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barboza67

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
4
Location
Westminster
I just started a new 20gal tank with two silver tipped sharks that are about 2 inches a piece. what would be the best way to care for them and the tank?

i did let the tank settle for quite a while before introducing them to the tank. i have a 20-30 gal pump filter for the tank and a 7 inch bubble stone in the tank and i have added aquarium salts to the tank. the sharks seem to be very happy at the moment. they are swimming around a lot and seem to like the bubbles from the stone a lot
 
Did your tank go through its full cycle or did you just plop the fish in there when you got the tank up and running?

And what do you mean care for them and the tank?

First off, care for the tank: Keep it clean. Always scrape the algea of the sides when it starts to arise. Which it will. Always change the filter bags to ensure that your filtration is at its best. Also, doing a 20-25% water change weekly for the first few months is a good idea as well. Until the tank is fully established. Then you can do water changes ever few weeks. If you have sand, make sure you have sand sifters or you sift the sand yourself every week, otherwise the sand will harness bad gases that when released into the tank could harm/kill your fish.

As for the fish, just feed them lol. If they get sick, make sure you have the right medicine for them and treat them.

Pretty sums it up if you talking about taking care of the tank and the fish.. i dont see much else to do lol.


You will find that the very section of this forum that you are in, has many articles for you to read up on how to take care of your tank and fish. As well as give you tips to make it look nicer so you can achieve the exact goal you were looking for. So have a look around and see what you can find. ;)
 
First off, let me just inform you now in case you did not already know -- silver-tipped sharks can grow to be quite large over time (12-18 inches max). A tank as small as yours is nowhere near big enough for them once they grow to their full adult size, so hopefully you have plans in the future to move them to a much larger tank.

As linksyz already asked, was your tank fully cycled before adding the fish? Have you been doing water tests to check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels to see that there are no traces of ammonia or nitrite in your water, and that your nitrates are kept at a reasonable/safe level through partial water changes on a regular basis? Gravel vacuuming is also a good habit to fall in to doing each time you do your partial water changes as well, as it will help remove a lot of the solid waste that falls down into your substrate and can cause you problems over time if it is allowed the chance to build up and really turn your water nasty.

As far as feeding goes, be sure not to over feed your fish, as that can easily cause you bacterial blooms (white, cloudy water) as well as ammonia and nitrite spikes in your water which can really stress your fish out and even kill them in more extreme situations. Also be sure that you have a heater in your tank to keep your water temperatures at the appropriate level for tropical fish and to ensure that the temperature remains stable rather than fluctuating all over the place.

Not sure what else to cover right now, but those are the basics, assuming you understand the nitrogen cycle and have properly set up your tank and are aware of the potential size that those fish can get. I'll wait to see your responses to my initial questions before I continue further with any more suggestions and recommendations.

Good luck!
 
i do plan on getting a bigger tank for them as they grow older. and i do not fully understand what cycling the tank means, when doing water test what levels should i be looking for. and as they do eventually get to adulthood how do i make the tank fully blown SW.

I actually received the sharks from a friend who has only had them for a few days and had to get rid of them when he found out how big they would be getting. so i took them knowing that i wanted some rather big fish and a very big tank. now im just looking for the best way to make sure they make it that long

Thanks for the advice it is much appreciated
 
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