28l aquarium how many fish?

Question

Eeeeek dropped a clanger, dd wanted a fish tank so I let her buy what she could afford, without really looking into it.

My Dad has two big aquariums and never seemed to have to do much with them and they all survived.

So I thought it would be easy, I brought tank followed instructions, put in water conditioner, added some sort of bacteria for two weeks and a couple of live plants, and today when to fish shop and ask what else i needed, she said nothing and sold me 4 small orange, apparantly easy to look after fish.

She didn't mention testing the water, so I'm now worried that they will all croak overnight, as it appears I would have been better off with two! I'm off to test the water in the morning so is there anything i need to look out for.

And if all goes well how many fish can I put in the tank in total?

Thanks for that, they are coral platies and they are quite small at the minute so hopefully they won't be making any babies yet!

I feel a little more confident now that I won't be waking up to traumatised children in the morning!!

Well this morning I still have 4 happy looking fish - my dd came running upstairs telling me one was asleep at the top with its eyes open and I feared the worst - but it must have been just having a rest phew.

I brought a testing kit and all levels are as expected for a new tank - so fingers crossed all will be well! and I've brought them a plant that they apparently like.

Answer 1

Your tank is only around 7 gallons (US), so you don't have a lot of room for fish.

Honestly, how many you can keep will be determined by the adult size of the species, plus things like your filtration, how much you feed, and how well you maintain your tank. There's no magic formula like the "1 inch of fish per gallon" that too many people try to use. Ten inches of neon tetras don't produce the same volume of wastes as ten inches of goldfish or oscars.

If the fish you bought were platys or guppies you should be fine, apart from the fact that they'll reproduce like mad and overcrowd your tank. Swordtails might be alright, as would balloon mollies. If you bought goldfish or "regular" mollies, you might already have too many - they may seem okay now, but these will grow quite a bit more than the size you typically see in stores.

Your first step would be to ifentify the type of fish you were sold, and determine if they're suited to your tank at all, or if you should either return them for a different type, or if you're able to upgrade to an appropriate sized tank within a few months. This link may help you figure out what type of fish you have: http://www.liveaquaria.com/

If you plan to keep all you have, the main concern is monitoring the ammonia and nitrite levels in the next few months while the tank cycles. Keep an eye out for behavior such as gasping at the top for air, lethargy (sitting at the bottom, general inactivity), and loss of appetite all of which indicate there's a problem and the fish are stressed. Of course, it's best to keep up frequent water changes (25-30% of the volume weekly, or 10-15% twice a week) so the levels don't get so high that they stress your fish at all.

If you can, take some of the filter media from one of your dad's tanks (as long as there's no problem with disease or algae in the tank) and put it in your tank - this will have bacteria in it already and will help "jump start" your population so the cycling doesn't take as long. If you have a heater, turn the temperature up to 78-80o if you have tropical fish - the increased temperature will cause the bacteria to multiply faster, so that also will reduce your cycling time.

Another thing you can do is to add some non-iodized salt to your tank. This can be aquarium salt (more expensive) or rock, kosher, canning, pickling, or table salt withough iodine added (less expensive but the same thing). Add a teaspoon for every 6 liters or so of water. This protects your fish from high nitrites should these occur.

Answer 2

First things first. Always add water conditioner and aquarium salt when setting up. ALL the items you are putting in your tank such as stones,fake plants,decorations, should be washed in a water aquarium salt solution. NEVER use soap of any kind.

Do not even have anything on your hands when doing this for example;hand lotion,soap,perfume. You set up an aquarium it should set for at least 2 weeks with the filter systems running before you put anything in it. Once this time period is over. I would add the cheapest tester fish you can buy. This is to make sure the quality of water is going to be good for them.Give them about a week to see how good they do before buying anymore. If they don't make it you might have to get water from elsewhere.

Do not just throw the fish in when you bring them home.They should remain in the bag, but be placed in the aquarium to let their water temp slowly progress to the temp of the aquarium. This usually takes about 1/2 hour. If you just throw them in you are gonna shock them. If this happens you will lose them. Do not over fill the tank with fish, we go by the size of the fish. For example; 1 square inch of fish for every gallon of water.

If you are going to use chlorine water when replacing the water please use a additive in the water before you put it in the tank. This neutralizes the chlorine. Always and I mean always add aquarium salt to your tank when putting new fish in the tank. This will help on their stress levels. The salt will have directions on correct amounts to add on the back of the container. Do not add water that is too hot or too cold. It should be luke warm and just about match the temp of the aquarium. If you find little white spots on your fish after adding water that means the water was to hot or cold. Thus causing a disease called ick. This will kill your fish, if you don't buy a medication to clear it.

I suggest using a Magnum and a Penguin brand filter system together. This is for tanks ranging in sizes 20 to 130 gallons. Do not buy just any old run of the mill fish food for them. Check with your local pet store. I order out for mine to a place called Big Als. I have been an aquarium owner for 25 years.

Answer 3

orange easy to keep fish sound like platies maybe -- 2 platies can turn into 5000. they are livebearers. lots of luck.

keeping fish is easy once you have absorbed about 1000 pages worth of material on how to keep them. i don't do water tests -- what i do recommend though is you learn how to do water changes. once a week do a gravel vacuum and empty about 1/4 of the water and replace it. its also good to wipe down the inside walls of the tank with paper towels, clean up the filter, and trim up your plants.

i would dump some more of the bacteria in now and forget about ever doing it again unless you start over again. if you don't have fish poop the bacteria have nothing to live off of -- its pointless using that stuff in a tank without fish.

a 28 litre tank is kind of small -- you could probably add one or two more fish if you keep it clean.

you should remember what kind of fish you have and what kind of plants you have so you can research them and learn their specific needs. just throwing stuff together is kind of like mixing dogs with guinea pigs and throwing in poison oak and hoping they all get along fine.