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Hiya everyone

Hubby and I have recently bought ourselves a new tank. I used to have tropical fish although I kinda adopted them and the tank after it had already been well established and this was approximately 10 years ago, so I guess I'm starting again as a newbie seeing as i have trouble remembering what I done yesterday let alone 10 yr ago

so the tank we have, i worked out to be around 162ltr (i have no idea what gallon size that is sorry!) we have a tetratek heater which is kept at the lowest level of 18 which keeps the tank at a stable 25 degrees.
the filter we have is designed for tanks up to 200ltr and seems to circulate the water pretty well although the fish store recommended to use 2 of these filters together?
it has been cycling for a couple of weeks now - had the water tested today and the store said that it is almost mature (she thinks it should be done in another week)
currently have 5 zebra danios and 5 cloud minnows
they seems to be doing well, quite active although i think i might be feeding them too much, they seem to have round bellies - am currently giving a small amount of flakes 3 times a day - how often do you guys feed?

now this is going to sound like a real newbie question (but hey i'm full of them!) how many fish at most would you recommend, obviously i don't want to over fill the tank etc
would quite like to get a few guppies once the tank is stable etc are these ok to keep with the danios and minnows?

thanks for taking the time to read

I wouldnt feed them more then twice a day, and only as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Guppies wpuld probably do ok, I have kept them with both those fish with no problems. You just have to keep an eye on them if u get males with long tails, danios can sometimes be nippy where they might pick at the guppies fins.

Hey welcome back to the hobby

Don't worry about too many questions! We'd rather be asked a lot then something to go wrong in your tanks . Google says 162 l in gallons is 42.

I think the reason the store suggested two filters (other than that they get to sell you two filters!) is to prevent 'dead spots' in the circulation. Depending on what you do end up stocking the tank with you may be find with the filter you have. If you go with an over stocked tank an additional filter or a powerhead can help. Keeping it on the lightly stocked side is always better though!

I'd suggest buying your own test kit, look for a master test kit, should include everything you need (and some you don't!) Will be much more useful to you at 2am when you're stressing that something might be wrong than relying on the LFS.

Danios can very well get snippy towards guppies, especially the fry. Which shouldn't really be that much of a problem since you're not going to want the tank getting overstocked.

3 times a day can be a bit much, it depends on how much you're feeding at a time. If you're not comfortable feeding just once or twice a day reduce how much you feed each time. Fish learn what movement near the tank means and will always eat. Don't let it fool you into overfeeding.

What to stock, well it really comes down to what you like and what works in your tank. 42G isn't all that large so I'd suggest sticking with fish that don't get larger than 2" adult size. Have a look through the fish your store has on offer and see which ones you like the looks of. Write down their names and come back here to have a look at the fish profiles section of the site. You can also post up your possible stock lists here.

I'd suggest 5-6 small cories, or yoyo loaches for the bottom. You already have some good small fish in your wcmm and danios, if you're interested in a larger "centerpiece" fish you should have a look to see what your LFS stocks and matches your water.

Another thing to consider is if you're planning on having live plants in the tank, that can allow a little more flexibility in your stocking numbers.

^_^

hiya

thank you for your replies -

babelfish, i thought that may have been the reason why they suggested 2 filters. i think we will be going with the lighter stocked options as we want to give the fish a comfortable environment.
I forgot to mention that we currently have 6 live plants, bought a few fake plants today to add some colour and also have a few ferns dotted around.

had the water testing again today by a different store and they were much more helpful, tank is a little high on the ammonia and nitrate side which she said was to be expected as it is still cycling and she also said it should be ready in about a week so we are almost there

LFS also recommended to reduce feeding to every other day until we have the levels sorted out.

I know what you mean about fish recognising the movement at the top of the tank, as soon as i lift the lid they are straight there.

also got some conditioner that removes chlorine, ammonia and nitrates etc as ran out of my other conditioner.

Done a 30% change on saturday and another 30% change today and saw some georgeous black ghost knife fish today but have been reading up about them and don't think my tank will be big enough for them really which is a shame

Is there a slight colour difference between the male and female danios? i think i have 3 male and 2 female - the 2 females (i think!) are slightly bigger and have a rounder belly and are a bit darker than the other three which seem to have a slight golden tinge to them if you know what i mean, and one of those three is developing a little bossy personality - he has found a nice little spot and if another danio comes near he chases them away (but not if one of the minnows comes near)
i like the colours of the guppies but the store that stocks those (and the ghost knife) i am a bit dubious with - they have a wide variety of fish but i don't think they treat the fish well, i have been up there a couple of times now and have seen quite a few poorly / dead fish in their tanks
whereas the store i went to today - all the tanks are very clean - they also have quarantine tanks.

gonna try and search out a few more stores over the weekend, which im quite looking forward to

well i'm rambling on again so im gonna search for a master test kit

Sorry for the delayed response. With danios the females tend to be bigger then the males. They will also be much fatter with a rounder belly. I would agree to look for a differen't store if the one you were going to first had alot of dead fish in their tanks. A couple fish I would recomend looking into would be Mollys, platys or swordtails. All of these are very easy fish to keep and would do very well in your tank. They also come in almost every color like guppies lol.

hi everyone thanks for your replies.

so its been a while, tank is fully cycled and now have some (ok ... ALOT!) of new fish, oh, and another tank haha,

tank 1, (so much for going with the lightly stocked option!) is very overstocked at mo. we had 5 cloud minnows, 14 danios (9 leopard, 5 zebra) and 5 neon tetras, i had to 'rescue' some fish from a property a couple of weeks ago so in addition to the above there is also a silver shark, red tailed shark, rosy barb 2 cherry barbs, a chequred barb and another random barb which i have no idea what type it is, one emporer (i think) tetra, another neon, 2 plecos 2 mickey mouse platy's and a red platy and a male and female red tailed guppy. i am looking at re-homing the barbs as i have noticed one in particular is very nippy

a week after my rescue mission i start to notice little black dots in the belly of the lady guppy so i put her into tank 2 and on the day of the royal wedding welcomed 27 baby guppies into the world - 2 unfortunately were born dead and one died later in the evening but we still have 24 swimming and eating away

a few days ago i have noticed more little eyes on the lady guppy i have donated the male guppy to my mum (who has recently cycled a new tank she has bought after catching the fish bug!) but understand the lady can store the sperm. my mum will also be having a few of the male babies once we are able to sex them, which is hopefully sooner rather than later as i really don't want them to breed with each other.

how long is a 2nd pregnancy likely to last? from my calcs she is 2 and a half weeks preg - should i be seeing eyes already??

Hey glad that tank cycled well!

Rescues are always difficult. With the silver shark you're going to need a 128gallon or larger. They need lots of room as they're pretty quick when the dart around the tank. This gives you a perfect excuse for a larger tank .

Barbs can sometimes be nippy, they need schools of 6-8 of their own to be with. This is one reason rescues can be a difficulty. My advice is to check with your LFS (hopefully it's not a chain store!) see if they take trades. Trade in any fish that is acting overly aggressive and put the money towards other schools you need to fill in. I quite liked my rosy barbs, they're good hardy fish.

While you are stocked quite heavily they're mostly slim bodied fish and you should be able to keep it under control with more frequent water changes.

Stopping guppies from breeding is near impossible. Females can actually store sperm for months. I brought three females home from a work tank and ended up with babies a few months later when that tank got a treat of some shrimp pellets.

^_^