Please advise a newbie!

[MoxieGrrrl]

After my daughter has been pestering me for over a month about getting fish, I've decided to make it a family project to learn about the setup and maintenance of an aquarium.

I will probably be purchasing a 26 gallon bow-front, and have gotten some great information on the accessories (heaters, etc) I need, but am having trouble finding a good source for all the kinds of fish I can co-habitate...

I always loved bettas, and would like to add one to the aquarium. Aside from that, I've only gotten tetras as a good tank-mate for a betta. I've taken a look at tetras and some are very pretty, but I know my daughter would love some very colorful fish. Can anyone offer some advice on fish that can live together pretty peacefully? Don't want to buy the wrong breed (?) and end up killing the poor thing. Will I need to abandon a betta to be able to include other kinds?

Any help you can offer would be fantastic. Thank you!!!

 

[gfink]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830

 

[Sonia]

I think you have to be really careful about combining male bettas with other fish, since they can be aggressive.... you definitely don't want to combine two males. The females are probably better for community tanks, but they aren't as pretty... I think the ones sold alone in bowls at pet shops are just about always males.

You should probably also make sure that you don't combine your betta with fin-nipping fish such as barbs, certain tetras or others and you need to make sure that all fish in the same tank can tolerate the same PH, salt level & temperature. If you want info on what fish combine well together, I got a lot of useful information from this site:

http://www.elmersaquarium.com/nav/freshwater/index.html

I've never kept bettas myself, but I hope this info helps a little!

 

[BrianNY]

Welcome to AA Moxiegrrrl . There are actually many species that go well with bettas. Platies would be a great choice of colorful fish. I would avoid any other fish that has long flowing fins as this is apt to signal aggression from the betta.

Yo Yo loaches or some Corydoras catfish would also make great tankmates.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:c06962ba49] Welcome to AA, MoxieGrrrl!! [/center:c06962ba49]

The females are probably better for community tanks, but they aren't as pretty...

But, if you look hard enough, you may fine one or two to fall in love with
Having said that, my girls were picked on by wide bodied tetras. The slender fish do better.

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Thanks for the wonderful welcome, and thanks for everyone's fast replies - they are very helpful! The links are already bookmarked and I'll be sure to look at them all in depth when my little girl is in bed and won't walk in on me

While I am here - how many fish should I expect to place in a tank sized 26 gallons? Am I looking at 3-5, 5-10, more than that? Obviously I don't want to overcrowd, but I'd enjoy a nice mix

 

[Menagerie]

It really depends on the type of fish, their personalities and your filtering system. It looks like you want some peaceful community fish. You can have a few cories on the bottom, a school of tetras, or white clouds, betta and one or two more individual fish, such as a German blue ram or live bearer.

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Actually, that brings up a couple other questions - when they mention peaceful communities versus active communities of fish - what does that mean exactly?

And I saw a family photo album of angelfish, which are very pretty fish. Will abandoning the betta in favor of fish that can live with angels offer me more of a selection or am I asking for trouble by getting involved with a more delecate or very high maintenance group?

Sorry if I sound like a lunatic, I feel like I might be getting to fixated, but I really want to make sure I do this right. I'm already obsessing on whether to use pebbles or sand and what color it should be ;p

Anyone have decorating ideas?

 

[BrianNY]

IMO angelfish are much hardier fish than bettas. Your selection of tankmates is equally as open.

Active vs community? Sounds like the lfs has an english language problem. LOL They'd be better off saying peaceful vs aggressive. An active fish could be a community fish and visa versa.

Choice of substrate? You'll have an easier time maintaing water quality if you stick with a medium size grain (say 2-3mm). Too large a grain and it's easy for uneaten food to become trapped and foul the water. Too small a grain can become compacted and create anaerobic air pockets. JMO

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Just wanted to clarify, BrianNY, you believe the angels are a more hearty kind of fish or are they a harder kind to deal with as a beginner?

And you're right, I guess that was where I was getting confused: peaceful vs. active should probably be peaceful vs. AGGRESSIVE. I assume that the more aggressive communities are more difficult to maintain since you'll find that the alpha-fish will just tear up the rest?

Thank you for the advice on the gravel (substrate? still learning the terms ). I thought I would go with sand, but you make a good point about it being too compact. Does anyone else have experience with sand? What does everyone else use as a substrate?

By the way, thank you all AGAIN for patiently answering my many questions. I am getting very excited about this project and have ordered my tank to arrive on Tuesday - just have to hide it at my in-laws' house until X-mas Eve.

 

[Jchillin]

Hi moxie - What Brian meant by hardier means they can withstand some conditions that others probably will not. I use "gravel" as a substrate. Good luck!

 

[poppab02]

German Rams are absolutely beautiful but I had problems keeping them; they are very sensitive (to water ph, etc.). Make sure your tank is cycled before introducing fish to it (you want the tank to have bacteria growing before adding fish because the fish could die from too much ammonia, nitrogen, etc., in the water created by their waste- bacteria keeps the levels down). Read up on cycling before doing anything, I believe there are some articles on AA somewhere about it. Platies come in a variety of bright colors, I have a few and they're very peaceful. Loaches are also a favorite, they have nice colors and are very active and entertaining (active as in swim a lot, not as in kill each other!).

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Thanks J - I'm still trying to decide what kind of fish to put together and I just don't want to make one mistake after another and have the tank become one very large paperweight. 8O

It seems like the angels might be the way to go, since I can have more than one angel where I can really only have one male betta.

Which leads me to a NEW question (anyone hating me yet?) - the ever present urge to procreate that all species tend to have. If I am not confident I can handle a tankful of babies, should I strive to get only male or only female inhabitants? Is such a thing even possible? Will I just have to accept that there will likely be babies no matter what I try and do? And do stores buy back babies or do most babies tend to die off unless I set up all kinds of equipment ideal for breeding?

And still looking for tank decoration ideas - color schemes and whatnot - anyone got a site of some pretty setups with descriptions of what was used that I can check out?

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Not to worry, Poppab02 - I have Aquariums for Dummies and plan on taking everything very slowly (which is why I am pestering the list for answers ). My plan is to only have the majority of the equipment to give to my daughter as a gift, but we will learn how to set it all up and do the cycling thing (insert fitness joke here) before we go out and find our first tank inhabitant or two. Which I have to say is very unusual for me - I typically go hog wild, spend too much money on everything at once and be very sorry later, but I have been taking this pretty slowly and learning a lot along the way.

Again, kudos to everyone for all their help!

 

[BrianNY]

Ahhh, the urge to procreate. How scientifically put Moxie

With angelfish it's almost impossible to tell the sex until you see them spawning. More than likely you will not have to worry about raising the fry of egg laying fish in a community tank. Live bearing fish such as platies are another story. If you can't bear to see baby fish disappear, it's probably best to shose other tankmates for your angels.

To get some decorating ideas, check out some of wonderful pictures the people here have posted in their galleries. I think I've got a pic of my 55g amgelfish tank in there.

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Tee hee - photo galleries. Ah Brian, thank you for pointing out the obvious to me since I apparently turned blonde for a while there.

Ok, so the platies are like rabbits, eh? I will keep that in mind.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

We just converted our rock bottom tank to a sand bottom. It looks amazing. We don't have a problem with it EXCEPT we can't use the air curtain or any other type of air that blows from under the sand. Just a word of advice: 'Purchase 1 bag of sand that you want to use. Pour it into a bucket or bowl and add water until the sand is completly submerged. If you have sand that floats at the top or it clumps into balls and sinks, do NOT use that sand.' We purchased 4 bags of beige, 5 bags of white, and 2 bags of black sand. We planned on layering the sand making it look sort of like a salt water with the black accent on top. The beige worked great. The white and black balled up and we had big problems with it at first. I highly recommend testing it first. But don't be discouraged from sand, it looks very nice and the fish love it.

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

I DID see the fish store that I purchased my tank from had several tanks with sand at the bottom and thought it looked very attractive. I assume you would only buy sand from a fish store - is there a reason why sand that balls up or floats would be sold there if it's not a good idea to use it? I did a little poking around online the other night and found sand on a website that was touted as being better than other sand - anyone know if there is a brand or something I should look for?

Gosh I am such a pest!

 

[MoxieGrrrl]

Oooooh, has anyone created a tank using some gravel and some sand (like a transition)? I'd like to use a bubble stone or disk, but if I can't use those with sand, then maybe I could have a mix?

 

[theatrus]

The problem with mixing sand and gravel is they mix. And sooner than later you have all the sand at the bottom and all the gravel on top...

I've always thought about converting my FW tank to sand, but my salt water has been eating all of my money 8O