First Aquarium - Disaster

CruelCoin

FTA69 wrote: »

Do shrimp help in keeping the tank clean or are they just for aesthetics? I'll get a siphon hose for doing the water change in future so and hopefully that'll suck up some sediment.

To a certain degree.

Shrimp have generally a tiny tiny metabolism, and you'd need an army of them to clean up.

They'll help, but don't expect miracles

FTA69

Came down this morning to see John Mullane had built a bubble nest! He must be delighted now that he has successfully bitten and bullied every other fish out of the tank. I'll start doing 50% water changes from now on so; I don't think I'll bother getting any shrimp if they'll eat f*ck all and probably will just add to the bio-load more than anything. The advice I've gotten here has been great. Thanks very much.

anniehoo

Hi Folks, I have loved reading this thread and I've learned a lot myself, but can we calm down on the **** language. There are lots of different age groups reading Boards. You can articulate your point without the need for the "language" or the insinuation of it.

I did bite my tongue on this one 2 days ago, so it's not an instantaneous Mod note. Cheers

FTA69

Saw something awful today in the barbers. I never really paid attention to the fish tank they had until yesterday but they have a 120L tank in the shop. What's wrong with this you might say? They had eight goldfish in the one tank; four of which were huge, as in they looked more like Koi Carp. One was ten inches long, three were around 6-7 inches long and then there were four small ones. The tank was nearly obscured with green algae that must have been an inch thick. Pure cruelty.

Sleepy

Unfortunately it's something you kind of have to get used to. Once you learn a bit about fish keeping you start to notice how many people are doing it wrong. TBH, I find it hard to blame people when the pet-shops still sell tiny fish bowls and give completely incorrect advice...

baron von something

a little off topic, but how about setting up a general chit-chat thread for all our aquarium banter.good idea?just so we don't have to start new threads anytime we want to say something new or hi-jack the OPs thread

Marcin_diy

If you are on a trip for new fish usually it is very exciting , and you like many different kinds of fish, but never know what to choose.

good idea is to have a smartphone with you. you can quickly google fish name and find most important facts like behaviour, max size, water temperature, water chemistry and difficulty to keeping them alive.

to the OP - yes your tank is small, but don't worry if you keep john alone in this tank he should be fine. Many people keep bettas in smaller bowls.
I'm not happy with it but there is not much you can do.

as for loaches and guramis - thats an unacceptable for this size of tank.

Also you wrote that you completed conditioning in a week - how did this happen so quickly ? usuallly it takes not less than 3 weeks.
did you do al the water test, or you just think it was ok to put betta in ?

CruelCoin

Marcin_diy wrote: »

Also you wrote that you completed conditioning in a week - how did this happen so quickly ? usuallly it takes not less than 3 weeks.
did you do al the water test, or you just think it was ok to put betta in ?

Cycling is possible in a day or two if you know what you are doing.

1: Get some pre-cycled media from another tank.
2: Add bacteria culture
3: Instantly cycled tank!

It's not recommended, but it's very far from impossible.

fungun

Originally Posted by CruelCoin
I will add to this and say:

I buy fish from Arthane aquatics and Seahorse aquariums.
I only take advice to heart from seahorse.

kylith wrote: »

I'll only take advice from Seahorse, but I'll buy from Pet Palace on Parnell St. It's not got a great selection, but I've always found their stock healthy.

Well dont post any more questions on here then if you dont take any advice! :P

CruelCoin

fungun wrote: »

Well dont post any more questions on here then if you dont take any advice! :P

Ok, will reform my statement then.

I will of course take advice anywhere, but i put the heaviest weighting on that from seahorse.


A good bet is to ask some control questions to see if the sales assistant is a complete berk or not.

1: I was thinking of getting some goldfish for a bowl
2: I was to get a nemo and put it in my tank with the guppies
3: etc.

If the sales assistant doesn't correct you, then you can safely assume they don't know what they're talking about.

chopper6

CruelCoin wrote: »

Ok, will reform my statement then.

I will of course take advice anywhere, but i put the heaviest weighting on that from seahorse.


A good bet is to ask some control questions to see if the sales assistant is a complete berk or not.

1: I was thinking of getting some goldfish for a bowl
2: I was to get a nemo and put it in my tank with the guppies
3: etc.

If the sales assistant doesn't correct you, then you can safely assume they don't know what they're talking about.

Why waste your time like that? Just ask them what you want to ask them and then get another opinion or google the answer. You dont need to stand there all day spinning riddles.