Confused, new to fish keeping

WOW! That looks just like my male blue kenyi!

It could be a female electric yellow, they have less black and no black bottom fins.
But from this pic, you can't see any black on the top one either..

It probably is a kenyi then. Someone at work told me that if it is and they have babies she wants some. She said she never had any and would love to have a different type of fish, but she's too cheap to buy some (her words not mine).

Someone gave me a 20 gal. Long tank. Do you think the plecos would be okay in that for a while? I was planning on putting the tank in my room, and I want to make it some type of community tank. But, alas, I am clueless (sort of). What type of fish would you recommend, and would it need a heater? I was thinking of a few fan-tailed guppies. That is really the only things I can think of that I would need to know, since I only have experience with the fish I have, and that's really not much experience at that.

Hehe...I have a 20 gal long!
I have 2 dojoe? Loaches, 5 neon tetra, 5 cardinal tetra, 2 male guppies, 3 female guppies, and 2 sunset platies.

I run a 10 gal heater and keep the water at 76.

I think the plecos would be fine in there for now while they're small.

Small tetras, guppies, platies, and mollies, are some colorful choices that would do real good in there.

I could only find the cichlid attack at petco, so i'll have to look at petsmart. They said they stopped getting the other one in recently. Do you still give them flakes with it or do you just give them the pellets to eat? I thought I put a lot in, and it says to feed them whatever they can eat within 3 min. Well, what I put in only took them about 30 seconds to devour.

Ooh, I was at petco, and they had some crabs. Little ones that get to like 2.5 inches. I was so tempted to get one. I was afraid he would crawl out of the tank, though, and die BEHIND it. EWW! That would be nasty.

I really like some of the colors on the male guppies. That's why I was thinking them, but I sort of like the black mollies, too.

I don't feed flakes once they are big enough to eat the pellets (to the cichlids anyway) so that their teeth stay healthy and grinded down.

I feed both the attack and the spirulina to the African cichlids at the same time, it's like eating meat and veggies - LOL. They love it! But that's the only 2 things I feed them.
I feed them a lot too. And a few times a day at that. I feel they need it
To grow and for good color, plus an unhungry African is less aggressive.

I've never kept a crab before, but they might surprise you.
I've heard that they are very good at catching the fish in their pinchers and eating them...but that's just something I've heard and don't know if it's true or even possible.

You can keep guppies and mollies together.
They get along with each other well.
They both have live babies too, no eggs.
It's pretty cool.

Akae why do you have a oscar in a salt water tank? Not good by any means
Im surprised the poor thing is still alive. If your oscar is that large it should be in a tank no less than 50 g now.
Crazy, your tank should not be as full of algae as it is, you need to put in a better form of filtration in it. If you are wanting to breed these chiclids they should be in a 20 g or more tank. Supply them with plenty of hiding spaces. You should never have more than 1 pair of breeding parents in a tank of 10 - 20 g at one time. If you put in too many they will fight and kill each other. The female of the breed that you have are notorious for killing the males once they are finished with them so you have to keep an eye on them.

Clean the tank out once the babies have been transferred when they are old enough. Becareful not to transfer them to early because the babies eat off of the slime on the parents bodies. Algae buildup like you are describing often happens as a result of overfeeding, over stocking and poor water filtration. One thing that you can put into your larger tank is a power head which allows for more water movement which areorates the water giving the fish and tank itself more oxygen. Do not put the tank too close to a heating element such as rad or near a window where the sun comes in constantly. I have been breeding and caring for chiclids for over 20 years so if you ever have a question, let me know. I also have salt water tanks and a sea horse tank

Hello all
I've been enjoying reading your posts here. I kept fish for a number of years when My wife, I and our girls were younger(considerably). It seems that the basics have changed a little but the common sense approach still holds true. When we kept fish I quickly learned to change out a quarter or so of the water once a month but never quite understood why it worked so well... Now I understand better... Thank you.

Reading your posts has made me consider putting up the extra deposit my apartment complex requires and starting a tank again.

I have to pass along an anecdote about killing a poor fish with kindness.

A number of years ago we started our first community tank on doctors orders. My doctor recommended it as therapy for my ulcer problem (I can watch a tank for about half an hour and relax so much that you almost have to pour me out of my easy chair). As part of this community tank my wife selected a fancy Black Moor Goldfish. It was introduced to the tank with no problems at all until a friend gave us a pretty little Beta Splendens which took a very aggressive stance with the Moor.

During the time leading up to the acquisition of these two fish I had been reading and decided, since we lived in a large drafty old house on the Oregon coast and had some problems with Ick and some other problems brought on by our accommodations, a small treatment tank was in order. I bought glass and silicon and built a tank that would hold one gallon of water to be used for treatment purposes. One gallon for ease in measuring proper dosages.

Meanwhile back in the main tank... The Beta had become more aggressive toward the poor Moor and had, in it's attacks removed a number of scales from the Moor's sides and the Moor seemed to be suffering. Well humanitarian that I was back then I decided to move the Moor to the treatment tank and add medications that the book I had recommended for the problem at hand. When the process was finished I placed a spare heater, which had already been tested and set to hold 78 to 80 degrees, I had in the small tank. We went to bed knowing that all had been done to make the Moor comfortable and start the healing process.

Next morning we woke up to find the poor Moor floating belly up in the small tank. It seems that I overlooked the fact that the sensor unit of the heater was not far enough into the water to shut off the element when the water reached the right temp. This happened over thirty years ago and I have yet to live down the fact that I cooked my better half's favorite fish.

Moral: If you're going to build a treatment tank make darn sure that the depth is sufficient to get the heater into it deep enough to operate properly.

AK I would like to know a little more about using the bacterium sponge set up. Do you set it up in a separate filter system without using all the other filter elements?

Would black moors be ok in the tank with the mollies and guppies? I would rather not even try the crabs because I was thinking that, too, that they would easily grab the other fish. I should look them up. If they would do good in ten gallons I could sometime set that up and put them in there. Since I have three of them now. The lady who gave me the the 20 also gave me a 10 with all the works.

Nanajo,

AKaeTrue never said she put her oscar in saltwater. The only time she even mentioned saltwater was when I didn't explain my fish well enough and she thought they might be a different kind.


Chaplain john,

Thanks for the story! You just helped me reaffirm that I won't ever make my own tank, because no matter how much thought I will put into it, I know something will go wrong. You have asked the right person for the information you are seeking. She has knowledge in a lot of things to do with fish and tanks.