Setting Up An Aquarium

[Stu8]

10" I read that wrong I thought it said 10cm

I read on some website that you can get laser light's.

Which helps feed coral because it provides it with all the energy the Sun would give it?

Is that gimick? certainly sounds like it to me

[Avensis wagon]

I used to like the red tailed black shark (it's not really a shark), very tough and easy to look after, doesn't attack others. Cichlids are fun, but they can terrorize the others and even themselves. I've seen little cichlids with attitude bully much bigger ones to death. Actually, he killed so many that he had to go. It may be possible to find a large variety that is mild mannered. Angel fish, too, can be agressive. Oh, and the larger fish may dig up/ eat your plants -- they tend to do it more with new introductions, so good to get everything established in advance. If all else fails, plastic plants may do -- they must make some pretty good ones these days.

A Plecostomus is a must as they're pretty cute and clean the tank. I always found the standard cat fish a bit boring compared to the old pleccy. Clown fish are nice -- the bigger the tank the bigger and better looking they grow. A big tank also means that your neons, glowlights and zebra fish can actually form little shoals rather than be itty bitty here and there. 3ft to 4ft is enough to achieve this.

In a power cut, the temperature can fall and the fish will be due for a case of white spot, so a litttle medication about the place may be handy as WS kills the little ones quickly.

Oh, and you frequently see a fish tank in a Chinese restaurant because it's good Feng Shui, especially when well sited.

Just some of the things I remember... It's a nice hobby --- you get to set it up, maintenace and redesign is easy yet rewarding, and it's living and moving all the while. You can even leave them when you go on holiday.

I wish you much happiness with your tank!

[jaxx]

stu ive got a jewel rekord 96 and twin fluval 104 filters up for grabs if you want a bargain first install

theres three malawai river cichlids in there too

got to get rid as ive run out of space and time to put proper effort into looking after it :(

let me know if your interested, im not looking for much

[Stu8]

whats the dimesions of it?

cant have anything longer than 80cm.

I've been looking at the compatiblity of cichlids or should I re-phase that.

that lack of compatibilty of them

they seem to get on well with pleco's but everything else is a bit risky

Tetra's seem the most compatible the only fish you cant put them with is cichlids, catfish or goldfish. :bookworm:

[Karma Supra]

I thought malawai was a lake????

Usually if there is a power cut the lack of oxygen in the water causes more issues then the fall in temperature (water takes ages to cool, especially in a larger tank!) You can buy Battery powered air pumps for this reason (I have still never bothered, and we get our fair share of powe cuts!)... 9/10 times the power is not off long enough for the temperature to drop dangerously low, or the filter bacteria to die..

Buying second hand is a great way to start out... the filters are already mature, and all the kit is there...

There are loads of different types of cichlids, it is a huge family!!! there are some that ar epretty much comunity fish (angel fish are cichlids!) some of the "dwarf" chichlids make nice comuity fish.. Things like Rams (dutch rams look good) and some apistogramus. They are small, interesting to watch and nicely coloured.

(I couldn't find a pic of a nice one lol)

Fairy nice dutch ram.

My main tank has large comuity fish, its a 5 x 2 foot (used to havea 3 foot resevoir underneath making it 150 gallons, but it was too noisy!) it had large predatory fish in it, including: Motoro stingray, various spotted gar fish, a fairly elderly but tame black ghost knife fish (him and the ray used to eat out of my hand) A silver arrowana, a synodontis cat fish I have had for 8 years... it was old when I got it!!! MBU puffers, shovel nose catfish (called doug lol) and various fish of that ilk... unfortunately the arrowana destroyed the in tank thermometer, all the fish ate the bits of lead and the water was poluted causing them to die one after the other... (confused me at first as all the water tests checked out perfect, as usual!)

Unfortunately as some of these fish were worth a few hundred each (if you can find them!), I have not been able to replace them :( I currently just have a baby MBU, a sailfin leopard plec and three bosmani rainbow fish (tank mates for MBU, so he knows "fish are friends, not food"

I am keeping my eye open for some nice rays... Rumour has it my local place may be getting some more motoros in....

My little desk top tank (70l tropiquarium) has a couple of ornamental plecs (zebra and royal xingou) three nutty clown loach (I bit one called krusty, and two smaller called weeble ane bob) 8 cardinal tetra and 5 Rummynose tetra...

No pics because my camera self distructed!!!

[jaxx]

whats the dimesions of it?

cant have anything longer than 80cm.

I've been looking at the compatiblity of cichlids or should I re-phase that.

that lack of compatibilty of them

they seem to get on well with pleco's but everything else is a bit risky

Tetra's seem the most compatible the only fish you cant put them with is cichlids, catfish or goldfish. :bookworm:

lol

EXACTLY 800mm long! 460mm high (including lid) and 300mm deep, only thing is i dont have the stand and the lid has been slightly modded for the uprated filtration, but its still looks ok and you cant see the alterations as theyre round the back

[Stu8]

d'oh just re-measured the space and 80cm is just a tad to big

[oooh_yeah_baby]

If you want a long lasting, easy to look after fish, thats quite resilient to disease etc, get some red belly Piranhas. They well cool man, u can feed them anything, and they'll chomp it up. dead or alive, fish or other meat. You can use goldfish, which are really cheap anyway, to feed them.

I used to have a couple of Arowana, big long silver fish, that I fed live goldfish to. They swallowed them down in one gulp, whereas the piranha usually chomp off chunks. And piranha are surprisingly clean too. i used to get like 200 goldfish for like 25 squid.

[GT4 BOOSTER]

If you want a long lasting, easy to look after fish, thats quite resilient to disease etc, get some red belly Piranhas. They well cool man, u can feed them anything, and they'll chomp it up. dead or alive, fish or other meat. You can use goldfish, which are really cheap anyway, to feed them.

I used to have a couple of Arowana, big long silver fish, that I fed live goldfish to. They swallowed them down in one gulp, whereas the piranha usually chomp off chunks. And piranha are surprisingly clean too. i used to get like 200 goldfish for like 25 squid.

:censor: MUPPET

[Karma Supra]

Typical saab driver

I personally think piranah are boring as hell... ugly timid fish..... Hugely overated...

Arrowana are cool though, but you'd need more then an 80 cm tank!!!

[oooh_yeah_baby]

6 foot tank had it in.

[Karma Supra]

This guy is has to get one under 80cm..... ;)