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January 24th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| That is about the only way to get a pair. I would only get four though for that size tank even if they are small. My problem is that I get attached to them all LOL.
remember to post pics for us 
Carol | 
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January 24th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Will do Butterfly.....still waiting for the cycle.
Hey Butterfly - I might be getting ahead of myself here - but if I have a single couple in a tank and no other fish at all - and my pair breed, are the fry fairly safe with their parents? | 
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January 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah  Will do Butterfly.....still waiting for the cycle.
Hey Butterfly - I might be getting ahead of myself here - but if I have a single couple in a tank and no other fish at all - and my pair breed, are the fry fairly safe with their parents? | Depends on the parents but most angels will eat their fry after about three or four days free swimming anyway. In the wild the fry would be spreading out and hunting food for themselves by then and I'm sure even a few still get eaten. In an aquarium which is a closed environment they have nowhere to go to get away from mom and dad.
If I really want the clutch just spawned I pull them as soon as they go wigglers or maybe even wait until they go free swimming. There is a better chance of survival but require intense and time consuming care from the fish keeper.
If you get them young you will have a little while before worrying about breeding. I have kept tanks with just males or just females just for viewing not breeding and they are really pretty tanks. If you do this they have to pretty much raised together.
carol | |
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January 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| hmmmmm...butterfly that sounds complex.
On another note I have found a guy who breeds and raises platys and mollies locally - his tank is the same temps as mine and his fish have not had the stress of international travel. Do you think I would be better off going with locally bred fish that are already accustomed to the water and temps here - rather than imported? | |
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January 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah hmmmmm...butterfly that sounds complex.
On another note I have found a guy who breeds and raises platys and mollies locally - his tank is the same temps as mine and his fish have not had the stress of international travel. Do you think I would be better off going with locally bred fish that are already accustomed to the water and temps here - rather than imported? | I think that would be ideal, and he would be a resource for which fish will do well in your circumstances since he clearly is able to make it work.
Good luck! | |
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January 28th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Sounds good If later you decide you want angels I'm sure there is somewhere to get them locally .
Carol | |
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January 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| This is an e-mail I got from the fish guy - what do you make of it?
"Hello Again Sarah,
I fear you may be too concerned about the water condition, as I said the regular tap water here is fine and can support nearly all fish immediately. The fish actually help greatly in providing nutrients to plants and establishing the stability of the aquarium. The Platies and most of the live bearers, Mollies excepted tolerate a wide variety of water conditions and are idea as first inhabitants of a new aquarium, there are a few tricks to getting some species of fish to co-habit which if you haven't read I can share with you.
The website is fine but but figures for poor quality water with chlorines and fluorides etc. Our water here has very little in the way of chemicals added, in fact your dentist should tell you about fluoride treatments for you an particularly your children because of the absence of it our water.
Your test for ammonia, unless you have been dumping large amounts of fish food and decaying matter in the tank will likely register negligible to zero and have you wondering if the test kit is faulty or you have done something wrong with the test!
More important is the pH level which should register OK from the start, or possibly low and can easily to altered.
I won't waffle on, hopefully you will be over your cold and you and you little one can come along in the near future.
Kind regards," | |
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January 28th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah This is an e-mail I got from the fish guy - what do you make of it?
"Hello Again Sarah,
I fear you may be too concerned about the water condition, as I said the regular tap water here is fine and can support nearly all fish immediately. The fish actually help greatly in providing nutrients to plants and establishing the stability of the aquarium. The Platies and most of the live bearers, Mollies excepted tolerate a wide variety of water conditions and are idea as first inhabitants of a new aquarium, there are a few tricks to getting some species of fish to co-habit which if you haven't read I can share with you.
The website is fine but but figures for poor quality water with chlorines and fluorides etc. Our water here has very little in the way of chemicals added, in fact your dentist should tell you about fluoride treatments for you an particularly your children because of the absence of it our water.
Your test for ammonia, unless you have been dumping large amounts of fish food and decaying matter in the tank will likely register negligible to zero and have you wondering if the test kit is faulty or you have done something wrong with the test!
More important is the PH level which should register OK from the start, or possibly low and can easily to altered.
I won't waffle on, hopefully you will be over your cold and you and you little one can come along in the near future.
Kind regards," | There are several things wrong with this.....
1. pH is NOT easily altered, well, perhaps i should say it is easily altered but VERY hard to keep stable. and most fish can adapt to a pretty wide range of pH so you shouldn't worry about it unless it is over 8 or less than 6. it is much more harmful to them for the pH to be altered and constantly changing than to just have a stable one.
2. there may not be any chlorine or chloramine in your water, but i honestly doubt he has actually tested the tap water in your house, and it is probably not fine. there is also the risk of heavy metals which i VERY highly doubt that he has tested for in your water, and prime detoxes those too.
3. even if there isn't any in your tap water, fish produce waste which turns into ammonia which is toxic to them! it doesnt matter if you are over-feeding or not, there WILL be ammonia in the tank unless your tank has cycled.
4. you should ask him about the nitrogen cycle (you may have already and i just missed it) and see what he says.
Last edited by agabr123; January 28th, 2009 at 10:55 PM.
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Well he may be right that our water would be the same - there is only one source of water on the island and so in theory everyone's water should be the same - but I was telling him that I was waiting for my nitrogen cycle to complete before buying the fish and he was saying that I don't need it because our water is so good.
Clearly he doesn't understand what it is for. I hope he isn't too arrogant and is open to input, because I will feel obliged to try to explain it to him when I go to look at his fish.....what worries me is that he advertisies his ability to set up tanks and if he doesn't even understand what the nirogen cycle is for he is likely to introduce disease to other people's tanks. | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Oh and I think my ph is ok 6.5-7 | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah Well he may be right that our water would be the same - there is only one source of water on the island and so in theory everyone's water should be the same - but I was telling him that I was waiting for my nitrogen cycle to complete before buying the fish and he was saying that I don't need it because our water is so good.
Clearly he doesn't understand what it is for. I hope he isn't too arrogant and is open to input, because I will feel obliged to try to explain it to him when I go to look at his fish.....what worries me is that he advertisies his ability to set up tanks and if he doesn't even understand what the nirogen cycle is for he is likely to introduce disease to other people's tanks. | yeah, regardless of how good your water is your fish are still going to produce waste, no matter how big or how small they are. i understand your worries and it can be very hard to get through to someone like that, but i'm glad you're trying Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah Oh and I think my ph is ok 6.5-7 | your pH is fine, don't worry about that. unless you are getting an extremely sensitive fish (i think puffers and some kinds of cichlids need a pH of 8). do a little research to see but most fish are adaptable to a wide range and yours is good for most. | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| eeeeeeee! so excited - we have ammonia!! I started using a product yesterday called "Microbe-lift" Bacterial aquarium Balancer and it seems to have kicked things off. So how many days til my little bacteria get the ammonia clear? I have a reading of 2.0.
so excited!! yippee! | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah eeeeeeee! so excited - we have ammonia!! I started using a product yesterday called "Microbe-lift" Bacterial aquarium Balancer and it seems to have kicked things off. So how many days til my little bacteria get the ammonia clear? I have a reading of 2.0.
so excited!! yippee! | it can take anywhere from a week to two or three weeks just for the ammonia phase, patience is the key! good luck | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| aaaack! Aw maaaaaan! I thought the long bit was waiting for the spike! LOL | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah aaaack! Aw maaaaaan! I thought the long bit was waiting for the spike! LOL | lol, the whole process is the long bit !!! just keep up your water testing to have a good idea when it ends, and research your fishies, and buy them when it's done!!! oh, but be careful not to add too many at a time or you'll overload the tank and send yourself into a mini-cycle | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| Nope - I'm on it....I plan a 2 by 2 strategy....I am decided on these local platies and maybe some mollies bred by the same guy (but will have to see about that - I like the idea of lots of one type of fish)
PH is 6.5-7 and GH is 14 so I am good to go. | |
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January 29th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by caymansarah Nope - I'm on it....I plan a 2 by 2 strategy....I am decided on these local platies and maybe some mollies bred by the same guy (but will have to see about that - I like the idea of lots of one type of fish)
PH is 6.5-7 and GH is 14 so I am good to go. | thats great good luck! | |
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