help with my fishes?

Question

I just happened to read the answers to the other questions posted here and since i too have a fish tank i would like to know 2-3 things
1. my tank lights are always on 24 hrs - last 4 years or so... do i need to put them off in the nights - i put them off only while cleaning the fishtank which depends on how dirty the water looks.
2. i have 3 big catfishes and and 3-4 fishes of the goldfish variety, i just read about the sucker ( plecostomus ) cleaning the tanks... can i add that to my fish tank, earlier i had many fishes goldfish, suckers, angel fish but they all died one by one.
3. I also read about people adding snails and frogs to their fish tanks... tell me how helpful would that be
Thanks,

Answer 1

OK, a few things, the most important is that to have a showpiece aquarium you need to understand how it works. There are lots of books and the petstores all have information available on how things work. Searching the net for aquarium setup will show you lots of excellent examples. To your questions,
1. 12 on 12 off for most fish, on a timer is best. The bulb should be replaced once a year in order to maintain the correct spectrum.
2. Some pleco's can get very big and it sounds like you have lots of bottom fish. You might better like some fish higher up in the water. I would guess your other fish probally died early in life because they were stressed by poor water quality and constant light. Water must be changed regularly or you will always have problems with fish health. If you change 20% per week you will eliminate almost all water problems. Water that is crystal clear can be heavily polluted.
3. Snails and frogs can be appropriate in the right setting. In your tank I think they'll probally end up snacks. When you buy some more fish to add after you have things cleaned up make sure they will be large enough when they're adults to take care of themselves with the other large fish.

All in all read up on how the whole thing works, there's tons of info out there and you'll be surprised how much you didn't really do it the best way for the fish and that the best way's not any harder. Good luck and soon you'll have a showpiece.

Answer 2

1. Your light should only be on 8-12 hours a day. Fish need to sleep, too, and since they don't have eyelids to cover their eyes, sleeping with lights on can generally be more stressful.
2. Only add a pleco if you have a large tank (55 gallons or so) as most plecos grow to be quite large. If you're having an algae problem, turn off the lights once in a while. Also, angel fish, plecos, and most catfish are tropical - goldfish are coldwater fish. Do not mix goldfish with anything other than other goldfish.
3. Snails eat algae but breed like crazy - if you get a couple today, you'll end up with hundreds within a month. Frogs are, more or less, just a cute addition to a tank.

Answer 3

goldfish should be in a seprate tank they will live longer.
snails keep the tank clean(i bought one and it turned out it was preganant like 50 bqaby tiny snails ar ein my tank but most of them die)
i have a frog to you will need to get it frog bites because it will live longer. they like to hide to get like oe of those rocks were it can go under and not be seen (they are very intresting
the frogs do not eat the fish myfrog swims away when a fish comes near it
snails dont hurt your tank they are fine trust me

Answer 4

tank lights should be put on a timer so they come on and off every day no more then 10 hours. now for the alge eater (plecotomus) depending on tank size i say no unless its bigger then a 30 gallon.frogs not a good mix with fish they tend to eat them and for the snails they do the same as the alge eater but they are allso seen as food to some fish

Answer 5

no big deal with lights on for fish but if you have suckers that clean the algae from the tank then u have to put the light out at night so they could go and eat algae they only work at night. so at night turn off .

Answer 6

everybody will probable say "blue" fish, yet i'm quirky and could say new fish, or pink fish smoked fish,or pink fish cooked fish, final yet no longer least pink fish stunk like fish!

Answer 7

Oh boy