# Well its time for me to get some ''pets'' in my new annex!



## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

I'm finially moving in to the annex full time soon, and i will miss animals horribly. I'm not allowed ''pets'' but fish are ok.
I have a 3 foot fish tank, its 1 foot deep and 1.5 foot high i think. A clearseal tank. Its been used for keeping mice in until now ( i brought 4 of them brand new last year), so i will need to re seal it around the edges, whats best for this? and.....
I have no idea what to do Re fish keeping, ive kept fish in the past but now ''properly''.

What i would like..

- A well planted tank, so it looks natural. I want the fish to hide, and go around in groups.
- I want fish such as danios, and neons, little groups of little fish, and then maybe a couple of bigger ''main'' fish.

What equipment do i need, best/cheapest place to get it (i guess online), what fish do you suggest, do you have a tank similar, have you got any photos? how many fish?

EDIT - google helped me find this image, i'm looking for something that looks like this


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

these are the fish i can get hold of at my local shop

Databank


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## Tomcat (Jul 29, 2007)

Hello Gina.

Thats a nice size tank! If it hasnt got a lid i reccomend you buy one, clearseal sell the lids to fit  Danios are good jumpers, and if anyhting spooked the fish they may well be over the top!

In that size tank you could have - 4-8 Danios, 6-12 Neons, 4 Platys, 2 Swordtails, 4-6 RummyNose Tetra etc etc.

As a pair of bigger, center piece fish you could possibly go with maybe a pair or moonlight gouramis or a pair of Sailfin Mollies etc something like that.

If you get a lid for it i would recommend getting a light, yopu can however get a light that screws onto the side if you didnt want a lid.


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## Dury (Oct 18, 2010)

Do you know how many litres the tank is?

Your best bet is online for equipment as it will be cheaper.

Sometimes eBay has cheap equipment which are new, I wouldn't recommend buying used equipment.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Tomcat said:


> Hello Gina.
> 
> Thats a nice size tank! If it hasnt got a lid i reccomend you buy one, clearseal sell the lids to fit  Danios are good jumpers, and if anyhting spooked the fish they may well be over the top!
> 
> ...





Dury said:


> Do you know how many litres the tank is?
> 
> Your best bet is online for equipment as it will be cheaper.
> 
> Sometimes eBay has cheap equipment which are new, I wouldn't recommend buying used equipment.


Thankyou


just having a nose at the website i linked, these are fish i like the LOOK of, i know that doesnt mean i can have them, thats fine.

some of the Gourami look pretty 
some of the fish in the cat fish section look pretty 
some of the fish in the charicins section look pretty, i love the little fish, ones that will go around in groups.
some of the cichlid ones are pretty
some of the molly's and plattys are pretty, i think i would like some colour. there are i *think* some plattys at my local shop that are whiet with black spots, i like them 

so any of these work together, in a normal planted tank?


EDIT - how many liters? no idea, its 3 x 1 x 1.5 foot.


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

if you are wanting it planted you will need decent lighting, and a good deep substrate. you can go for low light plants and leave out the CO2 and ferts and some will grow well. i always liked wisteria in my big planted tank, it grew under almost any light and was so bushy the small fish would be in and out of it all the time. 

in a tank that size i would go for something like 8-10 harlequin rasboras, 8-10 neons or cardinals. 

i would have a school of 5/6 cory catfish and a bristlenose plec (if you do make sure there is a piece of driftwood in there at all times and the plec will need feeding every few days too, i feed mine courgette slices weighed down) 


for a main bigger fish i would go for a dwarf gourami, a blue/red striped one would stand out brilliantly against the green of the plants,or a honey gourami would also be nice. 

platys are nice but get single sex, the black and white spotted ones you have seen are more than likely dalmation mollies.

you have quite a few options, but make sure you check the adult size of each fish and how many should be in the tank, for instance neon tetras mainly like to be in groups of no less than 6, but gourami can be territorial so should be 1 to a tank. i wouldnt go for a moonlight gourami or any of the bigger species as they will more than likely snack on your smaller fish when they are fully grown.

filtration, i would personally run a fluval 3+ on it, or possibly even 2 fluval 2+ filters. they are really cheap on ebay, and the sponges are easy to find too. easy to maintain, and i have never had an issue with any of mine. if you run 2 filters, and for any reason 1 breaks down, you still have time to go and buy a new one or fix the old one without worrying so much about having no filtration running. i run 4 filters on my 6ft tank, and 2 on my 4ft. i also overfilter plenty, as as long as the water flow rate isnt too strong and whizzing the fish about you cant over filter a tank.

hope this helps

edit to say if you want to go planted, avoid mollies as they snack on plants and in my dads 4ft tank they have striped his lovely looking plants in a matter of weeks!


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## Tomcat (Jul 29, 2007)

Gouramis are best in pairs actually, not singularly.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

goldie1212 said:


> if you are wanting it planted you will need decent lighting, and a good deep substrate. you can go for low light plants and leave out the CO2 and ferts and some will grow well. i always liked wisteria in my big planted tank, it grew under almost any light and was so bushy the small fish would be in and out of it all the time.
> 
> in a tank that size i would go for something like 8-10 harlequin rasboras, 8-10 neons or cardinals.
> 
> ...





Tomcat said:


> Gouramis are best in pairs actually, not singularly.


Brilliant post!!!!!!!!!!
Light wise, what sort of light/where do i get lights from?

I would prefer to not have a lid on my tank if possible, hate the things.

p.s what do i use as a base for the plants to live in? a mix of pebbles and..?
and why would i need wood for the cat fish?


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

images from google..ones you suggested 







































(look too big?)









cardinals (cant find pics)

zebra / leopard danios i too like could they be ok in there?


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

I'd miss out the bristlenose plec. they like to destroy plants. 

try otocinclus catfish instead, much cuter


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Esfa said:


> I'd miss out the bristlenose plec. they like to destroy plants.
> 
> try otocinclus catfish instead, much cuter


a HA! thankyou!!
they dont look like cat fish, *gigglE*


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

ah yes, forgot bristlenose tend to munch plants, my bad :blush:

ottos are better but dont get them until the tank is well established. 

as for the gouramis, i have always had issues with keeping them in pairs. even the dwarfs, i had a male female pair in a 20g well planted tank, the male harrassed her so much she would be pinned to a corner of the tank and if she moved at all even to eat he would charge at her. ive tried this several times before, with different fish, pairs of females, pairs of males, and mixed pairs but had zero luck. as a single fish they have always thrived.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

goldie1212 said:


> ah yes, forgot bristlenose tend to munch plants, my bad :blush:
> 
> ottos are better but dont get them until the tank is well established.
> 
> as for the gouramis, i have always had issues with keeping them in pairs. even the dwarfs, i had a male female pair in a 20g well planted tank, the male harrassed her so much she would be pinned to a corner of the tank and if she moved at all even to eat he would charge at her. ive tried this several times before, with different fish, pairs of females, pairs of males, and mixed pairs but had zero luck. as a single fish they have always thrived.


poor thing!


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## xvickyx (Jul 21, 2009)

Have you decided what you are keeping yet?

My parents used to have an 8ft community tank, it was amazing!! Neons, Gouramis, Corys, Guppies - the lot 

I don't have much experience with tropicals although I have had a Betta (RIP Hermes) but I have had a successful marine reef tank, have you thought about setting it up as marine?


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## lionfish (Jul 15, 2009)

goldie1212 said:


> ah yes, forgot bristlenose tend to munch plants, my bad :blush:
> 
> ottos are better but dont get them until the tank is well established.
> 
> as for the gouramis, i have always had issues with keeping them in pairs. even the dwarfs, i had a male female pair in a 20g well planted tank, the male harrassed her so much she would be pinned to a corner of the tank and if she moved at all even to eat he would charge at her. ive tried this several times before, with different fish, pairs of females, pairs of males, and mixed pairs but had zero luck. as a single fish they have always thrived.


 Have you tried keeping an odd number 3 or 5 , i found this worked out better than pairs


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

lionfish said:


> Have you tried keeping an odd number 3 or 5 , i found this worked out better than pairs


to be honest no i didnt, my tank size wouldnt have allowed it at the time. worth trying though, im looking for pearl gourami for my 4ft tank at the moment so i may try 3 rather than 2,saying that pearls tend to be less grumpy anyway.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

could you not maybe get a few shrimp in there as well (best ask matty boy tho) lol what types and if it would work


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

plecs need the wood to rasp on to help their digestion, they are very greedy fish and would produce a lot of lumpy waster and it would make a planted tank a right mess.

you`d be better with corys as your catfish cleanup crew.

if you got shrimps they`d tidy up the excess food and plant bits, but dont think you can use plant fertilizers if you have them in, the copper in them will kill the shrimps. 

get a nice big shoal of harlequins - the colours they develop in a planted tank when they are mature is just fantastic - they get really bronze and kinda pinky.

if you wanted small fish have you looked at endlers livebearers? they are a bit smaller than a guppy but very brightly coloured


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## Zober (Aug 24, 2010)

pigglywiggly said:


> plecs need the wood to rasp on to help their digestion, they are very greedy fish and would produce a lot of lumpy waster and it would make a planted tank a right mess.
> 
> you`d be better with corys as your catfish cleanup crew.
> 
> ...


we have a group of 3 corys, they are great in groups... we have a flying fox who looks after them all, the fox and our male golden gourami are the kings of the tank along with a shoal of neon, harlequins and platy... 2 young silver sharks recently added as the kings are getting old now.

we use our other tank as a species tank... rummy noses and a few otto, after that we are going to go for a gang of tiger barbs


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

Zober said:


> we have a group of 3 corys, they are great in groups... we have a flying fox who looks after them all, the fox and our male golden gourami are the kings of the tank along with a shoal of neon, harlequins and platy... 2 young silver sharks recently added as the kings are getting old now.
> 
> we use our other tank as a species tank... rummy noses and a few otto, after that we are going to go for a gang of tiger barbs


hope your tank is huge, silver sharks reach over a foot long, and ideally should be in a bigger group than 2. just a heads up incase you didnt know : victory:


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## ashrussell4190 (May 24, 2010)

I started a tropical aquarium a good few months back. I have a selection of fish in my tank and from what I can say about gouramis it definately is luck of the draw with them, my 2 seem to get on really well have the odd tiff but nothing scary like cornering one another!!

I have:
3 Puncatus corys
7 Guppies
9 Cardinal tetra, 
2 Dwarf honey gouramis, 
1 Platy - who was sold to me as a swordtail... woops...
1 Orange swordtail 
1 Apple snail

Everyone is doing great! 

My words to you are this: I hope you come to a decision as there is soooo many many fish to choose from!! 

If not you could have another tank!! :lol2:

Good luck and all the best!


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