New to MFK and need some help please

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J

Jollyman

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 21, 2008
17
0
1
Sterling, Virginia
First off I will introduce myself :)

Name:Heath
Age: 19
Location: Sterling, Va




So I am new to the forums and new to BIG aquariums the most I have ever had before was a 20g. So yesterday i had been wanting a tank REALLY bad and happened to come across a 180g with 2 Aquaclear 500 filters I think they are called. With around 100 pounds of pee-gravel ( dunno what you all call it but it is like yellow and brown gravel very common in the south.) I didn't have the heart to turn her down on the free fish because she didn't have a home for these guys. I bought the tank and these fish came with it and I am a COMPLETELY noob at these. The most exotic fish I have had was like a needle nose fish from petsmart for like $12.99 :P or some yellow mud cats that I caught out of a pond when they were fry.
Correct me if I am wrong on the names.
1 about 9-10" Irridescent Shark
1 about 10-12" Irridescent Shark
1 10" + Jack Dempsey (blue and green in color)
1 7-9 " Plecostamas ( I hear they are called plecos )
1 12-14" Plecostamas


I was wondering what these are worth and should I keep them or find them a good home to a more experienced person. I would feel extremly bad to dive in head first only to let these fish die. She told me she has had the dempsey named Jack for a little over 10 years and the same with the Plecos. But the Sharks were given to her and she didn't know how old they were she only had them for around 2 years.

Now I know Jack is Aggressive I searched here about them and found some pretty nice links on youtube of them feeding.



Now down to the part I need MAJOR help on. I was wondering prices on all these fish just to see how much they cost at that size if I were to get more like them. I REALLY like plecos I think they are awesome looking fish and I love to watch giant cichlads eat gold fish or feeder fish. I was going to get some red belly piranhas from i think it was like aquascapeonline but unfortunately did my research and they are not allowed in VA along with Snakeheads and pretty much any baddass that would be awesome to watch eat.

So I have a 180g tank with NOTHING in it I filled it with water and put that Prime Stuff that kills the Clor(reen) work with me on the spelling here :P I just can't be asked to look it up on google. I was wondering how long it will be before I can put my fish into my 180g. And also is there any other fish I can get that is an aggressive eater that would start out small that Mr.Jack would not eat. I like the plecos because of their looks but I also want something in the tank that will be fun to watch feed (Yes I know this seems immature and cruel but I like watching nature take course. Natural selection...Or wait is it just the selection I make and throw in the tank :P )



I will be going on vacation the 23rd - June 1st so I was hoping to transfer them to their big tank and let them rest from the move and get settled in. Plus I need to know what type of enviroment do these fish need. I have seen some people with just sand in their tank and others with a full blown ecosystem underwater. The directions on the bottle tell you how much to put in for new water but it doesn't have a wait time on it. Also does anyone know a good all round temperature for all these fish together?



Sorry to ask so many questions so fast I just have been lurking in the forums for the past few days reading as much as I can find on any topic I can find to help learn faster and become a better care taker for the bigger more fun fish :) Any help would be GREATLY appreciated I will try to post some pictures tomorrow/today since it is early morning when I finish setting up the tank and such. Thanks :)



by the way this is the best place I have found yet for fish fact but once again sorry to bombard you with so many question I know you aren't my personalized google :(

And does anyone know where I can get one of those MonsterFishKeepers.com stickers for my tank. I love this community it is full of what seems to be very friendly people with common interests and I would gladly display my colors for the team :)
 
heath, sounds like u have a nice size tank with good decent pumps,i personally prefer sand instead of gravel because i dont like to siphon the sediments out of gravel, with sand most of your sediments stays above the sand and i simply change 50% of my water every 4 days,depending on your fish load of course.also if you have some good bottom dwellers they usually keep the sand turned.i keep only enough sand to cover the bottom.prime works pretty much instantly, i add it to the half full tank and then just simply fill it up, excellent product. the fish you have will all do good at 78 dgrees F.the fish you have are all pretty hardy.you could add other cichlids with the jack dempsey although you will want to add plenty of rockwork to provide retreats and hiding places from less agressive cichlids. if you get rid of the dempsey you could get other fish besides cichlids. dont know if you can get them ornot but freshwater barracudas are ablast to watch attack and eat feeders especially comet minnows. if you cant even larger mono sebae(angel monos)will also agressivlly attack and consume them.monos will eventually need brackish water as they grow larger.Shovelnose cats,limas,tigers,jurense cats,and if money allows tigris cats are awesome predators though most of their feeding goes on after lites out.red tail barracudas max10" or yellow tail barracudas max16" are my personal favorite because they strike like lightning and are deadly accurate when it comesto wathing nature take its course.again these are just my personal preferences there are many more agressive pedators out there vampire tetras(payaru) african tiger but many grow to large formy tanks or too much for my pocketbook.keep surfing this site there are many members filled with knowlege.
 
thanks SOOOO much I will look into all these fish thanks for the great suggestions and the help with the Prime. That means I will be able to show them their new home tomorrow and get them squared away before I have to leave so I can set up an auto feeder or just have my dad feed them :)

I also think sand tanks look really profession. It gives them the nice clean sharp look and I REALLY like that. I am an extremely tidy person and I have to make everything just right :P even if it means going the extra mile.
 
to start, you probably should sell/give away the irridescent sharks. They grow to about 4 feet long.

JDs aren't worth much, although if it is a big, healthy, nice looking one you could get a decent amount.

Before you put the fish in, it needs to be cycled. This means waiting for the bio filtration bacteria to grow enough. The biological filtration usually consists of media with lots of surface area, like ceramic rings or noodles, which bacteria live on. They use ammonia, which is very toxic to fish, and convert it into nitrItes. This is also toxic, but the nitrIte is converted into nitrAte. Usually you need to wait about a month.

However, you can skip the wait if you have old filter media, that hasn't dried out or been deprived of a source of ammonia and nitrite. Basically, if you can get your hands on some established media, you can put in the fish right away. Otherwise the ammonia will be through the roof. There are also several products that are supposed to instantly cycle the tank by adding the bacteria into the water. I've never used them.

about 78-80 F is a good temp.

Sand will look great; much nicer than gravel. Theres this stuff called Pool filter sand (for a swimming pool filter) that you can get at a pool supply store. It shouldn't be too hard to find. It is cheap, around $5-10 for 50 pounds. About 100 pounds should do, because you don't want a really thick layer. Maybe get an extra bag to be safe.

You shouldn't need to clean the sand much, since PFS is pretty clean. But if you get play sand, prepare to clean for a few hours or create a dust storm in your tank.

Most people will yell at you for feeding live fish. Goldfish are especially unhealthy. If you decide to feed them, use minnows or something, and quarantine them for about 2 weeks so your fish won't get sick.

You may want a bit more filtration. An AC110 (new name for AC500) has a flow rated at 500 gallons per hour. Therefore, you have about 1000 GPH. Thats not a lot for a heavily stocked tank. Adding a canister filter would be great though. I reccomend filling the canister with nothing but biomedia, and stuff the AC's (a type of hang-on-back filter/HOB/power filter) with mechanical media.


A 180 is a big tank, so you can do a lot with it. More CA cichlids is what I would start with. Oscars, green terror, and convicts are common and you can get them pretty easily. Bichirs are also interesting and won't cause any aggression problems. The senegal bichir gets about 12 inches, but in a 180 you could get most of the other larger species. I'm not sure if you are really into spending a bunch for obscure fish species though.

Pike cichlids are another option, but only one is probably a good idea. They hate each other.

Probably not a good idea with bichirs, but clown loaches are great for your tank. You could basically have as many as you want.

Be careful with the large JD though; make sure any fish you add is too big to be eaten.





Good luck with your ]V[onster tank
 
:welcome: to the club :)
 
Thanks for all the info. And yes I have all the old filters and stuff with all the bacteria in them. The tank was set up and running when I got it with all the fish in it so I had to empty the tank bring it home and fill it back up and prime the water. It has been sitting over night and the water temp is 78. As far as the fish go thanks for some awesome suggestions I will surely look into getting some of these other fish. I am thinking about using my brothers smaller 29 gallon tank to breed live feeders like minnows or mollies. The 2 filters I have on the tank are 100 gallon filters and I have 2. They are a little loud but that won't really bother me I can always turn them off when I watch a movie or something and turn them back on when I am done. Thanks for the suggestion on the sand because I have been looking everywhere and didn't know what kind I should get. And if I get PFS do I need to like clean it or anything before I put it in the tank or would it be find to put in the tank while the fish are in it? The Irridescent sharks I have are roughly 6 years old and have staid the same size for the last like year she told me so I dunno if they dwarfed in the 180g tank or not. I really do love them though I think they look nice and they are fun to watch swim around. I am a big catfish junkie I love to go to the river and cat flathead. If it wasn't for flatheads growing to 100+ plus I would catch some and put them in the tank. I plan on taking some rocks that where set up in the tank and building a small cave like structure with some sand and then maybe some smaller plants or other decorations. I want to have atleast a few places for the fish to hide especially the smaller ones.


How big of a fish can a Jack Dempsey eat because I looked at mine and I have yet to put a ruler up to the tank but a rough estimate he is 10 years old and an EASY 10-12" long. What size cichlids sould I get to be big enough he can't eat them. 3-4 " ??


Thanks for ALL the help I really feel welcomed here :) I love the forum.
 
What kind of maintenance did she do on the tank, I wonder?

Turning off the filters is a bad idea. The bacteria need a constant flow of water, and without this, their source of oxygen is gone. You could easily forget to turn them back on, which would result in useless biomedia.

Just because the filters are rated for 100 gallons, doesn't mean they are actually enough for that. The manufacturers tend to exaggerate, or at least base their recommendations off of lightly stocked tanks. If you do go into large cichlids, 2 AC110s will probably not be enough.
 
Yeah you are right about forgetting. I will just turn the movie theatre up :P That is what the surround sound is for. And the maintenance she did on the tank was very poor. The tank has to be FULLY cleaned. Looked like it hadn't been cleaned in roughly 2-5 years atleast. It looked perfectly fine till it came time to get the pee gravel out. Then the water just turned like jetblack. We were cleaning the pea gravel for my brother to put some in his 29 gallon and upon inspection there were red stringy worms in it so I am guessing pin worms of some sort. The fish seem to be in perfect health. They are in the 180 now thanks to the prime and the water temp is 78. As far as the worms go that was EXTREMLY sickening to find that out. I was elbow deep in that stuff yesterday and hope I don't get pin worms from it. I washed my hands very good with AB soap. But the filters HAD to be cleaned. I know I would get yelled at for it on here but it HAD to be done. Right now I don't have the money to get new sponges and coal insert things. When I cleaned the filter I washed the sponge and bags of coal for roughly 5 mins in warm water. The sponges nearly backed up the sink thats how much growth was in them. I don't know when the last time she ever put a new filter in but she has had the tank 10 years. Clear water went in and horrible black smelling water came out. Along with Pin Worms. I didn't know what they were at the time I didn't give them much attention I just thought it was algae because it wasn't moving and I was washing them down the sink. But today when my brother cleaned the rocks and strained them real good there were red/brownish worms that were moving in the strainer.

I know it was a bad choice on my part to put the fish in the tank so soon after cleaning it and refilling it. I gave the water a double shot of prime because it said on the water 1 cap per 50 gallons and it doesn't hurt to do 2 caps per 50 gallons. But they are all in there now happy as can be with no complications. I had to move them fast because the holding tank they were in was a 29 gallon long so they had BARELY any room and the big catfish kept turning on his side under the filter and wouldn't swim around like the others. I wanted to get them out and get them in a more suitable tank with proper oxygen and room to move. As soon as they got back in their old tank they were going nuts swiming around freely :P I will try to get new filters when I get back incase the old ones have pin worms still in them. I am going right now to get the PFS you suggested for the tank. And put the rocks back in the tank for a place for them to hide.
 
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