new fish owner

[bird_guy]

well the other day i wanted to buy fish... i wanted to do saltwater fish then came to find out it was to much , so i did freshwater fish.. so i got 55gal tank and 15 gal tank.. i went crazy and got all kinds of fish...i got 3 red blood parrot fish , two yellow cichlids , eel ,dragon fish , two puffer fish , 6 clown loaches, 3 barb tigers, and 3cat fish... tommrow i'm gonna take a look at some 150+gal tanks... tank looks nice happy to get it ... i can just watch it all day......

['too crazy]

I love the clown loaches, they are fun to watch. I do know you have to be careful what kind of fish you put together in a tank. Do you have these already? I'm confused because you bought the fish and then your looking for a tank. Anyway the reason I ask is because I know the puffer fish and chiclids are aggressive (especially the puffer) whereas the parrot fish are not.

[Bettachris]

wow, that is not good. poor stocking, just to help me help you, do u know anything about fishkeeping, and did u do any research(J/W so i can help u more)

also did u cycle at all, or just bought all these fish and through them in there.

first lets start with the clown loaches. major problems with these fish.
Clown loaches get massive. and for a group a 100 + gallon tank is a must. Though these fish have a very SLOW growth rate, it is still good to have a tank that can hold adults. so that 150 will be a good idea. As u may or may not know, clown loaches are scaleless fishes. so no SALT at all. any time a fish needs salt treatment, move the sick fish to the 15 gallon for treatment.

what type of eel is it, most eels will get very large and are kinda fish eatters.

puffers are mostly brackish water, and are fin nippers, dont really a good match.

dragon fish are very intersting, and peaceful, just watch out for their size.

tiger barbs i absouiltly hate, they are fin nippers and like to school, so more is needed, but u stocked u tanks wrongs and their is no room.

what kind of catfish, no help can be given unless type is known. so please reply fast.

with cichlids, i dont think u are aware of the parrot fishes size. my largest parrots where about 10 inches long and very powerful. though they are hybreds and can't close their mouths they are still powerful and can damage other fish in the tank.

yellow labs are african cichlids, and are not for community tanks, genreally: most african cichlids need higher ph levels, which other fishes in the community tanks can't handle.


when u look at the cost, u can spend more on bad FW tanks than SW tanks. u are playing with fire now with these stockings and small tanks, even with a 150, u must stock it carefully.

if u need any more info/help just let me know, as i oftenn help many people for hours while they set up tanks the right way.

[BirdLuver288]

tiger barbs i absouiltly hate, they are fin nippers

um chris, is this steriotyping i am hearing from you?;)

actualy it realy does matter on how many you have (i guess although its not my experience)

im not sure why, but ever sence i started fish keeping, i am not seeing the results the fish books told me, when i first started fish keeping i did weeks of reasearch, and planned to do many water changes (and i did)

in my first tank (a 10 gallon) i kept 2 albino cory cats, 2 tiger barbs, and 2 mollys, i loved these fish, i cared for them very well, although through all my reasearch, supprisingly, i never came across a word of how to cycle only that you had to do so, and sence i dident know what it was, i ignored it. eventually i lost the mollys, butthat was after i gave them to my sister. but later on i also kept them with a betta, and nope, the tigers never touched him once, but after i got the betta, this was the first time i ever delt with cotton wool, it was horrable, and i lost him 3 days later.

the moral of my story? dont always judge a fish by what you hear. i know some fish that are labled aggressive realy are aggressive, but fish labled semi- aggressive, well i take that as a personality and a situation thing, in this case, i htink they will be fine, i loved my tiger barbs even when i eventually lost them to ick:( but, i will also be getting more later on

but i do agree bad choice all together stocking, too much too fast, im sad to say you will loose quite a few fish unless you return most of them untill your tank cycles, i lost my best ram because i thought i had my tank cycled, but it was faulty test strips that fooled me. now i just wait that extra 2 weeks!

[Bettachris]

dont get me wrong i have had TB before, and i feel that with them stocking is limited. I will add later