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Some colorful and peaceful beginner fish are most tetras (black phantoms are my favorite), zebra danios, harlequin rasboras, and corydoras. Most tetras should be kept in schools of at least 3 and zebra danios,harlequins, and corydoras should be kept in a school of at least 6. Id stick with these until you gain more experience.

Last edited by zachf92 at 03-Jan-2006 06:43

Thanks for your help

Fish count at present

8 neons
5 golden neons
2 white clouds
1 black phantom
3 plecos
1 apple snail

I really want to re-build the school of Phantoms to say 6-8

Cheers
Darren

Treat for ich atleast a week after the last spot is gone...maybe even 2 weeks to be sure it doesn't return.

I would wait 2 weeks before adding anymore...the longer you wait the better.

What are the numbers of fish you have left?

Patience is good.

*Kristin*

Hi all
Had a few disaster/drawbacks....Seems we got whitespot and lost quite a few fish. We have one phantom, the neons, plecos and snail left.
We are still treating the tank and it seems to be clearing up. The Phantom we have left was not looking too good, lots of spots and very lethargic. Today, after 5 days of treatment the spots have nearly all gone and he's swimming normally.
My question is how long should we wait before introducing new fish once symptoms have cleared? Also we have set up a quarantine tank to keep new arrivals for observation, what is the recommended time to house them prior in quarantine?

For the record we are using Aqua One Rapid White Spot Remedy with charcoal out of filter. We added it Wednesday, did a 1/4 change on Saturday and added the second dose. Also we used it at 1/2 strength.

We are also developing a healthy patience in relation to our tank!!!!

Things still going well
Ammonia level is dropping and we have done a 1/4 change each day.
We gave away the Danios so numbers are slightly down also.
Cheers
D

ps. we had to give awy the Rosy Barb..got nippy towards the others

ooops!!!!..guess we got a little carried away. Will have to re-assess our tank
We are monitoring the water and doing daily 1/4 tank changes.
Nitrates sitting around 20ppm with ammonia @ 0.5ppm before the change. Ph good, hardness good.
We found one of the Danios dead this morning but had noticed that one of the other (we assume) Danios was being agressive towards the others.
Rest of fish seem active and healthy

Seems we got a bit impatient and overwhelmed...Bit like a kid at a lolly shop!

Cheers
Will keep yous posted
D

dblowfish: About the neons...I have had a school of them in my 10g with male betta and 2 ottos for a few months now and they don't seem to have any diseases. I guess you should keep an eye on them just to be sure..but I wouldn't worry about it.

Going along with what Christina said, you should definitely watch your tank parameters because I personally think you are overstocked now.
You have:
10 neons
5 golden neons
4 white clouds
4 rummies
4 zebra danios
4 black phantoms
3 plecos
1 apple snail
1 rosy barb

That is way too many fish for a 34 gallon. To be at a good stocking level you should only have 2 or maybe 3 schools of fish. The neons, white clouds, rummies, danios, and black phantoms all would be happier with 6-8 of each. So I would pick 3 kinds you like and return the others. You may even need to return 1 or 2 of the plecos as they are wasteful guys. My Bristlenose produces so much waste that I couldn't imagine having another one in my 55g.
The fish may be small but there are too many in your tank. Until you can return them I would definitely check tank parameters (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate especially) every day to make sure because you could have alot of dead fish once their waste overloads the biofilter. I strongly suggest you pick the 3 kinds you want and stay with them...upping the numbers to atleast 6 each.

*Kristin*

I just want to ask you. You guys did not purchase all of these fish all at once did you? I hope you are going to say no because if so you REALLY need to keep an eye on your water parameters. That will spike the ammonia and cause a cycle and possibly kill some or even all of the fish in your tank. I am guessing no one informed you that would do that. Do you have another tank? If so then you may need to put some of those guys into the other tank for a while. That way the bioload will not be quite as large because neons are pretty sensitive to water changes like that. Good Luck with it and please keep us updated on how things are going!


Christina

Hi again
Couldn't help myself, had to take more pics and upload to the site..take a peek http://photobucket.com/albums/c260/dblowfish/
I also forgot to mention we purchased an apple snail as well. Reading back I noticed the comment about the Neons possibly harbouring disease...guess we can only cross our fingers now!!
Cheers all
D

Well, we've been very busy with the tank. We now have plants and schools of new fish!! We ended up sticking in some mosquito fish from our outdoor pond to see how the Angel would react....he loved them, chased the smaller ones constantly!! so we figured he would act the same way with any small fish we purchased the choice was obvious. We phoned our "Fishman" and explained our situation, he said the best he could do was take the Angel off our hands, this was ok with us, we really wanted a happy community of smaller fish. We ended up buying 10 neon tetras, 5 golden neons, 4 white clouds and 4 black phantom tetras. We got them aclimatised and released them into the tank...sooo exciting!! Then, horror!! one of the bigger mosquito fish ate one of the smaller golden neons!!! right before our eyes...Should have seen that one coming!! Out went the mosquitos, back into the pond.
Since then we have added 4 zebra danios and 4 rummy nose tetras. All is going well and the original Rosy barb is happy to swim with them.
The tank is looking great and will post some pics soon
Thanks again for the advise. This is a great site for us beginners!
Cheers
Darren

it is a rosy barb
they now come in many colors, but they all still seem to have the spot at the tail.

the tank looks great, but some tall live plants would add a nicer look to the tank.

The cat is hilarious. It makes me wish I had a cat just so I could laugh at the way it stares at the fish tank.
Those are definitely plecos...I'm not sure what kind though. I would post in the bottom feeder section and maybe someone can identify them. They look like Bristlenoses to me, well atleast the third picture does. It looks different than the other two. I am not really sure though.
There are alot of plecos that get huge, but there are a few that stay pretty small. I don't think I would keep 3 though. Find out what kind they are and how big they get and then you can decide if you can keep them or not.
You said you were getting the angel friends also. I would not get another angelfish. One will already make your tank look small when it grows.
I can't tell what kind of barb you have. In the picture it looks too orange to be a rosy barb. From the picture on FP rosy barbs have some silver on them. I have never kept them, so I can't be sure.

*Kristin*

I have set up some pics on Photo Bucket
http://photobucket.com/albums/c260/dblowfish/
Also we think the golden barb is a rosy barb
Cheers
D&C

a thing. most plecos will grow very alrge, and as u may or not know a 30 gallon isn't enough room for them.

and with angels. makes sure to keep the water clear. while now most common angels dont require acidic water anymore, it is still best to clean the tank good, and then u can get some plants. Also with angels they really tend to get 'big' up and down, not really in length. so i think 1 would be best alone in that small of a tank.

Hi
We are in the process of purchasing an Aqua One AR620T tank and stocking it with smallish, hopefully peaceful tropical fish. The capacity is 130 litres and we are just curious regarding recommended fish numbers and types that are realitively hardy but offer a good variety of colour and swimming depths.
We'd appreciate any ideas and advice.

Cheers

Some good fish I forgot about are livebearers. this includes guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails, and endlers. you should keep 1 male for every 3 females, as male livebearers will harass the female to mate. you could probably find some info in this website on how to tell a male and female apart. If you want to try livebearers, be careful as they breed like crazy, and the babies could easily overcrowed the aquarium.

Thanks for the help....gives me a good starting point

Ok 130 Lt so you have about 34 US gal. You could have a couple schools of tetras, harlequins, danios...like the ones mentioned before. Or you could have a big school of one type of fish and then a center piece fish, such as a smaller gourami. Or if you like livebearers then you could have a few of them (i have not kept them so don't know about numbers..).
I forgot to mention cories...there are many varieties. You could have 8-10 for the bottom level of your tank..if you like them. Another option is Kuhli loaches. I think you could have a few yoyo loaches in a 34...not sure though.
For algae you could have a Bristlenose (also called a BN) or ottos. Ottos should be added after your tank is cycled because they are more sensitive.
Are you going to have plants? Live or fake? What type of substrate are you going to have (gravel, sand, something else?).
It is great that you are researching before you buy anything. It will save you lots of money and time after you set up your tank.
By the way...welcome to FP!:%)
If you have any more questions...ask away.

Last edited by GirlieGirl8519 at 03-Jan-2006 17:16

*Kristin*

just curious if this is ur first tank?(i am guessing it is from the title) but dont for get to cycle.


once u have an established tank in about 30 gallons[us](thanks girl for the cal.) several live plants would look nice.

i recommend some java moss attached to a peice of driftwood, and a mix of sand and larger rocks. this should provide a nice looking tank. u might want to go with a few fake plants(since they are being made more soft/real like). but real tall plants like amozon sword plants.

i would try easy fish like coryies. in a semi large tank u can add a good number of cories as they like to school. and for the most part cories are inexpensive.

for mid water fish, a school of cardinals would be nice. small,school, and a good splash of color. If u go with neons, i would quartine them for aleast a week, as they tend to be less hardy and can carry diesiese that can kill the rest of the tank.
Another mid water fish that is alittle larger would be a dwarf gouramie male. again semi peaceful and adds good color. Also all of these fish are common and less expensive.

on the top, silver hatchets would look nice, and again these are schooling fishes and stay small. These may be kinda hard to track down, but often fall into the 4-5 dollar range.

this should fill in a tank with alot of fish in a small area, but when choiseing stocking numbers try and be properitional.

when u are stocking, a new tank always go slow, so that accidents risk are cut down.