Fish Care

[njp]

Hi All

Thought i'd post some marine/reef stuff you will need if you want to start.

REEF TANK= Tank containing Liverock, Corals, Inverts and fish

FOWLR= Fish only with liverock (Usually contians fish that are unsuitable for reefs, Triggers, Angels ect)

FO= Fish only (Same as FOWLR but no liverock, Uses normal filtration methods ie External fiters ect (Not reconmended in marine aquaria)

Stuff you will need
A good book (New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta and The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner are good books)

Tank (The bigger the better)
Liverock (1kg for every 2 gallons of water)

Protien skimmer

Lights (Depending on what you are keeping, Either T8, T5 or Metal halides)

Reverse osmosis unit to purify water

Hydrometer or preferably refractometer for measuring salt levels

Powerheads for water movement (Minimum of 20x tank volume per hour)

Test kits for Ph, Nitrite, Ammonia, Nitrate, Phosphate, KH and also Calcium.

Salt

Heaters, Themometers.

But the most important thing is Research, research and more research

[Register]

You will also need to re oxygenate the water after it has been through the ro and also re mineralise it

[leahsfitness]

Originally Posted by njp

Hi All

Thought i'd post some marine/reef stuff you will need if you want to start.

REEF TANK= Tank containing Liverock, Corals, Inverts and fish

FOWLR= Fish only with liverock (Usually contians fish that are unsuitable for reefs, Triggers, Angels ect)

FO= Fish only (Same as FOWLR but no liverock, Uses normal filtration methods ie External fiters ect (Not reconmended in marine aquaria)

Stuff you will need
A good book (New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta and The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner are good books)

Tank (The bigger the better)
Liverock (1kg for every 2 gallons of water)

Protien skimmer

Lights (Depending on what you are keeping, Either T8, T5 or Metal halides)

Reverse osmosis unit to purify water

Hydrometer or preferably refractometer for measuring salt levels

Powerheads for water movement (Minimum of 20x tank volume per hour)

Test kits for Ph, Nitrite, Ammonia, Nitrate, Phosphate, KH and also Calcium.

Salt

Heaters, Themometers.

But the most important thing is Research, research and more research

Hi do you know any insurance companys to insure koi fish ?

[retri]

With regards to maidenhead, be very weary, try them out a few times before you listen to them, do some of your oen research on something you are interested in then test them a bit....

Alot of the guys at my local place are useless and dont have a clue, are more about getting you to leave with fish,

But there is one guy down there that does know what he is talking about, and will admit when he is not sure of something, he does his research, and listens to what you have to say also.

I found the best thing to do is like I said above test them, when you find a member of staff that seems to know what they are talking about and will admit when they dont know, stick with them.

[fatratsandcheesekk]

i went to my local maidenhead and they seemed more interested in all standing behind the tll chatting even when i was looking at the fish they didnt seem interested. The same with southern aquatics in poole we got a silver shark and the bag was so smal with hardly any water we said it was a bit small and needed more water they said it was fine when we got home he was dead due to stress

when looking to buy fish check the tanks for illness or dead fish

[sylar]

Best thing to do is join a specialised fish forum. Or find a decent fish store (nowhere like petsathome) try to avoid maidenhead, in my experience most of them aren't great places to go, but there a few i know of that are good.[/quote]

Good point, i went to the pets at home in coventry a couple of months ago and i was disgusted!! There must have been aboout 15 dead fish floating around in the tanks and then i told the shop assistant she just looked at me like i was stupid.

[DRACONODON]

Originally Posted by sylar

Best thing to do is join a specialised fish forum. Or find a decent fish store (nowhere like petsathome) try to avoid maidenhead, in my experience most of them aren't great places to go, but there a few i know of that are good.

Good point, i went to the pets at home in coventry a couple of months ago and i was disgusted!! There must have been aboout 15 dead fish floating around in the tanks and then i told the shop assistant she just looked at me like i was stupid. [/quote]


I know what you mean. And do you know what i got "We are very busy and we dont always have time to remove the fish straight away"
Surely they should as it is how they gain bad reputations if customers see them GOD

[mike515]

Originally Posted by REPTAREXPERT

Good point, i went to the pets at home in coventry a couple of months ago and i was disgusted!! There must have been aboout 15 dead fish floating around in the tanks and then i told the shop assistant she just looked at me like i was stupid.

I know what you mean. And do you know what i got "We are very busy and we dont always have time to remove the fish straight away"
Surely they should as it is how they gain bad reputations if customers see them GOD[/quote]


dead fish in tanks aren't always a sign that the shop is crap. Sometimes in bigger shops you do get the odd fish that was missed by accident or had died since the last check. Where I used to work we were importing well over a thousand fish a week. even with the best handling and care you're gonna lose some. Depending on the species, quality when shipped etc this could reach up to 15 a day. If the tanks are checked every half hour (which they were) there's a good chance that once will die in between checks at some point.

The attitude of the staff was a sign that the shop was crap. As was the massive sign saying 'Petsathome'. That sign should be a government issued warning sign for crap petshops. If you can, avoid using it at all. Not saying that all the staff are shite, just the vast majority seem to be as they either lack suitable training or have to deal with too much, as in they are expected to know about everything in the shop and not many people could do that without years of experience. Aquatics staff alone take years to become any good. No matter what fish they keep and how much they have read. No one can pick it up in a few weeks. Years of keeping fish (properly) is the best training, as is being prepared to accept new ideas (something alot of fishkeepers don't have).

[Frogmad]

again I would personally avoid using PAH for my fish, its not the fact that the staff are shite or anything like that its just that they aren't trained properly, there are a few stores (generally the larger ones) who do have very knowledgable staff who have kept fish themselves for many years.

I am kinda sad that I moved away from Stockport as there was a fab reptile/fish store in hazel grove (not sure how good they were on the reps but fish knowledge was 100000%) Always recognized regular browsers and welcomed and questions and answered truthfully, if he didnt think you were mixing right fish he would say so.
I have found a farily decent place near where i work now and have just bought a brand new 130litre tank, it is gonna be sooooooo good!!!!

[ianb]