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Help with plants in 8 gallon?

1864 Views 12 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  nicolaas, 
M
Aquarium size- 8 gallon Aqueon.. the lighting is LED.. that is all the ad on the Petsmart website says.. Ithas a switch for day time light and then nightitme blue led lights...

I am looking to place live plants in this with maybe a couple little fish and shrimp..I don't wanna cramp anyone up ect..


the actaul aquarium I have is the Aqueon Evolve 8.... what would be best for this aquarium size...


please no one suggest Mollys.. I have an established tank for my daughter and i was talked into 2 dalmation mollys 4 days ago.. these fish are NUTS.. they act like they are nuts and they PICK on evryone else....and I do believe they are the reason behind 1 of the missing ghost shrimp.... :-(
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O
You could go with cardinal tetras, neon tetras, cherry barbs, rasboras. They are pretty fish with very small waste load. Check them out. They don't get any bigger than 1 inch maybe an inch and a half.

For shrimp you could do cherry red shrimp, crystal red or crystal black shrimp. These shrimp are beautiful and awesome.
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M
what plants should I get .... I am really wanting to make this a plant aquarium ..just not sure what types....could I have to many plants if I over do it?
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O
You can get some dwarf hair grass, some amazon swords, cork screw plants, Anubis plants, I would get some java moss for your shrimp. Just my opinion.
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Byron
First, may I welcome you to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.:-D

Before we consider plants, we should verify the light. Can you post a link to the online info, it may click with someone. This is important, as there is no point in buying high light plants like the micro sword if the LED is not up to that.

As for fish, this is only an 8g so the only suitable fish are going to be "dwarf" type species. Or a Betta of course. Before we consider fish, what are your tap water parameters? Many of the dwarf fish are wild caught and have specific needs when it comes to water. The hardness (GH), carbonate hardness (KH or Alkalinity) and pH are what we need to know; you can ascertain this from the municipal water supply people, they probably have a web site.

While we're waiting for the above, I'll mention our profiles, second heading from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page. Data on each species includes water parameters, tank size, minimum number for shoaling fish, etc. Most of what we suggest will be in the profiles.

Byron.
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M
all right.. i think I am off'n this 8 gallon and I went back to petsmart and bought a Marieland Half Moon 10 gallon..... so now I am gonna research that... I am with in the next week or so getting the new 29 galon bio-cube...my favorite local private owned pet shop has a brand new 29 gallon biocube, new style, with new stand for 299... i have researched and its a really good deal .
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M
Once I went to PetSmart to talk about plants... I was told I had to re-do all the gravel and needed to buy a ton of start up chemicals...which all together I was at about 60 bucks to start this tank..then come to find out all the plants that was mentioned to me about buying to start the tank.. petsmart didnt have 1 single plant on the list. :/
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Byron
Meanielinguine said:
Once I went to PetSmart to talk about plants... I was told I had to re-do all the gravel and needed to buy a ton of start up chemicals...which all together I was at about 60 bucks to start this tank..then come to find out all the plants that was mentioned to me about buying to start the tank.. petsmart didnt have 1 single plant on the list. :/
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This is all not necessary. Most of us here will tell you to take everything the store people say very lightly. They are after all there to sell stuff.

At the head of this sectio of the forum is a series I wrote entitled A Basic Approach to the Natural Planted Aquarium. It is in 4 parts but it will set out all the basics which will give you a better understanding.

Byron.
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O
Trust me follow Byrons "A Basic Approach to the Natural Planted Aquarium" forum it is a good read and has great information. Petsmart is not so smart when it comes to fish, lol.
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M
I will be honest tuesday this past week we purchased 2 dalmatian mollies, 2 dwarf frogs and 3 ghost shrimp.from petsmart... the mollies was and are NUTS!!! they was way hyper..this went on till thursday.....sat. we added the blue gourami small, and a bala shark.... HUGE MISTAKE... the mollies attacked the shark .. the shark got away ..and then as the gourami was swimming past one of the mollies chomped a section out of the blue guys tail!!.. they now ..are only once in a while doing a pick at another fish.. they are constantly chasing eachother and beating eachother up ..... what should I do ... the shark and gourami I bought at pet supply plus..they are mellow...really cool ..swim slow and float ect..neat.. the mollies are NUTS!! i have told several people this and they all said NO WAY !! ... i wont buy anymore fish from petsmart.
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Byron
Meanielinguine said:
I will be honest tuesday this past week we purchased 2 dalmatian mollies, 2 dwarf frogs and 3 ghost shrimp.from petsmart... the mollies was and are NUTS!!! they was way hyper..this went on till thursday.....sat. we added the blue gourami small, and a bala shark.... HUGE MISTAKE... the mollies attacked the shark .. the shark got away ..and then as the gourami was swimming past one of the mollies chomped a section out of the blue guys tail!!.. they now ..are only once in a while doing a pick at another fish.. they are constantly chasing eachother and beating eachother up ..... what should I do ... the shark and gourami I bought at pet supply plus..they are mellow...really cool ..swim slow and float ect..neat.. the mollies are NUTS!! i have told several people this and they all said NO WAY !! ... i wont buy anymore fish from petsmart.
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Please read the profiles for fish before you acquire them. [Click shaded names for that profile]

The Bala Shark should go back immediately; they get large, they need a group, and a big tank.

The Blue Gourami could be trouble too.

Common Molly is usually peaceful, but stress can make fish aggressive. What are your water parameters?
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redchigh
She mentioned it's a new tank. What does that tell you? ;)

Im going to go out on a limb and say the mollies are reacting to new tank syndrome... ie, the tank isn't cycled...
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nicolaas
HI.

Mollys and gourami don't mix at all, the mollys like to bite the long flowing fins of the gourami.
I had the same problem with Moonlights and pearls that were with mollys.

If you want to have mollys don't keep the gourami,and visa versa.

What tank size are they in?




Nicolaas.
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