The fish thread

[Klue]

Can anyone (I'm looking at you eggman) tell me what I can feed Simon the snail?

I have seemingly neglected him a bit of late. He has a little chew on the weed but surely its not enough to sustain him. I put a whole pea in the tank and he had a bit of a chew on that...

But is there anything specific that he will enjoy? I have searched the net and they all just say that they will eat the weed.

TA

:D

 

[NickyJ]

I didn't think you'd have to feed him at all. He should be fairly self sufficient with what ever is in your tank I would have thought

 

[neverwas]

oh god....

my number one addiction right now!

its so easy to get addicted to tropical marine fish!

insomnia and i started out with a lil aqua start on our bench...now we have a mega 3ft tank on our lounge floor...i got our 3ft tank+stand+lid+filter+light+wood+rocks etc off eBay for $300!! ABSOLUTE BARGIN!!!!

Our fish: (spread out over two tanks)

4 Bristol Nose Catfish
2 Electric Yellow Labido's (go on laugh at the name)
6 or so multi coloured Plattys
2 Pearl Gourami's
2 Gold Gourami's
2 Convicts (females cause they breed like rabbits)
2 Clown Loaches
5 Silver Foxes
8 Neon Tetra's
5 Zebra Danio's
Assorted spiral and noral sea snails...though i think they MAY be all eaten because I havent seen any recently...

*goes to check her tank*

We feed them freeze dried blood worms and fishy tropical flakes. I also drop in a peice of zuchinni and cucumber for the vego fish. They love it! Only leave it in for a few hours though.

I want more fish...but i need another tank.

I do a fishy roll call every day to make sure theyre all there...

We have names for all of them I will post up some photos soon when i transfer them over to the puter.

We also had a guppy but he was terrorising the other fish so we had to give him to the pet shop cause he wouldnt behave

 

[Samadhi]

How many L is your tank SF? That's a heap of fishies!

 

[neverwas]

Thats two tanks theyre spread over.

The small tank is around 30litres and the big tank is around 39gallons which is like 160litres or so.

Tank dimensions are:

3ft (91.5cm x 55cm x 40cm) Tank 150Ltr (38.31Gallons) Plenty of room.


Smaller tank is about 40cm by 50cm deep.

All the fish are small. Only ones that will grow enormous are the gourami's and convicts. Others will get two about 5cm in total. As they get older we will buy another tank to put them in.

There's a few good tropical fish forums...

http://www.aquahobby.com/board/index.php?sid=31885e735de3b2c3169f34e8c0ffba62

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/index.php

Some photos of our fishys...some of the photos are a bit fuzzy

The Convicts...

Pearl Gourami...

Gold Gourami...

Electric Yellow Labido's...

Bristol Nose Catfish (hidding under the rock...)

Neon Tetra's and Danio's...

Assorted Platty's...

Tank Shot...

Silver Fox...(attached to the glass lol)

Bench top tank...

Mega tank..

 

[Klue]

We also had a guppy but he was terrorising the other fish so we had to give him to the pet shop cause he wouldnt behave

I laughed at this. Are guppys aggro? I have bred them before and found them to be little weaklings.

I would be more concerned about the Convict Cichlids being aggressive. Convicts are reputed to be very aggro and take on much much larger fish (being dwarf themselves).


Nickyj- I was just concered about the snail because he isnt as active as he has been and I hadnt specifically fed him anything. Its a very small tank and there isnt really much for him to forrage on.

:D

 

[neverwas]

I laughed at this. Are guppys aggro? I have bred them before and found them to be little weaklings.

I would be more concerned about the Convict Cichlids being aggressive. Convicts are reputed to be very aggro and take on much much larger fish (being dwarf themselves).

I think he was only agro because he was the only guppy. We were given him by insomnias dad so we really didnt get a choice. He went all red and hunting the other fish for a female guppy.

The convict cichlids are only small. I know they get agressive when they lay eggs which is to protect them but they are happy so they seem fine. They dont seem to even be hassling the other fish. All our fish are small apart from the gouramis but they are also not adult. It's quite harmonias our tank to tell you the truth. We watched them for the first few days to make sure they were compatible and it worked fine.

The electric yellow are with the bristol noses because they seem to chase other fish around where as they are leaving our bristols alone. They even came to the front of the tank to say hi today. We did unfortunantly get a boy and a girl so the girl always hides a lot more. We aim to fix that soon by buying another two small baby females of the electric sort.

The guys at the aquairiums we go to told us the compatabilty with other fish temperment wise when we asked about each breed we have. We didnt just buy two of each and chuck em all in one tank *lol*

 

[Klue]

Kewl, sounds like you know what you are doing.

Those convicts have some great colours and patterns! It's an indication they havent been inbred too much, they are lovely.

Convicts are so so easy to breed if you ever wanted to try. I had a pair that bred like crazy. I had a 3 foot tank full of convicts (like 30 or 40) at one stage. So much so that I couldnt sell them to the pet shops because they already had heaps as they do breed so easily.

Starfalls I notice you have some golden pennywart weed in your tank. What I do with mine is pull it out everynow and then and snip off the tops of the strands and wire them together and replant, discarding the lower parts of the weed so they stay nice and compact. It grows so quickly that it looks scrappy after a while. You could probably do that with the Elodea and Combomba also.

I this thread. Its motivating to get my tanks going again.

:D

 

[neverwas]

Starfalls I notice you have some golden pennywart weed in your tank. What I do with mine is pull it out everynow and then and snip off the tops of the strands and wire them together and replant, discarding the lower parts of the weed so they stay nice and compact. It grows so quickly that it looks scrappy after a while. You could probably do that with the Elodea and Combomba also.

I this thread. Its motivating to get my tanks going again.

:D

Is THAT what it is?? It takes over the whole friggen tank...just grows and grows and grows. I snip it off but it KEEPS growing!! I just planted it in the big tank from the other one. it doubles in size in less than 2weeks. Frustrating. Any idea what sort of wire i could use? Im just generally plugging them straight into the gravel...they work lose every now and then..

You should get your tanks going again. They are so awesome to sit and watch. Id be devestated if they died. People say theyre just fish...but you get attached tot hem. After water changes, feeding, gravel vaccumming and water testing etc...how could you not love them? I lvoe our tanks. They are so simple in display but so active to. The only decor we have is a ceramic pod in each for the bristols and clown loaches. They love them, a tunnel/log looking thing and an air stone in the big tank, drift wood and a mini castle and two mini broken vases. In the small tank all we have is a tunnel/log and a ceramic pod with drift wood.

As for convicts? The breeding is why we only got two females Beautiful grey and black colouring aswell. A hint of pink when they are in season but other than that...amazing.

 

[neverwas]

You could try Red Devil and/or Oscar but you will struggle to find other species that will live harmoniously with them.

Discus though would thrive in that set up.

Apart from Discus's being VERY tempermental they are good to keep. Awesome to watch. Specailly when feeding because their whole body rotates to get to food. Its awesome. Oscar's as far as im aware can't be in a tank with any other fish...i may be wrong though... and it is like one oscar per tank if you want them to grow to their full potential.

 

[jenkem]

Man I'm psyched on this thread. I wouldn't mind getting some fish. Any advice regarding what to buy in the fairly low budget range, i.e. fish, tank, necessary accessories, etc.? Thanks :D

 

[eggman]

Can anyone (I'm looking at you eggman) tell me what I can feed Simon the snail?

sorry dude, im not all that knowledgable about snails. Whenever I have kept them I have always just treated them bottom feeders and let then just eat what ever residue and algae has built up around the tank and gravel.

however, I have noticed them get a hold of the algae discs that i feed to my plecostomus so you could try getting some of those

 

[eggman]

Apart from Discus's being VERY tempermental they are good to keep. Awesome to watch. Specailly when feeding because their whole body rotates to get to food. Its awesome. Oscar's as far as im aware can't be in a tank with any other fish...i may be wrong though... and it is like one oscar per tank if you want them to grow to their full potential.

You can keep a very healthy discus set up if you can afford the time to change approx. 20 - 25% of the water volume every 3 days and keep an eye on your PH as (depending on number of discus) nitrates can build up

You are dead right about oscars though, if you keep one then you will have to know that it will be your only fish. Also, keep everything in the tank well fastened as they are destructive.

 

[Samadhi]

Klue: You can put a small piece of lettuce in the tank or a little bit of a pea (without the shell). Trevor and Karen liked it, but they mainly ate algae. When we had heaps of babies, we'd throw large algae wafers in the tank, and they'd gobble them up... so try that!

I Apple Snails. :D

 

[UnSquare]

 

[eggman]

^ he sleeps wid da fishes

 

[Samadhi]

Steady on there, Tessio

 

[NickyJ]

Man I'm psyched on this thread. I wouldn't mind getting some fish. Any advice regarding what to buy in the fairly low budget range, i.e. fish, tank, necessary accessories, etc.? Thanks :D

I'd suggest not buying anything until you can afford something decent But I don't like to do things half arsed

 

[Klue]

^ I agree. You will definantly want something bigger no matter what size you start off with.

I was going to suggest looking for a second hand tank online or in a classified style newspaper. There is aways heaps available as people tend to get into the hobby then lose interest. And things usually come with all the acessories. I have bought tanks second hand and have had no trouble with them but thier may be lemons out there.

And get something cheap and easy to start with like goldfish or livebearers (guppies, platties and mollies).

:D

 

[eggman]

Man I'm psyched on this thread. I wouldn't mind getting some fish. Any advice regarding what to buy in the fairly low budget range, i.e. fish, tank, necessary accessories, etc.? Thanks :D

go to your local fish retailer, not one of these franchise type shops that sells dogs, birds, cats and associated supplies etc, but a dedicated fish shop. Ask them that exact same question. If i could make a recommendation thoug it would be to buy one of the plastic and perspex all in one units. Those things are great for a beginner. Get something between 2 and 3 Feet long but before you buy make sure the place you buy fit from also sells the tube lights that fit that particular unit.