Aquarium Fish World

Picking the Right Type of Fish For Your Fish Tank

I’m starting to learn that one of the most important factors in enjoying the Aquarium Fish hobby is to be able to find the types of fish that you enjoy keeping.  Aquarium fish are not all the same.  In fact, that’s very far from the truth.

Just in the freshwater fish category alone, there are so many different species of fish and they each have their own little unique set of behaviors and personalities.  I think it is very important to learn as much as you can about all the different types of fish out there, and to try keeping a variety of them to see which ones you really like.

Every person will like different things so I think there is a lot of personal preference involved.  For example, the Oscars that I picked up a few weeks ago are really keeping me entertained.  There is just two of them in my tank, along with the Pleco I’ve got in there, and the two of them can be more entertaining to watch than my other tank which has over a dozen fish in it.

Today when I went to feed my Oscars, instead of eating the pellets I fed them they decided to hoard them and play with them.  Here’s a picture of one of my Oscars after it shoved like SIX pellets in it’s mouth and swam around with it’s mouth open.  It reminds me of when kids put a whole bunch of mashed potatoes in their mouth and then show you their food with their mouth open, hehe.

The other thing I noticed about the Oscars is that if I’m sitting here on my computer and I haven’t fed them yet, they eventually get tired of waiting for me and start making noises.  Sometimes they’ll just splash the water a bit to try to get my attention.  If I don’t pay attention, they’ll start to smack things in the tank.  I’m not really sure what they’re smacking, because every time I look they are off on the other side of the tank pretending like they didn’t do anything, but I know it’s them.  I think they may be hitting my filter intake pipe as it makes a CLANK sound when they hit it. 

I was also over at my brother Bart’s place today and I was checking out some of his fish and I noticed that there is a distinct difference in atmosphere in his 55 Gallon tank compared to mine.  He has a bunch of Tetra’s in there and Cray Fish, but what he doesn’t have is the Giant Danio’s and Pictus Catfish that I have in mine.  The Pictus Catfish and the Giant Danio’s I have really changed the atmosphere of my tank when I put them in.  They are both very fast swimming fish and whenever I go to sit down to watch the tank for a bit, they fly around the tank like crazy and all the other fish just go hide in the corner.  It’s really annoying.

I think I’m going to have to give them away, and I’m probably going to stick with calmer and smaller fish in that tank like the Tetra’s and Guppies I have in there now.  Maybe I’ll get an Angel Fish as well, as they are kind of neat to watch.  I also really did like my Female Betta’s before they were eaten, so maybe I’ll get some of those as well.

It’s almost impossible to figure out what kind of fish you’re going to enjoy keeping just by seeing them at the pet store, so I really think one of the best ways to figure out what you’ll want to keep is to just try picking up a couple of fish of different varieties and see what you end up enjoying.  Everyone is different and the person at the fish store will probably have a totally different preference from yours as will other aquarium hobbyists so I think it’s good to experiment on your own.

Another 46 Gallon Tank?

Yesterday, my younger brother called me to let me know he had a free aquarium tank at work if I wanted it.  It’s used, but it’s in pretty good shape and came with an aquarium stand and a hood.  I decided to pick it up even though I don’t really have room for it yet.

I filled it up with water today and I’ll leave it outside for a few hours to make sure it doesn’t leak or anything and then I’ll see if I can find a spot for it.  If it doesn’t leak, and I can find a good spot for it, I might have another tank to setup and cycle.

I might get rid of my 20 Gallon tank and replace it with this.

Here’s a picture of it, sitting outside filled with water.

High Ammonia Levels in 55 Gallon Aquarium Tank

It’s really interesting to watch the difference in the natural Aquarium Cycle between my 20 Gallon tank and my 55 Gallon tank.  In the 20 Gallon tank the Ammonia levels began climbing starting on the fifth day after setting up my Aquarium and putting in my first set of fish.  The ammonia levels first went to 0.25 ppm for a few days, then climbed to 0.50 ppm for a few days and then went as high as 1.00 ppm for a period of 4 days before going back down to 0.50 ppm and now slowly dropping down to 0.25 ppm and less over the last few days.

Obviously the Cycle in my 20 Gallon Aquarium is well under way.  As for the 55 Gallon, it seems like the same thing is happening except much slower.  It took almost 10 days from setup and putting in fish to get the Ammonia levels to start going up.  They first climbed to 0.25 ppm for a few days, then 0.50 ppm for a few days and now have been at 1.00 ppm for about three or four days.

I’m keeping an eye on the Ammonia levels every day to make sure they don’t end up going any higher than 1.00 ppm.  I’ve also been adding in a few cap fulls (5-15ml) of Cycle into the tank on a daily basis to help establish a healthy population of beneficial bacteria.  My tests also show that my Nitrate levels have started going up as well in the last few days which means that the bacteria that convert Ammonia into Nitrate are starting to form nicely.

I did also do a 20% water change today in hopes that it will help to lower the Ammonia levels a bit.  I’ll test the water again tomorrow to see what’s happening.  So far the fish seem to be doing fine at the 1.00 ppm levels of Ammonia but I don’t want to stress them out too much so if the levels go up any higher than that I’ll do another partial water change while I wait for the biological filter Cycle to establish itself.

I also picked up a school of 8 Baby Cardinal Tetras for my 20 Gallon tank the other day and they seem to be doing very well in that tank so far.  I may end up either putting them in my 55 Gallon once it finishes Cycling, or I may move the one adult Cardinal Tetra I have in the 55 Gallon right now into the 20 Gallon tank.  I don’t like it being there by itself.  Tetras prefer to live in schools so I think the single one I have in the 55 Gallon is lonely right now.

Added More Fish to My Aquariums

I’ve added more fish to both of my Aquariums in the last week.  I bought 3 Cardinal Tetra’s, 3 Bala Sharks, 3 Otto Catfish, and one really cool looking Adonis Pleco.  For some reason I lost 2 Tetras and 1 Bala Shark the very first night, but the rest of the fish have had no problems and it’s been almost a week now.

I ended up putting one of the Otto’s in my 20 Gallon as I’m starting to grow some algae in there so I hope he starts to clean that up a bit.  Also, my younger brother Bart gave me 3 fairly sized Pictus Catfish and a Pleco the other day.  I put the 3 Pictus Catfish in my 55 Gallon tank and the Pleco in the 20 Gallon.  He can have a feast with all the algae in there.

Here are some pics:

I’ve been keeping an eye on my Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate Levels and finally in the last couple of days the Ammonia levels in my 20 Gallon have started to go down rather quickly, so it looks like my cycle in that tank is coming along nicely.  As for the 55 Gallon, the Ammonia has just started going up in the last few days and today I noticed my Nitrites have gone up so the Cycle is just beginning in that tank.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the Ammonia levels to make sure they don’t go up too high.  Also, I picked up this Filstar Zeolite Ammonia Remover Cartridge for my Rena Filstar xP3 Filter.  It’s supposed to help keep your Ammonia levels from getting too high in new Aquarium setups and from hitting sudden spikes later on.

I’ll measure my Ammonia levels over the next few days and report back how effective it is.

Review of Rena Filstar xP3 Canister Filter Posted

I just finished posting a review of the Rena Filstar xP3 Canister Filter that I’m using for my 55 Gallon tank.  It’s a very well thought out product and I have no reservations recommending it to anyone looking for a filter for their aquarium.

Click Here to read the full review.

More Pics of My 55 Gallon Tank

Here are a few more pics of my new 55 Gallon Aquarium.

I bought a few decorations for it today.  It’s still not fully stocked and I still don’t have all the decorations I want, but it’s getting there.

I Bought a New 55 Gallon Aquarium Tank

Yesterday I went out and bought a new 55 Gallon Tank with a Stand from my local Big Al’s Aquarium Supplies store.  I’ve been looking around for a nice stand and the only ones I liked so far are at Big Al’s so I decided to get it there along with the 55 Gallon Aquarium.

This is going to be my main tank, and I’ll probably use the 20 Gallon as an intermediate place for some of my smaller fish or new fish I bring from the store as a mini-quarantine system.

Here’s what I ended up picking up yesterday for my setup:

• 55 Gallon Aquarium Tank
• Glass Aquarium Canopy
• Aqualight T-5 Light
• Some Gravel

I was going to also pickup a Rena XP3 Canister Filter, but they were sold out.  So, today I went over to King Ed’s Pet Supply and picked up the following to add to the setup:

• Rena XP3 Canister Filter
• Some Filter Media
• 300 Watt Heater
• Thermometer
• Aquarium Background
• A Bit More Gravel
• Cycle

This is a picture of the setup with just the stand put together and the aquarium and background installed.  It’s not the best picture as it was a bit dark, but you get the gist of what it looks like.  I’ve got the gravel in there now, the filter and heater setup, and I’m letting the filter run it’s course to go through the water while the heater brings it up to the correct temperature.

I’ll try to take some more pictures soon so you guys can see what it looks like lit up.

Aquarium pH and Ammonia Levels OK, Adding More Fish

I’ve been monitoring my aquarium’s pH levels as well as Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels very closely for the last three days after the death of my two Tiger Barbs and since the pH has stabilized around 7.0 everything has been fine with the tank and the fish.

It looks like the “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Proper pH 7.0″ did the trick of bringing my pH levels down to a neutral level around 7.0.  I’m keeping a nightly log of everything I’m doing in the tank on a daily basis and tracking the pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels as well as the tank temperature.

Since everything has been going OK, I decided to go out and purchase two more fish to replace the two Tiger Barbs that died and this time I wanted to get a more hearty fish that has a stronger chance of survival during the initial cycling of my tank.  I decided to go and get some Danios since I’ve read that they are really hearty.

I ended up going to King Ed’s Pet Centre and they had Giant Danios there which I thought looked really cool, so I decided to get a pair.  They are rather large, and the 20 Gallon tank I have may actually be a bit small for them eventually as they grow even bigger but I’m pretty sure that I’ll eventually be upgrading to a 45-55 Gallon tank so then they’ll definitely be fine in a tank of that size.  Worst case scenario, I can always give them to my Dad or brother after I cycle my tank and they grow too big for the tank.

Here’s a few pics I snapped of my two new Giant Danios:

I also ended up picking up 12 small guppies too because I wanted to see how well they do in the tank, and they were only $5 for 12.  They’re just babies right now so they have plenty of room in the tank.  Here’s some pictures of them:

I even managed to get a better picture of my Cherry Barb:

While at King Ed’s Pet Centre I was also checking out some of their bigger tanks.  They had a special on a 50 Gallon tank kit with a Glass Top, Hagen Aqua Clear 70 Power Filter, 200W Heater, T5 Light, Gravel and a wood stand for $399.  It’s not a bad deal, but I didn’t really like the stand and when I do end up getting a bigger tank I’ll probably end up buying the components separately as I don’t want the “cheapie” components that come with the “kit”.  Maybe if I can pick up a better stand somewhere else, I might purchase just the glass aquarium with the glass top and the T5 Light from King Ed’s Pet Centre if I can talk them into giving me a good deal.

For now, I’ve got to get my 20 Gallon cycled and keep it running properly with healthy fish.

My First Set of Fish

Yesterday I got my 20 Gallon Freshwater Aquarium setup, and today I went to the pet store and picked up the rest of the things I wanted to get to finish my setup and to pickup my initial set of fish.

I need to cycle my water to build up the good bacteria in the aquarium before I can fully stock the tank with all the fish I want in there, so for the time being I just picked up 6 fish for now.

It wasn’t easy picking which fish to get.  There are so many cool fish to get out there.

Here’s what I ended up getting.  The first two are Tiger Barbs.  Here’s a picture of them:

I’ll try to get better pictures of my fish soon.  This is the best I could do for now to keep them in proper focus.  They are super fast fish and they love to chase each other around the tank.  It wasn’t easy to get a fast enough focus on them before they zip out of camera view.

Here’s another shot of them in the corner of the tank:

The next two I picked up are Cherry Barbs.  It’s so weird because at the pet store they all looked very similar, but now that I’ve got the two of them in the tank they look totally different.  I don’t have a picture of them yet, but one of them turned completely red and the other one has horizontal stripes very similar to the vertical ones that the Tiger Barbs have.

The one Cherry Barb with the stripes follows the Tiger Barbs around almost like it wants to be accepted into their little group.  The other red one just swims around by itself like a loner.  The other thing that it does that is so funny is that when I turn on the bubble maker, it goes straight for it and swims around in all the bubbles.  It totally loves bubbles.  Reminds me of that character in Finding Nemo that loves bubbles.  It’s so funny to see the personalities these fish display.

The final two fish I got were two female Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish).  The male ones you can only keep one in a tank because they fight, but the females are OK in the same tank together, so I got two females.  The funny thing the females do is that they chase each other around and then they eventually face each other and lock lips!  It looks like they are kissing, it’s so funny.

I really have to learn how to take better pictures of these fish.  The best one I could get of the Betta Fish was this picture here:

So that’s pretty much it for now, I just got six fish for now to get the cycle started in my tank and once everything is running smoothly I’ll start adding in a few more fish.

I took a few more pictures of my setup as it is now:

Pictures of Initial Setup

Here’s some pictures from my original setup yesterday.  Still no fish in the setup yet.  I’ll probably be going out today to pickup my first set of fish.

As you can see in that last picture, my initial temperature of the water was around 15 degrees celsius, which is way too cold so I had the heater on to bring it into the green zone.  I’ve now had the filter also cycling the water for about 15 hours.  Almost time to add in some fish!