 Fish, Oh Fish, Where For Art Thou Fish?LENGTH TANK x WIDTH = WATER SURFACE AREA /(divided by) 40CM. DIVIDE TOTAL BY SIZE OR AVERAGE SIZE OF FISH YOU WANT TO ADD. For Example My Tank is: 42cm length x 22cm width = 924 / 40 = 23.1 / 4.5cm (approx length of fish) = 5.13 fish approx. Based on the Alernative Recipe as listed at The Tropical Fish Centre. I am trying this to combat new tank syndrome, which just means beginners losing fish because they have added too many at once. When you add fish to a tank their waste, containing Ammonia, builds up and becomes toxic. This is why you have to do a water changes, (10 - 25% usually), and why you have to add only a few fish at a time. This helps your aquarium water adjust relatively safely. Basically what I did was to add a few drops of Ammonia then test the water until it reached 5.0ppm (parts per million), which is in the 'deadly change water range' of my test kit. Then you add the same overall amount of Ammonia used to achieve the above result everyday until the Nitrite, (NitrIte not NitRate), shows up. After this half the dose. Keep this up until your Nitrite levels peak, level off and hopefully start to drop. At the end of the cycle when Ammonia and Nitrite levels are 0, do a water change, 10-15% for a small tank I think. Do NOT add your fish if there is still Ammonia or Nitrite present in the aquarium water. Do another water change and test again. I messed this up something rotton, I had to wait an extra day to get my fish after I thought the tank had finished cycling and it went through the whole thing again as if new, thus the name - New Tank Syndrome. I lost 5 of the 7 fish I added to the tank and it was very upsetting. If I'd had any idea keeping freshwater tropical fish was going to be this stressful I probably wouldn't have begun! What's weird is that the Corydoras pygmaeus or the Neon Tetra actually laid some eggs during this time, so I missed out on seeing if they would hatch. It was the last thing I expected to happen, but I suppose the poor fish had no choice. I suspect it was the Corydoras, in the fish tank, with the Lava rock! Later once the NitrIte level was 0 again I added 4 Black Phantom Tetra, (Megalamphodus megalopterus) and everything was fine for a week. During which I had to treat the tank for suspected Ich. Then I did a water change on the 24th June 2001 and got another NitrIte spike! The last of the Neon Tetra, (Paracheirodon innesi) died, but the other fish, 1 Corydoras pygmaeus and the 4 Black Phantom Tetra survived. The first indication that something was wrong was when I noticed a film on the the water, the Neon was skimming just underneath the surface almost vertically and looked as if it were feeding, but as it had never done this before I knew it was in trouble. It died a short time later. The next day NitrIte was zero again. I thought it was all over, but a week later on Saturday 30th June 2001 I made the mistake of doing another water change and the same thing happened again.
No casualties this time, but the NitrIte was still high the next day. I'd heard that it was hard to keep the water safe in a small tank, but this is ridiculous - not to mentions worrying. The damn tank is cycling so much I could enter it in the Tour De France! I am going to leave the water alone for a few weeks and see what happens. The reason I haven't mentioned the Ammonia level is because I bought some AmmoLock which is supposed to render the Ammonia harmless to the fish until the filtration system can deal with it. Women and Fish First - A Beginners Guide to fishTrying to decide what fish to buy proved to be difficult. You just think you've found your sole mate when another little aquatic temptress bats it's fins at you! The following fish were all possible choices for my tank and were investigated to this end. They are all supposed to be good community fish and ideal for beginners, most of the fish listed school, which just means they like to swim about in a group and do better if you get a few of a kind. Many thanks go to the members of The Tropical Fish Centre Message Board for their suggestions, help and advice. tetras, small schooling fish. Black Phantom tetra - Megalamphodus megalopterus. 4.5cm. Emperor tetra - Nematobrycon palmeri. 4.5cm. Flame tetra - Hyphessobrycon flammeus. Neon tetra - Paracheirodon innesi. 4.5cm. Black Neon tetra - Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi. 4cm. Red Phantom tetra - Megalamphodus sweglesi. 4cm. Pristella - Pristella maxillaris. 4.5cm. Marble Hatchet Fish - Carnegiella strigata fasciata. 3.5cm. Dwarf Hatchet Fish - Carnegiella schereri. collectively known as Labyrinth Fish. As well as gills they have a respiritory organ which allows them to breath our air to a small degree. Siamese Fighting Fish - Betta splendens. One male per tank or they will fight. 6cm. Dwarf Gourami - Colisa lalia. 4cm - 5cm. Honey Gourami - Colisa sota . 4.5cm. Pygmy Gourami - Trichopsis pumilus. 4cm. the Corydoras branch of the family which are small, peaceful bottom dwellers. They make occasional runs to the surface for air and help keep your tank clean. Corydoras jullii - Often confused with Corydoras trilineatus. 4cm. Corydoras metae - 5cm. Corydoras panda - 5cm. Corydoras similis - 5cm. Pepper Catfish - Corydoras paleatus. 7cm. Bronze Catfish - Corydoras aeneus. 7cm. Corydoras hastatus - No.36 in the library under C. 2.5cm. Corydoras habrosus - 2cm. Corydoras pygmaeus - No.60 in the library under C. 2.5cm. most of these fish are egg scatters and the group includes barbs and danios, hardy fish that are usually peaceful. Zebra Danio - Brachydanio rerio. Gold/Golden Barb - Barbus gelius. 4cm -4.5cm. Golden Dwarf Barb - Puntius gelius. 5cm. Leopard Danio - Brachydanio frankei. Pearl Danio - Brachydanio albolineatus. 5.5cm. Harlequin - Rasbora heteromorpha. 4.5cm. Dwarf Rasbora - Boraras maculatus. these fish give birth to live young rather than lay eggs and the group includes platies and mollies, hardy fish that are usually peaceful. Mosquito fish - Gambusia affinis. 4cm. Platy - Xiphophorus maculatus. 5cm. Guppy - Lebistes reticulatus. Don't keep males and female together unless breeding. 6cm. On the The Tropical Fish Centre Message Board a nice person nicknamed Ferret, suggested I buy a copy of the magazine Practical Fishkeeping as it lists the specialist retailers all over the United Kingdom. I did, it's interesting, but it didn't list a retailer near enough for my liking, so I checked the phone books under F, A and even T and found a shop about 8 miles away called 'Fish Alive' at the Dragonlane Shopping Centre, Durham.
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Murphy's Tropical Freshwater