i bought a fishtank. now what fish should i put in it?

[Cirith Ungol]

Let me add another very important warning:
NEVER overfeed the fish. It's hard to tell you how much that will be but you'll have to experiment in the beginning. Overfeeding will result in a rapid increase of ammonia in the water (especially in the beginning, when cycling isn't complete yet, that can become quite a problem).
NEVER feed them a little extra for your entertainment or because you feel sorry for them. Food that remains uneaten will start rotting eventually (unless you have a fish that eats scraps), the water will start smelling horribly and the fish will get stressed.

 

[Jeff_C]

Once you go reef you never go back:

 

[jharr]

Agreed!

 

[dtknow]

You SW people are so cruel! LOL

That being said, the no. 1 thing that is keeping me from saltwater is that their aren't many things that you can breed successfully. I guess you could go dwarf seahorses(pain in the butt i hear), neon gobies, or clowns(spare tank with rotifers, anyone? LOL). But good luck on breeding inverts. I like that you can easily have a representative from every phylum you learned about in zoology, but for me a lot of the fun is watching them produce offspring, and then watching the offspring grow up.

variatus platies are some breed of Xiphophorus variatus. You usually can't depend on the petstore to ID them correctly but those marked as sunburst platies with lots of metallic and nice round dorsals are usually variatus.

A SE Asian tank could be danios, some of those gouramis, possibly small loaches. Actually, that red tailed shark is also an Asian fish but again you'd have to build the community around him.

I'm not sure on the lighting but I will say that once you put real plants in your tanks, you will never go back. It can even be as simple as a floating island with some pothos on top and some java moss woven into it. Plants help with the water quality and many fish I feel will only thrive in planted tanks. You don't need the high tech lighting, ferts, or C02...just choose the plants correctly and you should have a nice setup given time.

Here's a 46 gallon bowfront tank I had running as a planted for about 2 years. It had 96 watts of CF lighting over it, which is quite a bit more than standard lights, but no C02 and it didn't seem to need fertilizer much. But even a 10 gallon with a standard 15 watt fixture can still get very dense growth. I've even done a few tanks with absolutely no electricity...little 2.5 gal tanks that the plants grew on diffuse window lighting. They housed Everglades pygmy sunfish.

A month of growth

An experiment with odd plants

Trimming required to stay this neat unless you use only slow growing plants(and then you'd need to be careful on nutrient balance)

The only problem that could happen is with fast growing plants...well

The main inhabitants. Now these are what I call swordtails.(actually Xiphophorus montezumae). Part of the reason why I like variatus platies is that the males share a similar dorsal fin with these guys.

2 young males. Bad photo, but I like the composition.

 

[GartenSpinnen]

This is the planted tank i had up for quite some time.
It was a 29 gallon tank, over 120 w of full spectrum light.
Plants included many different varieties such as E. stelleta (my favorite).

Planted tanks are a LOT of work... if you go this route you want to get the proper equipment when you start out and spend the money!! Get a canister filter (a good one like the rena filstar xp2 or 3) a UV sterilizer and a Co2 setup. The most critical thing is the lighting and the substrate. You want at least 3 or 4 wpg and a good clay type substrate. I used the black clay substrate on bottom then put black fiji sand on top of it, it looked nice.
-Nate

 

[Aarantula]

Once you go reef you never go back:

That's an amazing set up! :clap:

 

[K-TRAIN]

You SW people are so cruel! LOL

That being said, the no. 1 thing that is keeping me from saltwater is that their aren't many things that you can breed successfully. I guess you could go dwarf seahorses(pain in the butt i hear), neon gobies, or clowns(spare tank with rotifers, anyone? LOL). But good luck on breeding inverts. I like that you can easily have a representative from every phylum you learned about in zoology, but for me a lot of the fun is watching them produce offspring, and then watching the offspring grow up.

variatus platies are some breed of Xiphophorus variatus. You usually can't depend on the petstore to ID them correctly but those marked as sunburst platies with lots of metallic and nice round dorsals are usually variatus.

A SE Asian tank could be danios, some of those gouramis, possibly small loaches. Actually, that red tailed shark is also an Asian fish but again you'd have to build the community around him.

I'm not sure on the lighting but I will say that once you put real plants in your tanks, you will never go back. It can even be as simple as a floating island with some pothos on top and some java moss woven into it. Plants help with the water quality and many fish I feel will only thrive in planted tanks. You don't need the high tech lighting, ferts, or C02...just choose the plants correctly and you should have a nice setup given time.

ok. thanks for the info.

i think i might go with the SE asian tank. it sounds interesting.

i like the way some of the planted tanks turn out, but i think im going to stick with fake plants. i have enough trouble keeping my cacti, bamboo, and bonsai trees alive.

 

[K-TRAIN]

Once you go reef you never go back:

that tank is awsome.

im amazed everytime i see a tank that looks that natural. how do you people do it?

 

[dtknow]

This is the planted tank i had up for quite some time.
It was a 29 gallon tank, over 120 w of full spectrum light.
Plants included many different varieties such as E. stelleta (my favorite).

Planted tanks are a LOT of work... if you go this route you want to get the proper equipment when you start out and spend the money!! Get a canister filter (a good one like the rena filstar xp2 or 3) a UV sterilizer and a Co2 setup. The most critical thing is the lighting and the substrate. You want at least 3 or 4 wpg and a good clay type substrate. I used the black clay substrate on bottom then put black fiji sand on top of it, it looked nice.
-Nate

Only as much work as you want them to be. I've seen some very nice lowtech tanks, but it is very hard to get that garden feel a lot of the hightech tanks shoot for. Let us assume that by planted tanks you mean a tank with(thriving and growing) plants...even if it is only Najas, Elodea, Anubias, java fern and java moss. You could then do a no-tech tank.

 

[GartenSpinnen]

Only as much work as you want them to be. I've seen some very nice lowtech tanks, but it is very hard to get that garden feel a lot of the hightech tanks shoot for. Let us assume that by planted tanks you mean a tank with(thriving and growing) plants...even if it is only Najas, Elodea, Anubias, java fern and java moss. You could then do a no-tech tank.

All planted aquariums require some kind of maintenance. Agreed you can get some lower light plants like java fern and java moss to grow in lesser conditions, but man you can really make those type of plants look nice if you give them what they need. Ive seen some amazing carpets made up of java moss, give it lots of light, good nitrates and some co2 and java moss can do some pretty amazing stuff. Especially if you put it on some driftwood. Java fern will throw off little plants like crazy if you give it some co2 and lots of light also. If you want a low maintenance setup go for a small aquarium like 5 gallons, get one of those regular cheapo bulb setups for lighting and swap them out with compact flourescent bulbs. You can easily get 3 watts per gallon for cheap. Throw in some java ferns and mosses some anubias and just let it flourish .
-Nate

 

[DrAce]

I say get a pair of Krebensis. I LOVE them... they're more fun to watch than a soap opera, and if you get them at the right time, they'll breed like a pair of rabbits.

I've seen my female change colour more than once in front of me (she'll go pitch black for a few minutes if her man doesn't give her the response she's clearly looking for).

 

[dragonblade71]

As an alternative to fish, there's always an axolotl!

 

[K-TRAIN]

I say get a pair of Krebensis. I LOVE them... they're more fun to watch than a soap opera, and if you get them at the right time, they'll breed like a pair of rabbits.

I've seen my female change colour more than once in front of me (she'll go pitch black for a few minutes if her man doesn't give her the response she's clearly looking for).

that accually seems like a nice fish. could they be housed with danios, etc?

As an alternative to fish, there's always an axolotl!

haha. i accually didnt expect that as a responce.
i was looking at one of them awhile ago. nice amphibian, but i'd rather go with fish right now.

 

[DrAce]

that accually seems like a nice fish. could they be housed with danios, etc?
....

Sure can. Krebensis are a type of Cichlid (sp?) but they are, without doubt, one of the more relaxed and less territorial.

They do get bossy if they have just layed eggs (although, in my case, this was turned against each other - female would get into domestic abuse against male... it was kinda amusing).

That being said, if they have a nice cave/pot and the Danios have some weed to be hiding in. I found (and this is promoted on a few sites I looked at) that if there is a decent patch of weed between the Kribensis and the other fish, they'll be happy. Seriously, this overestimates their 'bullying'.

Get a pair of Kribensis. They'll amuse you for sure. Males and females are obvious if they're 6-12 months old. One of the cool things I mentioned is that they have limited colour change capacity. Female could turn jet black (except for her rosy belly) and boy could make his colours more intense over about 5-mins.

My ones only really hated the eel that I put in there with them.

 

[dtknow]

I agree with DrAce. Kribensis were the first, and only cichlids I've ever kept. They were great fun and I'd keep them again. I would only keep really fast moving fish like danios with them as when they get fry they will guard them like troopers. Mind ended up killing a female golden wonder killifish about their size who got one of her eyes removed.

I'm guessing you've already looked at African cichlids...but you may also be interested in a few other species if you like kribensis. Look at Lamprologus brichardi(which can be raised as small colonies). Also, if behavior is your thing...you must look at the shell dwelling cichlids! Not much in the way of color, but Neolamprologus multifasciatus has many fans. Were it not for their need for heating, I'd have kept more cichlids. Just that killifish proved just as interesting and a bit easier for someone with smaller space and cooler tanks.

 

[K-TRAIN]

thanks for the info. i think im going to go with giant danios and Kribensis. are there any other suggestions on what i can keep with them?

 

[DrAce]

Run with schooling fish... the krebensis, if required, can keep itself happy running into the crowd.

 

[K-TRAIN]

thanks for the info. i think my tank will be full of good fish when its set up.

 

[DrAce]

I think so too. I loved my Kribensis... I'm sure you will as well.