New Fish Tank Advice?

Question

Well. Basically, my friend has just bought a 125L Juwel Aquarium, with a very large internal filter. He ahs set up, decorated it, filter and air pump are now running. He understands that he must only stock 1-2 per week, and must test ammonia, nirite and nitrate levels over the cycling period.

We basically would like a list of good community fish, and the amount of them, that he can ad over time, that will make a perfect community tank, however, we may need to compromise as he has his mind set on angelfish.

Many thanks, and kind regards

Andrew

Answer 1

Dont know if this helps but in my community tank i have guppies, mollies and tetras. They get along well with each other and i never have any proplems. Also a strong fish which would do well in a new tropical aquarium is a zebra danio.

Answer 2

what james s said about 1" of fish per gallon, thats BULL****(c**p) because why would you put a 10 in oscar in a 10 gallon tank but yeah you can put angelfish in your aquarium but i recomend getting 3-5   angelfish but also get 2 or 3 fake plants and one texas holey rock in the middle of the aquarium. Also some people put live minnows for the angelfish and i recomend you do that to get an immediate reaction to the angelfish but i would get 3 angelfish at first and if they seem there is plenty of room for them to swim, get one more and you're good. elmersaquarium.com/tropicalfishcareguide... does work and is really helpful

Answer 3

The cycle takes about 6-8 weeks or so to complete, so adding fish every week is going to end up with a huge ammonia problem in about 3 weeks. If you must cycle with fish, put 2 or 3 danios (or something similarly hardy) into the tank and leave only them in the tank during the entire cycle. Their waste will build up, turn into ammonia, and begin the cycle. As the cycle progresses, adding further fish is just going to create a big problem - most of the fish won't survive it and you may end up having to start over. It's better to just add those first few fish and let the whole cycle take place, then add additional fish (1-2 per week) after the cycle is safely completed.

If you'd like to cycle without fish, it's a really easy process that won't require constant water testing and emergency water changes to help the fish survive (since fish won't be present yet).

Basically, the aquarium is now up and running - start feeding it a pinch of food per day as though fish were present, this will get the cycle going. Do this every day, and change the water (10-20%) about every 1-2 weeks. It will take about 2-3 weeks for the ammonia to come up and start to spike. Then another 2-3 weeks for it to go down and nitrites to come up. And the another 2-3 weeks for the nitrites to go down and nitrates to come up. Once your tank readings are Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates 20-40ppm, your tank is cycled and it's safe to add fish.

These same readings apply when you cycle with fish, but it will be more pertinent to test the water on a daily basis so that you can monitor when the ammonia and nitrites get too dangerous for the fish to survive (which will happen pretty often during the cycle). Cycling with fish can actually take longer because of those emergency water changes.

Good luck either way.

Answer 4

pearl gouramis are beautiful some bristlenoses some mollies and some oscars

Answer 5

here's a good list you can study and look at pictures. Normal is 1" of fish per gallon (but there are exceptions). Go to fish stores and look at fish and then decide which you like, make a list go home and do some homework

http://www.elmersaquarium.com/000tropfis...

Here's the mixed up group I have in my 40g.

4- Botias 1- Siamese algae eater 1-male Gold Gouramis (had more but he killed them) 3-Black Tetras 1-White Tetra 3- Cory cats 1-Albino Cory cat 3-Giant Danios 1-Pineapple Swordtail 1-Plecostomus Cat   (he's got to go some day)