Is Adding More Fish Ok Yet?

[merlecollins]

Hi all,

I got my first tank in October last year and have been cycling it without fish until three weeks ago when I finally was confident that my levels were OK to add fish

So off I trotted to my local pet shop for some advice The owner was great and sold me 10 small fish in total, advising me not to dive in and buy larger fish such as the Black Mollies he had

I got 3 Zebra Danios, 3 Tiger Fish (not sure of their exact name) and 4 tiny fish that seem transparent and have a golden stripe/backbone through the middle.....Many apologies for my ignorance but as I've said I'm new to this

Anyway, all of the fish have survived and in fact flourished in their new environment with the Danio's somewhat larger than 3 weeks ago

Do you think I would I now be able to add some larger fish ? I have a Tetra Aquaart 60l tank set-up.

 

[helterskelter]

Your tank is about 15 gallons which means you can hold around 15 inches of fish (ie 15 inch long fish) with good filteration and water changes done weekly you could push it to 20 inches.

So if your adding small fish you can add another 4-5 as tiger barbs can grow to around 2 inches.

Good luck with your new tank.

 

[merlecollins]

Your tank is about 15 gallons which means you can hold around 15 inches of fish (ie 15 inch long fish) with good filteration and water changes done weekly you could push it to 20 inches.

So if your adding small fish you can add another 4-5 as tiger barbs can grow to around 2 inches.

Good luck with your new tank.

Cheers Helterskelter,

What sort of fish would you think would co-habit OK with what I've got already?

 

[helterskelter]

Nothing with long fins as tiger barbs love to nip at them.
But it's your choice as their are 100's of things to chose from.

 

[danb]

After doing a fishless cycle you are able to add your full stocking straight away without introducing over a period of time.

 

[Truck]

15 gallons is a bit small for tiger barbs, I wouldn't buy any more.

 

[helterskelter]

After doing a fishless cycle you are able to add your full stocking straight away without introducing over a period of time.

No it's more important to think in the way of bio mass.
If you stocked the full amount your filter would be over loaded and ammonia would be produced to excess.

 

[Truck]

After doing a fishless cycle you are able to add your full stocking straight away without introducing over a period of time.

No it's more important to think in the way of bio mass.
If you stocked the full amount your filter would be over loaded and ammonia would be produced to excess.

that defeats the point of fishless cycling, the whole Idea of it is so that you can cycle your tank without fish and then add your full stocking in one go because it is safe to do so.

 

[helterskelter]

Depends if your feeding the bacteria or not.

A typical cycle with no fish the bacteria get to a level to use the ammonia in the system when you add fish you will get a spike of ammonia and nitrites until the bacteria can build up to the new bio mass in the tank.
If you adding ammonia or something to feed the cycle then yes u can more fish.

 

[danb]

but in doing the fishless cycle you build the bacteria up to be able to deal with mass ammounts of ammonia, 4ppm in under 12 hours. The fish wouldnt create this much waste.

 

[waterdrop]

This is correct. If the fishlessly cycled filter has passed the test of clearing 4-5ppm of household ammonia to zero ppm in 12 hours or under each day for a week then it will be able to handle a much larger bioload than a fully stocked tank by the inch guideline.

The point though is never to actually match colonies and bioloads initially but to always be confident that your colonies capability outstrips your initial bioload so that the colony sizes can drop back down and match the bioload without ever having a blip on the mini-cycle radar. A 5ppm filter tested as above can do this for a fully stocked tank.

In practice it is rare for a fishkeeper to actually -have- an initial stocking that reaches full capacity because usually some of the species choices are too delicate or simply not currently available from his sources. This just makes the situation better.

I'm concerned that we've jumped to conclusions about the fish that the OP has. The identification may be incorrect and they may not be Tiger Barbs. Pictures or more information may be in order. "Cycling since October" certainly sounds like a serious cycle but we still do not quite know what this means.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[merlecollins]

This is correct. If the fishlessly cycled filter has passed the test of clearing 4-5ppm of household ammonia to zero ppm in 12 hours or under each day for a week then it will be able to handle a much larger bioload than a fully stocked tank by the inch guideline.

The point though is never to actually match colonies and bioloads initially but to always be confident that your colonies capability outstrips your initial bioload so that the colony sizes can drop back down and match the bioload without ever having a blip on the mini-cycle radar. A 5ppm filter tested as above can do this for a fully stocked tank.

In practice it is rare for a fishkeeper to actually -have- an initial stocking that reaches full capacity because usually some of the species choices are too delicate or simply not currently available from his sources. This just makes the situation better.

I'm concerned that we've jumped to conclusions about the fish that the OP has. The identification may be incorrect and they may not be Tiger Barbs. Pictures or more information may be in order. "Cycling since October" certainly sounds like a serious cycle but we still do not quite know what this means.

~~waterdrop~~

OK, so this has been an interesting start to adding to my tank........

I went to the pet store today and got two White Mollies, a Black Mollie and 2 thin golden fish that do nothing but suck the side of the tank!! Along with anew fern plant.

I got them home and unwrapped the brown paper from the plastic bag they were in. To find one of the White Mollies dead in the bag

Anyway i put the plstic bag in the tank water to acclimatise the fish for about 10 mins I then realeased the fish into the tank with my other fish Other than the dead mollie all seemed well so we toddled off to the in laws for our Sunday dinner

Just got back to find the Black Mollie dead at the bottom of the tank and the 2 sucking fish somewhat paler looking than when we left

Any ideas???

 

[waterdrop]

I don't know, isn't it better to drip-acclimate mollies for a fairly long time since they are so sensitive to mineral content changes? Is you water pretty hard?

The 5 fish you brought home actually sounds a bit large for a single addtition to the tank but of course that won't be the reason you lost the mollies. Two to 3 fish is usually a good addition except with very small fish. Then a week or two should be given for the bacteria to grow.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[merlecollins]

I don't know, isn't it better to drip-acclimate mollies for a fairly long time since they are so sensitive to mineral content changes? Is you water pretty hard?

The 5 fish you brought home actually sounds a bit large for a single addtition to the tank but of course that won't be the reason you lost the mollies. Two to 3 fish is usually a good addition except with very small fish. Then a week or two should be given for the bacteria to grow.

~~waterdrop~~

Yes mate, the water here is known to be quite hard

The one remaining Mollie is presently going crackers, swimming from the top of the tank to the bottom in all for corners of the tank......Do you think this one should survive if it has lasted this long - about 7hours? It doesnt seem interested in any food I put in the tank

 

[kaivalagi]

Missing a lot of info here really, if you could provide answers to the questions below that would be great

• Have you tested the levels in your tank with a test kit, preferably liquid based? We really need Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate levels, along with the pH level to know what the tank is good for
• What temperature are you running your tank at?
• When you cycled your tank what did you do? Did you dose with Ammonia?
• How have you been doing your water changes?
• What equipment have you got? e.g. filter/heater