new/ old tank

[jade71301]

This post is for my friend. He just gave away all his fish, and wants to start from scratch. His tank is 3 yrs old. He wants to know if he has to run fish cycle again in his fiter. He is planning to set it up tuesday and get the fish 4 or 5 days later. Next question he wants to know is what fish can go with what. He is leaning toward sword tail fish. What fish go with them. Do gold fish go with sword tail? Also he wants all males so no babies Also if you have any tank set up ideas please post them cause he wants ideas for his new set up. Thanks

 

[FishGeek]

His tank is 3 yrs old. He wants to know if he has to run fish cycle again in his fiter. Has he removed the filter cartridges?? Or have they dried out?? If so then yes there will be a cycle. It may not be a "large" as the first one but it will be noticable and can still harm the fish.
He is planning to set it up tuesday and get the fish 4 or 5 days later. Sounds fine to me. I would grab some Bio-Zyme and add it to the tank just to be safe.
Next question he wants to know is what fish can go with what. He is leaning toward tetra fish. What fish go with them. Do gold fish go with tetra? Also he wants all males so no babies. I am worried that the tetra males would be agressive are they? As far as Tetras, most of them if not all of them can be mixed. Goldfish are cold water and I wouldnt reccomend putting them with Tetras. They are also VERY messy and require more frequent/strict water changes/maintanance. Not a good mix. If your friend does Tetras you are unlikely to get babies. Also sexing many Tetras is very difficult. I reccomend having your friend look at the profiles part of this website and or looking at his LFS and figuring out which fish catch his eye and then come back and we can give you further help for him.

 

[jade71301]

I did some research and the fish he wants is sword tails. Just wondering do you think sword tails, molly, fancy guppies and platy's go together? Because I find they look similar in shape, and I know he would like different colors. This is what I found. We don't know much about these fish.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/platy.htm
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/molly1.htm
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/swordtal.htm

 

[Seleya]

How big is this tank? When did he give away his fish?

 

[jade71301]

he gave his fish away yesterday, and the tank is a 40 gal

 

[TheFighterFish]

I believe jade71301 asked if goldfish are compatible with swordtails, not tetras. In either case, no. Goldfish are coldwater species and swordtails are warmwater.

I am not sure about having all male swordtails. I heard that they tend to quarrel with each other, but 40 G seems like a good amount of space for them to swim. Also, swordtails like heavily planted tanks (2/3). I wouldn't recommend the molly because this fish likes aquarium salt in their water. For swordtails, this is a no no.

If your friend likes swordtails, tell him/her to check out the montezumae swordtail. These guys are awesome, although I've never seen any for sale.

 

[jade71301]

Hi, Actually I said tetra fish first because thats what my friend kept saying, but then changed it because I saw what he wanted and they were swordtails. Just want to know what fish go with mollies, what fish with platies and what fish with swordtails and maybe puffers. PLEASE and also some ideas about a tank set up for a 40 gal hexagon tank. Thanks

 

[Lotus]

Puffers really don't go with other fish.

Mollies/swordtails and platties go with eachother, and will also do fine with most community fish like tetras, cories, etc.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

some say mollies are brackish fish, although i have succesfully kept and bred them in fresh.

 

[jade71301]

Can my friend have tetra neons, mollies and fancy guppies together in one tank?

 

[TheFighterFish]

Mollies and fancy guppies would do fine just because they're livebearers. However, I'm not to sure about adding the neon tetras (too many times, I wanted to add these beautiful fishes). Neon tetras like soft, acidic water. In their natural environment, they lived in something called "black" water. This was from all the decayed plants. However, when you look at the livebearers, they are quite the opposite. Fancy guppies like hard water and mollies even prefer a little salt added (some would say brackish).

Yet, I've read that neon tetras can adjust to tap water (which is normally hard). It's just that they won't always show off their best colors or even breed (hard as it is).

Last thing concerns your friend's 40 G hex. Sure it's a lot of water per volume, but keep in mind surface area. I'm taking a wild guess, but it probably can keep as much fish as a rectangular 20 G. Anyway, good luck with whatever your friend chooses to house.