After all the great help and advice I got here for the 20g at work, (which is doing great btw. levels are all good, got those nitrates down to 40, & stocked with 2 white skirt, 3 head and tail light, and 4 serpae, along with the gourami, CAE, and the spotted raphael) I seem to have caught the aquarium bug! So, I set up a tank at home. It's a 10 gallon (former breeder tank for my dad's cichlids).
I scrubbed it with an algae sponge and diluted bleach water. Rinsed several times thoroughly and let dry in the sun. I equipped it with a Proaquatics 120 filter (for a 10 -29g tank), a 6 inch airstone and small air pump, substrate mix of gravel and pebbles, a variety of stones and one larger holey rock (all collected from the creek behind my backyard and scrubbed clean), and then seeded the substrate with about a 1/2 cup of the gravel and small snails from the established tank at work. I also set the rinsed filters from the new tank on top of the filter in the office tank for about 4 hours.
Did this on Saturday. Used Start Right to dechlorinate the water. Set up a broad leafed plant (sorry, I don't know exactly what it is) in its pot in the back corner, and fertilized with Hagen plant gro. Bought a new hood with (I'd assume) a standard flourescent bulb.
There is clearly a bacteria base growing, I have greyish-brown in the filter, and the beginnings of a bloom in the water. But, I added 3 small feeder comets yesterday so that there would be ammonia to feed it. (Although I counted at least 10 tiny snails, I didn't think they could produce enough ammonia to maintain the cycle). This morning levels were all good, pH was 7.2, nitrates 10, ammonia .25, water soft, kH moderate, and nitrites 0.
This tank is going to house 3 powder blue paper crayfish that are arriving next week. They don't require a completely cycled tank, so I won't have to wait to introduce them. However, I would like to add something else to the tank to give it additional "flavor." Intially the crayfish will be 2 inches or so, and I don't want to add anything that will eat them. Eventually they may reach 6 inches, at which point I will move them into a larger tank. In the meantime, I was thinking about adding some bloodfin tetras, or possible blind cave tetras. They seem to be available at under 3 bucks a pop, and while they aren't gorgeous, all the online species listings seem to agree that both will tolerate temperatures as low as 64 or 65 fahrenheit. This tank will have no heater, as the crayfish need to be in the 70 to 75 range.
So, my questions and welcome to any input:
Has anyone out there kept crayfish? Kept them with other fish? What kind of other fish? Has anyone kept either of these types of tetras successfully without a heater? Are there any other fish (beyond goldfish) that can be kept successfully within that temp range?
I'm hoping that your experiences might keep me from making mistakes as I go on! Thanks so much for reading this lengthy ramble, and much appreciation all the way around!
Tank Pic Below:
I scrubbed it with an algae sponge and diluted bleach water. Rinsed several times thoroughly and let dry in the sun. I equipped it with a Proaquatics 120 filter (for a 10 -29g tank), a 6 inch airstone and small air pump, substrate mix of gravel and pebbles, a variety of stones and one larger holey rock (all collected from the creek behind my backyard and scrubbed clean), and then seeded the substrate with about a 1/2 cup of the gravel and small snails from the established tank at work. I also set the rinsed filters from the new tank on top of the filter in the office tank for about 4 hours.
Did this on Saturday. Used Start Right to dechlorinate the water. Set up a broad leafed plant (sorry, I don't know exactly what it is) in its pot in the back corner, and fertilized with Hagen plant gro. Bought a new hood with (I'd assume) a standard flourescent bulb.
There is clearly a bacteria base growing, I have greyish-brown in the filter, and the beginnings of a bloom in the water. But, I added 3 small feeder comets yesterday so that there would be ammonia to feed it. (Although I counted at least 10 tiny snails, I didn't think they could produce enough ammonia to maintain the cycle). This morning levels were all good, pH was 7.2, nitrates 10, ammonia .25, water soft, kH moderate, and nitrites 0.
This tank is going to house 3 powder blue paper crayfish that are arriving next week. They don't require a completely cycled tank, so I won't have to wait to introduce them. However, I would like to add something else to the tank to give it additional "flavor." Intially the crayfish will be 2 inches or so, and I don't want to add anything that will eat them. Eventually they may reach 6 inches, at which point I will move them into a larger tank. In the meantime, I was thinking about adding some bloodfin tetras, or possible blind cave tetras. They seem to be available at under 3 bucks a pop, and while they aren't gorgeous, all the online species listings seem to agree that both will tolerate temperatures as low as 64 or 65 fahrenheit. This tank will have no heater, as the crayfish need to be in the 70 to 75 range.
So, my questions and welcome to any input:
Has anyone out there kept crayfish? Kept them with other fish? What kind of other fish? Has anyone kept either of these types of tetras successfully without a heater? Are there any other fish (beyond goldfish) that can be kept successfully within that temp range?
I'm hoping that your experiences might keep me from making mistakes as I go on! Thanks so much for reading this lengthy ramble, and much appreciation all the way around!
Tank Pic Below:
