Fish Folks Feel Free...

[~Tucker&Me~]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

Do you think if I halved the amount of shrimp I could add a few swordtails? I'd like to have maybe one or two males and four or so females.

I don't think you would need to cut the shrimp as they account for very little bioload. You could add swordtails to the numbers that I gave you with no issue, but keep in mind that they have slightly different water requirements than the other fish. You may be able to find a happy medium in terms of pH and mineral content but it really depends upon you finding the right fish. Do you know what the pH of your tap water is? If it's on the low side, you may be able to find a local breeder raising swords in those parameters with no problems.

I'll have to figure out which dwarfs would coexist peacefully with schooling fish. I really like both of those you posted earlier, but I know nothing about them really.

The majority of them will be just fine with schooling fish, at least the ones that you commonly see for sale. Most dwarfs really aren't aggressive and most schooling fish will be fast enough to escape any nit-picking the cichlid may be inclined to do.

I've had the guppies and an Endlers that somehow ended up in with the guppies, I actually ended up with a crossbreed strain of them, but I never added salt to their water at all, it was just from the tap and cycled through. Would not having salt affect them somehow? I don't think I ever had any problems with them in established tanks at all.

It depends what your water is like. My local water is very soft, around 6-6.5. This is not great for guppies and mosts tend to waste away unless we add salt and minerals. If your guppies were fine, your tap water is probably harder. Depending on how hard, this may not be ideal for some of the other fish I mentioned. Test it and let us know where the pH sits

My sister had a few in with some neon tetras, I think the fish had some sort of issue because the guppies ended up with some really strange spine issues and were deformed looking, but I don't know what caused/causes that.

THAT is a common sign of not enough salt/minerals. And that is what will happen to them if your water is too soft. Again, head to a pet store and pick up a pH kit. If you test your water you will have a good sense of it's suitability for certain species.

Answers in bold...

[CharlieDog]

Hmmm, okay. I'll have to pick a kit up, but I'm hoping I can find a happy medium for all of them.

My sisters water came from her well, so that could have contributed to that. We're on city water though, and last I remember it was fairly hard water at 7 or 7.5 (I think)

[CharlieDog]

Need to get a bigger heater and figure out what I want to do with the bottom of the tank. I'd like to get sand, but I'm not sure what color I want yet, or if I want to just add sand to the river rocks, in which case I'll stick with white.

And I need to find a replacement hood/lid thing, because the glass piece that used to be on the tank has done a runner. Can't find it anywhere.

Also have to figure out what sort of filter I want. I have an under gravel filter, but I didn't put it in there because I don't think it would work with sand. I'm not sure. Still doing a lot of research.

And I definitely need to find a better place to find plants. The selection at petsmart and petco is pitiful.