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meow
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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:00 pm

That's where the kids are at. The just want a shark in the house. Well, mini-meow wants a shark. baby-meow is basically a parrot.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:06 pm

LiveAquaria for any livestock ordering online, IMO. If you go with any type of freshwater shark, you're effectively ruling out community fish in that tank. The most aggressive fish that we have are black tiger barbs, and the only reason they behave is because they're smaller than the Gourami.

meow
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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:23 pm

See, I've heard/read that if your tank is large enough and there is enough cover and plants, that a redfin won't bother community fish

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:38 pm

I've had them before - wouldn't do it again. They are aggressive to each other, and to any smaller fish.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:40 pm

You have a sand substrate? I would absolutely look at clown loaches. They're scaleless, and sand is the best substrate for them. They look pretty interesting, and can get large. And yes, I would definitely make sure there is cover for basically everything in the tank.

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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:03 pm

Interesting. I was beginning to warm up to the redfin idea.

Clown loaches, huh? I already have the corys that are my bottom dwellers. Corys and loaches are both really chill though, so maybe.

Any other ideas?

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Postby Lemon Berry Lobster » Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:07 pm

Loggerhead turtle

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Postby tifosi77 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:32 pm

This discussion reminds me of the Eddie Izzard bit talking about the two-by-two animals on Noah's ark.
Two by two animals. AII right, here we go. Kids, we’re gonna get them up two by two. Two tigers, two cats, two dogs, two fish. Two rabbits, two squirrels, two IIamas, two bIue things, two zebras. How many is that? ”That? So far, two tigers, Dad.” What do you..... oh no......

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:00 pm

Interesting. I was beginning to warm up to the redfin idea.

Clown loaches, huh? I already have the corys that are my bottom dwellers. Corys and loaches are both really chill though, so maybe.

Any other ideas?
Clown loaches: Bottom dweller

Gouramis: Top third of the water column. They come in a variety of sizes and colors. Some of the dwarf blue ones are incredibly vibrant. I've never had a tank that didn't have at least 2 variety of them

Rainbowfish: Middle of the water column, active swimmers. Good colors on a lot of them. For Turquoise Rainbows, the dominant fish will change color to a really nice shade of deep turquoise/blue

Dwarf Plecos: Make absolute sure the max size is 6", because some Plecos grow well past 2'. I've had a Bushy Nose and Rubbernose Plecos before. They'll clean up the bottom of your tank better than anything else

Tetras: These are fairly common, and we always have a few in our tank. Good tankmates for other fish

Giant Danio: Middle of the water column, one of the more unique looking Danio

In terms of food, for your bottom dwellers, NLS Algaemax Wafers. For everything else, NLS 1mm pellets and NLS .5mm pellets for really small fish. NLS is the gold standard, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Make sure you do regular water changes, too. They're super easy in freshwater systems. I use a Marina AquaVac connected to the sink in our utility closet, but you can find a manual siphon and use a 5g bucket, too. You'll need to use something like Prime for the water changes. I used to use Tetra AquaSafe, but Prime is a better product overall that does more for the tank.

Add all fish slowly - 2-4 at a time. Don't go fast and crash the tank. What kind of filter system do you have? You'll want something that can grow beneficial bacteria, like ceramic balls that sit in your filter box. Just make sure that you never wash them with warm water or scrub them. A light rinse with cold water to get any algae off is enough.

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Postby Shyster » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:13 pm

I'd personally stick with tetras. When I still had my tank, it was an all-tetra tank where I went through the effort to soften the water and add blackwater extract to mimic the soft-water jungle streams where South American tetras live in the wild. I had a mix of Red-Eye, Glowlight, Green Fire, and Rummynose Tetras.

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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:35 pm

All good stuff.

It's a standard 75 gallon. I got a Marineland cannister filter that moves 360 gph. I kept the standard media in there - except for the carbon since I have some live plants. It's got four filtration trays - two types of bio filtration - balls and little cylinders. I read the balls are no good, so I have some Seachem bio media on the way. It sounds like Seachem is the way to go for all chemical stuff too. Although I do like the API stuff I have right now.

My Nitrites have been slowing climbing, so I've been changing about 20% ever 4 or 5 days. Then it reads back to 0. Is there something that can get me over the hump with that?

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:57 pm

Seachem makes good stuff. You’ll have to let me know how the canister works out. I’ve never gone that route, always running AquaClears.

Nitrites or nitrates? And do you have any fish in the tank right now? Any amount of nitrites can be deadly, so you definitely want to get that down. It sounds like the tank hasn’t finished cycling yet. Prime will absolutely help with that, but the long game is establishing the good bacteria for the tank.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:59 pm

Sorry, I see now that the tank has fish. Did you add them all at once? Might just need to do more frequent, larger water changes in the meantime until things settle. Keep testing, too. Ammonia definitely needs to be low if you have nitrites above 0.

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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:06 pm

Nitrites. The step after ammonia. Like I said, I've been water changing it out often, but I am wondering when it'll get into the Nitrates level.

There are fish in there. Like 25 total. That's why I've stayed on top of water changing it out

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:08 pm

You could give Dr. Tim’s a try:



I’ve used it in the past, and I believe it worked.

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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:17 pm

Boom. It'll be here Saturday.

So once a tank is cycled, it pretty much stays cycled, right?

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:18 pm

Yeah, once it’s cycled and established, you should be good so long as you maintain it. Freshwater is much more forgiving than saltwater.

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Postby Shyster » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:46 pm

In terms of community fish, I think I recall NTP66 expressing a dislike for them, but the livebearers like Mollies, Swordtails, and Platys make for decent community fish. The kids might find those interesting because if you have males and females of the same species, you will eventually have baby fish. Just make sure to order more females than males. They're also pretty durable.

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Postby meow » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:56 pm

It seems like the livebearers are polarizing. Why exactly is that?

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Postby Shyster » Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:19 pm

Not sure. They're very common and are often considered a "beginner" fish, so that might have something to do with it. They were some of the first fish I kept as a kid, and you can find mollies in pretty much any store that sells fish, for example. Plus, they are pretty much guaranteed to reproduce, so you have to constantly deal with having more of them.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:08 pm

I’m not a fan of livebearers because the fry can overrun a tank very quickly, and you need to have a plan to mitigate that. If you have a local fish store willing to take them in for credit, maybe. I don’t think most of the livebearers are good looking or interesting fish, either. To each their own, though.

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Postby Shyster » Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:19 pm

I’m not a fan of livebearers because the fry can overrun a tank very quickly, and you need to have a plan to mitigate that. If you have a local fish store willing to take them in for credit, maybe. I don’t think most of the livebearers are good looking or interesting fish, either. To each their own, though.
I found that natural selection took care of most of that problem. The fry that survived were the ones who quickly learned not to swim too close to the intake for the power filter.

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Postby NTP66 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:20 pm

That and my wife would never have let me feed the Mollies to my triggerfish and puffer (RIP my dudes).

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Postby meow » Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:45 am

So I guess I have a question about filter amounts. Like, is there a line in the sand on the number/size of fish a tank can safely hold? The internet is divided into a few groups. The old 1 inch per gallon group. The it is all based on the filtration system group. The it is all based on the surface area group. The it is all based on the number of plants in the tank group.

I know there isn't a golden rule and it is probably a combination of everything, but is there like a red flag that the tank is overcrowded?

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Postby NTP66 » Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:14 am

I've always followed 1"/gallon. If you've got a good filtration system, you should be fine. Planted tanks are a whole different conversation, IMO. If you have a few in your tank, it'll only aid the process. Keep it simple, and as you add fish, test every few weeks. If your numbers remain good, you can add more. Once they start to skew, you're done.

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