my new fish

Hedwig calm down.

I have 5 goldfish myself. Before i got them I didn't know about tank cycling or how big they got. Thankgod i posted about them here and now know the dnager i put their lives in. I love fishkeeping and I love my fish and I am now saving for a 200L tank because I made the mistake of not researching them fully.
the one things i've learnt? Do NOT trust the pet shop. I double checked with the pet shop lady about putting fish in straight away, she said she always had without a problem. Okay, so I went ahead without cycling and feel very fortunate all my fish survived.

I'm in no way an expert, currently giving 5 goldies a not so great life myself but wanting to do better and make sure i don't screw up again.

Please take the adive of people on here, they have most likley gone through a heartbreak or two when new to fishkeeping and don't want to see it happen again.

THANK YOU!

:hail: :hail:

Very true... I mentioned somewhere on here that I just recently lost a very prized, very expensive cichlid over my tank throwing itself back into a cycle.

Psyfalcon, What I was suggesting and I guess it wasn't to clear was the Platys need to go in a tank separate with things like swordtails because they are so similar.

Ok Fruitbat, that makes more sense.

I think in a big enough tank, Platies and the shark could be compatible. There isn't a real line between community and semi-aggressive. The line commonly moves when a bigger tank is involved. The shark can not eat adult platies, so if they have room to ignore each other, it stands a chance of working.

That said, we still do not know how big this tank is! Therefore we are all assuming the worst at this point. On fish boards, you always assume the worst when a new person posts, and you are occasionally still shocked.

hedwig, what happend to the pms?
this is a 10gallon tank and right now extreemly overstocked, get rid of the bonitas, they can be highly agressive and not for beginners...

the missing link i will assume are the guppies, in which case as the gouramies reach maturity the grouamis (being similar in personality to bettas) tend to bully things with long flowwing fins...

*sigh*

fish store people are NOT hired because they know fish, there hired because they aplied for a job and that position was open...i worked for petco for sometime, in their fish dept, im one of the few emplyess that worked there that had ever kept fish, yet the rules were the same, if anyone asks, you have fish of your own...(yes many employees in LFS dont even have any fish!) we were also encouraged to sell as many fish at one time as possible, and not to correct the customer...if the customer wanted to add african cichlids to his guppy tank, then sell him the cichlids because its not "our" fault when the cichlids eat the other fish...
or someone comes in looking for a pleco for their 10 gallon tank, we were not supposed to tell them that plecos need at LEAST 55 gallons becuase they grow huge...

Right now your at over the max on your bioload, hopefully your up for doing lots of partial waterchanges or have extreemly good filtration on the tank.

i told my mum what evreryone says that its over stocked and she thinks im being stupid and saying i should listen to the pet shop???

i have no plecos, mistaken identity!

put it this way, my shark has always been playful, maby not with other fish but by himself, he even picks up stones, swims around with it, scratches the tank wall with it and drops it, he plays and tries to catch the bubbles, he is in and out of his lil ship lil a yoyo, he likes the current, gets swept backward n swims up it again. he swims in circles sometimes either around the other fish or a plant he likes, he hides between the too? he will also rest on a snail and ride it for some reason? he is so funny and full of it! i love watching him.

there is no aggression there what so ever, from him or the other fish.

i give two 50% water changes a week as well

Well being that I have some 40 + years into fish keeping one thing making me angry is those who say fish store people don't know what they are doing REALLY. What makes you more expert ? Fish forums ? Pet smart fish people may be as you describe but I resent that you lump them all together. I have been one of them and handle much more difficult species then any of you own. AC your Cichlids are really rather easy to keep and raise. I have long since moved beyond them and if water PH is such a big thing then why are you buffering it ? They like hi alkaline. Each keeper has methods that work for them and then their is the standard !! Like 1 inch per gallon. That is never a must but a standard. Each keeper according to trail and error will get the right results. You guys forget that you started somewhere and lost fish ? If you did not then you were lucky. I had a new illness wipe out several tanks before we could get it identified and controlled. The lady that controlled it for me is an expert and went to school for fish illness and said it was a new strain of bacteria just making way here and let me tell you 12 hours and they are gone. It happens. I see many of the fish people here making mistakes in their advice and keep my mouth shut. I throw my African cichlids out in my ponds believe me they get no special water buffers or all that you say they must have and they still pump out babies like mad. They are living in there with many species not good in tank life and do fine because it is a natural setting. There are 4 large red earred slider turtles in there too. As for knowledge I have a new strain of the Johanni out and it carries my name the electric blue Johanni . I am now perfecting the Blue marbled cichlid. I know what I am doing and have spoken with the op and I hope that in the future the op will pm me. I hate fish snobs !!!r

Thanks hun? i have pm you, maby you can pm some pictures???

Cichlids are quite easy, I'll say so myself, however, they aren't for the beginner fish keeper, if you know what I mean.

I buffer my water because my well water here sucks. It is too soft, and it's pH is so low it hardly registers on my test kits.

I don't remember saying they HAVE to have buffer. It depends on someone's water. I usually recommend testing the water right out of the tap to determine whether or not it is needed.

How do you mean "perfecting"? A new strain of hybrid?


Finally, I may be a fish snob, but I have learned from the BEST. I have people I see, trade with, and sell to on a regular basis that have spent their whole adult life learning about fish keeping and such. I am a fish snob because of idiot beginners that won't take someone's advice even if it were shoved down their throat.

If that makes me a Fish Snob, then so be it.

The new strain is a cross, with marbles. They are in the 3rd gen and showing some good color . Getting better. She feeds the red zebras to the clown knife and the turtles.

I'd feed the red zebras to something too!!

As of right now, I am up to my ears in Zebra fry... I just stripped 2 females, and they both held more than 25 :yikes:

I stopped counting after that!

Got any pics of the new strain?

Aussie, ponds are just different. I know a few people with indoor ponds. You can do stuff in them that is just a disaster waiting to happen in a fish tank. The first one of them to build it was because he was sold a Pacu and Red Tailed Catfish and grew to like them enough that he did not want to see them die when they outgrew a 180.

Yes, my first fishtank was a mess, and I've lost my entire school from a terrible mouth rot which literally removed their entire face. There is however, no reason to condone poor fishkeeping after the person asked for help, and ignored it. Just because beginners typically kill a few fish, there is no reason that they shouldn't have the learning curve shortened.

You moved past cichlids to line breeding cichlids? Big deal. Cull, cull, cull. Its not that hard if you have the gallons to do it.

I assume AC is buffering her water to high pH, alkaline water. You typically use baking soda (NaHCO3) to keep the pH around 8 (depending on amount and dissolved CO2 levels).

Exactly, as I stated, my pH is very low here from the tap. If I do too much of a water change, even with the crushed coral to add to the pH, I have to add buffers to make it get up to 8.

hewig is a novice and I don't see the difference between accidental loss and the intentional feeding of these to other things.


Mom won't post pics of the new guys yet. She has a way to go with it. She is culling, and keeping the best.
My eel gobbles cute goldfish by the dozens. We also have people who feed cute fuzzy rats to snakes.

Alot of my red zebra fry turns into lunch as well, because they are too common to sell. Not many people want them.

Cobues are different, however. Those will sell great, once I start selling and shipping.

Electric Blue Johanni (Melanochromis Johanni) was first described by Eccles in 1973. It's also known as the Bluegray Mbuna.

So who are you, David Eccles or (the deceased) Ethelwynn Trewavas?


What genus exactly?

Education is the key to knowledge

Many times co-works when they work in a retailer store like healthy food department or chain pet stores such as (Petco, Petsmart) they only care about the pay check coming in. They don't know swat!

I would say yes your tank is extremely over crowded if it's a 10 gallon.

Please DO NOT believe what a pet store employee says, do your own research!

I actually work in a pet store (yes i know) BUT I work in the fish dept I can say that I am completely honest with my customers if I don't know the answer to the question I will look it up in the MANY books I keep on hand to answer the best to my knowledge or direct them to someone who can or the net! But pet store employees are hired to SELL SELL SELL (they work on commission) so they could care less of what they sell to you if it will fit in tank or compatible!

So please listen to these people here AngelChicken is right on that all these fish have VERY different needs!

Just my 2 cents!

~Alisha

Exactly!

i have a friend who had a 200 gal. tank with chichilds. they had a red tailed shark in one tank, well they put in one of their 20 gal. tanks. it ate all those fish. so they put it in their 200 gal. within 30mins it killed 3 fish that were bigger than it. They put it with their oscar. never had a problem between the 2 of them. just my experience with them.

right now i have piranhas. it took a little while to get used to the fact that i couldn't stick my hand in the tank. never got bit, but close to sticking my whole hand in. it could have been messy. not for beggining fish keepers. it took 2 years of research before i decided to change my tank to get them.