Never had an aquarium can someone give me tips before i buy

"nuchumYussel" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I have never had an aquarium before but I am now looking to get
one. I am currently looking at a 20 Gallon tank. I have all the oher
necesseties. Can some one PLEASE give me tips or name of non
aggressive fish for a starter. Thanks in advance.

~~~Evan Davis

first try checking out thekrib, most of the basic fundamental stuff to know
is all there.

http://faq.thekrib.com/

enjoy and welcome to the hobby.

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 22:04:29 -0600, Tedd wrote:
first try checking out thekrib, most of the basic fundamental stuff to know
is all there.

And dont let your LFS persuade you to cycle the tank with barbs
if you want non aggressive, because it dictates pretty much every
fish you can have thereafter....




--
Flash Wilson - http://www.gorge.org

Comments in my journal or guestbook are welcome!

Good advice from Flash there.

Also get advice from your LFS and then double check their advice from either
books, the internet, or this newsgroup. This way you'll find out if you're
LFS are really interested in your hobby and the welfare of the fish or
making a quick buck.

Get a trio of guppies or feeder guppies.


"nuchumYussel" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I have never had an aquarium before but I am now looking to get
one. I am currently looking at a 20 Gallon tank. I have all the oher
necesseties. Can some one PLEASE give me tips or name of non
aggressive fish for a starter. Thanks in advance.

~~~Evan Davis

"nuchumYussel" wrote in message
om...
Thank you all very much

Non aggressive community fish suitable for a 20g tank would be most any
tetras which do not exceed 3", corydorous catfish, kuhli loaches, any of
the 4 main livebearers (though the Molly would prefer salt in their
water), small algae eaters such as Oto cats & SAEs, many barbs (ie:
cherry barbs), many of the gouramis (ie: dwarfs, pygmy, croaking, pearl),
various rainbows (if your water is a bit harder), various danios (zebra,
leopard, pearl). Then there are shrimps, frogs, snails etc. Siamese
fighting fish often make good community fish (though not always with male
guppies or with very small fish). A Rainbow shark might be fine as well,
as would many of the smaller cichlids. The list is extensive, and it
depends on your recipe. Angelfish can be very good community fish, but
like tall tanks, would eat very small fish and might be tormented by fast
danios (it's all in the recipe you choose).

I suggest you start by determining your water parameters, to see if you
have an extreme condition (very hard or very soft) which would be more
suitable to certain fishes (tetras and livebearers come from opposite
water conditions). Then look into your options for cycling the tank (ie:
6 zebra danios or fishless cycling
http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html ).

NetMax

NetMax wrote:
Non aggressive community fish suitable for a 20g tank would be most any
tetras which do not exceed 3", corydorous catfish, kuhli loaches, any of
the 4 main livebearers (though the Molly would prefer salt in their
water), small algae eaters such as Oto cats & SAEs, many barbs (ie:

Ahem... SAEs will very quickly get too large for a 20g. Mine grew from 1"
to 4" in less than 4 months.

Cheers.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

On 8 Jul 2003 20:33:37 -0700, (nuchumYussel) wrote:

Hi, I have never had an aquarium before but I am now looking to get
one. I am currently looking at a 20 Gallon tank. I have all the oher
necesseties. Can some one PLEASE give me tips or name of non
aggressive fish for a starter. Thanks in advance.

~~~Evan Davis


neon/cardinal tetras
x-ray tetras
harlequins
platies
mollies

as a relative newbie (started 3 months) ago I would recommend you buy
a good beginners book and take it from there

Brian

"Victor M. Martinez" wrote in message
...
NetMax wrote:
Non aggressive community fish suitable for a 20g tank would be most
any
tetras which do not exceed 3", corydorous catfish, kuhli loaches, any
of
the 4 main livebearers (though the Molly would prefer salt in their
water), small algae eaters such as Oto cats & SAEs, many barbs (ie:

Ahem... SAEs will very quickly get too large for a 20g. Mine grew from
1"
to 4" in less than 4 months.

With all the foods you use, I don't doubt that you could get these guys
to their maximum 5.5" ;o) ... but
http://www.fishindex.com/phpinfo//4/2//145 does list a 10g as their
minimum tank size, and I rarely see them over 4". They are so peaceful
that I figured a 20g would be ok (though a 33g would be much better).
This leaves Otos which sometimes have trouble staying alive, so SAEs
become the next obvious choice.

NetMax


Cheers.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

A "small" pleco such as a rubber nose would be nice. No common plecos,
they'd outgrow the tank in a couple of months if fed well.

Bob
"Spindoctor" wrote in message
...
On 8 Jul 2003 20:33:37 -0700, (nuchumYussel) wrote:

Hi, I have never had an aquarium before but I am now looking to get
one. I am currently looking at a 20 Gallon tank. I have all the oher
necesseties. Can some one PLEASE give me tips or name of non
aggressive fish for a starter. Thanks in advance.

~~~Evan Davis


neon/cardinal tetras
x-ray tetras
harlequins
platies
mollies

as a relative newbie (started 3 months) ago I would recommend you buy
a good beginners book and take it from there

Brian

On Wed, 9 Jul 2003 08:20:21 +0000 (UTC), (Flash Wilson) wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 22:04:29 -0600, Tedd wrote:
first try checking out thekrib, most of the basic fundamental stuff to know
is all there.

And dont let your LFS persuade you to cycle the tank with barbs
if you want non aggressive, because it dictates pretty much every
fish you can have thereafter....

Agree with that one. I wanted to add fish to my tank and being a novice I asked
the LFS about some barbs they had (all male). They said no problem, they'll get
along with everything.

Lost my 2 cory cats (bought at the same time) and a couple of Danios before I
figured out the Barbs where the culprits.