final stocking question

[dwarfgourami]

Both my tanks are cycled hip hip hooray :wd:

So it's off to the lfs on Saturday (bacteria in the meantime are being kept happy by daily addition of ammonia).

As some of you may remember, my stocking plans are:

small family of guppies
pair of guppies
school of corydoras
pair/small family of dwarf gouramis

Now how do I play this?- remembering that I have two tanks (60 and 70 ltrs) that are cycled but not mature. The guppies and platies are no problem, obviously- in they go. But the cories and gouramis presumably should wait a bit, being a bit more sensitive. On the other hand, if I don't only put in a few livebearers, that won't sustain all my lovely bacteria- so when the cories and gouramis go in I can expect a mini cycle? On the other hand, if I fill up the tanks now with platies and guppies there won't be room for the cories and gouramis later. What would you do folks?

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not familiar with gouramis at all so I can't speak on those. As for the corys, I'm sure are more hardy than others so it kind of depends on the species. I went through the same thing with my 75 gallon tank. When it was finally finished cycling, I couldn't find all the fish I wanted at once so I am not evne half stocked now and know I will end up with mini cycles when I do get the rest. I did add 6 blue spotted corys a week after adding the first fish and have had no problems at all with them. They seem to be a little shyer than my peppered corys. Since this is a heavily planted tank, I don't see them very often. I actually stood near the tank a couple nights ago with all the house and tank lights off and a flashlight shining on the tank. It took about 30 minutes, but I finally got to see all 6 at once out so I knew I hadn't lost any. I would proably go ahead and add at least about 75% of your full load. I had fully intended to all all my fish at once but couldn't find them all.

 

[Macracantha]

OK how about this one?

put all the livebearers in one tank and keep feeding the other empty tank...when you are ready for the corys and gouramis - split up the livebearers into the 2 tanks...buy new fish and share those into tanks to suit.

???

 

[houndour]

After fishless cycling my tank I added 5 corys, 3 guppies and 3 botia stiata (over a period of 3 days cos the LFS didnt have everything).

I also want a pair of dwarf gourami and the guy in the shop said they wouldnt be a good fish for an unmature tank, but the gouramis were aclimatising anyway so I couldn't get any.

I also posted in the gourami section and I asked if it would be best to wait a while before adding the gouramis and people thought it best. So I'm going to add the 2 gouramis in another 2 weeks (which will be 4 weeks then).

And my Corys are doing brilliantly. They are just busy busy all the time and seem very happy. Just remember to do the big water change. I didn't do a big enough one and so I ended up doing lots of smaller ones all week to get the nitrates down.

So you know I got cory metae. Which corys are you getting? I would be wary of putting pandas into a newly cycled tank. They seem super sensitive to water conditions.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks for your help. Off to the fishshop this afternoon so we'll see how we get on.

Am hoping to get the platies, guppies and cories today, and leaving the gouramis for 6 weeks or so (we're going on holiday at halfterm so don't want to make any new purchases just before then).

I'm hoping to get metae cories- they look lovely- but it will depend on what's in the shop; I really don't want to go to my less reliable lfs for the fish. I've been following your postings closely, Houndour, as you were cycling just before me and we seem to like the same fish. Hope your cories are still doing well.