happy fish??

Question
QUESTION: I am new to the fish business so I am sure I will have plenty of ??'s but for now I just wonder how do the fish react when I do a partial water change?  Or I mean how should they react?  Mine act all happy.  They start swimming more and appear to be playing and such.  Is that what they are doing?  I never let the water go more than 6 or 7 days without doing a partial and they seem to just love it.  Does it feel that good to them?  Also, what else can I feed them for a variety.  I have a 40 gal. glass tank with eight fish.  Molly, danios,black skirts,platies,and my one lil yellow tail guppy. AND my little glass fish.  I got these to start up my tank and to cycle it but they all lived and now I have gotten attached to them which brings me to yet another question. Can I safely get an angelfish in here too and what other a little bigger fish can I safely add to my little collection.  I am in the process of setting up another tank now for an Oranda goldfish and maybe one or two others in with it.  I saw one at the pet store and fell in love. LOL.  Thanks for your advise and expertise in advance.

ANSWER: Hello Beth!

Sounds like you are doing everything right so far! Give yourself a pat on the back!

Fish shouldn't react too much to a water change. Sometimes they panic a little when you put the suction tube in, but they should get used to it and act pretty much normally. The best thing to do is either 20-25% water changes twice a week, or 40-50% once a week. Smaller, more frequent water changes are favoured over less frequent, larger ones. You have a smaller bio-load right now, so at the moment 25% once a week is fine.

I would not add an angelfish. It would eat your danios and guppy like candy as soon as it reaches adult size, but this doesn't mean you have to miss out on cichlids! The best community cichlid is without a doubt the Bolivian Ram. You could put a pair in there easily, or even a trio. If you are looking for more color try a German Blue Ram. A relative of the bolivian, they are smaller in size, but are more sensitive and harder to care for.
You could try a Apisto, like Apistogramma cacatuiodes. Easy to care for, and amazing colors! Just don't get more than one male. Keyhole Cichlids are also popular, easy to care for and peaceful, but not as much color as the others.

Also, I have noticed that some of the fish you have on your list are schooling fish. The danios, glass fish, and black skirts need to be in groups of at least 5 or 6, to be happy. You have enough room in your tank to do this, just add the fish slowly, and increase your water changes.

-Nick

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

QUESTION: Nick, Thanks so much.  I have three black skirts but will get two or three more.  I think I will return the glass fish.  I notice he looks lonely but really don't want more of them.  They just have no color, ya know?  As for the danio's. I have 4 now . Could I get by with 4 or are there any colorful danio's I can add.  Now my new question.  I have one male and 4 female guppy's but want to add more. What is your advise on how to do this and should I do it at all.  Also, I have only one Molly and want another one.  What is your take on that and I only have on e platy. The other one died.  I took it to the fish store and they said my water is perfect and they saw no apparent reason FOR IT TO DIE. Should I get another one or two or stick with the one I have left?  Also, Any advise on setting up my tank for the oranda's? Any opinion on them at all?  Thanks so much!! Beth

Answer
Your welcome!

So then I'll address your questions one at a time here. In order.

Danios- Yes, with danios 4 would be ok. Danios are cyprinids and therefore do not need as much company as the tetras would. 4 would be the absolute minimum, so you don't need anymore danios if you don't want to.

Guppies- Do you want to add more males or more females? You should have at least 3 females for every male, so if you want to add another male add 2 more females. The variety doesn't matter.

Molly- The are not true freshwater fish, they can be kept in freshwater for short periods of time, but they won't live a full life. Mollies are what we call Brackish fish. That means they live in water that is part freshwater and part saltwater. To keep them properly you would need to add a lot of salt to your tank (don't do that). But adding this salt would kill your other fish, so that's not a good idea. I wouldn't get any more mollies, yours may last for awhile, or not, hard to tell, but I wouldn't bring anymore into freshwater.

Platy- Thery aren't true schooling fish, however they do like to be in pairs of trios, not needed too much, but they are more interesting to watch like this. You could leave it by itself if you wanted, or you could pick up another two. One male platy for every 2 female platy.
Also, when fish die of no apparent reason it is either stress or an internal parasite. Since platies rarely get internal parasites, it was likely stress. There are many things that could have caused this, but I'm pretty sure I know why. If you had 2 male platies, it is likely they fought and this fighting would have stressed him out. If you had a male and only 1 female, the male would try to mate non-stop. This constant mating can tire and stress the female to death.

Oranda- How many do you want to put in? Just make sure that it is over 30 gallons. If you made it bigger you could have a really nice goldfish community. I =care for a 125g coldwater community, lots of goldfish, loaches, crayfish (don't recommend these for you yet), and the like. I think you should get a 55g. You could put maybe 5 in there. It may seem empty at first but they'll grow!
Good luck!

-Nick