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Firstly let me say although I've not had fish before I do know a little as I had a lodger with a 100L nano cube doing zoas and soft coral plus a couple of clowns and something else...a purple and yellow....err grumma?, and janitorial staff (snails, shrimps, crabs)
Anyway, 2.5 yo daughter seems to love fish so OH and I are considering a tank. tropical, as marine is too much work (although clowns and soft coral are lovely). OH has a fluval edge 23L and kit (we need a heater for it though I think) bought years ago and never used. I reckon its too small and limiting. We have a good aquarium shop close by for stocking etc (maidenhead acquatics). We'd both like a number of colourful and active fish, maybe tetras, maybe danios, OH seems to like catfish and I guess they do a a decent algae eating job so seem good to me, but there's no way all that goes in the fluval edge. So, do we start out with the edge and see how it goes, then get a bigger tank if we enjoy it enough, or is the edge just too small and not going to cut it? If we start with the edge, what should we stock it with? research suggests maybe 5 of one type of small, schooling fish, like danios, and 1 or 2 small nerite snails, any other suggestions? If we ignored the Edge and were to buy a new tank, what size would you suggest for the beginner? and what to stock?
Located in a hard water area.
Consider coldwater too.
How much do you want to spend on set up?
How much do you want to spend on maintenance?
How much time do you want to spend on maintenanc?
It really is a Labour of love to keep them healthy and the buggers will still die sporadically. I loved my set-up but in the end it became too time consuming for me.
yeah watching my lodger periodically spend a couple of hundred on corals, get the energy to keep the water good for a month or 2, then wane and go 2 or 3 weeks between water changes, the corals would lose their colour and die off over another month or 2, then rinse and repeat (another restock, energy, faded energy and dying coral etc) was a shame. But then marine, and especially coral, in a pretty small tank, its hard. I'd like easy maintenance so ideally I'm thinking a bigger water volume, some hardier fish, tropical (or cold water), enough size to get some janitorial staff in there....a quick whizz round with a sponge thing to keep the glass a bit cleaner and a 10% water change weekly but not much more would be ideal in my view, but maybe that's unrealistic.
I was in the aquatics shop recently with my little girl to show her the fish and looked at the prices of the fish. I'd be happy enough to spend £100 on stock initially....although maybe I should spend half that for a start and make sure I've got the hang of things before stocking further. If I buy a new tank I'd be happy nought to spend a couple of hundred for a start, is that realistic?
Back when I started fishkeeping in 2010, cheap second hand tanks of a decent size (which imo is at least 90*30*30cm) were very easy to obtain. Small tanks like that Edge are a nightmare, their tiny volume can rapidly become a toxic soup in the hands of fishkeeping rookies and there is barely any room to stock any fish and give them space to move!
How hard is your tap water? Southampton's water is quite hard, approx gH 13, far too hard for soft water fish that often originate from South America. Consequently, most of my fish are from around the Congo river system, but I also have a few Central American and one Australasian species.
Fishless cycle your tank and filter, then do a "qualifying week" before introducing fish, which will typically take 5+ weeks.
Fish-in cycling is hard on the fish and a responsible fishkeeper, where you need to expect to change at least 50% of the water daily for 3+ months.
Catfish are good algae eaters? 😆 They are the most diverse group of fish on the planet, many of mine are omnivores, but my 25cm SL Chrysichthys ornatus is only interested in meat with his ~6cm diameter mouth gape! 😮
We kept tropical fish for about 10 years , only advice I'd give is bigger is far easier to maintain . Check local Facebook for sale pages or ask your local fish keeping club . Theres regularly tanks / setups for sale on ours.
Hi neilnevill
Get the biggest tank you can fit in and afford.
Use an external filter even if you have to make a box for it to sit in (when not using a cabinet)
I have found at least 10x tank turnover flow per hour for said filter
Don't over stock
Don't over stock
If you decide to go for it, set the tank up and leave for a couple of weeks. I'll give you some fish ideas later once set up. If you do it properly you can keep pretty much anything but, species choice does depend on how much effort you want to put in.
regards
hardness is about 20 clark, 300 ppm, south london.
nobody, thats a big fish! any photos?
i do have a water softener btw, i'm assuming softened water isn't good, but if it is ok then i could use that if it gave me better stock choices.
bsims,
so for a 100L tank, filter flow of 1000L/hr?
You could use bog wood in the tank and peat in the filter to soften the water, or keep hardwater species as suggested.
After a bit more thought, that could be a bit 'violent' in a 100l tank
two of these:
https://www.eheim.com/en_GB/products/technology/external-filters/classic
or 2 of these
https://www.eheim.com/en_GB/products/technology/external-filters/ecco-pro-200
or one of each would work - My experience has convinced me water turnover is vital,
bigger fi
sorry submitted by accident
A biger filter turned back is better than a smaller one at full power. I keep a couple of big fish and use one filter to turn water over quickly to mechanically remove debris and aerate the water, the other runs slower to biologically filter.
If i was ging to set up a 100 l tank i would use an eheim ecco 300 to turn the water over and a classic 250. I assume you dont want to keep big fish in that tank?
When i say 10x - that refers to the headline figures on the filter product boxes ( i am posting befre thinking through, sorry) - they will never flow that much when you add the media and some waste. That way you ensure maximum flow at all times even when you get a bit lazy and dont clean the filters!
i just picked 100L for the example. we could fit something a little bigger, 140L maybe.
#i'm passing this info on to OH who is seeing fish as not so easy now.
that's a big fish, any photos?
Here we go, from last October when he was ~5 years in my keeping. In September 2012, his body was ~3cm long, excluding his tail fin. He rapidly grew to ~20cm within two years and reached the full adult adult size that is believed to be true at the moment of 25cm when ~4 years old.
He isn't my biggest fish, I bought a 4cm Giraffe Catfish that same week in 2012, he has been at least 30cm plus tail fin since 2015... The only fish I've kept to date with a faster growth rate than "Ornate." 😮
Link to a brilliant resource regarding catfish care https://www.planetcatfish.com/
Link to a good general fish care site http://seriouslyfish.com/
Hi
it is not hard if you set the tank up right, choose the right species and don’t over stock.
In a 140l tank you could go with a big shoal of danios (20 -30) and 10 or so Khufu loach. Have some bog wood and rocks as a feature in the tank and a carpet of java moss.
2 eheim classic 250 filters would need cleaning every 6 months and 10% water change to start weekly.
looking at that fish in the picture, I wish I still had space for a really big tank to keep catfish again
Khuli not Khufu
Look at eheim for tanks, you could also try jewel but I find their internal filters are not as good as externals. The eve I’m external filters seem expensive but it 20 years you will think you got a bargain
Thank you bsims. Having measure up and checked a big tnk would fit, and chatted to OH, I'll keep an eye out on ebay etc for a 140L ish tank. If I pick something up, \i'll no doubt be back with more questions! n fact I may be after views on any tanks that look possible, if that's ok!
Of course, glad to be of help. Look for a tank which is wider than tall, you better exchange of gases that way and the bigger the slots at the back, the bigger the filter pipes you can fit in.
If you have the space, look for a 120cm long tank, that is at least 30cm front to back and 30cm tall. Much better surface area for oxygenation, a decent amount of horizontal swimming space for moderately active fish up to ~15cm excluding tail fin, plus a large responsible stocking level.
With that harder water than Southampton, avoid soft water species, such as South American tetras like Neon. Many Asian could work, like 10+ (for social fish) Zebra Danios, as would smaller Rainbow fish and/or Tanganyikan shell shell dwelling cichlids if you kept on top of 50%+ weekly water changes to keep on top of nitrate levels.
You could concentrate on colours for the spectacle, but I've found several "dull" coloured species are far more interactive with me over the last eight years, such as...
Hoplo Catfish (my quartet would swim on my emersed hand)
Leopard Bushfish (always greet me at the tank front, very inquisitive when doing maintenance)
Silver Distichodus (too big and active for anything <180cm like my six live in)
Empire Gudgeon (which are amazingly colourful when in breeding mood)
etc.
Rift Valley cichlids are supposed to be quite bold and interactive with their keeper with amazing colours, but many need a large volume 250+ litre 120cm+ long tank like a Rio240 as a minimum.
I've got similar hard water and run a tank of mixed species male rainbowfish. They're great fish, hardy, colourful and very easy to keep.
err grumma?
Royal gramma probably, lovely looking fish, great characters and totally badass when defending their territories. I have one in my reef and he'll fight anyone/anything.
I used to have an aquarium and the best advice I got was get a big tank! I had a 240 litre jewel and it was great. The larger water amount took little looking after and they do look better. I had mine in front of light blue wallpaper and no background in the tank so you could see right through and the fish were easier to see 😀
Fishtanks are like tattoos, if you're gonna get one get a big one 😀
I wasn't allowed a large tank so had to go for a tiny tiny 27L Picture Frame one. To be honest I started off wanting to knock a dividing wall down to replace it with an aquarium so I can understand her concern but I kept on having to compromise until I got to this.
It's naturally planted and only has 14 Cardinal Tetras and Red Cherry Shrimp and is easy to manage although I often have to give away a lot of shrimp...
For a beginners / childrens tank I've used nano aquaria (25L ish), plenty of light, gravel and plants.
Shoal of Neons/Cardinals or white cloud mountain minnows
Otocinculus 5 off as algae eaters, bottom cleaning (they are shoaling, but stay tiny)
Plenty of interest in there.
Easy cheap .. works better if you dont get too fussy about it, change 30% of water every 4 weeks or so.
Carbon packs in the filter a useful addition to smooth the load
Its been said before - don't overstock.