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Post by easttex on Mar 24, 2015 14:17:05 GMT -5
A question for you fish-keepers out there: roughly how long can you keep them safe when you lose electricity? I'm thinking of getting some. My father had fish when I was a kid and I really enjoyed them. I'm in a rural area, and we lose power regularly. No generator.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Mar 24, 2015 15:35:30 GMT -5
I am not a fish person but would assume if they were tropical, there might be a problem if you lose electricity for a long time. However, I found the betta did okay when we had power outages - although they would only last a few hours.
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Post by rickygonzalez on Mar 24, 2015 19:50:14 GMT -5
It really depends on what kind of fish you are going to keep. If you were to keep say goldfish, (which btw is really not a good idea unless you have a pond.) They would be ok as long as the water didn't get too warm. Your livebearers would be ok for a good long while, a week or better. If you get more sensitive fish, I.e. discuss, angel fish, and some others in the cichlid family would not do well for long, maybe 24 hours if you're lucky. Overall, your cheaper, smaller fish would do ok indefinitely, your bigger more expensive fish would likely not do well.
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Post by msdani1981 on Mar 24, 2015 20:39:59 GMT -5
Our power went out for a week several years ago. We had two tropical aquariums at the time. What you can do is put one of those air-activated hand warmers in a plastic bag and put it in the tank to keep the water warm. Stir the water with a spoon every few hours to keep the oxygen flowing. We lost our most expensive fish, our Gold-nugget Pleco, but that was all.  Keep in mind that this was in the middle of a really hard winter (two or three feet of snow on the ground), so the apartment was COLD. |
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Post by easttex on Mar 25, 2015 6:11:05 GMT -5
Thanks for the info. It sounds like it would probably be fine. Our outages are as likely to be in the summer as in the winter, and we've never had one go into multiple days. (Yikes, Dani, how did you survive, never mind the fish!).
Another question. I would rather not have to face the question of what to do with lots of baby fish. Would I have to resign myself to having only singles of a species? I would not want to stock predators. Is there anything inhumane about keeping singles?
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Post by rickygonzalez on Mar 25, 2015 14:39:15 GMT -5
If it were me, I would go for something not likely to breed. Tetras, danios, barbs something along those lines. You could also get live bearers as long as they were all males. I don't like keeping community fish by themselves. It has been my experience they don't do nearly as well. If I had to choose I get a twenty gallon tank and put 5 or 10 male guppies in it, neon tetras are also good for your scenario. Good luck, keep us posted on what you decide.
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Post by aaron on Mar 25, 2015 16:26:23 GMT -5
I've heard that pet stores often stock only one gender to avoid breeding situations for some fish. We've only had one breeding issue in all the years we have had fish... although that did escalate quickly. Luckily we found someone that was happy to take the babies. You can also set up the environment in a way that discourages breeding if you know the breeding behavior of the fish you have... |
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Post by easttex on Mar 26, 2015 16:25:04 GMT -5
No decisions yet, but I have been looking at equipment. Another question. Can any tank be used for either salt or fresh water? I've notice some appealing tanks that the reviewers keep mentioning how great they are for "nano reefs", which I assume refers to salt. Any difference? |
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Post by msdani1981 on Mar 26, 2015 19:58:15 GMT -5
In one tank (our 75gal) we have a couple of gouramis, some cardinal tetras, a bristlenose pleco, a clown pleco, a bunch of umm.....loaches (two or three species), two flying foxes and I'm sure there are more that I'm not remembering. In our 29gal, we have several cherry barbs (male and female - yes, they have had babies), some five-banded barbs (my favorites), a yoyo loach (it really is too big for the tank, but we'd have to demolish the tank to get it out), and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. |
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Post by siobhan on Mar 26, 2015 22:40:14 GMT -5
I have a platy and three mollies in one tank and they are mixed genders and don't seem to be interested in breeding. That or they're eating the babies before I even notice they are expecting, and I pay pretty close attention, so I think I'd notice. In another tank I have four black finned platies and they're also mixed genders with no babies. Both tanks also have snails, and snails are tough little critters so if you lost power, they'd be okay. They're also fascinating. Then I have two more tanks each with one betta. My male betta has two snails and a ghost shrimp and my female is by herself, but I may give her a snail to keep her company. Bettas would probably be okay for a while without power. We've lost power, too, and I wrapped towels around the tanks to keep the heat in. I don't know how the others would do.
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Post by msdani1981 on Mar 27, 2015 20:07:56 GMT -5
A nano tank is a small tank, 5 gallons or smaller. It can be fresh- or saltwater.
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Post by msdani1981 on Mar 27, 2015 20:18:39 GMT -5
LOL Easttex, Zach and I went to my parents house during the day, and at night we put the birds in their carriers and snuggled with them under the covers in our bed. They weren't happy, and we didn't get much sleep, but they were warm. |
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Post by easttex on Mar 28, 2015 4:56:52 GMT -5
Thanks for the names of species that all of you are keeping or recommending. I will look them all up. I'm thinking an aquarium might be a good birthday present for me, though that would mean waiting for many months.
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Post by msdani1981 on Mar 28, 2015 14:02:17 GMT -5
Some small species you may want to look up: Neon tetra Cardinal tetra Sparkling gourami Five-banded barb Cherry barb Platy Molly Guppy Harlequin rasbora (also called Rasbora Hets) Panda Cory (there are other small cory cats, but I can't think of them) Betta (make sure none of your other fish are fin nippers) For a freshwater nano tank you could do: Betta Celestial Pearl Danio (aka Galaxy Rasbora) Dwarf Emerald Rasbora ...there are other tiny species, but I can't think of them Several months ago, Zach set up a tank for breeding tiny shrimp. We chose Blue Diamond shrimp, but here are some more species: Crystal Red (red and white) Carbon Rili (blue) Orange Rili (orange) Fire Red (red) Blue Dream (blue) Blue Diamond (blue and black) Yellow/Golden Rili (yellow) Crystal Black (black and white) Mystery snails are always good additions. I'll have Zach add more to this when he gets home. Or maybe Ricky can chime in here... Off the subject of fish species, this is a GREAT explanation of how to stock an aquarium. It will help you when you're looking at fish species and thinking of how big of an aquarium you want. From the forum at FishLore.com: The question was about adding some corydoras to an aquarium. From other posts, I gathered that this person has a 10 gallon tank. I hope this helps! |
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Post by rickygonzalez on Mar 28, 2015 19:49:49 GMT -5
That was a pretty good list, one thing I would point out, barbs tend to be pretty nippy fish. I had a barb exclusive tank that was beautiful, I just wouldn't put guppies or bettas in with them. As far as species go, I can't think of anything to add. If I think of any later I will add it later. I'm going to be thinking about this now.... lol
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