Yea!! I finally have fish!

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MissMelba

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Jul 2, 2004
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Hi,

I finally have fish in my tank!! :dance After a loooong fishless cycle I was ready to get some fish and then Frances came for a visit and took my electric power away for five days. Then Ivan threatened but passed me by. And then Jeanne decided to visit, but again, I was spared (my family further north of me has no more trees in their yard, but were otherwise very unharmed). After a couple of more weeks, I finally said to my husband that I wanted fish, today. We decided to start with peaceful fish and then add the more active fish later. So we bought three black balloon mollies, three sunburst platies, three other platies (orange with black specks), and a cory cat (panda cory I think).

After two days, the fish are all still alive and happy looking. The cory is the most active bottom feeder I have ever seen, he is great to watch. The only problem is that they are ten very small fish in a very large tank so they easily get lost. But our plans include lots more fish. And in answer, one of the fish gave birth to about fifteen fry! I think they are mollies as they are all black. They spent the day in the overflow weir until I came home with a breeding net box. I figured the weir was safer than the main tank as someone may decide that they were lunch. The fry have all been transferred now so we will see how many survive.

Sorry for the long post, but I am so happy to finally have something swimming around in the tank.

regards,
MissMelba
 

sdb

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May 4, 2004
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Congrats on the success of your fishless cycle! Especially with all the odds against you during the storms.
I would suggest getting more cories as your next purchase as they like to be in groups, and one being alone, especially in a big tank, is quite stressful for him. If you enjoy watching one, you'll really love watching half a dozen scooting around. They're cute little guys, for sure.
 

TheBlackPhantom

Fear the Black Phantoms!
Oct 19, 2004
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Sounds great! Congrats!

If you want more fish in your tank and you for them to be "peacefull" I suggest perhaps having another Cory, they are even MORE fun when in pairs. Clown Loaches (a pair) are also very colourfull bottom feeders and EXTREMELY playfull. Be carefull when they start playing tricks on you!

For more fishes for your tank, what about adding a black Sailfin Molly? They have beautiful fins as long you don't get any nippers! Or perhaps a Black Phantom Tetra? These fish don't grow more than 5 inches.
 

spencer2009

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Oct 16, 2004
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I think that two more panda corry's and maybe 3 peppered corry's would be good. Maybe even some dwarf or pearl gourami's could look cool in your tank. Good job with the fishless cycle, I was going to do one of those, but couldn't find any amonia without other toxins in it.
 

HardkorLungfish

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Oct 18, 2004
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OoOo! Sailfin and Lyretail mollies are both very pretty choices!! And as everyone else said... more cories ;)
 

MissMelba

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Jul 2, 2004
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Hi,

Well I took your advice and got two more cories. Instant friendship! Maybe they remembered eachother from the fish store. ;)

The fry are doing great. There are over twenty now in the breeder box and last night an orange one showed up (the others are all black). The new guy is pretty much two eyes and a tail, but I am sure he will grow. The fry are eating when I feed them so I take that as a good sign. The water parameters are good so I am going to wait until Friday night to do the first water change with fish because I don't want to stress the fishies too much.

Since I have a 175 gallon tank, I can pretty much put in whatever I want. I have a several LFS's to shop around for different fish so I'll keep a look out for your suggestions. I plan to add a few clown loaches, unless they are incompatible with the cories? My husband wants some barbs or sharks, maybe green tiger barbs or possibly bala sharks. We started with the peaceful fish so that they would be the resident fish when more aggressive fish are introduced, thus hopefully the territority issue will be less stressful.

Thanks for all your great advice!

regards,
MissMelba
 

jspolley

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Oct 7, 2004
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From my experience with Molly Fry, if you have enough plants in your tank, you can let the fry just kinda swim around in there...you might lose one or two, but for the most part, they will be ok, and it gives them more space than a breeder net, which will be important once they hit their growth spurt they have a week or two in.

Also, Panda Cories rock. I love mine to death.

Jeremy
 

puresouthern

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Oct 20, 2004
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spencer2009 said:
I think that two more panda corry's and maybe 3 peppered corry's would be good. Maybe even some dwarf or pearl gourami's could look cool in your tank. Good job with the fishless cycle, I was going to do one of those, but couldn't find any amonia without other toxins in it.

Melbe I feel your pain over the hurricanes. Frances and Jeanne got me. Jeanne took out the North end of my house......I had fish already in my tank wasnt sure what to do. Jeanne we had a generator. But I lost Guppies through Frances..........anyway I agree with this poster on the Gouramis. Not sure how big your tank is but these are awesome fish. I have 2 dwarf gouramis, 1 opaline and 1 powder blue. The powder I have seen actually run into the glass, I call him Erkel. The Dwarfs are my favs though, both come up to me to eat. One actually nibbles on my arm while my hands are in the tank doing my plants and then he will actually rub on my arm like a cat does on your leg. Yesterday I thought both Gouramis were actually gonna take food from my fingers. They are awesome!!! And very beautiful. Congrats again on getting fish.
 

OrionGirl

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Aug 14, 2001
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I'd advise against the barbs--even in a large tank, they will be quite nippy and harrass the other fish. Cherry barbs are more peaceful--they'd be more compatible than any of the tigers. The bala sharks will be nice in a group of three, but might eat some of the smaller residents as adults.
 

TheBlackPhantom

Fear the Black Phantoms!
Oct 19, 2004
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I would strongly advice against having tiger barbs, VERY NIPPY!!!! and aggressive!!!

Cherry Barbs as mentioned above are the most peacefull of them all yet they still are a little... *****y. You might want to have a pair of them or they will stay alone in the back somewhere, sometimes even ignoring meals like mine used to do before I got him a friend.

Concerning Clown Loaches and Cories they are quite compatible. I can attest, I have a pair of Cories and a pair of Loaches and sometimes they play with one another. My albino cories are unfussy and make great bottom feeders.

If you are looking for BIGGER fish (something that grows more than a few inches) you starting to adventure into more complex fish and must inform yourself PROPERLY before going out to buy a few. Do not inform yourself at the LFS as they can be biased to make a few sales, check out a few fish pages after checking out (and noting down the exact names) of the fish you have seen in a store.

And don't forget, when you get new fish put them in a quarantine tank for a little while, as health problem will most likely insure. Some fish are sick and putting them in a tank directly with your existing population will run a great risk of the sickness to spread and get fish loss!! I always put my new fish in a small decorated quarantined tank for about 2 weeks, making sure they aren't sick before putting them with the others. Currently in my quarantine tank I have 2 baby black phantoms that I got from my LFS, it's been 7 days and they got ICH! We are day 2 into treatment and thus far both are looking much better. Something to ponder I suppose.

Inquire about Kissing Gouramis. You'll love them. If not, check out powder blue dwarf gouramis. Very nice.
 
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