Fish keeping

[s,one]

I'm looking for a good website for keeping Koi and aquarium fish, any links greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

[Russ35]

For Kio have a look at http://forum.koimag.co.uk

[medicineman]

There's a few of us on here with tropical fish and I'm sure a few more with Koi experience. What sort of advice are you looking for or is it just a look around?

[s,one]

Just bought a 300 ltr tank and looking for advice setting it up and fish stocking. Always had a few Koi in the garden but never in the house so I thought I would give it a go. Looking at tropical fish and viable plants. Tank is quite tall wide and narrow so not sure what species of fish and plant this suits.

Cheers

Steve

[RobDickinson]

Your effectivly limited by surface area for the upper limit of fish (for oxygenation).

Whats the dimensions of the tank, and what would you like to keep, a 300 liter tank sounds like a 4ft tank?

If you've not kept fish before I sugest starting with something easy (gourami, silver sharks, plecs, guppies etc) , in small numbers, to get the tank and (external) filter going (you do have an external filter ay?)

I wouldnt go for anything like cichlids ( mulawi lake or angel, discus etc) etc for now.

Edited by RobDickinson on Tuesday 13th January 23:36

[mybrainhurts]

Are we talking Sea Kittens here...?

[Iain328]

sone said:

Just bought a 300 ltr tank and looking for advice setting it up and fish stocking. Always had a few Koi in the garden but never in the house so I thought I would give it a go. Looking at tropical fish and viable plants. Tank is quite tall wide and narrow so not sure what species of fish and plant this suits.

Cheers

Steve

I wouldn't keep Koi in a tank - for a start they will destroy any plants you put in there. Big fish make a big mess so consider how much you want to clean it out.

More plants less fish is always a good mix. However, tall tanks are not easy to get plants to grow in - the amount of light you need to put on them increases exponentially with depth. How deep is it? You can compensate by having it somewhere where it will get some natural light (not too much or it will be forever green).

You need to decide if you want a "community" tank or a more specialised affair. If you want the former then avoid fish like Barbs & Gouramis because they tend to fight. Stuff like Tetras & any of the live bearers (guppies, platties etc) are easy. Angel fish are also pretty easy to keep.

Get the thing running & established before you start adding fish & if you don't know what it is then google for the "Nitrogen Cycle" & understand it before you even start - or you will probably kill a lot of fish.

Edited by Iain328 on Wednesday 14th January 00:08

[s,one]

Sorry poor English, I meant I have kept Koi meaning fish generally, I'm not looking at keeping Koi in the house.
The tank measures 1200 by approx a mtr ish. Will measure tommorow. External filter is running and plan to get the water tested in about a week or so.
Will it help toget some plants it asap, I assume they are not as sensetive as fish?.

Cheers

Steve

[RupertTheFridge]

mybrainhurts said:

Are we talking Sea Kittens here...?

god this one is getting around, probably a new PH record, quoted in atleast 5 threads to my knowledge ...........

[Ellis456]

Whatever you do dont mix Gouramis and angel fish, my angel got peked to death winthin a few days, didnt realise in wild they attack each other doh!.

[RupertTheFridge]

Ellis456 said:

Whatever you do dont mix Gouramis and angel fish, my angel got peked to death winthin a few days, didnt realise in wild they attack each other doh!.

Tiger Barbs do the same

[Iain328]

sone said:

Sorry poor English, I meant I have kept Koi meaning fish generally, I'm not looking at keeping Koi in the house.
The tank measures 1200 by approx a mtr ish. Will measure tommorow. External filter is running and plan to get the water tested in about a week or so.
Will it help toget some plants it asap, I assume they are not as sensetive as fish?.

Cheers

Steve

If the tank is really a metre tall you will find it quite difficult to grow plants in it - any lights you put over it are really going to struggle to send effective light that deep (without which plants won't grow). In low light either the plants won't grow or they will just become very leggy and spindly looking as they stretch up to reach the light. The bottom of the tank is never going to look great of they do that

I should think you'd need to put at least 2-300W over the top of it. Best start reading up on "low light" plants and/or build some structures (using bog wood or rockes etc)on which you can grow plants up in the mid-water levels. High output T5 lighting is probably what you will need to look at - but its not cheap.

Also bear in mind that at a metre deep it will be "interesting" to clean out - unless you have the longest arms known to man!

Edited by Iain328 on Wednesday 14th January 02:49

[RobDickinson]

I had a 2ft cube tank once and that was enough of a hastle cleaning!

[Furyous]

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/ho...

http://www.ukaps.org/

http://www.fishforums.net/




HTH.

[s,one]

Got the tape measure out this morning, tank is 750mm deep (well I'm a bloke and length is always something that we struggle with)
Tank came with lighting complete looks like three flouro's which are only 30w each!.

quote=Iain328]

sone said:

Sorry poor English, I meant I have kept Koi meaning fish generally, I'm not looking at keeping Koi in the house.
The tank measures 1200 by approx a mtr ish. Will measure tommorow. External filter is running and plan to get the water tested in about a week or so.
Will it help toget some plants it asap, I assume they are not as sensetive as fish?.

Cheers

Steve

If the tank is really a metre tall you will find it quite difficult to grow plants in it - any lights you put over it are really going to struggle to send effective light that deep (without which plants won't grow). In low light either the plants won't grow or they will just become very leggy and spindly looking as they stretch up to reach the light. The bottom of the tank is never going to look great of they do that

I should think you'd need to put at least 2-300W over the top of it. Best start reading up on "low light" plants and/or build some structures (using bog wood or rockes etc)on which you can grow plants up in the mid-water levels. High output T5 lighting is probably what you will need to look at - but its not cheap.

Also bear in mind that at a metre deep it will be "interesting" to clean out - unless you have the longest arms known to man!

Edited by Iain328 on Wednesday 14th January 02:49

[Big Al.]

I used to keep tropical fish many moons ago, my tank was 1800 X 600 X 600 (6ft X 2ft X 2ft) You can get "long plants" IIRC renuculus is a long 2M flat bladed plant, it's the streamer reed you see in chalk streams. Depth is a concern for plant but not insurmountable. You can build up rocks (slate) to build up from the bottom you can create ledges at different levels to grow plants on. Bogwood is also good for growing plants on.

Suggest you use undergravel filtration as it has cleaning a little easier, by gentle pushing and pulling the gravel the “silt” gets dragged under and out via the filter. Glass cleaning is a pain you just have to get higher (stool, steps) to enable you to reach the “depths.

I actually sprayed painted the back on my tack with muddy greens and browns to give the tank some depth, with the stacked slate and the plants it looked really good. Don’t forget you can get small pots to grow plants in these can be discreetly positioned to hide away at the higher levels.

Don’t forget you heaters you may need a few to keep the temperature of a tank that size stable.

Also had a little quarantine / breeding tank below NEVER put new fish in an established tank until you know they are well. Quarantine newbies for a couple of weeks before introducing. It’s better that a new fish dies alone than wipe out all the fish you already have.

Found a site that might be of use lots of vids about setting up and water quality etc.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-set-up-a-tropi...

HTH.

[theboyfold]

Interestingly we've just got a new fish tank, the 35 litre one we have (we've just found out) is way too small for the 3 fantails we have in there, so a small leap to 190litres has been made. (Aqua One Evo 100)
It looks great, but being the impatient sod I am, I want to get loads of fish in there straight away, however I can't find a decent step by step guide to starting the thing up. The OH is 'in charge' of the tank, as she's paid for it etc etc, and is suggesting it could take up to 6 weeks before we can put the fish in.

Any links to a good start-up guide for cold water fish would be useful.

[anonymous-user]

All depends on what you are happy with.

Some people chuck a prawn or 2 in their tank for a couple of weeks to get the cycle going.

Others will be happy introducing fish very slowly.

As for heaters, you can buy in-line heaters to put on your external filter outlet pipe. I use one of these. I think they are more effective and much less intrusive than 'normal' water heaters.

You should also make sure that the external filter you are using is more than enough for the job. I would suggest that a spray bar on the outlet would help aerate the tank and a powerhead could also be added to long tanks. I use a powerhead as it agitates the surface better than my filter outlet and with no noise, unlike the filter nozzle.

You'd also be surprised at the variation in quality of aqua shops. It is really worthwhile finding one you trust and building a relationship with them.

Am a big fan. Just wish i had room for more!

[Big Al.]

theboyfold said:

Any links to a good start-up guide for cold water fish would be useful.

The set ups are very similar just leave out the Heaters and put in cold water species.

So see my link below.

[CO2000]

theboyfold said:

Interestingly we've just got a new fish tank, the 35 litre one we have (we've just found out) is way too small for the 3 fantails we have in there, so a small leap to 190litres has been made. (Aqua One Evo 100)
It looks great, but being the impatient sod I am, I want to get loads of fish in there straight away, however I can't find a decent step by step guide to starting the thing up. The OH is 'in charge' of the tank, as she's paid for it etc etc, and is suggesting it could take up to 6 weeks before we can put the fish in.

Any links to a good start-up guide for cold water fish would be useful.

I'd have a good look here
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/forum/forumd...