Well, I figured Id post this under general cause it has a little of everything, introductions, story, mess-ups, and questions. If you want to skip the story, the questions are outlined at the end.
My mum and I decided to set up our large tank, biggest weve ever had. I estimate its about 3.5x2x1.5 feet. We initially thought to get a turtle, research them, decided against. A couple decades? my mum cried out from the computer, They live a couple decades? Ill be eighty! So, though reptile-less, we finished placing the rocks in a lovely tower lots of nooks and crannies for playful fish.
What should we get? She asked.
Lets get koi! I hopped from foot to foot thinking of the dragon like fish.
Ive always wanted goldfish.
With long whiskers!
We can get a couple of goldfish and koi.
And you feed them, and they go, om nom nom, I mimicked their gaping mawing of breadcrumbs, and then you poke your finger in their mouth and they go blagh.
After a night of letting the water settle and cycle through the filters, we went to Petco and got some plants and plant bulbs. At the store I looked over the various water temperatures for the fishes. I noticed an overlap between the goldfish and the tropical fish. Goldfish and koi: 65-75 F. Tropical: 72-82 F.
Hmmm could we get both?
Back home we planted the plant cuttings and bulbs. Another night for the plants to get a little settled, and the next morning we headed over to PetSmart, where they had a better selection of fish. This turned out to be a mistake as they seem to know jack about their stock. And we, knowing jack at the time, made a few purchases in ignorance.
We danced about between tanks comparing water temperatures. The tags were a little different from their competitors, but their was still overlap. Nevertheless, I was uneasy. I asked one of the workers, and got the firm answer that no, we couldnt mix, only match.
(Thought thatd be the mistake didnt ya? Nope, a more subtle one )
Well, our tank back home had settled at a nice seventy eight degrees over the last few days, and the tropicals were so colorful, so we happily got three powdered gouramies, two ghost cat fish, two fiddler crabs, and a peacock eel.
This says the eel can eat flakes?
Yup, hell do fine with flakes.
And the crabs?
They should have shrimp pellets.
And two Ghost cat fish is enough?
Yep.
Happy, we brought them home. Once in the water, the ghosts schooled, the eel hid, the crabs picked at the floor bottom, and the gouramies did all of the above. Well, this is what we expected. We watched and stared and did a little research.
It says here that the ghost cats need to be in a school.
Oh, lets get a couple more tomorrow, then.
We got three more ghosts the next day and another gourami, because we only had one red and were worried it get picked on by the two blues. (Racist fish? Ive heard stranger.) That night we did some more research.
Hey, peacock eels arent really eels!
Huh, neat.
Oh ho. All these sites say the eel will die if we just feed it fish flakes. They need to eat creepy crawlies.
Huh, darn.
And the fiddler crabs need to be in brackish water or theyll die.
This sucks.
Yeah.
I was also worried because the eel and ghost fish seemed to have traded temperaments. The ghost fish were living up to their name, hiding and only emerging at night to haunt the water under the filters. The eel, meanwhile, was swimming and shimmying about the tank almost constantly. I figured either he was hungry or wanted some proper sand to bury himself in.
So, the next day, I went to a store specializing in aquarium fish, one that wasnt a chain. They confirmed what we had read. I bought marine salt mix, and he told me to add one tablespoon per five gallons. I would move the crabs into one of our many uninhabited tanks. I also bough live blood worms. They told me to only put a little in at a time, or theyd breed and stink up the tank. I also got some sand so the eel could bury himself and dig for the worms.
Back home I discovered all our extra tanks were missing. Oh well, another trip tomorrow, I figured. I washed the sand and made a few piles in the corners of the tanks. The gouramies were fascinated by this and mouthed at the sand anchoring little bubbles to the tank bottom. The eel stoutly ignored this and continued to romp about the aquarium. When we offered them some of the blood worms, the eel ate one, and then paid them as much attention as the sand. The gouramies enjoyed a few, however.
The next morning I research blood worms and determined they were, in fact, midge larva, and therefore would be doing no breeding whatsoever. This was, at least, a relief as some of them had wiggled their ways into the sand and rocks where, at best, the crabs would get them. The crabs were, after all, doing a marvelous job at finding each and everyone of the buried plant bulbs and had been munching on them whenever they felt puckish. Meanwhile, the eel was actually eating the fish flakes we sprinkled into the tank.
So, back to the fish store. There, we bought a five gallon Eclipse Starter hexagon tank. We figured I could set up a brackish environment for the crab and bring them to school. (My college only allows five gallons or less.) The man I had previously spoken to about the blood worms said so long as the peacock eel was eating the flakes it would be okay. Of course, he had also claimed the blood worms would breed if put into the tank in large numbers.
So We went back home and set up the new tank, (after much difficulty.) We have a bit of coral which my mum had found on the beach a while back and, along with the sand the eel didnt like and some rocks, set it up so the crabs could climb above the water surface. Were a little worried that the trickle of water from the eclipse filter wont provide enough aeration. But the current plan is to get a couple java plants, introduce the crabs to the new habitat, and slowly add the salt over the next couple of weeks, (mixed in a separate container, of course.) And, hopefully, once the tank is going strong, add a couple fish.
So the questions, if you havent caught them in my rambling, are:
Is it REALLY okay for the peacock eel to eat just fish flakes so long as he eats them?
Is it a bad or good sign that the eel is so active?
Is this the right way to go with the crabs?
Does the filtration system provide enough aeration without the splashing waterfall? Will a couple plants help this enough to support a couple fish?
And, would it be unreasonable to get two dwarf cichlids, or is the five gallon with two crabs to small? If so, can you suggest another brightly colored fish that can handle brackish water and wont eat my crabs?
Thank you for your time!
My mum and I decided to set up our large tank, biggest weve ever had. I estimate its about 3.5x2x1.5 feet. We initially thought to get a turtle, research them, decided against. A couple decades? my mum cried out from the computer, They live a couple decades? Ill be eighty! So, though reptile-less, we finished placing the rocks in a lovely tower lots of nooks and crannies for playful fish.
What should we get? She asked.
Lets get koi! I hopped from foot to foot thinking of the dragon like fish.
Ive always wanted goldfish.
With long whiskers!
We can get a couple of goldfish and koi.
And you feed them, and they go, om nom nom, I mimicked their gaping mawing of breadcrumbs, and then you poke your finger in their mouth and they go blagh.
After a night of letting the water settle and cycle through the filters, we went to Petco and got some plants and plant bulbs. At the store I looked over the various water temperatures for the fishes. I noticed an overlap between the goldfish and the tropical fish. Goldfish and koi: 65-75 F. Tropical: 72-82 F.
Hmmm could we get both?
Back home we planted the plant cuttings and bulbs. Another night for the plants to get a little settled, and the next morning we headed over to PetSmart, where they had a better selection of fish. This turned out to be a mistake as they seem to know jack about their stock. And we, knowing jack at the time, made a few purchases in ignorance.
We danced about between tanks comparing water temperatures. The tags were a little different from their competitors, but their was still overlap. Nevertheless, I was uneasy. I asked one of the workers, and got the firm answer that no, we couldnt mix, only match.
(Thought thatd be the mistake didnt ya? Nope, a more subtle one )
Well, our tank back home had settled at a nice seventy eight degrees over the last few days, and the tropicals were so colorful, so we happily got three powdered gouramies, two ghost cat fish, two fiddler crabs, and a peacock eel.
This says the eel can eat flakes?
Yup, hell do fine with flakes.
And the crabs?
They should have shrimp pellets.
And two Ghost cat fish is enough?
Yep.
Happy, we brought them home. Once in the water, the ghosts schooled, the eel hid, the crabs picked at the floor bottom, and the gouramies did all of the above. Well, this is what we expected. We watched and stared and did a little research.
It says here that the ghost cats need to be in a school.
Oh, lets get a couple more tomorrow, then.
We got three more ghosts the next day and another gourami, because we only had one red and were worried it get picked on by the two blues. (Racist fish? Ive heard stranger.) That night we did some more research.
Hey, peacock eels arent really eels!
Huh, neat.
Oh ho. All these sites say the eel will die if we just feed it fish flakes. They need to eat creepy crawlies.
Huh, darn.
And the fiddler crabs need to be in brackish water or theyll die.
This sucks.
Yeah.
I was also worried because the eel and ghost fish seemed to have traded temperaments. The ghost fish were living up to their name, hiding and only emerging at night to haunt the water under the filters. The eel, meanwhile, was swimming and shimmying about the tank almost constantly. I figured either he was hungry or wanted some proper sand to bury himself in.
So, the next day, I went to a store specializing in aquarium fish, one that wasnt a chain. They confirmed what we had read. I bought marine salt mix, and he told me to add one tablespoon per five gallons. I would move the crabs into one of our many uninhabited tanks. I also bough live blood worms. They told me to only put a little in at a time, or theyd breed and stink up the tank. I also got some sand so the eel could bury himself and dig for the worms.
Back home I discovered all our extra tanks were missing. Oh well, another trip tomorrow, I figured. I washed the sand and made a few piles in the corners of the tanks. The gouramies were fascinated by this and mouthed at the sand anchoring little bubbles to the tank bottom. The eel stoutly ignored this and continued to romp about the aquarium. When we offered them some of the blood worms, the eel ate one, and then paid them as much attention as the sand. The gouramies enjoyed a few, however.
The next morning I research blood worms and determined they were, in fact, midge larva, and therefore would be doing no breeding whatsoever. This was, at least, a relief as some of them had wiggled their ways into the sand and rocks where, at best, the crabs would get them. The crabs were, after all, doing a marvelous job at finding each and everyone of the buried plant bulbs and had been munching on them whenever they felt puckish. Meanwhile, the eel was actually eating the fish flakes we sprinkled into the tank.
So, back to the fish store. There, we bought a five gallon Eclipse Starter hexagon tank. We figured I could set up a brackish environment for the crab and bring them to school. (My college only allows five gallons or less.) The man I had previously spoken to about the blood worms said so long as the peacock eel was eating the flakes it would be okay. Of course, he had also claimed the blood worms would breed if put into the tank in large numbers.
So We went back home and set up the new tank, (after much difficulty.) We have a bit of coral which my mum had found on the beach a while back and, along with the sand the eel didnt like and some rocks, set it up so the crabs could climb above the water surface. Were a little worried that the trickle of water from the eclipse filter wont provide enough aeration. But the current plan is to get a couple java plants, introduce the crabs to the new habitat, and slowly add the salt over the next couple of weeks, (mixed in a separate container, of course.) And, hopefully, once the tank is going strong, add a couple fish.
So the questions, if you havent caught them in my rambling, are:
Is it REALLY okay for the peacock eel to eat just fish flakes so long as he eats them?
Is it a bad or good sign that the eel is so active?
Is this the right way to go with the crabs?
Does the filtration system provide enough aeration without the splashing waterfall? Will a couple plants help this enough to support a couple fish?
And, would it be unreasonable to get two dwarf cichlids, or is the five gallon with two crabs to small? If so, can you suggest another brightly colored fish that can handle brackish water and wont eat my crabs?
Thank you for your time!
