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Hi there, I'm new here

2K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  bigcarl 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,
I'm new to the Tropical fish keeping forums. I've been keeping freshwater fish for nearly 10 years now and have enjoyed every second of it. I have experience keeping barbs, new world cichlids, livebearers, anabatoids, plecostomids, goldfish, tetras, and many other fish.

Currently I only have two aquariums set up. A 55g and a 29g. The 55g houses a pair of two year old blood parrot cichlids and a juvenile sailfin plecostomus. The 29g houses a pair of angelfish, guppies, and mollies.

I hope to gain and share knowledge by joining the forums. During my years as a beginner, many people shared their experience with me and I hope to pass the same knowledge on to other beginner aquarists. I hope to see you around! :grin:
 
#9 ·
Gift for 4 year old that has backfired

Hi all - I am new to the site so I hope I am doing this the right way!!
My husband I have bought an Aqua One 850 acquarium (I think around 40 gallons) for our son for his 4th birthday this month (he is obsessed with everything water related). It has completely backfired on us as we have been researching for the last couple of weeks and are now completely obssessed ourselves!!! Our spare time is being spent wandering around the various acquariums etc and checking out all the fish and gadgets!!
We have decided to control ourselves (and get our bearings) and start with community fish. We have set up the tank and have let that go for a while before starting to add fish. My husband took our little one today and they have picked a school of 8 platys.

I am interested in making sure that we have a lovely display of colour etc but more importantly would like to make sure that our fish will be happily co-habitating with others. I get advice from the acquariums but to be honest some of it is a little confusing when you then go on websites and it says that something that they have said that we could have eg bala shark - might grow too big.

We have never had fish before and we don't want to stress any of them out. I like:
Bala Shark
Catfish (the interesting ones that run after the bubbles and have long whiskers)
Silver Dollar
Tiger Barb
Neon Tetras
Angel Fish
Glofish (Danios)
Rasboras

Would love to know what would go the best together and in what quantities.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Juzz in Sydney Australia
 
#13 ·
Hello juzz and welcome to the site and the addiction... I mean hobby. There are some great resources here that will help you one which is the tropical fish profiles, you can find the link at the top of the page second tab from the left. Also by clicking on the highlighted name like bala shark you can view the profile on a particular fish also. Personally I would never rely on just the advice given to you at the store, some places and some of the people working there really know their stuff and will store you in the right direction, but unfortunately there are also those out there just to make a sale. When I started I had someone tell me I could keep several angel fish in a 10 gallon aquarium, if I did not go home and do my own research those fish would not have lasted long.
 
#15 ·
Hello BarbH

Thank you for the reply.... any assistance is gratefully received. I know James said that I should start my own thread but I don't seem to have access to do that yet (this is all very new for me I have never been on a forum before!!) - so I'm grateful that I got a response at all.

We definately don't want to just rely on the "sales" information. Which I guess is why I was getting a bit confused - they tell you something is "community" but then when you do a bit of research it falls into the "be wary of putting with other community fish" category. So I thought seeking the advice of others would be the best way to get some good advice based on others' personal experience.

It is a very new hobby/obsession for us ..... here's hoping that the four year old likes it as much!!

Thanks again for your assistance. Juzz
 
#16 ·
Not a problem to start a new thread you will find at the top in the sub category a bottom that says new thread or start new thread, using the phone right now so trying to work in multiple windows is a bit of a pain. The button will be on the left side just click on that, from there you can enter the subject of your thread and type your message. I am sure your 4 year old will love the tank, any time my 5 year old nephew is over he just has to see the fish.
 
#20 ·
Gift for 4 year old that has backfired!!

I hope I am adding this as a new thread ... I'm completely useless at this stuff... Also update is:

We have introduced a school of 10 neon tetras to the school of 8 platys. I used the fish profiles (which was incredibly helpful) and of course ruled out more than half of the fish that I thought would be good together. We introduced yesterday 2 x bristlenose catfish (and research on the site showed that the ones that I thought were okay ("yes maam they can absolutely go into a community tank" from the salesperson (ended up being a pictus catfish which would be too big)!!!!! When I went back (after using this site for research) and mentioned about the pictus getting too big - you would not believe their response...... "oh that's okay you just bring it back when it gets to big and we give you another small one!!!!".... are my fish pets or are they supposed to be disposable garbage!!!!

Needless to say I refused to buy any fish from them and made my husband come with me to another place that was 2 hours away and got my neons and have gone back and got my catfish from them. What a difference a bit of research makes!!!

Thanks for your help guys!!!





Gift for 4 year old that has backfired
Hi all - I am new to the site so I hope I am doing this the right way!!
My husband I have bought an Aqua One 850 acquarium (I think around 40 gallons) for our son for his 4th birthday this month (he is obsessed with everything water related). It has completely backfired on us as we have been researching for the last couple of weeks and are now completely obssessed ourselves!!! Our spare time is being spent wandering around the various acquariums etc and checking out all the fish and gadgets!!
We have decided to control ourselves (and get our bearings) and start with community fish. We have set up the tank and have let that go for a while before starting to add fish. My husband took our little one today and they have picked a school of 8 platys.

I am interested in making sure that we have a lovely display of colour etc but more importantly would like to make sure that our fish will be happily co-habitating with others. I get advice from the acquariums but to be honest some of it is a little confusing when you then go on websites and it says that something that they have said that we could have eg Bala Shark - might grow too big.

We have never had fish before and we don't want to stress any of them out. I like:
Bala Shark
Catfish (the interesting ones that run after the bubbles and have long whiskers)
Silver Dollar
Tiger Barb
Neon Tetras
Angel Fish
Glofish (Danios)
Rasboras

Would love to know what would go the best together and in what quantities.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Juzz in Sydney Australia


Read more: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/meet-community/hi-there-im-new-here-96204/#ixzz1phBEQ8NU
 
#21 ·
Hi Juzz, regarding the Pictus Catfish. granted it's been over 30 years sinse I've had tropical fish, so I might be a little out dated.

But, I'm getting a new 55 gallon tank for Father's Day. And (*WINK*) I can't wait to get it.

Anyway getting back to what, I wanted to say.

I always loved the Pictus Catfish, I never had any problems with it, other then catching it when I wanted to clean my tank! They tend to get caught in the net, and tear it. The cloth from the nets gets caught in their gills and kills them.

So what I do is, drain the tank. Then I catch them in a water glass, ;-) when there's no place for them to go.

Beside's being a beautiful and sleek looking fish; they have never bothered any of my other fish, and their also bottem feeders, so they will help keep your tank clean.

Good Luck, with your new addiction, or hobby. Whichever. :lol: you choose to call it

Carl
 
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