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Starting up a freshwater tank.


Dave H

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I have done all the Tropicals for many many years so no all the ins and outs but i want to have a go at some freshwater Perch in the main. What size tank etc. I am a member of Wingham and i am sure i can take a few fry from there in a good drop of their water. the question is that would that contain enough bacteria to fill the filters . My aim is to have half a tank of tap water (obviously treated) then add the water the perch came in. What conditions do i need . The water here is very hard at around 24 being chalk in the local areas. I would presume no temperature is needed. I am sure Andy you can give me some advice on this?...ATVB

I intend to move onto Tench and other species later on

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There is not one thing different between ideology and religeon
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Yes steve. Trust me mate i know all about that stuff i kept tropicals for 10 years and at one stage had 5 tanks of which one was a breeding tank.

It's more the fact that is there a different action to be taken or are we just talking goldfish with no heater . Obviously not quite so raw in approach.

I wouldn't start tropicals again as i had just about every odd ball out there but just fancy a few fish that are in our native waters.


There is not one thing different between ideology and religeon
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tut tut Dave H, you going all eastern european on us, taking fish away from a fishery without the owners consent... :busted_cop:

Nick

 

 

...life

what's it all about...?

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I know Dave, just wondered if you were thinking of doing it the old school way.

 

As you put it, we're talking goldfish with no heater. Nothing to it that you don't already know. I would be more worried about it getting too hot than too cold, but I kept a pike in a centrally heated house with no problems so I shouldn't worry too much about that.

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No heater required at all, my tank hovers around the 20 Celsius mark. I wouldn't even use a cooler, unless you see the temps getting too high. I would say a high flow rate is vitally important in a native tank.

 

I would highly recommend adding the perch 'after' any roach, rudd, tench etc. Me and Andy Macfarlane were having a conversation regarding perch and we agreed adding fish 'after perch' would probably result in the perch treating anything added into the tank as food.

 

Makes a good bit of sense actually. I mean look at the video at the end of this post.

 

Another big must is plenty of cover. Forget about rocks, big hard stuff, obstacles, caves etc. 2 years on my native rudd are still a bit sketchy at times. They can dart from one end of the tank to the other in the blink of an eye. Any obstacles in the way will end with damaged scales or worse (look for my red lump thread)

 

I have one piece of flat rock and a piece of wood for bacteria, algae and other stuff to cling to other than just the gravel. All my other cover is from the Exo-terra jungle plant range. Exo terra jungle plant ficus to be more precise. They are reptile plants but are perfect for aquariums too.

 

It's a silk one with soft enough plastic twigs that hasn't caused any probs for my fish and they absolutely love the thing.

 

It provides the best kind of cover as they can completely hide in it and under it as I would expect they do in the wild too, rather than using objects to hide in/behind.

 

Getting them tame was a long task. They hated having the light switched on and would try to find any cover they could find, including under the filter, very distressing to see at first. Had I found those ficus jungle plants before I don't think it would have been so hard to get them tame and my perch might have survived.

 

I would say get a ficus or a few (I intend to have 3) before fish mate. For the perch more than anything.

 

I tried perch when I first got my tank and they died. I was looking at them one moment and the next they lost all their stripes and keeled over :( probably down to a lack of feeding and safety cover.

 

Another helpful tip for getting the fish settled in and feeding is to turn the light off and not sit and watch them feed. They definitely didn't like me watching them and would be more worried about what I was doing. Only when I moved away from the tank and spied on them would I see them feed semi-confidently.

 

Once they are tame you will have great pets. Mines are so cheeky and comical at times.

 

Anyway heres a video of a perch tank. You can see they treat anything as food :D

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYelxMUkmMg

 

Oh I just noticed, this guy is also using a few from the Exo-terra jungle plant range :D

Edited by Andy_1984

Owner of Tacklesack.co.uk


Moderator at The-Pikers-Pit.co.uk

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Sorry for long reply Andy

 

I have still been thinking about it all. It boils down to which fish i think. My water is very hard so suits cichlids very well. I had Malawi’s and tangs in separate tanks and did quite enjoy them. Shell dwellers in the Tang tanks were quite amusing. The good thing was there are not too many preds in the Tangs so you have a better choice where in Malawi just about everything eats everything. Strange how they are so close in the rift Valley in Africa although Tangatikan is much older and much deeper. Tangs seem a bit blander in general. So its swings and roundabouts really.

I kept bass for a while and they were superb fish and interesting to study too. The fahaka was lethal but feeding it prawns was good fun but it’s a 1 only tank and that can get boring. I loved studying Garfish but ended up with the Miami which got to about 3 ft so had to go as the things can get massive. I also kept every species of poly peterus from the ornatapenis to the birchir. Amazing fish. My favourites were the silver cats with those long tentacles i think they were called pictus. I used to breed guppies and danio for food. For 10 years i studied and just enjoyed many fish including tench and perch for a while.

 

On e-bay there a few 2nd hand ones quite close but it’s much cheaper to get the whole kit but i would not want the fish as that's my choice.

So yes a full cycle to start. Probably leave for about 2 weeks to get rid of the chlorine.

I like the way the tanks brighton up a room too it gives it a bit more colour.

 

I actually like the live bearers like guppies but i know i will get fed up and start going for odd balls and i don’t really want to go there

 

So decisions.........i will keep you posted


There is not one thing different between ideology and religeon
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