Newbie from Italy

Hi everybody!
I am a newbie in keeping tank and I am very interested about this newsgroup.
I am sorry for my english but as you can see, I am an italian exactly from
Rome.
Well, I have a 40 lt. tank of freshwater with a guppy, 3 platys, 6 neons, 1
coridoras and 4 shrimps.
I have some questions for some experts and I hope I can have some easy
suggestions.
1) Is it possible to recognize the gender of neon?
2) what is the right amount of plants needed for a correct setup?
3) how can i emphasize the colour of fishes naturally (I mean not
chemically)?

Thanks a lot and best regards...
MaX (Rome)

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 10:37:07 +0200, y
wrote:
Hi everybody!

Hi!

I am a newbie in keeping tank and I am very interested about this newsgroup.
I am sorry for my english but as you can see, I am an italian exactly from
Rome.

No problem, your English is much better than my Italian!

1) Is it possible to recognize the gender of neon?

I've read many sites which say the male is slimmer, the female a bit
rounder and deeper than the male. I don't know, personally!

2) what is the right amount of plants needed for a correct setup?

It's up to you, but with the fish you have I would have a medium
number. In my own tetra tank I have an amazon sword and two bushy
plants which I have to trim often. So about half the space is taken
with plants. It's up to you but I would have at least a few so your
fish have somewhere to hide.

3) how can i emphasize the colour of fishes naturally (I mean not
chemically)?

I have a black background (card from an art shop) and black gravel
(small pieces of black glass from the aquatic shop). Plus you can
buy fluorescent tubes which say they bring out the colours, I think
the purply ones do that but I'm not sure. Read the packaging!

Also happy fish are more likely to be more colourful, so provide them
with places to hide, clean water and make sure the tank is not somewhere
where they will get startled often by people walking past.

Finally some flake foods claim to be formulated to bring out colour.

Hope that helps you! Good luck and welcome to the group.




--
Flash Wilson
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Word of the contest: Quim, on a triple word score (45 points)

"Flash Wilson" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 10:37:07 +0200, y
wrote:
Hi everybody!

Hi!

I am a newbie in keeping tank and I am very interested about this
newsgroup.
I am sorry for my english but as you can see, I am an italian exactly
from
Rome.

No problem, your English is much better than my Italian!

Oh well thank you...Well I can't tell nothing about your italian.... but if
you like to try... you're welcome!


1) Is it possible to recognize the gender of neon?

I've read many sites which say the male is slimmer, the female a bit
rounder and deeper than the male. I don't know, personally!

2) what is the right amount of plants needed for a correct setup?

It's up to you, but with the fish you have I would have a medium
number. In my own tetra tank I have an amazon sword and two bushy
plants which I have to trim often. So about half the space is taken
with plants. It's up to you but I would have at least a few so your
fish have somewhere to hide.

3) how can i emphasize the colour of fishes naturally (I mean not
chemically)?

I have a black background (card from an art shop) and black gravel
(small pieces of black glass from the aquatic shop). Plus you can
buy fluorescent tubes which say they bring out the colours, I think
the purply ones do that but I'm not sure. Read the packaging!

Also happy fish are more likely to be more colourful, so provide them
with places to hide, clean water and make sure the tank is not somewhere
where they will get startled often by people walking past.

Finally some flake foods claim to be formulated to bring out colour.

Hope that helps you! Good luck and welcome to the group.


What can I tell? Thank you a lot! I think I'm going to post about my success
or failure about my tank keeping ;-)
Ok now let's go to buy two female guppies for my stallion (he's trying to
have joy with my platies and it's not good for a fish ;-))).
One last question... Could somebody tell me a good internet site (in
english) where I can find the name of fishes and plants (expecially plants)
to recognize them when I'll go at the fish emporium? (I think that if I ask
for an Amazon sword someone couldn't understand... here in Italy I mean...
but if I could see them!!!)

Maybe next time I'll post a pic (if I can of course) of my tank. Then I'll
ask you to suggest some improvment...
Thank you again

MaX


--
Flash Wilson
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Word of the contest: Quim, on a triple word score (45 points)