best fish compatibility

Question
QUESTION: hello, I recently bought 3 fish to put in my new aquarium, a tinfoil, and bala shark and a tiger barb, in a week or so I want to add a few more, what do you suggest?
ANSWER: HiYa!

Ok alot depends on the size of your tank as to what other fish you can put in there.

In all honesty, the combination of fish you bought isn't really ideal and if a "live fish shop = LFS" sold them to you, I'd be questioning how knowledgeable they are.

Bala Sharks or Silver Sharks as they are also known as, are schooling fish and really need to be kept in a school of 4 - 5 fish, so you really should have bought more than one. Having said that, tinfoils and tiger barbs are also schooling fish, so more than one of each should have really been purchased as well.

I'm curious to know how big your aquarium is as Bala Sharks require a tank of around 135 gallons to grow to maturity. They are also excellent jumpers so you need to make sure you have well fitting coverglass on your tank.

Until you come back to me with how big your tank is and what if any other fish you have in there aside from the 3 already mentioned, I can't really recommend any fish just yet!

Cheers! Rach

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QUESTION: Sorry I meant to tell you that we have a 55 gallon tank and also do you know when I should change some of the water to prevent ammonia illnesses? We put some stress salt in the tank right before we put the fish in there two days ago...Thank you for all your help I really appreciate it!
ANSWER: HiYa!

Ok to start off with your query re ammonia illness? How "new" is your tank? How long have you had it set up and running for before you added these 3 fish?

If your tank is cycled then ammonia illness shouldn't be an issue, unless your tank is either overstocked, your feeding them too much or your not cleaning it (eg gravel vac'ing to take away muck from the gravel during water changes).

When a tank cycles it goes through the following process: you feed your fish, they produce waste which is ammonia, this ammonia is converted to nitrites, which is then converted to nitrates which then if you have live plants in your tank is consumed by them, if you have no live plants in your tank, then when you do water changes, this is when you take the majority of nitrates out of your tank, nitrates in small doses are not harmful but in large doses then can be lethal which is why water changes are a MUST. During this process, good friendly bacteria is produced which live, in your gravel and filter, these help keep your tank balanced and your fish alive.

You should be doing 25% water changes every 10 - 12 days, during which you should also be gravel vac'ing the substrate to get any muck out.

As for fish to go with the ones you already have. Your Bala Shark will without any doubt outgrow your tank, so you will either have to get rid of him in the future or upgrade to a bigger tank cause a 55gallon just isn't big enough for him and he should really be kept with at least 3 - 4 of his kind. Same with the tinfoil barbs. Due to the size both these guys eventually get to as well, if your going to be getting more of them, I wouldn't recommend any other fish. Bala's get to 14 inches and Tinfoils to the same, so imagine a few of them swimming round your tank and you can see that they really won't have much swimming space, even if you only keep the two you have.

Get back to me on whether your tank is cycled, how long it's been up and running for and what other fish you would like in your tank and your thoughts on what I've told you about the Bala and Tinfoil, so I can try and help you some more!

Cheers! Rach

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QUESTION: OK we just bought the 55 gal tank about a week ago and set it up with decorations and rocks...we've only had it up and runnin for about 3 days before we put the 3 fish in there, so it's going through the cycling process right now..should I change some water tonight? Is there a special way to do it or do I just carefully stick a big bowl in there and dump it out and put luke warm water back in the tank? Will it need salt again? My boyfriend is stuck on putting Oscars and gouramis in the tank would that be ok? Sorry for asking so many questions, any suggestions would be really helpful...thank you!!
ANSWER: HiYa!

Ok lets start at the start of your reply. While your tank is cycling, because also of the fish you have in there, you need to do a 25% water change (which means take 25% of your water out) twice a week, to keep the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels down.

When you do this water change, you should really use a gravel vac. This is a piece of equipment that consists of a large tube and a long hose. You insert the large cyclinder tube into the water and move it up and down in the water to get the water siphoning up the cylinder tube and out the hose (put the end of the hose into a bucket). You then move the end of the tube that is in the water down to your gravel and it should suck up some of the gravel up into the tube if you have it siphoning right, move the vac along the gravel and as it sucks up the gravel, it will suck all the muck out and release the gravel to fall back down to the bottom of the tank. This not only cleans your gravel but it also extracts water at the same time, so your cleaning your gravel and doing your 25% water change all at the same time!

When you add water BACK into your tank, you MUST condition it with water conditioner which basically takes all the stuff out of the water that is harmful to your fish, this is an absolute MUST. The water doesn't need to be luke warm as your heater will heat the water up once it's in the tank.  You really don't need to add salt to your tank, it should only really be add if you ABSOLUTELY have to, such as for medication purposes, the problem with salt, is once its in your tank, its always in there, so I wouldn't add anymore.

As for putting Oscars in your tank. Your tank is NOT BIG ENOUGH for the fish you currently have in there and it DEFINITELY is NOT big enough for Oscars. Oscars need a MINIMUM of a 55gallon tank for ONE. For two Oscars, you would need a minimum of 100 gallons, they NEED vast swimming space and they are VERY messy fish, so you would need EXTRA filtration plus you would be doing regular weekly (sometimes twice a week) 25% water changes. I'm sorry for appearing so harsh about Oscars but too many people buy them and put them in tanks that are just too small for them just because Oscars are hardy, doesn't mean that they should live in harsh conditions that aren't fair on them. If you want to keep fish, then you should want to keep happy fish, which means making their environment as best it possibly can be! :-D

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QUESTION: OK, Last question...BTW Thank you so much for all the advice you've given me, My fish will definently benefit from your knowledge...I think were going to end up putting one oscar in our tank along with a few guoramis and maybe one more Tinfoil barb and one more tiger barb that way they all have a pal except the oscar if we decide to do that...what do you think?

Answer
HiYa!

Ok....what can I say, at the end of the day, your tank is your tank and your going to put in it what you want to put in it.

But that description of what you want to put in your tank "I think were going to end up putting one oscar in our tank along with a few gouramis and maybe one more Tinfoil barb and one more tiger barb that way they all have a pal except the oscar if we decide to do that" just made me shake my head! It's as if you read what I replied to you last time and ignored everything I advised you!

A 55 gallon is big enough for one Oscar with NO tank mates, NOwhere near big enough for one Oscar, plus a few Gourami's, two Tinfoil Barbs and two Tiger Barbs, not to mention your Bala Shark and Oscars and Bala Sharks, DO NOT GO TOGETHER, it will be a very unhappy tank.

If I'm totally honest, if you told the Live Fish Store what size tank you had when bought and they still advised you or sold you the fish they did, they shouldn't be in business. They are there to offer the best advice to their customers as possible, and in this case they haven't done that.

As I said, its your tank and you can put what you wish in there but if it was my tank, I wouldn't be putting what you want in there.

Cheers! Rach