Re: New to this fish thing...advice/help
Now that eve2ybody's scared you out of fishkeeping!
After a period of time, a couple of months or so, you might add a corydoras catfish. They eat extra food that falls to the bottom, plus they are cute. Live plants would be good - helps to pull the nitrates out of the water, plus give the fish a place to hide if they need it.
I recommend a small sponge filter, that's runs off an airline.
Regular partial water changes - at least 10-20% a week. If it's well water, you don't need the water treatment stuff. The only test kit I recommend is a pH kit, but your store can probably test that for you. Neons do better in a softer water (lower pH) and well water is frequently too high a pH for them, but maybe you could use rainwater and mix it into the well water to do the water changes.
You can get a small heater for that size tank. Get a submersible one. It's way easier to deal with in a tank that size. Neons don't need a really warm temperature, but they do need a steady one.
Once you get a bigger tank, get some more neons to make a school (5 or more total). Another species of tetra would be pretty with them. Two corydoras, and maybe an otocinclus catfish to eat any algae. And I do recommend a bigger tank - the biggest you can afford when you get it.
Just do everything gradually - water changes, adding fish, changing temperature, etc. Fish can tolerate a lot, but need time to adjust. Cycling takes time to happen, so you don't add fish for awhile to let the bacteria catch up to increased fish loads. Feed tiny amounts. And try not to get discouraged by the huge amount of stuff everyone wants you to learn. Just relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the learning process and the fish!
|