New Aquarium

what filter do u suggest i should use? give me a recommendation please :?

 

Since you already have that filter I'd just go ahead and use it.

-Chelle

 

so, i'm thinking about getting guppies now because i dont want to just get one goldfish and have it looking lonely... i figured i can probably get 3 guppies for my 18 gallon tank...

 

Guppies would be a wonderful choice.... once your tank has cycled fully. They cannot live in a cycling environment as they are much too delicate.

And as Chelle has said, you cannot begin to cycle until you add ammonia to the tank. You can add a fish to do this or add pure bottled ammonia. Either way. But your tank will not cycle just by adding bacteria from a bottle. Since there isn't anything in the tank for the bacteria to feed on, they will just die and you will be back to square one.

If you do decide to cycle with fish, I would recommend black skirt tetras, zebra danios, or platties. These are all very pretty and very hardy fish that can stand a cycling tank. The platties IMO are very pretty and com in lots of different colors and will stay pretty small.

Good luck to you, I know how hard it is to have an empty tank staring at you!

 

I really want a goldfish, so how about I get one goldfish and two guppies, would that be ok for my 18 gallon tank?

 

The hard part about keeping goldfish with other fish (or at all) is the sheer amount of waste and toxins they release into the water. Other goldfish can cope with this a bit longer. Regular tropicals like guppies or tetras cannot. Therefore, in order to mix the two you will have to do a lot of water changes. And also, the goldfish like room temperature water (called cold water in the aquarium world) whereas guppies need a heater to stay at a constant temp of 78-80 degrees. Goldfish don't like these higher temps; so I wouldn't really recommend mixing the two species.

If you really want the goldfish and nothing else will satisfy then get them. Just research their specific breed ahead of time to plan for their eventual size, temp and environment needs so that you won't be faced with having to return the fish later on.

Do you know the name of the goldfish you are looking at?

 

I wanted 3 goldfishes and I now realize that's over stocking my tank... Chelle told me I should only keep one... but like I said, one goldfish looks lonely... so I'm going to narrow it down to two goldfishes for now... but I'm still kind of debating if I should get goldfishes at all since they're so much work...

The problem is, I REALLY like goldfishes :shock:

The three I was looking into are: Red Oranda Goldfish, Calico Telescope Goldfish, Black Moor

I might just get the Red Oranda and Calico Telescope... but the Black Moor would have evened out the the colors =/

 

Oh, those kinds. They've always scared me :shock: ...gulp... those bubbly eyes.... ick... they just creep me out :roll:

So some of the sites I was looking at say that they'll get upwards of 7 inches.... you'd better stick with one in that case with only an 18 gallon tank.

Sorry

 

How many guppies do you think I can keep in my 18 gallon tank? They dont look like they get more than 1 inch big and what's the rule of them? was it 2 gallons for every inch?

Yea, I figured I could only get one goldfish... my LFS gets a new shipment of fishes in tomorrow and i'm planning to get fishes then... depending on what they bring in, i'll decide what I'll get... I want some pretty fishes =)

 

Guppies are supposed to get around 2", but I've never seen any bigger than 1 1/2". From what I've seen, the average is about 1". So you should be safe alloting 1 gallon/fish. But keep in mind if you get males & females (or just females that have been kept with males) you're probably going to end up with some babies. If you just leave them in with the adults, most of them should get eaten, but you may still have a few survive. So I'd either get all males or start of with about 5 or 6 so if some fry do survive, you'll have some room for them.

Then you could save up for a 55 gallon tank (Walmart has them pretty cheap) and get your goldfish then.

-Chelle

 

AHHH! My aquarium has cloudy water and I haven't put any fishes in it yet!! HELP! Whats wrong with it? It says my alkalinity levels are too low... it normally should be btwn 50-150ppm but mine is at 40ppm! Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, pH are all normal! HELP!

 

Its probably from the bottled bacteria you put in. Read on the back of the bottle and see if it says anything about causing the water to go a little cloudy.

 

well, i called the support line on the back of the bottle and the guy told me that it's normal for the water to get cloudy if i haven't had any fish in the tank because there's no ammonia to feed the bacteria...

he said that it lowered my alkanity levels and caused my tank to be a little acidic which causes the cloudyness... does that makes sense to you guys? because that guy didn't seem like he knew what he was talking about... he kept saying "let me pull up some info on the product and see what it says"

=( i'm worried, i dont think i should put a goldfish in there since goldfishes aren't very hardy fishes (right?)... he suggested i put some tetras in there what should i do?

 

That sounds right on the money. I said several posts ago that the bacteria would die from lack of ammonia in the tank too. The fancy types that you are wanting aren't very hardy. Black skirt tetras or zebra danios would be a good choice.

 

I just thought of a possible alternative to goldfish. How about rosey minnows? They look like smaller versions of commet/common goldfish, but only get about 2" - 3". So you should be able to fit about 5 or 6 in your tank. The only problem with roseys is they're normally sold as feeder/bait fish, so they may not be too healthy to begin with. I originally bought 12 for my pond and lost 4 in the first 2 days, but the other 8 are doing wonderful.

Here's some more info:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/rosies.htm
http://www.fishinthe.net/html/section-printpage-55.html

-Chelle

 

those are cute!

 

My giant danios really helped to cycle my tank and they get along fine with other fish. The drawback with them are that they need to be kept in schools of 6+ so that would take up all of your tank. I am not sure if little danios would do the same for cycling, but it may be something to look into. They are very hardy.