Hi All,
We're new to the wonderful world of aquariums, and I'm attempting to give my son sound advice.
We have a 55g, planted tank, with quite a few plants. Kind of a father fish style. We don't do water changes, but we don't have a cover, so add 2.5 - 5 gallons of water every week - two weeks. We test the water every other week or so and it looks great. We have an ammonia gage in the tank, and it is consistently in the safe zone.
Currently, we have mollies with quite a few fry, a gazillion ram's horn snails, 5 rabbit snails, some rather sneaky trumpet snails recently discovered, 4 kuhli loaches, 2 peppered corydoras (bought from petco and 4 died), some cherry shrimp (hard to tell how many since they hide so well), ghost shrimp (not sure if there are many left, looks like at least a couple have died, also petco), a hillstream loach, and a fragile hold on mom's sanity.
Here are some questions we'd like some input on:
- How many ram's horn snails are too many?
- How wary are you of buying aquatic creatures from Petco or other major chains?
- Who in the group would be interested in selling him some more peppered corydoras (or other ones)?
- What should we know about posting when looking to buy more aquatic life?
- What question would you recommend we ask that we haven't?
Thank you!
Rachael
Hi Rachael.
First I am leary of any corporate store. Their primary and only goal is to make money. They want you to get hooked on Pets, whether they are fish, reptiles or dogs for that matter. They want you to have enough success that you like fish, but if some die all the better then you need more equipment, additives and especially more fish for your tank. They usually have large margins on fish so they usually aren't out anything if they have to replace them
I personally don't think you can have too many snails, They will usually multiply to the number the tank can support. If you are getting too many snails that often means the tank is being overfed. After you feed your fish wait a few minutes and see if there is uneaten food on the grave. If there is reduce the amount of food you feed next time. Most snails are scavangers so if they are getting a lot of food they make more babies. If they are struggling to find food, they have less energy to make babies. If you think you have too many snails, you can always bring them to a meeting or other event to unload them. Some species of fish have specialized to feed on snails in the wild, like puffers.
Several members will be selling cories at the swap on May 10 and they will have all been raised in KC water.
Check regularly on this site in the classified section to see what people are breeding and are looking to sell.
When looking for new aquarium livestock you should check if it is wild caught or captive bred. These days most fish are captive bred. Not all wild caught fish are bad, in many places in the Amazon and other places the indigenous people ethically collect fish and this helps stop deforestation in those areas. You should also check and see how long the fish have been in the tank. That way you know they have recovered from shipping stress.
I would recommend coming to HAAS events and just sit down and talk to all of the fish nerds, you will get plenty free advice and maybe some free stuff.