Livebearer Tank!

[Range]

Because me and my dad are getting impatient waiting for our saltwater tank to cycle (And the black mollies in said tank to give birth), we decided to set up a livebearer tank.

We watched Uncle Henry's (Our local 'redneck classified ads') for a good tank, and found a lady selling a 55gal tank with all the equipment for about $150. We bought it, she ripped us off with the equipment (of course), we bought a bigger heater (she traded the one in the tank out for a 10gal heater) and let everything settle down for a week.
Then, we got fish.
And plants.
Mostly fish, though we need more plants.

4 Swordtails (No idea as to the morph, he was looking at velvets and sunrises but I don't know which he picked) (1 male, 3 females)
4 Lyretails (1 Silver male, 1 Silver female, 1 Gold female and 1 hybrid female)
A TON of fancy guppies (2 males, and somewhere between 6-8 females)
A pair of freshwater angels (Which will be re-tank'd if they get mean)
A Cory Cat (How big do these guys get, anyways?)

I'm going to try to get some better pictures in a little while

Also, does anyone know anything about Bala sharks in communal tanks? I really like them, and my father said that if I do my research to prove that they will get along and I buy then we can get a pair.

 

[cwazy]

well welcome to GF fellow main~ah....! Uncle Henerys is great sometimes, ya just gotta watch it... so do i understand that your mollies had salt water babies? if that is the case you will likely want to keep them salt... im not sure as if they can make the acclamation back to fresh water... again not 100% on this.... i tried lil mollies in my salt tank... some reason it didnt work out *shrug* anyways... the angels... are most likely need to be re-tanked... they are not the friendlyest fish, and there needs are different than live barrers... dont be suprised if you see your angels kicking your guppys around lol... specially once they get some size to them!... bala sharks... ehhh... they are harmless so to speak... but much like any shark that you buy, they are sparatic, spook super easily, and when spooked will dart super fast all over your tank, hittin anything in its way, including your fish... i have lost a few fish due to our sharks freeking out... i dont keep balas for this reason... and i have 2 irredesent sharks, one of wich i may be re-homing, THEY GET BIG!!! our shark is almost 14 inches, housed in a 55... when he flips out, the whole tank knows it! they are really cool and all... but not really recomended... *shrug* cory cats... can you really ever have too many??? we LOVE corys they get pretty beefy for what they are, but they are not big by any means, they get probally 2-3 inches long... the females are "bulky" comepared to the males, but they are super awesome, super duper harmless, durrible as heck, and will go with anything that wont bully it around... you really cant go wrong with cory cats! they too are a schooling fish, get em in 5 or better groups, they are great, sometimes they go alone, sometimes they all stick together... get some tunnels and things for your tank for em to swim in and threw, also a place to chill out... seriously corrys are awesome lol... we have 12 in our 55... wich isnt enough lol...

i see that one of your fancy guppies are pregos... do you plan on keeping babies? if so you will want another small tank to house them in, and a plastic breeder so mom doesnt eat them when they come out... if they have babies in the tank, there is a slim slim chance your babies will make it...

may i also recomend platys? platys also semi-school and are a great live bearer fish, they come in a good varitity... they are pretty durable too!

thats all i can think of right now... i hope i was at least to a lil help for you, any questions please ask!

also if you do decide to go with balas, i would NOT go with a pair... but thats just me!

 

[Range]

so do i understand that your mollies had salt water babies? if that is the case you will likely want to keep them salt...

The black molly babies will be staying in the salt water tank, we don't plan on keeping them - if they get eaten, fine. If a few live, fine.

bala sharks... ehhh... they are harmless so to speak... but much like any shark that you buy, they are sparatic, spook super easily, and when spooked will dart super fast all over your tank, hittin anything in its way, including your fish... i have lost a few fish due to our sharks freeking out...

they get pretty beefy for what they are, but they are not big by any means, they get probally 2-3 inches long... the females are "bulky" comepared to the males, but they are super awesome, super duper harmless, durrible as heck, and will go with anything that wont bully it around... you really cant go wrong with cory cats!

Thanks We'll have to get the one in there now some friends!

i see that one of your fancy guppies are pregos... do you plan on keeping babies? if so you will want another small tank to house them in, and a plastic breeder so mom doesnt eat them when they come out... if they have babies in the tank, there is a slim slim chance your babies will make it...

Most of our livebearers are preggers right now, actually - some of them just aren't showing it as much as the others. We don't have the breeder tank set up, but we're working on trying to plant down the bottom of the tank with places the babies can hide in that mom can't get into. My dad knows all about setting up the breeder tank, he just wants to try this 'planted tank' thing first, to see if it works, before we get the old breeder tank down from the garage.

may i also recomend platys? platys also semi-school and are a great live bearer fish, they come in a good varitity... they are pretty durable too!

We were looking at them, and the man at the store tried to press them on my dad (and then on me), but we're sticking mostly with fish my dad knows about from his fish store days

Thanks for all the advice

 

[cwazy]

platys are pretty much the same care as any other live bearer... specially swords and mollies... easy easy easy... maybe one day you will see hopefully you will get some survivers out of the mollies... i dunno why ours didnt make it... at some point we will try again, but at the moment we dont have any mollies whats so ever... so it will be a while... ill be interested to hear how the plant and babies work..... we at one point tried small rocks... from the ocean, while this worked, the water quality was impossible to keep matained, but it did allow some babies to tuck under the rocks and hide, but was still a much much lower survivel rate than if they were in a breeder... *shrug* id love to hear how your set up goes show pics at some point too

 

[star]

I like the natural look gravel and the few plants.Add some more plants and the tank should be really nice looking.Kinda bare now but its coming along.

 

[Range]

platys are pretty much the same care as any other live bearer... specially swords and mollies... easy easy easy... maybe one day you will see hopefully you will get some survivers out of the mollies... i dunno why ours didnt make it... at some point we will try again, but at the moment we dont have any mollies whats so ever... so it will be a while... ill be interested to hear how the plant and babies work..... we at one point tried small rocks... from the ocean, while this worked, the water quality was impossible to keep matained, but it did allow some babies to tuck under the rocks and hide, but was still a much much lower survivel rate than if they were in a breeder... *shrug* id love to hear how your set up goes show pics at some point too

We got some platys yesterday on your advice, and some more females today - one of them died, but our first set was mostly wal-mart rescues and he didn't look too good when we got him :/

The black mollies are really the only saltwater mollies and you have to convert them to salt very slowly - ours took almost four hours of the drip method before we felt confident enough to put them in. and even then our first trio died (except for the male, but then our second male died from a lack of females)

We also got a breeder tank for our livebearers today In addition to almost fourty dollars worth of plants for the bottom, so it's much more planted now.


In other, unrelated news, we got three bluegreen chromis, another hermit crab and two turbo snails for the saltwater tank today, let's see how this goes....

I'll try to get some pics of both of them either later tomorrow or monday after school after everyone's had the chance to settle in.

 

[Range]

Does anyone have any success transferring saltwater molly (black molly) babies into freshwater using the drip method? (Another "We did in the fish store when I was a kid!" claim from Dad)

In other news, PICTURES!

The saltwater tank contains ~7 black mollies and three bluegreen chromis, as well as two turbo snails and two hermit crabs

The livebearer tank, I gave up on counting the fish but theres 1 cory cat, 2 angelfish, 4 swordtails, a mess of fancy guppies, four mollies, a mess of platys, two (three?) lyretails and I THINK that's it - My dad almost bought the entire tank of platys from wal-mart because they all looked so unhappy and he wanted to try to save them :/

GORGEOUS male platy in these first two, we took him home from wal-mart and he perked right up. I can't get his proper color on film, he's a beautiful blood red color irl

This is my dad's favorite picture ("It looks like that lyre is posing!")

And, last...

Anyone know what's up with this lyretail? The pair of silver lyres we have in the tank have been doing a weird shimmy-dance while almost vertical. My dad thinks they're going to bite it, but I think we have fish with epilepsy (can fish get epilepsy?) I know the picture is VERY blurry, I'll try to get some video of this behavior asap.

If you guys want to see more pictures or even video of anything in specific, let me know

 

[cwazy]

this fish doing the dance so to speak... likely will bite it... chances are they have a parasite of some sort... theres a technical name, i just cant think of it at this momnet... this is the biggest problem with the low cost fish... they are massed produced and not well taken care of... they have this stuff i highly recomend, its a bit on the pricey side but its in a blue bottle, its called malafix or something like that... you should find it in your fish store... it runs around 6 bucks for a smaller size bottle... but i have found it to work very well... keep an eye on you ph levels too... plants make me nervious but i think once your tank gets cycled and settled and the weak ones drift away, you will be pleased... great call on the platys

i feel like i keep telling you this isnt good enough go and do this... lol... but im not really... just trying to help out with my experience... ive had to learn so much of this on my own the hard way so with that said... are you sure your tank is a 55 gallon??? it looks kind of high and short... what are the dementions? in any case, your filter is not up to par for that size of a tank... you should upgrade your filters... i recomend a whisper 60... cheapest place to get these are walfart... should be right around 30 bucks, i think just under 30... i personally have 2 60s on our 55... but i keep much larger / dirtier fish in ours also with the filter... you will want to buy extentions so it pretty much touches the bottom on the tank... this is where all of your bad stuff settles... *ie... nitrates and amonia* with your filter settin so far up, all your doing is filtering perfectly good water... you need to get the stuff on the bottom to move

so enough about that lol...

converting salt back to fresh... i dont know of any success... and i know a couple different people who have tried... it has something to do with there swim bladder... but im not sure... if you dont want them in your tank ill put em in mine all ive gots is 2 clowns... some snails here and there and misc. live lil things lol... *shrug* let me know if it works out for ya!

if your tank with all the new fish seems to do an explosion of sorts, check your waters chemistry... sometimes adding alot of new fish at once will spike your ph and amonia... so just keep an eye on it

if you dont have the test kits... most PET stores, *not walmart* will do a water test for you for free... just bring them in a bag of your water out of your tank

 

[Range]

this fish doing the dance so to speak... likely will bite it... chances are they have a parasite of some sort... theres a technical name, i just cant think of it at this momnet...

Ah. Damn D:

they have this stuff i highly recomend, its a bit on the pricey side but its in a blue bottle, its called malafix or something like that

I'll get some the next time I go to the fish store

keep an eye on you ph levels too... plants make me nervious but i think once your tank gets cycled and settled and the weak ones drift away, you will be pleased... QUOTE]

PH is fine, we just tested it ~an hour ago
We did a fishless cycle for almost two weeks and then threw the first batch of fish in... Funnily enough, no one from the original batch has died

i feel like i keep telling you this isnt good enough go and do this...

It's fine Most of what my dad knows is from thirty or fourty years ago, and he was afraid to use the bacteria sand in the salt water tank

are you sure your tank is a 55 gallon??? it looks kind of high and short...

It's a 55 gallon. It has the same length and width as out thirty gallon but it's about twice the height, so logically it works out... It's not a 55gal long, it's a 55tall

We do get our water tested pretty regularly, and we know we need a bigger filter but we can't afford one right now D:

Thanks for all the advice

 

[cwazy]

ill be... i guess i didnt realize they made a 55 high... my wife tried to tell me but me being the only male species in the house had to not listen so yeah... that malafix stuff you can find at wally world too... maybe a lil cheeper... its been a while since ive had to look at this stuff as i got an insane bulk deal on fish stuff when our local wally stopped doing fish... i got all of the supplies they had out back for there fish... easily over 1000 dollars worth of stuff... for 50 bucks! that was over 2 years ago... ive yet to have to buy any food or any chems lol...

the filter... if i could recomend you seriously spend the few extra dollars at walmart and buy the whisper 60 over the aqua clear or what ever the cheap brand is... i have learned you get what you pay for... but deffenitly get the filter at wally... you will save a ton of dough as most pet stores charge 40-70 dollars and it should be just under 30 at wallys... and unlike the cheaper brand you can buy extensions for the whispers... wich you will want with a tall tank thanks for listening to me babble lol... fish have been my hobby for a long time... sence i was about knee high to a grasshopper... lol... and im still learning... always learning... so if you have any questions feel free to ask... i may be able to help you out


btw where abouts are ya at?

 

[Range]

ill be... i guess i didnt realize they made a 55 high... my wife tried to tell me but me being the only male species in the house had to not listen so yeah... that malafix stuff you can find at wally world too... maybe a lil cheeper...

Hahaha, I don't know if they actually make them anymore (It's a ten year old tank) I'll look in Wally this weekend when we go shopping

the filter... if i could recomend you seriously spend the few extra dollars at walmart and buy the whisper 60 over the aqua clear or what ever the cheap brand is... i have learned you get what you pay for... but deffenitly get the filter at wally... you will save a ton of dough as most pet stores charge 40-70 dollars and it should be just under 30 at wallys... and unlike the cheaper brand you can buy extensions for the whispers... wich you will want with a tall tank

Okay, I'll keep that in mind when we go

and im still learning... always learning... so if you have any questions feel free to ask... i may be able to help you out

Okay, thanks

btw where abouts are ya at?

Greater Bangor, we're in a teeny town about halfway between bangor and ellesworth

 

[malt_geckos]

Very cool! I bred angels for awhile and they aren't livebearers. If you happen to have a pair there, they will lay eggs and attack any fish that comes near them. Also, they will eat any babies your livebearers spit out. Nice tank too!

 

[BettaDragon]

that malafix stuff you can find at wally world too... maybe a lil cheeper...

Just wondering, are you talking about Melafix? It smells like eucalyptus and pine. I love the smell of that stuff. It's one of my favorite things to use for fish because I think it smells great. It works wonders on all the rips and tears bettas get on their fins and it worked great on some beat up cichlids I somehow inherited.

 

[elnott]

yeah. it was ment to say melafix. i like the way it smells, too. i usely double treat the tank with it and pimafix. one is for parasites and the other for fungus. they work great together.

 

[cwazy]

*shrug* i dunno... its a blue bottle and to me smells like Vicks lol... but it seriously works great!

 

[BettaDragon]

Yep, that's melafix. I love the stuff. Apparently squirrels do too. I had a squirrel invade my basement and instead of going after all the fish he went after my bottle of melafix. Didn't get it open but he took a lot of chunks out of the plastic, lol.