i was wondering if someone could give me some advice on feeding fish.

currently we have a small tank for our 3 year old daughter with 2 fantails 2 danios and 1 shubunkin, we have had the fantails and danios now for a year and only got the shubunkin yesterday how often should i feed these, i think i may be under feeding them as i normally feed them every 2 days, please help would hate to think im starving my daughters fish as she is very attached to them! also i have seen one of the fantails eating flies would this harm the fish in anyway? like i said we have a small tank, our local pet store said it would be fine with these fish in it but now we are thinking its looking a tad crowded, its only 22 litres what size tank should we have for these fish? thinking of the future when we may want to add some new additions. any advice would be great thanks

You might find reading this useful another thread about this has just been going:

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/feeding-vt22573.html

What sort of filtration have you got? (if any?!) cause the more filtration you have the better cause any excess food won't mess up the water so much... If you don't have a filter I would stick to every other day to be safe

I think those fish will need a lot bigger tank. And danios are tropical fish. Do you have a heater in the tank?

true true! But I'm pretty sure zebra's can be kept in a tank without a heater inside - as long as the house isn't too cold - like ruby barbs... correct me if I'm wrong though!

we do have a filter 200 litres an hour, i thought we would need a bigger tank, looking now for one, just not sure how much bigger to go. our local pet store sells danios as cold water fish and they have survived a year without a heater, they seem happy enough.

Yeah sounds like the danio's are more than happy with the cooler water - and with a filter like that you can feed once a day for sure, I'd go for a 3' tank myself (pretty standard size), and get a few more danio's cause they are happier in a group

how many danios should we have, when we get a bigger tank? we are looking at getting a AR980 for tropical fish would love to for the goldfish but i think the mrs would flip out at me, she might go for a AR620 thats about 90litres would this be sufficient?

A 90 litre tank is 4 times as good as a 22 litre tank

No problem with keeping a dozen or so smallish fish in a tank like that. Also opens up the option of going tropical and keeping a few different fish, smaller loaches and catfish, dwarf gourami etc.

Main problem with the small tanks is that the fish can quickly outgrow them. Sure you can put four 1" goldfish in a 22l tank, but not once they grow to 6" fish I wish fish shops would just start recommending decent tanks, it's no more work to look after a basic 2 or 3ft tank than trying to keep fish alive in a little plastic bubble

If your fish have lived in the little tank for a year then you must be doing things right. The lower temp will slow their metabolism a bit, meaning they eat less and grow slower anyway. There is also a pretty wide range between what they NEED to survive happily, and what they CAN eat if they get a chance It's probably better to er on the lighter feeding side than to have problems with un-eaten food.

Cheers

Ian

so how big do fantails, shubunkins and danios grow i need to know what i am getting myself in to

I'm not so hot on the goldfish! But your danio's will get to about 2 inches

Depends on the breeding of the goldfish, but they could grow to 6 - 12" eventually. Makes the danios that grow to 2" a better choice for the small tanks

Ian

im starting to fell real bad about the tank size if the danio's grow 2 inchs then the others will be real big

goldfish grow very big, they are best in ponds when they get big.

I moved to tropical fish about 2 months ago and never regretted it, if you have the budget to spend get a big tank, with lots of plants and set up a tropical community tank, it'll look awesome.

Come along to the next Tasman Aquarium Club meeting Dan for lots of helpful advice

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/tasman ... 22558.html

so what do you do at your your meeting whats it all about

It isn't my meeting so I can't tell you. I have only been to one

Everyone talks about their fish and any problems they have with them and sometimes there is a talk on a specific subject. Last one I went to we were shown how to make our own cheap brine shrimp hatchers. They usually have a buy/sell/exchange too.

Next meeting is actually their first AGM.

Hi i have just upgraded my 21L tank to a aquaone ar510 75L tank how do i go about swaping fish over to the new tank

Just siphon the water from one tank to the other (turn the heater off first), and move the fish in. Top up the tank with fresh water. Hang the old filter off the new tank for a month until the new filter gets established. I assume you are not wanting to use the old tank for other fish immediately in this case.

Don't forget to turn the heaterstat back on once you have transferred it to the new tank

hi so it will be alright to have 21L of old water and 54L of new water so i will not have to let it cycle if i use the old filter as well as the new one

It is the filter that has the majority of the good bacteria in it, not the water. Think of it as a large water change and run the 2 filters together for a month.

You will still have to add new fish slowly so the bacteria can build up to match the fish numbers.

tank just arrived it looks way bigger then what they look at the shop the fish will get lost, i have never used a heater, should i get one for the gold fish and danios, have to go get some new gravel, and some plants now i have room to do so, any suggestions on what plants to get for my cold water tank? and what about an air pump

If you haven't had these fish in a heated tank before then there is no need to do so now, assuming your house stays realatively warm. Danios will cope down to 18 - 20C but 22C+ is better.

I would be getting a pond for the goldfish then adding a heaterstat to the tank and going tropical.

I always gathered oxygen weed from the river running through the middle of our town

Java fern will grow in an unheated tank.

What do you want an air pump for? You don't need one unless you want to have some of those bubble walls or an air stone or something. They are not necessary though.