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SASSY BLACK GURL

PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:58 pm


Okay. Six days ago I got my first aquarium! It is 20g and I stocked it on the third day. That's what I had read but I know now that it was a mistake. Anyway, I have 6 Zebra Danios right now and I'm planning to add 2 Dwarf Gouramis. I will definitely have to put some more plants in before I do so. Here are some pictures:

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Here's the tank as a whole. Really bare right now. This picture was taken right after the fish were added.

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This is my filter pounding down on the surface of the water. I'll be doing a 20% water change tomorrow. Should I add some more water so it doesn't come down so hard?

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This is the best picture I could get of the Danios. Those things are really fast!

I don't have pictures yet but I just bought a solid blue background. Any suggestions as to what I should add next would be greatly appreciated. I would like to have invertebrates but I'm not sure if I should add them right now. I read that you have to have some type of conditioning salt for the gouramis. Is that true? If it is, will the Danios be harmed by the salt?
Thanks for all the help,
Demented Yogurt
PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:22 pm


you can add more water if you want
my 55 gallon isnt filled all the way up and i like the sound it makes : ) but there is also more space so it isnt so poundy

as for the salt
you want freshwater aquarium salt (just so you dont go buying marine salt which is not good for fresh fish) it is also used as a treatment for diseases like ich

you dont need it (i dont use it and i have pearl and honey gouramis) BUT if you do add it the danios will not be harmed as long as you use it correctly. : )

inverts
i would wait till your tank is fully cycled. i dont know about fresh shrimp but i know salt inverts cannot take ammonia well. better safe than sorry @_@

add more plants/decorations then add the gouramis :3 which kind of dwarf did you want to add? gouramis are one of my favorite fish

here is my tanks blog if you wanna take a peek
http://youbettabelieveit.blogspot.com/

Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom


SASSY BLACK GURL

PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:54 pm


Happy Skittles Lizzy
you can add more water if you want
my 55 gallon isnt filled all the way up and i like the sound it makes : ) but there is also more space so it isnt so poundy

as for the salt
you want freshwater aquarium salt (just so you dont go buying marine salt which is not good for fresh fish) it is also used as a treatment for diseases like ich

you dont need it (i dont use it and i have pearl and honey gouramis) BUT if you do add it the danios will not be harmed as long as you use it correctly. : )

inverts
i would wait till your tank is fully cycled. i dont know about fresh shrimp but i know salt inverts cannot take ammonia well. better safe than sorry @_@

add more plants/decorations then add the gouramis :3 which kind of dwarf did you want to add? gouramis are one of my favorite fish

here is my tanks blog if you wanna take a peek
http://youbettabelieveit.blogspot.com/
♦♦♦



Thanks for the feed back!
The gouramis I'm looking at are red at the tale but taper off to blue/grey on their face. Their fins are blue.
Is that the flame gourami? I'm not quite sure.

About the filter, does it do any harm when it pushes the flake food down to the bottom? I don't have any bottom feeders so I don't know if food should get down there.

I'll wait on the invertebrates then. I was thinking maybe one of those awesome Hammer's Lobsters. They're electric blue but I don't think they're suitable for a community or for my substrate.

I'll be getting some of that salt too. Just to be safe. I can't wait to put them in my new tank!!

Thanks again for the feedback!

EDIT: Woah, I love your tiny puffers! Those look really fun.
Oh, and my Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, ammonia, and all that stuff are completely normal. When should I add the fish?

♦♦♦
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:37 am


Nice tank smile
Maybe you could add some drifting plants to partially cover the surface, it will help to dampen the light and they are easy to care for.
The only problem is that they may get stuck in your filter.

That sounds like the Flame gourami. If I'm correct it's a color variant of the colisa lilia. If you look up that name you can find more on their specific needs.

As long as you don't overfeed it's no problem if the flakes go to the bottom. It gives the fish a chance to chase the food and hunt it down as though it's prey.

As far as I know the function of the aquarium salt is to irritate the skin so that it produces a thicker layer of slime. That way parasites like ich will have a harder time getting through the slime and get to the fish's skin. So it's a very good way to prevent certain incidents from happening.

Just to be safe I would wait another week though with the fish. You're lucky that you have good parameters from the start smile

Irrlich
Vice Captain


Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom

PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:22 am


I wouldn't trust a lobster with little fish in that small a tank. Might get a fish while it's sleeping and some fish like to sleep on the bottom (like gouramis...at least mine do). The flakes should be fine as long as you don't add too much : ) your fish will go look at the bottom anyway for food. If you want bottom feeders there are lots of small loaches to pick from or cory cats.

That gourami does sound like a flame.

The puffers are really fun and cute. Too bad they make terrible room mates...bad for a community >_<
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:52 am


Thanks again.

I was thinking of getting an albino cory cat later. I think I'll leave the water level about where it is now that I think about it. It does sound cool. I'm doing my 25% water change right now. My warm water has water softener salt in it so I have to use cold water and put it in the microwave after I condition it. I let the water get room temperature for 5 hours but it wasn't enough and my filter wouldn't work because there wasn't enough water so I had to speed it up. I'm almost done. *pant*

Do I need the drifting plants? I like how it's really bright but I don't want to keep it like that if it does something to the fish.

I won't put in the lobster. xD I had a feeling it would eat the others.

SASSY BLACK GURL


Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom

PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:09 pm


you dont need the drifting plants if you like it bright :3 just add other plants to the sides and back and maybe drift wood so if the fish need to hide they can. smile as long as it isnt so empty in there...they will be out in the open more otfen

but if you DO want floating plants they make really nice plastic ones
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:19 pm


Oh yay plastic!
I don't want to deal with real plants right now. I still don't think I'll get any though. I am getting some more plants tommorrow or the next day. Then I'll put up a pic!

SASSY BLACK GURL


SASSY BLACK GURL

PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:20 pm


♦♦♦

Oh, I'll check for driftwood too.

♦♦♦
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:35 pm


I only use plastic plants and I gotta say they make some real nice ones. Check in the reptile section as well. They have good aquarium décor there
: D you will probably find the fake floating plants there. They market them to turtle owners.

Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom


Irrlich
Vice Captain

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:47 am


The plants are indeed not needed, it's just a personal favorite of mine. I tend to make my tanks quite dark. A bit too dark sometimes sweatdrop
Doesn't mean you'll have to do it too though. Aquascaping is like decorating a house, there's no right or wrong and everyone has their own style. That's half of the fun of seeing other people's tanks. razz

Oh, and Cories are semi schooling fish, so they like eachothers company. It's really fun to see how they interact with eachother too, they are quite the bussy bee type.

If you wan't floating wood, take cork. It's unsink able and cheap. It usually doesn't stain the water eighter.
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:33 am


♦♦♦

I really like the corys so I think I will get a school of them. That sounds fun. I wanted to get maybe like 2 albino and 2 regular but then I remebered my gravel is white. D;
I'll just get some regulars.

♦♦♦
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SASSY BLACK GURL


Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:29 pm


get the albino ones if you like em :3 you will still see em heck they might look even whiter since fish can change color slightly...the darker the background they are on the darker they may turn
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:35 pm


♦♦♦

OK maybe I'll get just 1 albino or something.
One of my danios had his head at the top of the water. He didn't respond at feeding time and he doesn't move from under the filter. The other ones are white and black but he has a strong yellow tint. What should I do? Is he gonna die? D;

♦♦♦
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SASSY BLACK GURL


Grim Weeper Vi

Phantom

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:39 pm


he doesnt sound too good D:
anything look odd on his body? how about his body shape? does he look like he has a sunken belly? do the other fish kind of pick on him?
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