Tropical Aquarium

Question
QUESTION: I am thinking of buying the Elite Style Glass Aquarium Tropical Setup, 95l. It seems that the price has been knocked down in most shops; would this be because of a defect?
Also, would it be suitable for housing a community of around 12 tetra or different sorts, 3 pearl danios and 2 (bumblebee and cherry fire) shrimp? Possibly a Betta Also, but I'm not sure if there will be enough room for it, or if it will be compatible with these fish.
Thank you for your help,
Daniel

ANSWER: Hi Daniel,
I am not good with prices of tanks because they vary in every country and state, so I cannot give an answer for that question.

For a 95L tank, it is big enough for all the fish and amount of fish you mentioned.  I would limit to 20-30 fish total in the tank, so you are able to fit 5-10 more if you wanted to because these fish do not eat a lot and do not have a big bioload, plus they love to school, so the more the better.  The cherry fire is a Red Cherry Shrimp, Cherry fire is the wrong label for them.  If you keep bumble bee shrimps and red cherry shrimps with the fish, I recommend you add a lot of foreground plants such as Dwarf Tears or Dwarf Hair Grass or any other foreground plants to give hiding spots for the baby shrimps.  The adults will not get picked on but any baby shrimp that will be able to fit in the fishes mouth will be eaten.  Also with keeping the shrimps, they are more sensitive to nitrogen levels (Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte)in the tank than fish, so optimum water quality will be required at all times.  Tetras are also more sensitive than other fish to nitrogen levels also which require more care.  It is not harder to care for these shrimps or fish, they just require more work such as more water changes than other types of fish.  Dwarf shrimps should not be introduced into a tank until it is fully cycled.  And they also, do not like Nitrates above 10ppm.  If you don't know how to cycle you can ask a follow up question and I'll be glad to help you.      

Hope I helped,
-Matt-


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Now I will apologize in advance for this very long, rambling e-mail.
Thank you for your help. I have decided to go for this tank, because I would like something around this price, and 95l is around the volume that I want as well.
I do know about the cycling, thank you for your help. Do you think that after detoxing the water and adding Tetra's 'SafeStart' , or other beneficial bacteria, I could put the three pearl danios in after as soon as three days? I have been told that you can put them in immediately, but I think i will wait to establish the cycle, even if the tank hasn't matured completely yet. If you have any suggestions on this, could you recommend them? I am a novice fishkeeper, although I know enough to keep a tropical tank because relatives have had fish of all sorts.
I have decided to not buy the betta, they tend to need a higher temperature to the other fish. Also, I have decided to buy 6 pearl danios and possibly 2 of each shrimp. I won't overstock the tank as I may want to breed the tetra.  
My close friend has just started his own aquarium and it is on its second week. He has just added cherry shrimp after adding leopard danios and has found that the danios tend to be boisterous and chase the shrimp. Do you know if this will happen with the pearls? Sorry if this is not your area of expertise. Thank you for all the help,
Daniel.

ANSWER: Hi agian Daniel,
No problem, I love helping, and this is also in my area of expertise.  The only area not in my expertise is fish diseases because its hard to predict the diagnosis without seeing the fish itself since its being explained to me over the net.  So, about your danios, tetras, and red cherry shrimps :)

Danios are very hardy fish and are good to cycle with.  It is up to the aquarist whether or not they want to introduce danios before or after it has finished cycling.  However, if you do put the danios in before the tank has fully cycled, the ammonia and nitrite spikes will harm the fish and may or may not end up with health problems further down the road.  Ask your relatives to give you used filter cartridges to introduce to your tank, the more the better because it "seeds" the tank and will introduce many beneficial bacteria which will GREATLY speed up the cycling process.  Cycling a tank without seeding may take up to a month, whereas a seeded cycling tank can take up to only a week.  The danios are up to you when you want to introduce them, but the cherry shrimp should not be introduced until the tank has fully cycled, that means, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrIte and some traces of nitrAte.    

Danios are also very very active, they will chase everything around including bigger fish than them and will chase shrimps just to play and pick at them.  But be warned that just like any other fish, including tetras, if it fits in the fishes mouth, it will be eaten.  The shrimp will learn to hide more.  I have a tank with Red Cherry Shrimp and Crystal Red Shrimp and I keep Platies with them.  They never bother the shrimp so all the junior-adult shrimps are always out crawling along the floor because they are "trained" to know that there is no risk of harm in the open.

It is very difficult to breed tetras and almost never occurs in a community tank held at home.  As a novice aquarist it will be also very difficult.  They require black water, that means a tank full of tannins.  Tannins are what leech from driftwood that brown the water.  Thats why people wonder why their tank turns brown or tea colored when they introduce wood into the tank, it's because the wood leeches tannins.  It is not harmful to fish or shrimp, although it is known to be proven beneficial as some bacteria cannot live in a tank with tannins.  Some others believe it is part of the plants defence mechanism.  There is a substance you can buy at the local fish store that imitates black water if you do not want to use wood/leaves to darken the tank (i recommend the more natural way with wood and leaves).  Tetras are also egg scatterers and you will need driftwood, dead brown leaves and a certain type of spreading, carpet, foreground plant that is not too large such as Dwarf Hair Grass, Dwarf Baby Tears, Baby Tears, or anything similar.  Their eggs also melt if exposed to light which gives another reason why plants are needed besides to protect it from being eaten.  But this takes it to a whole new level because these plants require lots of light to grow and Dwarf Baby Tears requires CO2 injection to grow effectively without being infested with algae.  I recommend the Dwarf Hair Grass as they grow and spread fast even with moderate light.  And they do not require CO2 for growth.  They also look nice when fully grown in, like a front yard lawn.  Tetras also prefer acidic water to breed, so preferably around 6.5-7.0 pH.  High pH will cause less offspring and lowers health of the offspring.  Tetras do best in the high 70's but for breeding, up the temp to low 80's or mid 80's for 1-2 months.  It is to imitate spring.

Hope this is useful,
-Matt-   
Hope I helped,
-Matt-

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: For the final time, I will ask a follow up question, thanks for all the help. :)
You mentioned a tank with CRS, red cherry shrimp and platy. (Im not sure if the plural is Platies, Platys or Platy, so excuse my probably incorect grammar.)
Which model of tank is this? , because I may think about getting a smaller tank first, to get used to the ways of a fishkeeper. I was planning on getting a very small, 35l sized of tank and stocking it with CRS and maybe some sort of other fish. If you have something similar, could you tell me the literage and how many fish and shrimp do you have in there? Thanks a lot for all your help for everything, and for this question (in advance).
You have definately made my life as a novice a lot easier, Thanks,
Dan

Answer
Hi Daniel, nice to see you again, hope everything is well so far.
In my tank with CRS, RCS and platy, I use a 20 gallon long tank 30 inches in length, 12 inches in width and about 13 inches deep.  In my area, we don't use liters, but I think it is a 75l size tank.  Remember that the smaller tank you use, the faster toxins build up.  It gives less room for errors compared to larger tanks.  If you use a small size tank I suggest you keep a very small amount of small fish, but you can have a lot of shrimps, about 60-100.  Shrimps have a very small bioload.  A good advantage with small tanks is, it is a lot easier to maintain.  Because water changes don't take long.  All the aquarists I know that breed shrimps, breed them in small tanks.  

Remember like I said before that all dwarf shrimps are very sensitive to all 3 nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) readings and shouldnt be introduced until tank is fully cycled.  I keep my 20G tank at 0ammonia, 0 nitrite, and ALWAYS less then 10ppm.  CRS shrimp are very sensitive to water quality because they are inbreded down to achieve their white striped color.  So their genetics are not as strong as the RCS.  Also the pH range for CRS needs to be more acidic than the RCS like about 6.5-7.0 whereas RCS can be more diverse about 6.5-8.0.  

Let me know if you need more info or if I forgot anything that you needed to know.  Ill be very happy to help.  
-Matt-