# Hi all Im a newbie



## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Hi all I am new and I have just started I have a 55gallon with 1 newt 1 african drawf frog 1 pelco hes small right now and 5 tiny little yellow and black fish that were tagged as some type of tuxedo fish, and a few live plants my husband wants a bala shark in the near future and I was looking at the elephant nose fish and we were thinking of a couple a guppies but I am thinking this is way to much. what do you think would be good to add I want to get advice other than what the LFS is giving because so far I have gotten some bad advice not from this store but else where. anyways the new one I found is the one that said we can have this mixture. I am willing to do freq water changes and all ness to house the proper but I need you opinions Thank you all 
We also have 2 gold fish that are going into a bigger tank next week because once again we were not given the correct info is there anything that can live with them anything like ghost shirmp or a crab just wanting advice thank again and nice to meet you all

By the way right now we have a wishper 60 filter but are changing to the canister filter(?) soon and we are set at 78-79 temp


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

Will with the newt and the frog in there you are going to have to look for peaceful tank mates.


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Yea I know and thats what we really want a very peaceful house hold lol thats why I am asking all you because as I said before we have got so pretty bad advice at the TFS already so I want to get everyones opinions here... By the way the newt as a great personality and he is very cool to watch... I can post pics of it all in a bit if that would help....


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Lets see em!!


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Ok I will put them up but I am very new Ikinda now what I need to do so give me a minute to figure it out ok


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Ok here are pics of the pleco, and the frog, newt he really is a ham and while I was taking his picture he came right to the glass and posed and he is very cool,picture of the little guys and of the entire set up. Tell me what you all think any advice


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## Fantail (Jun 18, 2008)

Aww, he's a cutie pie!!!

I have tadpoles mixed with platys and mollies and they all get along great. 

As for your goldfish, definitely do not mix them with plecos. Goldfish have a slime coat on them that the plecos just love to suck on, and once they do, your goldfish is doomed. Mixing them with something else kinda all depends on the temperament of your fish, goldfish have been known to eat snails, so I don't know that you'd want to mix anything like that or similar to, in your goldfish tank. 

Against what everyone use to tell me, I use to have guppies and goldfish living together and I never had a problem...but then again I keep my goldfish's water at a warmer temperature. My goldfish are my babies


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Fantail said:


> Aww, he's a cutie pie!!!
> 
> I have tadpoles mixed with platys and mollies and they all get along great.
> 
> ...


Thank you very much... I was pretty sure I couldnt put a pleco in there so thank you for letting me know for sure and what happen yikes wow I didntknow the eat snails good to know that well maybe we will look into the ghost shrimp and see what happens I love that little guy so cute I couldnt believe he came right up and looked right at me I think I got a diva


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## Fantail (Jun 18, 2008)

funnyfish said:


> Thank you very much... I was pretty sure I couldnt put a pleco in there so thank you for letting me know for sure and what happen yikes wow I didntknow the eat snails good to know that well maybe we will look into the ghost shrimp and see what happens I love that little guy so cute I couldnt believe he came right up and looked right at me I think I got a diva


lol, one of my fantail goldfish is like that, I pull out the camera and he starts showing off and flipping his long tail, he's such a ham!


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

If you get mollies do you have to get breeders I really dont want a ton of babies in the tank is there a way to avoid that and if they do have babies what do you do with all them


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Also I have heard that a bala could live in there with everyone and I have heard they can not and they get huge? I just dont know what to do. I am sorry for all the question I just want good info. Also I love the elephant nose is the best guy ever but have heard they are hard to feed and care for how true is this? By the way I have a fully covered top with the flip up glass lids because I have heard both are jumpers so just wanted to let you all know I am covered lol


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## Fantail (Jun 18, 2008)

If you want mollies and you don't want them breeding, you'd want to get all of the same sex. If you went with all males (since they are prettier), you shouldn't have problems with aggression if you have no females. Or you could go with all females and not worry about it at all. Just be sure the kid at the petstore grabs the right ones  I have mollies myself, they're fun.

If they were to have babies, you could set up a baby tank for the babies. Or some people just leave the babies in the tank to fend for themselves. The bigger fish may eat the babies and there is the possibility of your filter sucking them up. Not to mention, they should be fed fry food. Or find a way to separate the babies in the same tank, with a breeder cup/net.

The bala shark can get up to 15 inches; and they're actually quite peaceful. I've never seen the bala shark be aggressive, but they can get pretty big. 

I don't know much about the elephant nose, except they can grow to be a foot long and supposedly they're a bit harder to keep, sorry I dont know more on them.


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Well thank you for your info it is very helpful I do not believe the people at the LFS because so far we havent had good luck with them so far. So dose wany one think it would be ok to get a bala and not the elephant or is my tank still to small for a bala anyways my husband really wants one he is the one that started this whole tank idea and so far has not been able to to get he has wanted like the crabs he wanted. So I would really like him to get something he wants but we dont want cramped unhappy fish either


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

the yellow and black ones are platys and the newt is a firebelly newt


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

As far a not breeding you have to get one sex or get something that will eat the fry of the mollies and platlets. Some white clouds (8) would look good and some neon tetra (8)..... I would get a snail eating loach a snunk loach would work, I'd stay away from the clown loachies they get big over time and need to be in a school of (6). I see you have live plants I would get a few Otto Cats for the aglea, you might want to add a school of corys......you cloud go with a mating pair of cribs....... they are a peaceful fish most of the time....only get agressive during spawning and fry raising.... 


Ther a couple of ideals but it best to go online and find a site that sellslive stock and look thur what they have..... fosterandsmith.com has a good selection. petsoultion has a good selection with very good profile with each fish the sell... good resoure


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## mtbridin (Jul 8, 2008)

elephant nose's are one of my favorite fish they are just stunning. but they are a very hard fish to care and look after and to feed. elephant nose's are rather difficult but it can be done. they are really sensitive to water conditions. its rather difficult to get food to them i managed to keep one for a while but it was no easy task. you haveto sink the food to the bottom so that the other fish dont eat it all before he gets any i used to do this with a bit of pipe long enoff to rech the bottom of the tank and put the live black worm in the tube so it sinks to the bottom. Elephant nose's will starve them selves until they get that skinny that they will die if there not happy. there will also comit suicide they have a electic organ about 3/4 down the body. they can also use this to stun smaller creatures up tp 3-4 inches away.

congrats with all the fishies wish you all the best.


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

So guess what all I got the platys yesterday and now I have fry I am not sure what to do with them I dont have anything to keep them in and they are very hard to find once in awhile I see one swim by I think they are maybe 2 or 3 I will be going to get something tomorrow for them I can not believe this already baby fish boy oh boy


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## mtbridin (Jul 8, 2008)

CONGRATS.... on the fry good luck


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

will see if you can sex your fish mollies are not to hard the male will be the one sticking it to every fish in the tank.... really..... most likly she was pergo when you brougth them home.....


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Thank dj for all your advice oon everything I dont see 1 single fry now but I have read alot that they are very good at playing hide and seek I only hope they are in my live plants somewhere. I can not believe I have babies already kinda funny. I will look into all your sugg and I have looked at the web site fosters but wanted to here what real people say about the combos because if it were me I would have a bunch I just cant pick they are all so cute in one way or another. I think I know what one is the male not for sure though he has a tiny brown thing on his underbelly and the other 3 have nothing but a fin there thats the only thing I see different. I did start with 5 yeasterday and one didnt make it . I did do a water check and all was well so I just think that one didnt make it everyone else is doing great.


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

djrichie said:


> As far a not breeding you have to get one sex or get something that will eat the fry of the mollies and platlets. Some white clouds (8) would look good and some neon tetra (8)..... I would get a snail eating loach a snunk loach would work, I'd stay away from the clown loachies they get big over time and need to be in a school of (6). I see you have live plants I would get a few Otto Cats for the aglea, you might want to add a school of corys......you cloud go with a mating pair of cribs....... they are a peaceful fish most of the time....only get agressive during spawning and fry raising....
> 
> 
> Ther a couple of ideals but it best to go online and find a site that sellslive stock and look thur what they have..... fosterandsmith.com has a good selection. petsoultion has a good selection with very good profile with each fish the sell... good resoure


The pleco isnt good enough to take care of all the algae? He eats on some of the plants and I do not think he has stopped eating since I got him 2 days ago. 
Also I like the fancy guppies? The ones with the beautiful tails.... would that be ok? and will all this be ok with the bala I have heard the are pretty peaceful oh I am sorry what are cribs


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

yeah the males are smaller and have what appears to be a tube looking long fin.... (we know what it really is...LOL) anyway seperate him (you can use a hatchery box for house him for now) and take him back to the store and see it they will exchange him. You might want to wait on getting more until you see how many fry you have...... look at your females and see if they are turning black in the bottom area... sure sign they are prego again..... mollies breed eat breed swim breed breed and eat again.... if give them a chance the few you bought can fill that 55 tank quickly.... the fry you see now will be much large in a few days.....in 2 days you should be able to see them easily if your looking. when you feed the tank take a small pinch of the flakes and crush them up for the fry........ You seid you found a good LFS, check with them is they buy fish for store credit........ they will give you penny's for the fish but better than having a tank full or culling a school of fish.


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## mskitty (Jan 11, 2008)

i have that same kind of background for my tank.


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## funnyfish (Jul 7, 2008)

Ok so we have added 1 white MM platy 1 red MM platy and 3 Buenos Aires Tetra today wish me luck everyone seems good but for my trio or tetra they seem very skittish so I hope the calm down I have read that they can be nippy if not fed well so I plan on keeping them fed very well also I have live plants for them to chew if they feel the need


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