Aquarium Help

[BADMIHAI]

I finally bought a fish tank. It's a cheap one from Wal-Mart but it came with the filter and hood+lamps+water treatment solution. I'm on a budget so a heater is out of the question for the time being. I have bought a bag of gravel. Filled the tank with water, put the (rinced) gravel at the bottom, put some water treatment solution in and left the filter on. I'm gonna buy some fish for it on Saturday. They have to be cold water fish and preferably not very sensitive (or expensive) ones. The tank is 10 gallons (38 L.). How many fish and of which kind should I buy? I'm also taking suggestions on plants and other things I should add to it. Thanks for looking.


Pics or STFU:

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Mihai

[ZfrkS62]

you'd have to ask the new JW Fish Guy about the heater :lol:

as for fish...neon tetras are good inexpensive fish. plus, with that kind of lighting, they'd make for some good long exposure shots (don't know their actual name)

[styla21]

You've been going on a spending spree at Wal-mart huh? First the model car, now a fish tank... What next?
Looks nice mate, what sort of fish do you like? As in colourful (tropical), easy to care for, or rare ones?
I had Oscars, not sure if they are called that.. Grow to be quite big, about 1 1/2 feet? My grandfather used to be a blacksmith and had very, very large strong wrists and hands. One day when he was stroking his Oscar (the fish haha, it was placid..) some kids ran up and started banging the tank. The fish got scared and violently threw itself in the opposite direction to swim away. The whack of the tail had enough force to break his wrist in half! :!:
Ever since, i've loved oscars as they are sleepers.. A lot of strength, but for the most of the time very mellow and easy to care for. Also, consider getting some Chinese fighting fish? (you will probably need seperate, small bowls though.)

[ZfrkS62]

Also, consider getting some Chinese fighting fish? (you will probably need seperate, small bowls though.)


Betas need something like 78 degree water. and it has to be constatnt. My g/f has lost 2 Betas to cold nights because heaters are useless for 1 gallon tanks and can't regulate the temperature well enough. 10 gallon should be fine though. 1 male will fine, but get some other fish and make sure they get along with Betas, other wise you might end up with tails floating in the filter :lol:

Beta's aren't too happy in those little bowls either, they need to be able to flare out their fins if they feel threatend (dominance thing) however they are quite intelligent...as far as fish go..they wil associate you with food and get excited when you walk into the room. If they can see the TV they will watch it (both my g/fs fish did) however they enjoy playing dead and will just kind of float with little current in the tank.when you walk up to check on them, they suddenly zip around like a kid with ADHD that got left alone in a candy store :P unless they are on their side, they are fine. ( at least the little fuckers are quiet, my bird is going ape shit with his rope toy and won't stfu :? )

[fishfreek]

Come over to http://www.aquariumadvice.com

Please note: Unlike this site we are very family orented. I just mention this as many of the avatars, sig pics and language used here would be an instant ban over there.

[BADMIHAI]

Cool. Thanks for the help, guys.


As in colourful (tropical), easy to care for, or rare ones?



I want the easy to care for ones since I'm just getting started with fish. This is my first tank.

[666fast]

Things to add:
Plants (live or fake, live plants are obviously harder to care for. It gives the fish somewhere to hide if they feel they need to. Adding in a large rock or two would be nice as well.

Fish:
Goldfish 2-3 of them
Ghost Shrimp 4 of them
White Cloud Minnows 6-7 of them
Least Killifish 10-15 of them (they are tiny)
Your options are somewhat limited since you don't have a heater.

I'd go with the Goldfish as a first fish. If they die, you won't have paid too much for them. They are incredibly easy to take care of. Plus, take good care of them and they'll live for years. Most people think of Goldfish as childrens pets, but I think they are pretty cool.

Only feed them as much as they'll eat. What they don't eat makes a mess and can cause problems. Clean the tank regularly as well and of course, water changes.

Once you can afford it, get a heater. Then you will have a hell of a lot more to choose from!

Make sure to check out fishfreeks link, lots and lots of info to be found there. Welcome to the world of fish keeping, it won't be long untill you want a bigger tank!

[ZfrkS62]

hey 666, i hate to make you keep thinking fish here, but is it possible for the water to kill a fish within a few minutes? even if a water treatment was being used?

i ask because my g/f's second Beta kicked the bucket within 10 minutes of her putting him in the tank after changing the water. she waited for the water treatment to settle for awhile before putting him in, so we figured it was too cold in Oakland since her first one died on a cold night, but 2 weeks later she got a pair of feeder fish to keep ( :roll: <--my reaction to this but she needed a pet) but within 2 minutes, one was dead and the other lasted another 10. She used the same water treatment but this time let it set for 24 hours.

her little tank has a filter and air pump. So really the ony thing left is the water, but they died so quickly, i kind of have to wonder.

[666fast]

No worries about making me think of fish, even though I don't have an aquarium right now, I still visit many different fish sites daily! LOL

As to your question, yes it can. Under the right conditions anyway.
Was the filter brand new? Biological filters need a bit of a "break in" period. Basically it needs some time to cultivate the good guy bacteria to work. You can actually buy a buffer that will speed the process up. I always avoid using chemicals and such. It usually makes more of a mess than anything.

The water could have been far too cold or even too warm. It might have also been drastically different to what it was kept in at the shop putting the fish into a shock. High "bad guy" bacteria, high levels of Nitrate or ammonia could do it.
I could go on, there could be many things that caused it. It's pretty easy to kill a fish. Although, doing it in 10 minutes certainly breaks my record!

The water treatment you used, it's probably just a chlorine remover. I doubt it was the cause, but it could be. If you used waaaay to much, it might harm the fish. I'm guessing it was a small tank. Smaller tanks are harder to care for since small changes in water chemistry have a much larger and faster effect than they would in a larger tank.
It could be that your tap water was just the opposite what the fish requires. Water to hard, the Gh, Kh and a million other ways to measure water quality. Get yourself a basic test kit ($10 or so) and make sure your water is what the fish wants.

You said it has a filter and an air pump. If you don't have a heater, you shouldn't have a Betta. Room temperaure water is a bit too cold for a Betta. Then again, there probably is somone out there who keep them in tanks with no heaters.

So,yea, water can definately kill fish quickly if there is something wrong with it, or it's not to the fish's preference. Hell, the shock of being netted and transported could have done him in. Also, the fish might have been sick when you bought it and you just had bad timing.

Do you still have the aquarium setup? If so, whats in it and how big is it?

Keeping fish can be tricky, when I fisrt started keeping Discus, they would freak out anytime I cam near the tank. They would dart back and forth and slam into the glass. All jittery and jumpy, guess what it was?

[ZfrkS62]

well, it was her fish and she's in Cali and i'm in LA..so there isn't much i can do for her but gather info :lol:

i picked the second Beta out for her a year ago this week and it died after she moved back home from Davis/Sacramento in September.

her tank is just a 1 gallon tank, big enough for a Beta but that's about it. The airpump came with it. Now that i think about it, there was no filter. She cleaned his tank and gravel once a week or so. It took him i would say 45 minutes to actually die, but he started acting weird almost right away. Usually he would dart around his tank after being let out of his little cup that she would float in the tank to let the water temps even out so as not to shock him, then would just tip it so he could swim out on his own.

the water conditioner she was using was Aquarium Novaqua Instant Conditioner and Fish Protector. I guess it was supposed to remove toxic metals and chlorine.

I'm guessing your fish didn't like their water? :wink:

[666fast]

well, it was her fish and she's in Cali and i'm in LA..so there isn't much i can do for her but gather info :lol:

i picked the second Beta out for her a year ago this week and it died after she moved back home from Davis/Sacramento in September.

her tank is just a 1 gallon tank, big enough for a Beta but that's about it. The airpump came with it. Now that i think about it, there was no filter. She cleaned his tank and gravel once a week or so. It took him i would say 45 minutes to actually die, but he started acting weird almost right away. Usually he would dart around his tank after being let out of his little cup that she would float in the tank to let the water temps even out so as not to shock him, then would just tip it so he could swim out on his own.

the water conditioner she was using was Aquarium Novaqua Instant Conditioner and Fish Protector. I guess it was supposed to remove toxic metals and chlorine.

I'm guessing your fish didn't like their water? :wink:

Like I said earlier, the smaller the tank, the faster crap goes wrong. My guess is that the water was all out of whack compared to what the Betta needed. With a tank that small, she should be cleaning and changing 25% or so of the water daily. With no filter, it's entirely up to you to make sure it's clean. Daily water changes will help a lot. The best thing she could do is "age" the water. Just get a little container that could hold a 1/4 gallon or so and fill it. Use a tubing splitter, split the tube from the airpump so that it goes into both the aquarium and the little container. Put a little airstone on the tube going into the container. Let it sit overnight with the airstone fizzing away.
Ageing the water and using the airstone to agitate it will help stabilize the water. It'll also give the water time to get up to room temp so you aren't putting water thats too cold or too warm into the tank. It'll also make the daily water changes much easier. Grab a small glass (make sure it's clean) and scoop out a little bit of water from the aquarium and refill the tank with the "aged" water. Make sure to add the correct amount of the water treatment to the aged water container too. Do it at night so it sits overnight.

Make sure she is actually cleaning the tank too, I don't mean grabbing something and wiping grime off the inside of the bowl. Excess food and fish shit sitting at the bottom of the tank is a breeding ground for bacteria you don't want. Since there is no filter, you need to remove it yourself.
To do that, i would just pour water from the tank into a small container and put the fish in that container. Clean the tank out and rinse the gravel (if there is any). Refill the tank with the aged water and put the fish back in. Do it at least once a week. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to accomplish. Make sure you do a good job rinsing the tank, soap can kill fish.

Also, the water your fish comes with from the shop, don't pour that into your aquarium, god knows whats in it. Scoop the fish out and place it in the tank.

As for what caused my fish to freak out, it was bacteria. Luckily it only made them jumpy and didn't kill them. I fixed it by changing more water more often.

[Refefer]

well, it was her fish and she's in Cali and i'm in LA..so there isn't much i can do for her but gather info :lol:

i picked the second Beta out for her a year ago this week and it died after she moved back home from Davis/Sacramento in September.

her tank is just a 1 gallon tank, big enough for a Beta but that's about it. The airpump came with it. Now that i think about it, there was no filter. She cleaned his tank and gravel once a week or so. It took him i would say 45 minutes to actually die, but he started acting weird almost right away. Usually he would dart around his tank after being let out of his little cup that she would float in the tank to let the water temps even out so as not to shock him, then would just tip it so he could swim out on his own.

the water conditioner she was using was Aquarium Novaqua Instant Conditioner and Fish Protector. I guess it was supposed to remove toxic metals and chlorine.

I'm guessing your fish didn't like their water? :wink:

Like I said earlier, the smaller the tank, the faster crap goes wrong. My guess is that the water was all out of whack compared to what the Betta needed. With a tank that small, she should be cleaning and changing 25% or so of the water daily. With no filter, it's entirely up to you to make sure it's clean. Daily water changes will help a lot. The best thing she could do is "age" the water. Just get a little container that could hold a 1/4 gallon or so and fill it. Use a tubing splitter, split the tube from the airpump so that it goes into both the aquarium and the little container. Put a little airstone on the tube going into the container. Let it sit overnight with the airstone fizzing away.
Ageing the water and using the airstone to agitate it will help stabilize the water. It'll also give the water time to get up to room temp so you aren't putting water thats too cold or too warm into the tank. It'll also make the daily water changes much easier. Grab a small glass (make sure it's clean) and scoop out a little bit of water from the aquarium and refill the tank with the "aged" water. Make sure to add the correct amount of the water treatment to the aged water container too. Do it at night so it sits overnight.

Make sure she is actually cleaning the tank too, I don't mean grabbing something and wiping grime off the inside of the bowl. Excess food and fish shit sitting at the bottom of the tank is a breeding ground for bacteria you don't want. Since there is no filter, you need to remove it yourself.
To do that, i would just pour water from the tank into a small container and put the fish in that container. Clean the tank out and rinse the gravel (if there is any). Refill the tank with the aged water and put the fish back in. Do it at least once a week. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to accomplish. Make sure you do a good job rinsing the tank, soap can kill fish.

Also, the water your fish comes with from the shop, don't pour that into your aquarium, god knows whats in it. Scoop the fish out and place it in the tank.

As for what caused my fish to freak out, it was bacteria. Luckily it only made them jumpy and didn't kill them. I fixed it by changing more water more often.

Another thing to do is make sure your PH is near neutral... one of my good friends used to work at fish store and he'd always moan and complain about how customers kept on killing their fish because they'd forget to change it...

Another word about water changes: the reason you need them is to drop the concentration of Ammonia (produced by fish like goldfish, which are also the worst fish to mix with others as they are toxic to 90% of fish) and the Nitrates caused by fish sh*t linning the bottom...

If you don't have a filter, get one

[BADMIHAI]

A question about the filter. Does it have to run 24/7? What about the light? I'll buy a couple of goldfish on Saturday and go from there.

[fishfreek]

A question about the filter. Does it have to run 24/7?

Yes it should

What about the light? I'll buy a couple of goldfish on Saturday and go from there.

Run the light for at least 8 hours a day. For ease put them on a simple timer.