First fish tips

swisswiss

swisswiss

Member
Hey dudes and duddets,
Firstly I'm sorry if this isn't the correct place to post this, i do consider it more of a tip than an actual fish discussion but yea....
I'm still eons away from buying my first fish, my tank is still cycling and my aquascaping is far from finished but i would like to start the research non the less.
I was wondering according to you people what are the best fish/ invertebrates to start off with on a freshly cycled tank. personally i was thinking of getting a couple Skunk shrimps followed by Klein's or copper-band butterfly fish (tips are welcome regarding size of fish since my tank is a 48g or 180 liters). perhaps a peppermint shrimp could be a good idea 2?
So my logic for these choices is that these organisms should act as basic cleaners for the tank before i start planning to add more delicate life such as a mandarin-fish (love those).
Thank you in advance
-Jeff-
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
imo ud wanna start out with a clown fish or chromis or something like that! Shrimp are very touchy when it comes to salt levels and other things like temp. So when u get all the kinks out and get used to ur tank a lil....a shrimp would be okay. If u get the lil pepps get multi ones!
Also i dont think a butterfly would be okay in a 48g....they need something like 180gal
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Your tank really isn't large enough for a Butterflyfish and IMO, they're not really a "beginner" fish. They need established tanks, as many of them pick at rock work all day long for food.
After your tank is cycled, start adding some snails/hermits/shrimp. Don't add all of what you want at once, start with a few and monitor them. Once they are doing well, you can go with a easy, hardy fish such as a clownfish, chromis, etc. Monitor. Then add more CUC, monitor, another fish, monitor, etc
What is your ultimate goal for this tank? Do you want corals? What is your desired stock list?
 
swisswiss

swisswiss

Member
damn, cool thx for the tip, is there a thread open about hithickers? i just got 3 more rocks and found 2 small crabs in them, good bad?
 
S

siptang

Guest
What the guys already stated.
Butterfly fish are very finicky on food and require superb water quality and I usually recommend on more settled tank where they can graze while acclimating.
If your rock work isn't crazy, go with small damsel for cycling and then give it back to the store later on when you are ready to put some fish in.
crabs are good because they clean up your tank. (commonly referred as Clean Up Crew here) and for free, what more can you ask for? lol.
Good to have you on board, hope to see you around and pics of your tank.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by SwisSwiss http:///forum/thread/386623/first-fish-tips#post_3396949
damn, cool thx for the tip, is there a thread open about hithickers? i just got 3 more rocks and found 2 small crabs in them, good bad?
There is a sub forum on this site for Hitchhiker ID's. You can look through some of those threads, or post a picture of the crabs and someone can probably tell you whether or not they're bad. As a general rule, a hitchhiker crab is almost never a good crab. If it has sharp claws, or black tipped claws, get rid of it ASAP.
A good site for hitchhiker id's is: http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml It is put together by Cranberry and Saxman who frequently use this forum. It won't id every crab out there, but it will id almost anything you'll come across in your tank besides fish.
Good luck!
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
+1 evil crabbys is wat i call em....they are common and called gorillia crabs or something similiar! Ive got a couple threads under the hitchiker ID about em....pics too i think! They are not reef safe and will eat mostly anything they can!
 
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