I'm NEW, saying hey hey hey

[EOD]

Hi, my name is David. This is my first time participating in a forum in quite a while. Before this I helped on computer tech support forums and before that it was gaming forums. (Age of Empires 2 ... so quite a while ago)

Ever since I was a kid I've loved aquariums. I always dreamed of having a room in which all the walls were aquariums from floor to ceiling. Growing up I never really got to even get close to that because neither I nor my parents knew very much about how to take care of fish. Now, at 25, I finally am getting into it and loving it.

I'm going to tell you all about my two aquariums and since I am very new to taking care of fish, I'll take any advice you may give about the setup of my tanks as well as the fish I have inside them living together.

My wife has her tank in the kitchen. It's a 14 gallon glass tank. It's inhabitants are as follows:
electric yellow cichlid
shubunkin (2)
guppy (3)
butterfly coy
crowntail beta
molly
dojo Loach
Sailfin catfish

She also bought 2 spotted puffers but they nibbled on all the other fish in the tank so we had to deport them to a small 1 gallon.

Here's the picture of her tank:

Now my tank we have upstairs in our bedroom. It's a 40 gallon glass tank. It's inhabitants are:
Angelfish (adult full size, complete loner)
tiger barb (2 adult, 3 young)
clown loach (2) (hangs out with tiger barbs)
bala shark (2)
golden sailfin molly (2)
Bristlenose pleco (hides in hull of pirate ship all day with other algae eater)
Chinese algae eater (full size, very strong, very fast, hides)
zebra danio (3)
red eye tetra
guppy (2)
congo tetra

Here's the picture of my tank:

If you have any questions or advice, please let me know. My only problems right now is our betta cannot live in the 14G because the cichlid attacks it so we keep the betta in a small vase. The butterfly coy was purchased for my tank but the tetra immediately commenced to nipping his fins so I moved him to the 14G where the cichlid seems to be leaving it alone so far. I tried putting one of the puffer fish we have suffering in the 1 gallon tank into my 40G but it immediately starting nipping at fish and I can't handle my angelfish getting harrassed.

 

[Rbishop]

Welcome to AC! Quite the mix in both tanks. I am sure as you do some reading here, you will find you may have problems down the road. Start a thread in General Freshwater and ask for some advice on how to rearrange things...you will definitely need more tanks, and bigger ones, if you keep them all.

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

Welcome to AC

I do see some problems with the stocking in your tanks (mainly long term issues), so hopefully you don't see my post as harsh, but I feel I need to point out the few major issues I see since I see you having problems in the future:

My wife has her tank in the kitchen. It's a 14 gallon glass tank. It's inhabitants are as follows:
electric yellow cichlid (get to 5-6 inches long (rarely up to 8), too big for a 14g. Also they are peaceful as far as african cichlids go, but will eventually eat your guppies and possibly harass other fish)
shubunkin (2) (Get to 8 inches in length given proper water quality, too large for tank long term, very large bioload, plus they prefer cooler temperatures than the others)
guppy (3)
butterfly coy (Is a pond fish (get up to 3-4 feet in length given proper water quality - they are after all just a domesticated common carp), prefers cooler temperatures. Proper spelling "koi" btw )
crowntail beta(Please do try to put him in a filtered tank, as a vase isn't sufficient unless you are doing water changes on it daily. Also, as tropical fish they need heaters unless your house is consistently warm (75+))
molly (I see very little problem with this one, though it could possibly get a bit large for your tank)
dojo Loach (Get to a foot long. Also prefer cooler temperatures, not a tropical fish. They have a shorter lifespan in tropical temperatures.)
Sailfin catfish (Much too large long term. Get to about 2ft in length depending on species.)

She also bought 2 spotted puffers but they nibbled on all the other fish in the tank so we had to deport them to a small 1 gallon. (Are you talking dwarf puffers, or something like a green spotted puffer? A 1 gallon even is a bit small for dwarf puffers IMO, but a green spotted puffer gets 4-6 inches and is technically a brackish water fish, so if that's what you have I would return them).


As for your other tank:

Now my tank we have upstairs in our bedroom. It's a 40 gallon glass tank. It's inhabitants are:
Angelfish (adult full size, complete loner)
tiger barb (2 adult, 3 young)
clown loach (2) (hangs out with tiger barbs) (They grow slowly, but do eventually reach at least a foot in length. Also much happier in larger shoals.).
bala shark (2) (Get to at least 8 inches, possibly a foot. Do prefer to be in groups, but I have also seen balas that are fine schooling with other fish.)
golden sailfin molly (2)
Bristlenose pleco (hides in hull of pirate ship all day with other algae eater)
Chinese algae eater (full size, very strong, very fast, hides)(Watch out for these, they are notoriously aggressive with other fish as they age, and will actually sometimes suck on the slime coat. Also may get to around a foot in length. It is not unknown for them to eat small fish such as tetras or danios).
zebra danio (3)
red eye tetra (Probably would be happy with more of its own species, though they will school with other tetra species )
guppy (2)
congo tetra (See above with red eye)

Hopefully that wasn't all too overwhelming!

I also have a link in my signature to an article on freshwater cycling (if you don't know what that is then it is a must read to keep your fish healthy and alive. Even if you have read about it I would browse the article since it has good information that you may have missed.)

 

[annareiser]

welcome!

 

[EOD]

I expected a reply with about that much information. Here's the situation though. I don't have any other tanks. I would love to have a very large tank or several 10-20G tanks but I don't have the money. I may be able to get my hands on one 10G from my neighbor. What exactly would you recommend doing as far as fish relocation. As it stands right now I have the electric yellow cichlid in a vase on his own because he was attacking the coi. I have the betta is a vase too. I have the 2 puffer fish in that small 1 gallon. I'll post some pictures to clarify it a bit.

The red eye tetra has been schooling with the bala sharks. Does a clownfish really get that big! The chinese algae eater is already VERY large but I haven't seen him become aggressive with any of the fish. If he does, I'll give him to my friend who has an oscar tank. They could probably handle him better. Here's a pic of the puffers so you can tell me what type they are perhaps.

 

[Tabbykat9698]

I am planning on getting cichlids for my 56 gal... I do know that you have to get it out of that vase and into a bigger tank. They require a lot of space. Your puffer is a Green Spotted Puffer which is a brackish water fish even though they are sometimes sold as fresh water.

My boyfriend had been wanting a tank for a while, and I think you did what he would have done which was buy a bunch of pretty fish and throw them together. Thank goodness he had me lol. I'm still a little scared of coming home and finding random new fish in the tank...

 

[RiVerfishgirl]

The puffers you have are greenspotteds, so they are brackish fish, even though they are falsely sold as freshwater. So I would take those back to the pet store unless you plan on setting up a brackish water tank. Puffers also need a diet of hard shelled crustaceans to thrive.

As far as relocating the koi and goldfish, you shouldn't have much trouble finding someone with a pond. If not I would return them, and any other fish that you cannot house properly, to the pet store, because it's just kind of silly to keep them when they cannot be housed by you in the foreseeable future *shrug*. Completely up to you, you have the necessary info to make that decision. Someone else that cannot house them properly may buy them, or someone that can might, they will at least have a chance.

If you're looking to find proper homes then I'd make a post on here asking to rehome them and see if someone replies. Ask around at the fish store and see if anyone would be interested, and/or post on local message boards and craigslist and see if anyone is interested.

The cichlid cannot be kept very long in a vase since they need water movement to breathe (bettas breathe atmospheric air which is why they can tolerate no water movement), and they also need water consistently above 75* or else they will get sick or die.

If I lived anywhere near you I'd be willing to take the majority.

 

[EOD]

I took the Coi, the dead Bala Shark , the 2 spotted puffers back to Walmart. They gave me $23 so I went back in and got 2 Glofish and 1 more baby Tiger Barb. I moved the Cichlid into my 40G and he has had no problems with the fish in there so far. I put the Tiger Barb in there too and now there are 6 Tiger Barbs (2 adult, 4 young) in my tank and they all hang out together. Along with them are the 2 Clown Loaches that love to school with them. Then I went to our local pet store and got 2 pink Danios, a barbed pleco, and a water heater. (since the water in my 40G seemed way too cold in my bedroom since there is a nearly no natural light and a window AC) I put the Danios in my wife's 14G with the new glofish and the barbed pleco in my tank since the 2 algae eaters in there spend all day inside the dark hull of the pirate ship. Once the water heated up the 2 recluse algae eaters came out of their hiding spot to join the barbed pleco. I'm guessing it was too cold so they hid in their to stay warm. Both of our tanks have a lot more activity now and I'm extremely satisfied. Thanks so much everyone. I'll post some new pictures later.

Oh! and Walmart undercharged me for the fish I got today. It has been in my experience that Walmart is very hit and miss with their pet department. Most of the time I get fish from there the person has no idea whether they are aggressive or not or pretty much anything and they are extremely rough in their handling of the fish. I'm guessing it might have something to do with Hawaii to because since I've moved here I have to say customer service in general is EXTREMELY subpar compared to anywhere on the main land. Dunno if anyone here lives in Hawaii too. If so, let me know where you go for fish supplies.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Walmart flushes all returns. Please, please, please start doing much more research on the fish you are planning to get, before you purchase them!

 

[EOD]

Why do you think I signed up here? The only hobby I've really had in the past 5 years is my job (yes it does count as a hobby), video games, and drinking) so I'm really excited to be getting into aquariums. It's costly but between craigslist and DiY, you can save tons.