Thought I'd post a quick fish story. I had a tank set up with a single Angel Fish in it. I walked in one day and the fish is sitting on the top of the gravel....no water in sight! I was so sad. I thought it was dead. I sat down infront of the tank and started to mourn the loss. Then....I saw it. Its gills moved. I grabbed a busket and filled it with water. It was the middle of winter in Sydney so I had to add a certain amount of hot water. Looking back on it.....I managed to get the temp perforct. Not warm....but not cold. I added the declorinator (Keep in mind there has been only 30 second between seeing the fish move and having a bucket full of water and it being safe for the fish). I scrapped the fish off the gravel and put it in the water. It was the moment of truth. The fish stayed upright! That night I put it in a room with the heater on so the water didnt cool. The next day I brough a new tank that had everything except a leak! That Angel fish is now twice the size it used to be. I swear this fish has been through alot (moving, poor tank set ups and almost dying) and its been more hardy then any fish I have every kept. Not that it matters these days. Its now pampered becaused its the miricle fish.
Well chase you post the best and most informative stuff I've seen on the subject, way better than the crap I've found out there on the Net and most people here haven't disagreed with you so I'm taking your advice. Here's another question: should I buy all my fish from the same store or is it OK to buy fish from different places. I don't like Petco and Wal-Mart's fish are always sick so those two are out of the question but there are some nice locally owned pet stores here that seems to know there stuff and I think I'll choose between them.
You can get your fish anywhere... but like you pointed out, some places care about their fish more than others. The biggest danger you run into is that if you introduce a sick fish into your aquarium, it could make all the other fish sick, possibly killing them. If that happens, you will have to empty your tank and start over to ensure that whatever killed your fish is gone. What part of town do you live in? IMO, Village Tropical Fish is the best store that I've been to because most of the employees have been there for a long time and are pretty knowledgable (as opposed to highschool kids who may or may not know anything - I should point out that I worked at a fish store for a few years in highschool and did know what I was talking about... more or less!). When you buy fish, look at all the fish in the tank to see if there are any sick fish in them. Are all the fish swiming activly? Or do any appear listless. Do you see anything weird on the fish (like white spots that look like salt)? In general, fish floating at the surface or lying on their side on the bottom are NOT resting. Be patient. Don't buy fish from a tank where other fish seem sick even if the fish you want seems okay. Once again, at Village, if they have a sick tank they quarantine it and won't sell fish from it until the tank is cured (they made me come back to get some fish that I wanted). Another store that fun to visit is one called (I think) Aquarium World out on 290 near Hollister. It's got a lot of cool stuff but I can't vouch for the staff as I haven't had too much interaction with them. Get advice from a store you trust and buy your stuff from them. It will be more expensive then buying online but most of your supplies are not that expensive to begin with and generally last a long time. If you "get into it" and get some experience then you can start buying things on-line once you know what you're looking for and what you're doing. I buy most all my fish from Village because I trust them to take care of their tanks and fish. I buy my supplies from a pet store close to me or Village or on-line depending on what I'm after. However, the only thing I really have to re-supply myself with regularly is food, chlorine remover and CO2 (lone story) and plant fertilizer. The food costs me about $14 for a big can and it lasts a LONG time. The chlorine remover costs me about $9 a bottle (Zipp drops) and lasts me, again, a LONG time (8 months?) and I even use it for a pond that I have outside. So I spend maybe $40 - $60 per year on my tank (not counting CO2/plant fertilizer which you won't need). FYI, I have a 58 Gallon tank.
Here are some more questions: How do I do a good water change without disturbing or shocking the fish inside the tank? How long do I need to have the tank set up before cycling the tank? Do those zebra fish you mentioned stand up good to the chemicals in tap water? What are good pH levels and how do I test these? What are good ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels and how do I test these?
Few more: What is "fishless cycling"? Does it work? The filter, when cleaning the filter how do I avoid killing off the essential bacteria that use the ammonia?
I had a fish tank for about six years when I was a kid, a 55 gallon tank. I only had three fish in most of the time, an oscar that grew from one inch to about twelve inches, one algae eating fish that grew from two inches to six inches and one gobi fish that dug under the gravel and spent all day waiting for me to feed it live fish. Had more fish but the oscar kept eating them, even bigger fish. Had one filter above the tank. After I set it up according to the book, never really had to do much except change the charcoal and filter when it got dirty. Moved too much once I started college to keep it up. Saltwater tanks sound like a maintenance nightmare, but then I bought a house with a swimming pool...
wow...so many questions... first....angels are not agressive unless they are breeding..the have a tendncy to pick at each other...but as long as you keep them fed and dont have little bitty fish in with them..they are fine for community aquariums. 2) chase is correct...the guideline is one inch of fish per gallon. Also, the description of how to introduce the fish to your aquarium is spot on.. 3) re: Water change...just dont jerk the drain tube around the tank while doing it....and dont drain more than 20% at a time, they should be fine. 4) You can start the cycle on the same day you set it up...after making sure the chlorine and such is neutralized.. 5) Ph levels vary according to what you want to keep..for the avergae community tank...7.0 is considered optimum. If you want to keep African cichlids...you would want the ph to be much higher 7.8 and up...if you wanted S American cichlids....6.8 and lower are the range for them. Different fish need different ph levels...so keep that in mind when selecting what fish you want to keep together. Get a good test kit and the necessary chemicals to change the levels to where you want it at. 6) Eventually, after te cycle is complete, your ammonia nd nitrite levels should be zero....your nitrate levels will vary according to how long it has been since your last water change...dont really worry about them. If you buy the right test kit, it will be able to test ph,ammonia, nitrite, and hardness. 7) dont worry about fishles cycling...it involves putting food in there to rot, and allowing the bacteria to grow by breaking down the rotting food. Just get a couple of cheap danios...livebearers work great(swordfish, platies, etc) also. 8) you can not avoid killing off the bacteria when you clean your filter....that is why you shouldnt do it on the same day as water changes/gravelbed vacumming....that way at least one part of the bacteria colony is intact...they will reproduce on your fliter media rather quickly after replacing/cleaning it. Saltwater tanks are a pain...but once they are setup....the are a wonder to behold...especially if you can afford the necessary equipment to keep a reef tank...
Here's another one: Once the tank has been cycled and it's time to add fish, what's the best way to add them to the tank? I know about floating the bag and what not but what I want to know is the best way to take the fish from the bag and place him in the tank with the least amount of stress? I saw tha chase said not to place water from a store tank into your home tank so what's the best way?
They sell magical green nets that will fit your needs exactly for that last question. Cut a hole in the top of the bag big enough to fit the net through, and go at it.
To be honest, I'm surprised my fish lived at all after reading chase's description of the chemical process. I only changed the water a few times a year (just topped it off most of the time), and never measured anything except temperature. But I had a relatively large tank with few fish and they never got sick after the first couple of years. YMMV.
It's cycling without fish. (duh) I used fishless cycling to establish the cycle in my 29g aquarium. You use real ammonia to start it off as opposed to throwing fish in there and having them suffer through the ammonia and nitrite spikes. And yes, it does work... Depends on the filter you're using. If you have a bio-wheel, the bacteria will stay alive on the filter for 30 mins - 1 hr or so. There's also bacteria in the substrate (gravel, sand, or whatever) you use. One thing I try to avoid over-cleaning the substrate, doing a wholesale water change, and putting in a new filter at the same time. That will cause a hit in the bacteria population.
The upkeep on a smaller tank can be more than on a larger tank. A small error is magnified due to the concentration (boo boo per volume) in a small tank. The chance of a blunder killing off your fish in a small tank is usually much much greater than in a large tank. There are all kinds of rules that you'll hear. Most of them are half-truths. The old saying about an inch of fish per gallon usually only holds true for community/thin freshwater fish. If you took the same approach with other fish such as cichlids, you could have a disaster as they rip one another to shreds. For example, pseudotropheus demasoni get to be about 2.5 - 3 inches. That means you should be able to keep about 3 or so in a 10 gallon. As they get bigger, they'd beat the crap out of each other because the space is too small for those types of fish. A lot of it has to do with the fish's personality as well. If you're keeping things like guppies and mollies, it should be ok to follow that rule.
There are several ways.... but don't just dump them into the aquarium. That's the worse way because it could induce shock due to the temperature variance and the different types of water. The way I do it is to bring the bag o' fish home and let the bag float in the aquarium you're about to put it in for about 20-30 mins (varies depending on the size of the aquarium). You're trying to get the temperature similar between the bagged water and the tank water. After about 20 mins. of that, dump out half the water in the bag (not into the aquarium) and add an equal amount from the aquarium back into the bag. Wait another 20 or so minutes - now they're getting used to the chemical makeup of the water in your tank. Once that's done, kind of tilt the bag into the aquarium and coax them to swim out into the tank.
Would it be better to go and buy 10 gallons of distilled water from the local grocery store and use it since it would already be room temperature and free from impurities? It's not really expensive, $6-7 per 10 gallons. Would that be a good idea and to also use the distilled water for water changes?
not sure i agree with this, when they are small angels are fine and also when they are breeding they get nippy, larger angels also seem to struggle to go after smaller fish if the tank is heavily planted, my wife loves angels and considering the cash i spent on the tank, had get her a couple, they are real small right now and in with Rainbows, a school of clown loaches and about 100 mixed tetras and having no problems................. but the wife knows the instant the get bigger they are out!!! anyone every had a pictus catfish, they look sensational, but have read when they get larger they eat tetras whole at night???
SS, I've had several little catfish, and one or two of them did get fairly large and, yes, tetras started mysteriously disappearing at night, though I saw no violence during the day. Check the species carefully, I'd say, and talk to a pet store person who really knows their fish (if you can find one). "Heh. Whassup Sm-- *urp* -- Smeg. heh. Scuse me."
Pictus are nocturnal predators - the first hint is their long whiskers.... much easier to feel around at night while they go after prey.
