[mbenjamin16]

Hi,
I have owned fresh water fish in the past mostly guppies and mollies and goldfish. I am wanting to get back into tropical fish keeping again. But i want to be a better fish keeper. Any advice would be great
Thank You,

 

[Romad]

Hello and welcome to the forum :wave:

I guess the place to start would be the size of the tank that you have room for and fits your budget.

Any thoughts on that yet?

 

[Savannah]

hi! welcome to the site!!!! For your tropical tank I would make it a MUST to do a planted tank. plants help the absorb a lot of the waste the fish give off and can rly help keep your water stable. Also I would definitely get Eco Complete or Flora Max substrate especially if u want corys or any fish that are bottom dwellers to get fine sand or pebbles so they don't scratch their stomachs. How big is your tank gonna be and what type of fish were you thinking of stocking it with?

 

[jaysee]

Plants aren't necessary. If you want to mess with them then great, go for it. If you don't, no big deal - doesn't change a thing.

 

[Boredomb]

Hi and welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping!!

I have to say plants are a wonderful thing BUT I agree with jaysee they are not necessary a cycle tank that has matured can handle keeping the water stable just fine as long as you keep up the maintenance on the tank.

 

[mbenjamin16]

Thank You guys . I'm thinking a 50g so that i can add a divider so i can have guppies,tetra,mollies, and an algae eater on one side and maybe a few others and some sharks on the other side. I like the look of having plants and the sand as substrate. I do want to get into fish breeding but not to make money. i just want to raise them.

 

[jaysee]

There aren't many sharks that are going to fit in a divided 50 gallon. Many can barely fit in the whole 50.

 

[mbenjamin16]

ok. i wasn't sure i haven't really ever had sharks before. I saw the smaller ones at like petsmart, petco, and walmart but I've never done research on them or had experience with them.

 

[jaysee]

yeah, those small sharks at the store grow up, and get pretty territorial.

 

[mbenjamin16]

I'm thinking of doing mostly just Guppies. I love the color of guppies and i have experience with them.

 

[willow]

hello and welcome.
i hope you'll be very happy here with us. :-D

 

[Romad]

A tank full of male guppies would be pretty eye catching. If you want a gazillion guppies, throw some females in with them Maybe some of your local fish stores will take some off of your hands in that case.

You could get a nice school of cories for the bottom or a bristlenose pleco (commons get too big). They'll need some hiding spots/caves but would be a nice addition to your tank.

 

[mbenjamin16]

That would be very cool . What live plants could go in with them and the substrate? There's a local shop that has some very pretty neon guppies.
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[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

[mbenjamin16]

Thank you dramaqueen I'm looking forward to reading more and figuring what exactly I would like in my fish tank. I know I want live plants,sand and guppies. Put still unsure of any of the rest.
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[jaysee]

I'd do a big school (at least 15) of cherry barbs, to go with the guppies. You could also probably find a tetra that would go nicely with them too. For the bottom, corys and loaches are good choices. A 4 foot tank is large enough for more than one group of bottom dwellers. That would get you activity at all levels in the tank.

 

[mbenjamin16]

That seems really neat . I will look into those fish also.
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