Thanks for the help yesterday, Bobby. I’m going to let my setup sit and age a bit(new pump and all) and let the new cat and shrimp acclimate for now. I am prolly going get that natural black substrate we were talking about. i think it’ll do good for the plants and the tank in general
now, i dont know too much about cichlids. are these guys aggressive? fresh or brackish water? how big are yours?
So I just bought a 55 gallon setup and have NO idea what to do with it.
The fish I want are about an inch long, and that’s a whole lotta tank for three fish.
Ideas? I don’t want them eating eachother. Someone who knows about this stuff please help me. :lol
The last time I had fish it was a beta in his own little bowl.
What are you looking to do? Fresh water or salt? Salt can be pretty difficult for new fish owners so I suggest starting with fresh.
You can go either way too, South American or African fish. I have mixed both before and I was suprised to see they got along after numerous people at the fish stores said they would not. I wouldn’t recommend it though.
I’ve had tons of African cichlids before, but you have to buy them in 3 or 4’s. When adding more to the tank, always try to add something the same size as what is in there or bigger otherwise the cichlids you have in there now will kill whatever you add if it is smaller. They are VERY aggressive fish so you have to be careful what you put in there. I mixed loaches in with the cichlids, as well as algae eaters and the sucker fish and have never had a problem before.
I dealt with community fish when I first started out and found that the more exotic fish tend to be the aggressive ones.
I wouldn’t throw cichlids in your tank if you’ve got that shrimp in there.
Right now there are two neons in there from my uncle, a blind tetra or cave tetra or w/e they are called, and some kind of an algae eater. I really want some of these glow in the darkish zebra danios I saw at Bensons, and figure they are about the same size as the others and should get along good. I don’t remember what they are called some Chinese sucker fish that’s a little gold guy, I think those are pretty kinda want those. All the fish I want are tiny for such a huge tank. I guess they will have plenty of room to swim around and be happy…
Yea, those are all community fish. When mixing community fish no matter their size it won’t really make a difference what you throw in the tank. It’s when you mix aggressive fish, especially cichlids you need to be a little careful or they’ll get attacked.
I just want a tank full of pretty fish that get along. I don’t think that’s so much to ask. :tong
P.S. - I don’t want mollys I know that, those little fuckers breed like aquatic bunny rabbits. :benny
They always say it’s only females… but I always get screwed and get a male in there and end up with 29835790285902358 babies.
I know you already have stuff in there but check out marble cichlids. Their really exotic looking. They can get a little expensive too but their definitely cool fish. I had a lot of them too.
I have four fish in a 55 gallon tank… I need to/can afford to expand the variety. :lol
Have you had the tank set up for very long? If you haven’t i’d wait atleast a week or so before you go adding fish into it.
It’s been set up for a year now, and there used to be alot more in there, but the fish my uncle had in there weren’t very friendly I guess 'cause half of them got eaten. He’s moving so I convinced him to let me buy it off him for $50 so I can start over with the fish that I want.
Nicole, I dont claim to be an expert or anything, but i’ll tell you what i know. Now, the general rule is about 1 inch of fish length per gallon. you can house 45+ in that one.
now, when you say you just bought one, did u like just buy it a day ago and put fish in already? if you did, dont be surprised if some die. you need to take things slow and let things kind of “age”, if you will. for example, im replacing my old pump, so i bought a new one, put it in and letting it run for a month in there with the old one still working. it will age and get some bacteria in it and such and only after than i can pull the old one, because if i just switch, it will offset the chemical and biological balance in the tank and can easily kill the inhabitants.
its easier with a 55 because of the sheer volume. that gives you a larger error margin. i have a 5 gallon tank, so i watch it all the time. i sit next to it and watch my fish for a while, to see how their behavior is. if something looks or seems off i take the water to be tested. in my tank if my pH slips, i dont have that much time to wait, but with yours, you have some more room, but dont let that put you at ease too much.
I would like to get myself a larger 50+ tank as my display tank. my general plan is to get a big tank, get it well vegetated and put in mainly neon fish for lots of movement and color in it. theres obviously going to be an algae cleaning team in there(snils, cats, shrimp and the like), but it mainly will be the “look at that” and “ooooh thats pretty” tank. im also planning to get a decent size colony or two of shrimp in there. i tend to like crustaceans more than fish.
whats your general plan for your tank? do you want mainly plants or fish in there? make sure you do some reading about the fish you have, because sometimes people will get a nifty looking fish and come home to an empty tank with that one really fat fish floating around, gloating. check into the chemistry the fish need as well, some fish can live in fresh water, but its slowly killing them, because theyre brakish water fish, so make sure not to mix those guys. you can also do a balanced tank where you get a buncha bottom feeding fish like cats and plecos and such and something like a bunch of neons that school together and fill in the middle and top layers of the tank. theres really a LOT of possibilities.
Also, post pics of your setup. Somebody remind me on AIM today to take a few pics of mine. Cuz ill forget by the time i get home.
Fish people - How much maintenance is involved in a big tank? Whats the least maintenance aquarium I could do and how much attention are we talkin here.
I want a tank with mostly fish, I don’t know how I feel about the real plants. Maybe down the road when I get more used to this whole thing.
The tank has been set up for a while, but my uncle doesn’t look after it at all. This thing is gonna have to be cleaned out and pretty much a complete do-over. 45+ fish is CRAAAZY. So far I have about 8 fish that I want. :lol
Now I don’t really know much about this stuff, but from what he told me there is a canister filter, and some kind of under gravel filter going on. Some other fancy stuff that I’m going to have to learn more about.
Bobby, can you see if your distributors can get a hold of a Caridina serratirostris. They can look different because they change color
These are called Ninja Shrimp, sometimes theyre called marble shrimp. AFAIK there are no breeders in the US that have had success and published it. Theyre mainly from Japan(heh-heh-heh JDM Shrimp).
Ew. Shrimp. I can’t do shrimp.
big tanks are easier than small ones, like i said. so i’d get a larger size tank. 40+ will be good. It will require are lot of attention at first, in the initial setup phase. the first few weeks will need a lot, but after the tank establishes itself, its pretty smooth sailing. So, i’d estimate the first month being a pain in the ass and then its okay. If you want the least maintenance, youll have to do some reading and legwork in the beginning to make it easier later on. say if u get a tank and it needs a buncha lights, then youll need to get a tank cooler as well as the heater. do reading about fish you want, to make sure they can live together okay. definitely get plants in there to make plenty of oxygen and make it looks nicer and more alive. try to replicate the fish’s natural habitat so theyre not as stressed and wont requre as much care and attention. for example if you get fish that live around driftwood and you dont put any in there, they will be stressed all the time and will die faster, things like that.
my tank doesnt require a lot of attention. i can leave it alone for 3-5 days without checking up on it constantly. i feed my dish every other day or every two days. dont believe instructions on packages because they say to feed daily. if you do that your fish will eat too much and its bad for them. theyre pretty stupid so dont just keep feeding them as long as they keep eating, theyll just eat themselves to death. i actually look at my fish as i feed them. when their bellies get distended a bit, i stop putting in food. i feed mine algae tablets. i can post the picture of the package if u guys want. the fish go NUTS over that kind of food for some reason. ive landed on that one after trying a couple of different ones, but mine tend to just LOVE that one, so i stick to it. so at first youll need to pretty much watch everything. feed them a little bit and look at em. keep in mind that you cant see how much the fish ate, not all of them have a flat belly that distends down. obviously dont just throw in gobs of food in there. you want to make sure you are not putting in so much that a lot of it goes onto the floor and just floats around. it can cause a bacterial infection to break out in the tank, it will change your pH levels as well. also, when you feed your fish a lot they obviously crap more and that increases ammonia levels in the water and that can kill fish and do it FAST. so watch your pH and ammonia levels the most. With a new tank you will need to test water once a day at least. find one variable thats off and fix it, retest the next day. once its fixed, fix another and keep going in that fashion till its stable and is okay for fish to live.
I just want pretty fish that won’t kill eachother!
Why do I feel like I’m gonna end up with 20 of the same kind of fish… :lol
actually 20 neons look AWESOME! when u get a nice light on them, they look amazing. they school and when they turn they all turn one after another, so its very nice looking. youre going to sit in front of the tank making them run from side to side just to watch the colors. plecos can be pretty as well. they can have dark brown and silver stripes on them, kinda like zebras. if you dont wana cram it full of tiny fish, get a few big ones. like 6-8 inch fish will do the trick. Eddie’s has some big orange and yellow ones that look wicked nice and bright.
Yeah, but I really want these:
And they’re just little guys, I don’t want them to get eaten. :ohnoes