So I finally gave in to the Lil’Guy’s demands and bought a fish tank for him yesterday. We got it all rinsed out and set up, filled it with water and decorated it snappishly with gravel and plastic plants and a little ceramic goblin. Now all we need is fish.
It’s been ages since I had a tank, and even then I “inherited” the fish so I’ve never really picked out a community from scratch. Help me! The tank is 12 gallons freshwater, and I prefer not to mess with a heater so no delicate tropicals please. I know I want a pleco to eat all the rock slime, and a snail just because I think they’re cute. I definitely do NOT want goldfish, because they just get huge and obnoxious, and frankly I find them dull. Otherwise–I’m open to any and all suggestions.
My only criteria are:
The fish be relatively hardy
I want a good mix, so nothing that’s overly aggressive
The prettier the better.
I plan to stop by the aquarium center after work tonight, and I don’t want to show up completely undecided. So, Suggestions? Advice? Random smartass comments?
Ok.
depends on how stable the temperature in your house is as to whether you need a heater.
Neons
tetras
silver dollars
angels
tiger barbs
brislenose catfish
gurami
clown loach
they’re pretty common fish stocked in shops, names will vary because i’m in a different country but they’re all small, colourful, active hardy fish that get along fine in a tank.
fish with attitude:
electric yellow
mozambique mouthbrooders
convicts
red tailed black sharks
archer fish
Wow, with a name like that that had better be one bad-ass fish!
My house temp is stable, right around 72-73 degrees F. Will that be high enough? I don’t want to plop the poor things in there just to have them keel over on me–and the kidlet would be traumatized!
Yeah, great sex life to. She spawns in a depression in the gravel, he fertillises them, she scoops the eggs up in her mouth and broods them till they hatch and then a bit more.
celsius to fahrenheit…add three divide by seven touch your nose and think of kansas then google a temp converter…duyh da da daaaahhh about 22 degrees…beautiful, the fish’ll love it, tropicals will be fine at that temp.
How big is your tank to have all those fish Ginger? I don’t want to overcrowd mine, but I know a lot of the smaller tropicals need to be in mini-schools. Does anyone know how many fish could a 12 gallon tank could comfortably hold?
We’ve got a 55 tank that houses these millions of fish.
Also, I neglected to mention: We’ve got a 30-gallon tank in our son’s room. It housed goldfish forever, until the last one died. I don’t know exactly what breed they are, but we’ve got three fry in there. We’re leaving them and letting them grow until such time as they’re big enough to survive in the community tank.
Actually, it would appear that there are two fry. They look like danios or neon tetras, hard to tell. Dave must have had Danios or Tetras in there with the goldfish, I don’t remember.
I kept fish for about three years and managed to kill every single fish except for Mollies. My favorites were what my fish store called B-52 Mollies. They were cool looking little black fish and tough as nails evidently. The best part was when one of them had babies and I got to watch all the teeny little pepper specks get bigger day by day and eventually turn into adults.
Bella, what I’ve always heard is roughly 1 inch of fish (excluding tail fins) per gallon of water. By that guideline, you can get quite a few very small fish (like the little neon tetras), along with a moderate-sized fish or two.
Since this is a new set-up, I’d suggest getting two or three smallish, cheapish fish to start with. Die-offs in new tanks where the water hasn’t cycled adequately are pretty common. Get yourself a few cheap test fish, to see if your water’s okay and to help the cycle along. Having a few die is cheaper and less traumatic than a whole tankful dying. Also, it gives you some fish to look at while you do some homework on stuff you saw and liked at the store.
And that’s a good idea about buying “test” fish. I can just see myself splurging on $50 worth of fishies only to wake up to a bunch of floaters tomorrow because I’d done something wrong.
I have a (yet another) question, this time about the setup—the instructions said to use an airpump “if needed”. I have a good-sized filter already, and bought one of those goofy skeleton-in-a-barrel bubblers to connect to the air hose. Is that enough extra O[sub]2[/sub], or do I need to get an actual air rock or something?
Ashes–Black mollies are one of the few fish I can identify on sight. I had a few a long time ago and they were one of my faves. How many babies did you get? Did you keep them or have to give them up?
“Test” fish are a good idea. We would buy medium-sized feeder goldfish for my son’s tank, and when he kept them alive long enough, we moved on to ‘real’ fish.
Not to spoil your fun, but I would have recommend against most of the fish listed here if you aren’t willing to use a heater. Unstable temps aren’t healthy, and are you really going to be able to keep the tank warm enough?
I think the only reasonable suggestions would be goldfish, danios, platys or mollies.
No fun spoiled Triagonal, I did some research on my potentials and came to the same conclusion. I don’t have enough trust in my furnace, so I gave in and there’s already a heater purring away in the tank.
I got
1 small pleco
3 Ruby Barbs (pretty!)
and 4 tiny tetras of some sort, I can’t recall the full name. They’re silver and pink with a black triangle on their rear end. They all school together like one entity, quite cute.
I’m going to see how these guys do, and if things look promising I want to add just a few more small ones–probably some mollies or platys for a splash of yellow.
I’d recommend White Cloud Mountain Minnows. They are hardy, can withstand bigger swings in temp than many fish (they can be kept in ponds like koi), are small, and are very pretty.
I did a quick search and didn’t find any great pictures, but here:
Well you probably should have waited on the pleco. They’re not good starter fish. Usually you pick up those when you start to see GREEN algae.
Also, I think you started with too many fish. At the fish store I worked at, we recommended 3 hearty fish to start a tank that small.
What you should do at this point is wait at least 4 weeks, at that point, take a sample of your water to an aquarium store and have them test it for ammonias and nitrates. When those are both 0 you could add some more fish.
Also, what kind of filter do you have? Oxygenation of the water takes place at the surface, not from airstones or bubble filters. You need to make sure the surface of your water is in motion. A good power filter or enough bubbles should do the trick.
As for some fish suggestions, I would stay away from tin foil barbs (although I love how they look) they get too big. Also tiger barbs can be semi-agressive, although if you get 3-5 of them, they’ll usually chase each other and leave the other fish alone (usually).
I always like danios (zebras, leopards, or giant) they don’t have much color but they add motion to the tank. I’ve also always loved loaches. Khuli’s look like little stripped worms, but they hide a lot. Clowns are really pretty and they’re the most visible of the loaches.
If you’re going to keep mollies, you’ll be better off to keep your water slightly salty. This is actually good for all fish, but mollies really like it. Use about 3 tablespoons of aqaurium salt. Your fish store should carry it, or you can buy kosher salt in the store. Just make sure it isn’t iodized.
bella, I have read the thread and I think your selection was very good but a few others might not have been so helpful. First off you gotta remember the size of the tank that knocks off
Angel- WAY to big, though it is a good starter fish (for a new tank that is what i mean) but you need at least 20 gal. and to watch out that it doesn’t nip that tails of your other fish to much
Guoromi- look below also size and some gourami are semi agressive
Kissing Guorami- theses fish range from sm-lg. but need a big tank because as they grow and become over crowded their growth is stunted and the ultimatly die
Goldfish- contrary to was people think goldfish are REALLY dirty fish they are really pretty but also REALLY big a goldfish need at least 30 gal. tank
Next some of the fish were semi-agressive andharder to keep plus i think you want more of a community tank so not including the ones above you can knock off
tiger barbs
clown Loah
plecostamus
I think you made good choices my suggestion is if you wanted to add a bottom dweller to clean up some a cory cat. would go nicely have fun
Belladona; one more thing that should be kept in mind about the pleco.
They do not do well on a diet that has too much meat in it.
They need lots of plant matter.
Unless and untill your tank has a good bit of algae, it would be a good idea to put a few raw green beans or a bit of raw zuchini in the tank.
To make it easier for the pleco to get to you could tie the beans/squash to a small rock which would hold it on the bottom of the tank.
Good luck on the new set-up!
