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.
Thank you! This is super helpful.
Adrian is super excited to come to the swap. Hopefully, we can make it to other events as well!
@adriansfish I will be at the clubs tables feel free and come by and talk my name is Jeff
Hello Rachel! Welcome for you and your son to the club. Hopefully you had a good time at the swap. There are always a lot of different types of corydoras at the auctions, I don't know that I saw a lot at the swap. Sometimes we do not get a lot of participation on this forum, but someone might be able to tell you at the next meeting if they know of someone with peppered corydoras.
1. I'm not a big ramshorn fan, I prefer mystery snails purely by look, but I think you are fine with however many you want. If you decide you do not want them, get some assassin snails, we have some breeders in the group. Kirsten Riedesel is one I can think of. They take out the smaller snails but will leave bigger snails like mystery's and rabbits alone.
2. I don't buy fish or any plants in fish tanks at Petco or Petsmart. Some of those stores have great staff, but often the fish aren't quarantined and aren't too healthy. It sucks when they die, it sucks more when they give your whole tank a disease. There are some locally owned fish stores around I would recommend, but also, the best place to get fish is from the club members. If people are breeding fish they have quality stock and are taking good care of them. Plus we have awesome club members! Pet Topia (gladstone), Live Art (Independance) and Pet World (lawrence) usually pretty good, although I always look closely to see if there are dead fish or an ich breakout before I buy, and I quarantine those fish for 2-3 weeks before adding them to my main tank. Several of these places will also order in a specific fish for you, which is always fun. When I tell you the auction will make your fish nerd son's heart burst... I'm not lying. Bring a cooler b/c you are taking some cool fish home!
4. If you have a certain fish you are interested in, there are a lot of internet resources that can help you decide if it will be a good add to your existing tank, tank mates, and ecosystem you've created. The hardest thing as a fish keeper is realizing a particular fish you like might not do well in the tank ecosystem you have. So... You have to get another tank! If you are looking for advice on certain fish... Well we all have our favorites! If you post somewhere for advice I would have your water parameters, pH, kH, gH, temperature, aquascape, water flow, those might help someone narrow down if a particular species would do well with what you have, and answer some of the initial questions people come up with. TBH, most fish do well in most parameters. I personally use a lot you tube a lot to do my research.
5. Honestly it seems like you are in really good shape. One thing I wish I'd have been better at, was when I want to try a new fish thing, was asking people in the group if its a good idea or not. A light, a filter, certain filter media, do I really need alllll these sponge filters, why my plants are dying, why aren't my fry surviving. I've spent a ton of money on things that I really didn't need to only to replace them when I didn't like how they worked.