Sk8r
02/03/2014, 12:54 PM
1. most fish are sold as fingerlings (minnows) and grow fast---up to a foot and more. Exceptions are the very small gobies and blennies. Middling exceptions are the vast class of damsels, which includes clowns, that max out at about 5 inches on the average, with a few staying at 4.
2. aggression and 'can I keep a...?' is directly dependent on tank size. A mildmannered mandarin will turn killer of his own kind in too small a tank. A rabbit too confined will start eliminating his tankmates. Ditto damsels. You ask me 'can I keep a [x] with a [y]?' and I can't answer your question. In a 50 gallon, no. In a 300 gallon, probably.
3. little tanks are bigger problems than a 100 gallon. Why? Evaporation and keeping salinity right. And your possible fish are severely limited. Fish availability opens out massively with 100 g.
4. water quality is everything. Light is the other thing. Perfect the one and be sure the other is ok for what you want to keep. Alkalinity is hugely important for everyone to check: if that's off, you need to adjust magnesium and calcium.
5. dosing and spot feeding are for particular kinds of tanks and critters. You can get into a lot of trouble buying the latest stuff at your fish store and pouring it into your tank. LPS coral generally thrives on fish poo, and dosing ANYTHING you don't have a test to measure in your water is a route to Very Bad Things.
6. The fish distribution system exposes fish caught in the wild to a range of parasites and diseases they might never otherwise have contacted. Their immunity is affected by stress. Some dealers are better (and cost more) than others because they take precautions. But YOUR precaution is a quarantine tank that gives the fish time to calm down, feed, recover his personal slime coat, and break out in spots if he was only recently exposed. Quarantine and observe. Don't treat a well fish: if he turns out to have an infection he needs antibiotics; if he turns out to have ich, you may need copper, and the two treatments aren't compatible. If you HAVE to treat, be sure you're picking the right path, keep your salinity spot-on every hour, and don't run carbon in the filter pad while treating!
7. Acclimation badly understood kills fish. It's all about SALINITY. Put your new fish into a qt that's pre-set to the salinity of the shipper, and if the salinity of that bag and the salinity of the shipper match within .002, don't acclimate, just float him 15 minutes with the bag still closed to even out the temperatures, then release into quarantine without putting his water into that tank.
8. you need 4 things to avoid the most common 'agony posts' of a novice in trouble: a ro/di filter {OMG, I have this green stuff in my tank...] a refractometer [my fish died and I don't know why] and an ATO [I'm trying to treat: how do I keep my salinity steady when it evaporates like crazy?} And a quarantine tank [what are these funny spots on my fish? can it spread?]
2. aggression and 'can I keep a...?' is directly dependent on tank size. A mildmannered mandarin will turn killer of his own kind in too small a tank. A rabbit too confined will start eliminating his tankmates. Ditto damsels. You ask me 'can I keep a [x] with a [y]?' and I can't answer your question. In a 50 gallon, no. In a 300 gallon, probably.
3. little tanks are bigger problems than a 100 gallon. Why? Evaporation and keeping salinity right. And your possible fish are severely limited. Fish availability opens out massively with 100 g.
4. water quality is everything. Light is the other thing. Perfect the one and be sure the other is ok for what you want to keep. Alkalinity is hugely important for everyone to check: if that's off, you need to adjust magnesium and calcium.
5. dosing and spot feeding are for particular kinds of tanks and critters. You can get into a lot of trouble buying the latest stuff at your fish store and pouring it into your tank. LPS coral generally thrives on fish poo, and dosing ANYTHING you don't have a test to measure in your water is a route to Very Bad Things.
6. The fish distribution system exposes fish caught in the wild to a range of parasites and diseases they might never otherwise have contacted. Their immunity is affected by stress. Some dealers are better (and cost more) than others because they take precautions. But YOUR precaution is a quarantine tank that gives the fish time to calm down, feed, recover his personal slime coat, and break out in spots if he was only recently exposed. Quarantine and observe. Don't treat a well fish: if he turns out to have an infection he needs antibiotics; if he turns out to have ich, you may need copper, and the two treatments aren't compatible. If you HAVE to treat, be sure you're picking the right path, keep your salinity spot-on every hour, and don't run carbon in the filter pad while treating!
7. Acclimation badly understood kills fish. It's all about SALINITY. Put your new fish into a qt that's pre-set to the salinity of the shipper, and if the salinity of that bag and the salinity of the shipper match within .002, don't acclimate, just float him 15 minutes with the bag still closed to even out the temperatures, then release into quarantine without putting his water into that tank.
8. you need 4 things to avoid the most common 'agony posts' of a novice in trouble: a ro/di filter {OMG, I have this green stuff in my tank...] a refractometer [my fish died and I don't know why] and an ATO [I'm trying to treat: how do I keep my salinity steady when it evaporates like crazy?} And a quarantine tank [what are these funny spots on my fish? can it spread?]