Big crisis this morning, one of Roberts gold fish died. Seen how he had proven he was a keen keeper of fish, dad and son head off to the local pet shop to get a replacement. Many dollars later we head off home with a fish tank kit, a heater, one bag with four tropical fish in it, one bag with a bristle nose cat fish and a third bag with a gold fish and a snail for the origanal fish tank.And a filter for the original tank.. Not until perusing this web site did the huge lack of fish knowledge become evident. Hence the "oop's" For instance, what are those fish floating around in the new tank called? The B/N is great, a fish with character. Will follow any threads to do with them. This is an awesome site folks. We will learn a great deal from it. :roll: Any advice will be welcomed.

Hi there, you have come to the right place to learn!

Why not introduce yourself in the Welcome forum?

Looking forwarn to hearing more from you.

The original tank and fish we have had for about three weeks.

The new tank, small tropical fish and B/N we got today.

My eldest son is 24yrs and my youngest son is 8 yrs.

This is a joint venture between my youngest and myself.

We live in Kihikihi, Te Awamutu.

Robert, my youngest son has a rabbit, my daughter has a cat.

Old dogs do learn new tricks so box on. Fish keeping is a vast subject to be learnt over a period of time. Any help keeping the fish alive until the tank is "working as it should" would be appreciated.

No live plants in the tank, would like some.

Fish active, seem to be enjoying themselves.

It makes me angry when a shop sells someone a tank, heater, plus bags of fish :evil:

Hopefully they are small fish so will survive the experience. The tank and heaterstat should have been bought on their own and set up for a week at least to check the heaterstat stayed at a stable temperature.

If you do daily 20% water changes you should be able to cycle the tank without losing fish. What size tank? What sort of fish (apart from the bristlenose)? What sort of filtration?

I would return the bristlenose as there will be nothing for it to browse on in a newly set up tank. It also needs wood in its diet so needs wafers with this added or, preferably, a bit of driftwood in the tank.

I agree with Caryl, keep doing small and frequent water changes. It's how I kept my brand new and overstocked tank going and I had no fish losses.

Don't forget to either age the water or use a chlorine remover if you have it in your water

Cheers

Jude

Hi ladies.

Tank capacity apprx 40L

heater 200W

filter 300L an hour - water runs over ceramic tubes and then through some type of foam.

one b/n on plecochips

two platy's

one guppy

one pink unidentified fish, yellow tinge in tail, similar in form to a gold fish

seven neon tetras

Did about 25% water change and added water ager today.

Fish appear to be happy, definately not lethargic.

Crisis time will be about a week after the tank is set up as this is when the ammonia will spike, especially with that fish load in such a small tank.

Keep up those water changes and test the water daily for nitrates and ammonia