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Fish?

bungo

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I have a really old, 60 gallon (2 30 gallon) tanks in my house which I decided to tidy up and drain. I now have the tricky choice of what fish to buy (only freshwater.) Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of getting an asian stone catfish.
 

taxidermynerd

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Well, I'm not the best with stocking ideas, but here goes.

In my 40 gal, I have a school of tiger barbs, a school of cherry barbs, a few upside-down catfish, a pearl gourami and some mystery snails. So you could probably do something like that.

You could do guppies and corydora catfish if that's your jam, you could have different color variants of guppies and any type of cory you'd want in a tank your size. That's how I'm running a 10 gal at the moment. 3 male guppies and 9 pygmy cories.

A good website is AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor. You put in the tank size, what fish and how many, and the filter if you want, and it'll tell you if they're compatible, if they'll be okay in that tank size, what perameters you should have, etc. It's super helpful!

I also buy a lot of stuff (fish, plants, and all of my mystery snails) from Aquatic Arts - Unique Fish, Inverts & Aquatic Plants by Mail!. They're a little bit pricey, but the quality is worth it. They have a live arrival guarantee, and they always send extras. Having a local fish store (not a big chain) that's reliable is also really helpful. If they're good, they'll answer your questions without making you buy from them.
 

bungo

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Well, I'm not the best with stocking ideas, but here goes.

In my 40 gal, I have a school of tiger barbs, a school of cherry barbs, a few upside-down catfish, a pearl gourami and some mystery snails. So you could probably do something like that.

You could do guppies and corydora catfish if that's your jam, you could have different color variants of guppies and any type of cory you'd want in a tank your size. That's how I'm running a 10 gal at the moment. 3 male guppies and 9 pygmy cories.

A good website is AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor. You put in the tank size, what fish and how many, and the filter if you want, and it'll tell you if they're compatible, if they'll be okay in that tank size, what perameters you should have, etc. It's super helpful!

I also buy a lot of stuff (fish, plants, and all of my mystery snails) from Aquatic Arts - Unique Fish, Inverts & Aquatic Plants by Mail!. They're a little bit pricey, but the quality is worth it. They have a live arrival guarantee, and they always send extras. Having a local fish store (not a big chain) that's reliable is also really helpful. If they're good, they'll answer your questions without making you buy from them.
Do they do shipping to the UK? I like in the Uk not America you see
 

cosmolove

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One thing you'll want to do is make sure you properly cycle both tanks. If you don't the new tank establishing itself will likely kill your fish.

2 30 gallon tanks give you a lot of options. I personally love really deeply planted tanks with cardinal tetras and some cories then maybe a centerpiece fish like a Dwarf gourami or a trio of guppies. You could do that in one tank and in the other do a more aggressive tank with maybe a pair of angelfish, cory cats, and some scissortail or diamond tetras. I'd personally heavily plant both tanks. In the tank with the cardinal tetras if you did the guppies you could probably get some shrimp or something too :) The gourami would probably eat your shrimp tho!
 

cosmolove

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Also that AQAdvisor website really isn't a good place to figure out how many fish you can have. It doesn't take into account many things such as bioload for example. It can be a good starting point but I usually recommend avoiding it for the most part. I use to work at a local fish store for about 5 years so over the time I've seen a lot!
 

bungo

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Well, I'm not the best with stocking ideas, but here goes.

In my 40 gal, I have a school of tiger barbs, a school of cherry barbs, a few upside-down catfish, a pearl gourami and some mystery snails. So you could probably do something like that.

You could do guppies and corydora catfish if that's your jam, you could have different color variants of guppies and any type of cory you'd want in a tank your size. That's how I'm running a 10 gal at the moment. 3 male guppies and 9 pygmy cories.

A good website is AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor. You put in the tank size, what fish and how many, and the filter if you want, and it'll tell you if they're compatible, if they'll be okay in that tank size, what perameters you should have, etc. It's super helpful!

I also buy a lot of stuff (fish, plants, and all of my mystery snails) from Aquatic Arts - Unique Fish, Inverts & Aquatic Plants by Mail!. They're a little bit pricey, but the quality is worth it. They have a live arrival guarantee, and they always send extras. Having a local fish store (not a big chain) that's reliable is also really helpful. If they're good, they'll answer your questions without making you buy from them.
also your opinion on GloFish
 

cosmolove

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They're not a bad fish at all :) They're genetically modified so they're not injected with dye which in my opinion is way better. They're zebra danios just colorful. You could get a nice school of them :) Just make sure you don't get any fish with long flowy fins as they can be fin nippers. You could probably get 6-10 of them tho after your tank is cycled. They will hang out towards the top of your tank so you could get 10 of them, 6 dwarf cory cats (panda cory cats are my favorite, or skunk) that will hang out at the bottom of the tank, then maybe a gourami or a m/f pair of RAM cichlids for a more "centerpiece" fish that will hang out in the middle of the tank.
 

bungo

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Guys also forgot to mention the tank will be outdoors, will this have an affect
 

cosmolove

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Will you have a filtration system that you can weather proof or are you talking a pond?
 

Familyof12

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I keep a freshwater pond with koi. I've also got some experience cycling water and some filtration systems. We do some aquaculture in our home. Actually, we practice aquaponics. You are looking at something called a re-circulaing water system with live organisms. That will provide you with lots of information. I have even more specifics on how this happens if you want to know the chemical changes and how to test.
 

cosmolove

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I would be worried about stuff getting in them but as long as you have a good filtration system (I'd recommend a canister in this situation), heater, and a good lid I don't think it would be an issue. You may run into an algae issue so you may want to invest in some netrite snails and maybe a bristlenose pleco (I personally love the albino ones). Between the two they should help keep it clean.
 

Familyof12

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Outdoor filtration systems do need to be cleaned out monthly. We get lots of debris in our pond. We have a large filtration (outdoor professional system):

The Pond Guy® AllClear™ Ecosystem Pond Kits, Pond Kits: The Pond Guy

We use the fish poop as our fertilizer in our ornamental garden. The water has to constantly flow (no still water) otherwise, it will freeze or water will stagnate (you probably already know this). It is easy to put in an outdoor heating system too. We don't use it for our koi pond in the winter, they hibernate in winter (ours are almost 12 years old). We use the heater for our tilapia and snails for out outdoor tank for our aquaponics. We test that water daily since we use the veggies we grow to subsidize our winter diet with dark leafy greens, grown year round at home.
 

taxidermynerd

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Do they do shipping to the UK? I like in the Uk not America you see
Ah, I didn't know that. No, they only ship within the US because the fish/snails would likely die due to long delays from customs.

One thing you'll want to do is make sure you properly cycle both tanks. If you don't the new tank establishing itself will likely kill your fish.

2 30 gallon tanks give you a lot of options. I personally love really deeply planted tanks with cardinal tetras and some cories then maybe a centerpiece fish like a Dwarf gourami or a trio of guppies. You could do that in one tank and in the other do a more aggressive tank with maybe a pair of angelfish, cory cats, and some scissortail or diamond tetras. I'd personally heavily plant both tanks. In the tank with the cardinal tetras if you did the guppies you could probably get some shrimp or something too :) The gourami would probably eat your shrimp tho!
I agree here, cycling is extremely important. I usually do two weeks and then I'm good (I have the API Master Liquid Test kit). If your tank isn't cycled, it could kill any and all things in the tank.

Also that AQAdvisor website really isn't a good place to figure out how many fish you can have. It doesn't take into account many things such as bioload for example. It can be a good starting point but I usually recommend avoiding it for the most part. I use to work at a local fish store for about 5 years so over the time I've seen a lot!
Huh, I didn't know that! I know not to follow it to a tee (for example, it says my 10 gal with 3 male fancy guppies and 9 pygmy cories is overstocked, but at one point in time I had a tank with 40 guppies and a pleco (due to the lies I was fed at petsmart) so I know what overstocked is! I've only been keeping fish for almost 3 years.

also your opinion on GloFish
I have a 10 gal with 3 glofish in it (a purple, a green and a orange-y yellow) and I quite like them. They seem to like going after each other, but I've provided hiding spots so no-one has killed anyone yet. They're awfully pricey for just one little fish (they're 10 bucks each around here) but nice enough I suppose.

I do have a sweet spot for guppies, because those are what I started the hobby with. But now I have a 40 gallon, 2 10 gallons, and another 10 gallon waiting in the wings with all the gear for it.
 

Familyof12

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Cycling is correct. The way you know if your tank is overloaded is by doing your water test every week. If your nitrites are nigh, lower your feed a little. If it continues, you may need a larger tank. You need a balance of nitrites and nitrates, filter, and oxygenating system (bubble stones). I would check with your local aquaponics organizations for any freshwater snails, shrimp, etc., they will have experience with the availability of the types of things that can be brought into the UK.

Basically the test for you would be to cycle the water. It takes a little while to start it up. Fish like a ph of about 5-7 plants above 7. You want to keep your ph at about 6.8 ppm if you want plants and fish to prosper. Your fish go into a tank with fresh water (unfiltered) the water is out of your tap at usually 10ph (little more or less) and die. To cycle your water, you've got to bring in good bacteria into it. Your water will be at 10 out of the hose (unless you have a C02 filter, which can bring it down to 5 ph). You want to run the water through your filtration system and add enzymes and ph lowering solution and let it run for a while without fish. Once your ph is between 5-6, could use cheap starter fish or even mosquito fish (vector control gives them out free locally for zika and west nile avoidance in ponds). Once those little guys eat and poop, you will test for nitrites, nitrates, ph and others if you like. At first the water will have lots of nitrites (No2) which is pretty toxic but it attracts nitrates (good bacteria), during this time if you provide lots of oxygen via air stones, correct amount of feed, filtration, and the ph is low enough, your fish have a good chance of survival). Those nitrites turn into nitrates which can feed your plant life in your tank very well. This is what plants need to eat to survive and this cycling can be done before you pick your fish to assure they life, especially if you like expensive fish.

We keep koi. We have some that are over 10 years old and about 2 1/2 feet. They recognize our voice and faces. The come up to eat and say hello. We have raised other types but mostly eating ones.
 
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