My husband wants to add new fish to our aquarium, but

[Shell Beau]

we have had a happy set of fish for about 3 years. I would hate to add some craziness to the aquarium. We got all of the fish we have now at the same time. They have always been together. They flourish. I am worried that adding more fish will eff it all up.

Any fish/aquarium people in the house?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. What do you have currently, and what does he want to add?

I'm a fish/aquarium person.

Also, what size tank and what are the #'s of fish?

[Shell Beau]

2. We have a 50 gallon aquarium. We have 4 large kissing Gourami

and one Violet Goby (who is over a foot long-probably almost 2 feet). I think we have the room for more, but I hate to mess up the situation they have going.

He isn't real particular about what he wants. Obviously a fish (or two) that can cohabit with the ones we have.


The Dragon/Violet Goby's name is Eelvis. Just had to say that! :) The others just go by "kissing fish". We can't tell them apart.

[LostinVA]

3. EELVIS -- love it!!!

[Shell Beau]

5. I know!! Too bad I didn't even come up with it. And Eelvis is a monster!

He is the creepiest looking fish ever. And a freakin GIANT! I don't think they typically get over a foot long, but Eelvis is a monster. He really is on the verge of 2 feet. It is kinda hard to tell in an aquarium, but he (I guess it is a he?!?!?!) said oh hell no! I'll get as long as I want too. He sooo has the Eelvis personality.

[tekisui]

7. I second the Pleco or a couple of Corydora catfish.

They keep to themselves, and hang around the bottom. There are some cool catfish that won't get huge, and are really cool looking. Although the corys may be too small for Eelvis, he may try to eat them. I don't know their habits.

[Shell Beau]

16. They have HUGE mouths. Anything that will go in it will be eaten.

Maybe not even on purpose. I will definitely check all these out.

We used to have the upside down catfish (its scientific name leaves me now) and it was cool, but it didn't live long.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Kissing Gouramis can be kind of douchebag-ish with other fish

I'd say your best bet for adding another fish would be a decent-sized pleco or some kind of syndontis catfish.

Some of them can be kind of pretty, and they both do well with African cichlids, which put Kissing Gouramis to shame in terms of being an asshole.

[Shell Beau]

6. We have had cichlids before. We sucked at owning them, let me tell you.

Either that, or we got some sick ones. They all died within a month. And we had some sucking fish. We were successful at those kinds, but I think my husband wants a swimmy fish. But I just think it isn't happening. Why ruin a good tank by pissing off our happy fish?

I told him when they all die we can start over with all kinds of new fish. He really wants a salt water tank, but that is too much work for the time we have. We have a hard enough time with our fresh water tank. And when you lose a salt water fish, that can be $100 GONE! Those fish don't come cheap.

I was just thinking Father's Day is upon us, and fish could be a nice present for him. It is his tank. I told him when we got the mega tank (as I call it) that it was up to him to feed them and clean the tank. But I think we will take another route as far as presents go.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Cichlids are pretty easy, provided you keep them from killing each other

It's a delicate balance.

Syndontis are pretty active swimmers, and like I said, some of them are quite pretty.

I'd love a saltwater tank, but I can't even afford to set up a cichlid tank right now.

[Shell Beau]

26. Yeah, tanks are pricey. Especially salt water tanks.

I get upset if we lose a fish now. A fish that cost me $10-$15 (and not because of the money), but I can't imagine losing a $100 fish!

I had a HUGE-OBESE goldfish about 6 years ago. When he/she died, we had a funeral. We buried it in the front yard and put a cross that we made from 2 sticks on his grave site. I get emotional over any damn animal.

[tekisui]

10. I think you could also consider a small school of one of the larger

tetras. 3-5 should be okay with the gouramis. One or two would get harassed. Someone may correct me on this suggestion.

[realisticphish]

9. I have a balanced aquarium at the moment

I work at a pet store, and I'm constantly thinking, "hey, those rosy barbs are on sale." But I have to control myself; I have a 20 gallon with 4 tiger barbs, 3 silver dollars, 2 rosies, a comet, a rainbow shark, a pleco, and an electric blue crayfish. For some reason, everything has been PERFECT for months, and that time spans a move, including a teardown of the tank.

If your tank is happy, don't piss it off ;)

But there's always room for another tank...

[Arugula Latte]

12. Whoa! I can't believe you can kep that many fish going in a 20 gallon tank.

I've got a 20 gallon w/ two goldfish and two white clouds. :)

[tekisui]

15. I have a 20 gallon with:

2 Dwarf Gouramis
4 Zebra Danios
6 Platys(one platy fry)
2 cory cats
6 ghost shrimp
4 African Dwarf Frogs
and lots of plants

[realisticphish]

19. goldfish are filthy

seriously, 2 little goldfish are the equivalent of about 8-10 tetras or barbs in terms of bioload.

I also MASSIVELY over-filter. I always double up, at least; I believe I have a 60-gallon filter on that one at the moment. My 55 gallon is running a 75 gallon canister filter.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. On the 55 gallon I had for African cichlids

I ran a Eheim and X2 canister filters, along with a bio-wheel filter and a power head with sponge filter. The fish did awesome (until I went to Hawaii and left them in the care of my roommate) and the water was always immaculate.

[realisticphish]

39. I love my oscar

but I keep looking at that huge tank and thinking, "man I could keep a lot of cool stuff in there..."

He's in there with a tinfoil barb, a firemouth, and a common pleco. Oscars are dirty as hell too, and I've been having doubts lately that my filter can handle the load. I'm fighting green water at the moment. I think I'm going to have to strip the tank, which is going to suck (especially since netting the oscar is like landing a large mouth bass)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. I always wanted to set up a UV filter to make the water completely polished

Right now, I'm just wishing I could set up a real tank, but money and remodeling prohibit it. I've got a 2 gallon with a betta and octo. That's it.

:(

[realisticphish]

42. if it maintains interest

than that's cool. Sometimes you just don't have the resources. Just having some fish around, even only 2, is nice :)

[Maine-ah]

46. lol - oscar

I loved my oscar too, and they can handle some pretty tough situations. Mine jumped out of the tank, and he had to have been out of the water for a few minutes before I found him. I threw him back in and he lived for a few more years after that. The bugger was huge.

As for the op, I thought the rule of thumb was for every 1" of fish you need 5 gallons of water. My oscar was the only fish in my 55 gallon tank. It's been a long time since I had a tank, so I'm not sure on this rule.

[realisticphish]

49. the old rule is 1" per gallon

but that doesn't hold true for goldfish, oscars, and most carnivores. that ratio ignores body mass, which oscars have aplenty

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

35. Goldfish are filthy and can totally outgrow 20 gallon tanks

[tekisui]

13. My tank has been up and running well for about two months.

At some point in the next year, I will be moving, and have no idea how to do that and keep the fish alive and well. How do you keep the heat going?

[Shell Beau]

20. We moved with fish and we did okay UNTIL my daddy

hit a speed bump at the location we moved to. He drove 2 hours fine. But we got there and he hit a speed bump and all hell broke loose. My aquarium (which had only about 2 inches of water in it) busted and fish were flopping everywhere. We were able to save some. We stuck them in a ice cooler. That is how NOT to move an aquarium.

[realisticphish]

29. haha wow

yeah, i learned that you need either a bucket or individual fish bags. I tried the whole aquarium thing once as well... ended up with a wet car and a few dead fish

[Shell Beau]

33. We did the whole moving the aquarium 2 months before the longer move.

Worked well when you are only moving down the street. Not so much when you are moving a good bit away. And speedbumps will eff it all up!

[realisticphish]

22. how far are you moving?

if it's really long distance, talk to your LFS; they may have shipping equipment for fedexing them.

If it's a very short journey, don't worry about the heat. Just add a little warm water before you go. If it's a medium length trip, try one of those chemical hand-warmers. put it in a full water bottle, or gallon ziploc, then wrap it in a towel and put it into the bucket you're using (all that to help prevent burns)

Honestly, though, I've moved my fish 5 times in the last 5 years, and I've never had a problem with heat. I usually run an sponge filter with a battery powered air pump if it's going to be more than a few hours. Bad water quality can be deadly, especially when your fish are already in shock.

[tekisui]

24. When I go, it will be about 4 hours.

I will consider the fedexing route.

[Shell Beau]

28. Do some research. It doesn't take much to mess up fish.

A move can be traumatic for them.

[tekisui]

31. I know it.

I learned the hard way. One of my platys was stressed to death by the bully betta. He got kicked out into his own tank. I should have never tried it, but I read that some bettas can live with a community without being mean. Mine can't.

I have about a year to figure out how I'll do the move.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

37. When I moved my cichlid tank, I just put them in 5-gallon buckets with battery aerators

There was no problem.

[Shell Beau]

14. NO!! No more tanks! We gave away a 20 and a 30 gallon tank.

I love them, but they are work. A lot of work. And we go out of town enough that it is hard. We have to make sure we have someone handy to come feed the fish. We tried the time release food. SUCKS!! At least it did for us. They now have an electronic feeder (I am sure you know this though) that we need to buy. We just recently bought an extra pump that is battery operated. We lost about 60 fish during Katrina due to no electricity. Wiped out my tank. Of course I had some damn multipliers in there. Having babies every time you turn around, but still they all died.

It seems like we have to keep updating stuff for our ONE tank, so NO MORE TANKS. If it were up to my husband, we would have one in every room of the house.

[tekisui]

17. My wife has stopped me at one 20 gallon tank

and one 4 gallon Betta tank.

I really want a 10-20 gallon saltwater tank with anemones and just a few fish, but she isn't having it.

[Shell Beau]

21. I think you have to check the PH levels daily with a saltwater.

Way too much trouble for me! Don't go out of town or anything!

[realisticphish]

18. we lost power for a week last fall

i bought a battery powered air pump, and that saved my 20 gallon. My 30 gallon with my Oscar I kept by doing daily water changes (thank god for city water)

and tanks are an addiction... you upgrade to a larger tank, and think "hey, I have an empty tank now...."

It's like crack :D

[Shell Beau]

23. I know! Which is why when we did upgrade, I made my husband give

away our smaller tank. We would have bought a battery powered pump during Katrina, but no stores were open. It sucked. I almost cried for our fish. They basically suffocated. We tried to physically pump water in the tank with at turkey baster (I know!!!), but that was a joke.

[realisticphish]

27. that had to suck

i've created a disaster kit for my fish since the power outage. My lizard and my cat aren't as big a deal in terms of care.

I don't know what your running water situation was (I guess if the power was off universally, not good) but just normal water changes help. I've also heard of people blowing air into the tank with a garden hose. In that situation the worst part isn't the water quality in terms of nitrates, but rather the lack of dissolved oxygen. I almost killed my Oscar in my latest move, because I forgot to put the airstone in at the new place; I have a canister filter, so the top of the water is never agitated, and the DO dropped very low

[arcadian]

11. Sea trout

:rofl:

[Shell Beau]

25. Aw, those are waaaay too small for my tank!

Duh!

:P

[hibbing]

30. big gulp

Hi,
That is one gigantic Goby. I was going to suggest corys as others have, but I have a feeling they would get eaten. I find local fish stores always have gigantic plecos, or maybe some large clown loaches? I would be worried about anything getting eaten. I have kept fish for 30+ years, always a balance depending on what you have. Now I have a simple, friendly 55 with two big clown loaches and 7 small corys, 1 big cory, and an otocinlus. Good luck.

Peace

[Shell Beau]

32. We are amazed at our Eelvis. He just continues to grow.

He was maybe 4" when we bought him. He is outrageously large. He is the talk of the house when we have visitors. I don't think he would eat anything purposely. But his mouth is huge, and anything that could be sucked in it would be a goner. He loves his blood worms. He is basically blind I believe. I think those fish are, but he has an excellent sense of smell. But he doesn't bother with our kissing fish. They stay far away from him, and he does the same.


See? Why mess that up? They all seem to mesh well.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

38. I wouldn't recommend a cory with the goby

Too small.

[UTUSN]

34. You have a *husband*?!1 Well, O.K., fine and congratulations, and LOVE to both!1 n/t

[surrealAmerican]

40. It's better to keep a tank underpopulated than overpopulated ...

... especially when you have a giant in there.

[CreekDog]

43. new fish should go into a quarantine tank for a couple weeks

or you risk losing all your fish when you add the new ones.

[Jamastiene]

44. Just start a second aquarium.

Let that one be "his" aquarium. That way he can go hog wild adding whatever new fish he wants and the current aquarium stays as is.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

45. Mr GoG did that when his older boy was about 2...big mistake.

He set up a really nice (big $$$) salt water tank, and the little tyke, bless his heart, decided to share his chocolate milk with the fishies.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

47. Reason # 234892734 I'm never having children.

[suninvited]

48. I have a pleco I will give you

He started at 4 inches and is now about 2 foot long. Plecos are very peaceful and get along with just about all fish.

I am going to move to Alabama sometime in the near future and am going to leave my tank behind. All I have in there now are 2 kissing gaurami's, one blue gaurami (not sure what kind) and my pleco all of which are about 3 years old.

Every time I have tried adding some tetras for some color and excitement they get eaten. I think it is the gauramis doing the eating.