It’s difficult to beat white clouds for smaller hard water tanks, both tropical and cold water. They’re just so adaptable. If you can find them the Vietnamese ones are especially nice, but slightly more tropical. Or maybe the smaller danios like nigrofasciatus or tinwini’

By white clouds he means White Cloud Mountain Minnows.

I’d also recommend some red cherry shrimp and a couple nerite snails however if your water is really hard and the total dissolved solid (conductivity) level is high they may produce some unsightly eggs that won’t hatch.

The wood will make a nice addition

P.S I don’t think the plants on the left are fully submersible. They may eventually rot away.

For plants I’d recommend some lesser demanding crypt species and perhaps a nice Amazon sword for the corner. Anubias will work well for attaching to the wood and you could also try some type of moss.

One of the plants in the left corner at the back that's sticking out the water is actually plastic. I got it to hide the filter. Although the filter isn't in for that photo. Sorry I should have mentioned that, but you can't really see the plastic one in the photo apart from what's sticking out. Do you think that's why you say they're not fully submersible? Although the ones in view in front of the plastic one are real, and float on the water at the top rather than sticking out. I just got them, as wanted something high up in the water as the tank is tall. Next time I buy plants, I will take more notice of what they're called, so can learn about the care.

Thank you for the plant recommendations, I will look into those.

I never thought about shrimp before. They would certainly be an interesting addiction, and from the photos I just quickly googled after reading your comment, it looks as if they stay on the ground a lot, so lower than the fish.

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by SSmith4

One of the plants in the left corner at the back that's sticking out the water is actually plastic. I got it to hide the filter. Although the filter isn't in for that photo. Sorry I should have mentioned that, but you can't really see the plastic one in the photo apart from what's sticking out. Do you think that's why you say they're not fully submersible? Although the ones in view in front of the plastic one are real, and float on the water at the top rather than sticking out. I just got them, as wanted something high up in the water as the tank is tall. Next time I buy plants, I will take more notice of what they're called, so can learn about the care.

Thank you for the plant recommendations, I will look into those.

I never thought about shrimp before. They would certainly be an interesting addiction, and from the photos I just quickly googled after reading your comment, it looks as if they stay on the ground a lot, so lower than the fish.

The tall ones in the back left corner. Sometimes shops have a habit if selling plants that cannot be fully placed underwater without eventually dying. If the leaves stick out they might survive.

P.s if you’re going to get shrimp I’d recommend a sponge filter if placing a fine pore ‘pre filter’ sponge over the inlet to stop shrimp getting sucked up.

[SSmith4]

I still don't have any fish yet. I've only just bought a sponge filter and modified it to use with an air stone to be less noisy, from a video I watched on youtube and I like it. Want to get the aquascaping right before getting fish. It's looking better as there's bogwood and more plants, instead of the fake plastic bogwood that's in the photo. I'm enjoying watching videos of planted tanks. I'm trying to decide if to keep the gravel or if to put soil type substrate down and then gravel on top of that. I need to find out if you can have a good planted tank with just gravel.



I've also been researching about shrimp as I like your suggestion. Still have my mind on some kind of mountain minnows and maybe a couple of platy, but need to find out more about them first, such as the temperature they need and how many to have.