Fish Help

[Amy05]

So, i am moving my rats from their 20L tank into a wire cage and decided i wanted to make that tank into a fish tank. I have never had one larger than a fish bowl, and need some help. What is the best kind of filter? water temps?

i just need to know some general things before i put a bunch of water and fish in there.

Thats another question...i don't want to mess with salt water, what are some cool fish that i can do in fresh?

Thanks everybody!

[RichardA]

Aquaclear hang on back filter. Tropic Sun lights. Pick your decor and gravel, fill it up and let it run for a few days then have the water tested. See what your water type is. If you have hard water then some nice African Cichlids would work out best. If you have softer water then a nice schooling Tetra. Key is letting your water cycle for a few days to a week before checking it. Water will naturally equalize to either hard or soft. It takes at least 24 hours for a correct pH reading also. Either way you go make sure you get your fish from an actual pet shop or online, dont use a chain store right off the bat. If you have any questions feel free to contact me, all my info is on my site. I have been keeping and breeding fish for over 15 years. This is what I do for a job is set up and help people maintain fish tanks.

[Wallbanger]

better make sure your tank is an actual fish tank. a lot of reptile tanks are not built to hold water.

[elevatethis]

As Nightmare mentioned, the Aquaclear filters are inexpensive, easy to maintain, and very effective. You can mix and match filter media as well depending upon what kind of filtration (bio, chemical, mechanical) you need.

Use about 1" of gravel, fill it with water, and get your filter running on it. I'd probably let that run for a few days to let all of the chlorine evaporate out of the water before you add fish.

For a 20 gallon tank, start with few cheap fish like danios or another small tetra. Feed them !lightly!, and wait about 3-4 weeks for your tank to cycle. Don't do any water changes during this time. You'll notice the water may start off looking clear, but eventually get cloudy, then one day, it will suddenly become crystal clear...thats when you know it's fully cycled through. At this point you can gradually add the kind of fish you really want.

I tend to like South American cichlids...there are some really nice colorful SA/CA cichlids like Apistogrammas, Rams, Acaras, etc that will be fine in a 20 gallon. Make sure you do your homework if you decide to go with SA/CA cichlids, because MANY of them grow VERY large in time.

[Ginevive]

I have a few tanks running myself, and I use only Whisper hang-on-back filters. They have served me well in practice for years now, and I have no complaints; one of them is honestly, from the late 1990s, and still kicking. One little problem they sometimes have is, not wanting to go back on after a power outage, but the newer ones don't do that in my experience, only the older one; all I have to do is start the wheel going with a pen. I do have a large Penguin filter on Mark's tank (it is a canister filter) and it has run like a top for years. But I also like having the one cartridge only in the Whisps, instead of having to buy seperate media; I know that might be good for those who like to customize, but the Whispers have been serving me well and quite honestly, I clean my tanks about three times a year. (I do monthly quarter-water changes, and the cleanouts are about three-fourths water changed.) My fish all live very long lives, and people are always asking me why.. all I can say is, your bacteria colonies in your tank, once it is set up and in full swing, are priceless. Nothing truly disgusts me more than someone who will go, take a running tank, remove the fish and completely hot-water-wash all gravel, filters, etc.. and say they are "cleaning." LOL; they are murdering the very bacteria that cleans the water!
You will need to start out slowly to "cycle" your tank and build up beneficial bacteria in the filter and gravel; this is done by setting everything up, running the filters and buying a smaller fish or two that may die off but whose wastes will gradually help build up bacteria. Some people do a fishless cycle, and "feed" the tank with reasonable amounts of fish food to stimulate bacterial growth, but I always use fish. Never use goldfish for this, as they produce too much ammonia.. something small and hardy, like rosy-red minnows, is fine.I will post up a few tank pics in a little while.

[elevatethis]

Some people do a fishless cycle, and "feed" the tank with reasonable amounts of fish food to stimulate bacterial growth

Just a heads up...using NH3 (pure ammonia, readily available at any grocery store) is much more effective.

Here's a good read on fishless cycling: http://malawicichlids.com/mw01017.htm

[Amy05]

thanks everybody! That's really helpful.
The tank is made for fish and water, not herps. I got it because it was teh cheapest one that i could find, all the ones that said "reptile" on it automatically added on about an extra 20$. lol.
I'll go ahead and run the water for about a week. Where i'm at is very close to where the put chemical stuff in the water, so i always have sulfur water (ick..it makes drinking water really expensive [bottled] after a while).

And thanks for the suggestions on fish. I'm going to go to my pet shop and check some stuff out. Its a great shop though, it is what i refer to as the herp. shop, but it is really just an exotics store, they have snakes, other herps, rats, ferrits, chinchillas (SP?), fish, and some great spiders.


I'll keep everybody posted.

[Entropy]

My biggest suggestion is not to fall into the 'one of these one of those' syndrome. Make sure if you get schooling fish to get enough for them to school, if you get agressive fish then be prepared for losses.
I myself steer clear of most cichlids because they get too large for the average aquarium though the different varieties of Rams are very nice.

[Ginevive]

You actually made an ideal choice, Amy; those reptile tanks can't usually hold a whole tankful of water.. the sides are not strong enough due to the thinner top that accomodates the screen lid.. I had one that I sold because it was basically useless to me after building our rack..