Tank Stocking Question

[Oop]

I'm re-entering the hobby and have forgotten much of what I learned when keeping fish about 15 years ago.  

 Aging sucks.  At any rate, I went to my LFS and inquired about fish to cycle my tank.  I was looking to create a peaceful, colorful, yet active community tank.  In the past I've kept platy, mollies, tetras...pretty peacefully.  The salesperson pointed me to the Buenos Aires Tetra and I liked how they looked.  The information she gave said that they were peaceful and would school together without bothering other flashy fish (guppies in particular).  I got three...
 
So, I got home and got them cycling the tank and decided to see who would be the next logical addition to the tank.  So, I began searching and have decided that Buenos Aires Tetras are not what I received!  So...questions...
 
1 - Can anyone confirm my suspicion? (Pic provided) I think what I have are Serpae Tetras, which will bug and stress out my colorful guys...
 
2 - If I were to keep these tetras, what would be some good, colorful, active types to put in my tank?  
 
I'm running a 29 gallon tank. 
 
Thanks!

 

[nic1]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum.
There's no pic attached?
Anyway, I would suggest taking the fish back to the shop and try your hand at fish less cycling. Whilst you're doing that you can have a nosey on the internet at what you would like to keep, what they look like, if your tank is suitable, and most importantly if your water parameters meet their requirements.

A lot of people on here are dead against fish in cycling (me too I'm afraid) and if you have been sold a fish that you don't think is what you asked for I would take them back for the time being, run a fish less cycle and buy a testing kit to monitor when your water is ready.

Also test to see if you have hard or soft water, etc and pick a fish that meets your waters parameters, your fish will show the most beautiful colours and behave like they are supposed to when you provide them with optimum conditions.

Hope I've helped somewhat, there's a link here somewhere about fish less cycling if you choose to go down that route. If not then get a testing kit (you should have one of these anyway) and test the water every day carrying out water changes as and when it's needed.

 

[Oop]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum.
There's no pic attached?
Anyway, I would suggest taking the fish back to the shop and try your hand at fish less cycling. Whilst you're doing that you can have a nosey on the internet at what you would like to keep, what they look like, if your tank is suitable, and most importantly if your water parameters meet their requirements.

A lot of people on here are dead against fish in cycling (me too I'm afraid) and if you have been sold a fish that you don't think is what you asked for I would take them back for the time being, run a fish less cycle and buy a testing kit to monitor when your water is ready.

Also test to see if you have hard or soft water, etc and pick a fish that meets your waters parameters, your fish will show the most beautiful colours and behave like they are supposed to when you provide them with optimum conditions.

Hope I've helped somewhat, there's a link here somewhere about fish less cycling if you choose to go down that route. If not then get a testing kit (you should have one of these anyway) and test the water every day carrying out water changes as and when it's needed.

Sorry about the pic...I uploaded it, but it's not there!  I'll try again.  See if this link works....https/www.dropbox.com/s/5ak8ug71xwiqp6b/IMG_20140710_092447.jpg
 
Thanks for the advice! I appreciate your candor.  So...I will probably be taking the fish back and trying the fishless cycling.  Get ready for more questions!  The first of those questions...
 
I clicked on the link for the calculator (to determine the amount of ammonia to add).  It says my desired level is 5ppm.  The % of ammonia in solution is 9.5.  And the "solution required" is 1.42ml.  Couple of questions to make sure I'm doing this correctly....
1 - What is "desired level?"  
2 - % ammonia in solution - what is this?  Is this something that will be on the bottle of ammonia?  
3 - "solution required" - is this the Dose #1?  Where do I get something to measure 1.42 ml?  
 
This might be a dumb question but...here goes...I'm going on vacation in a week.  Should I wait to start the cycling or should I start it before I leave?  
 
Thanks for your patience!

 

[akainechu]

I would definitely recommend the fishless cycling. This way, after you return your fish, you can take your time and decide what kind of fish you want to get. Online research is a beautiful thing; it's where I learned most of my information! If you want a good book to take on vacation with you, I definitely recommend Freshwater Aquariums for Dummies. I know it sounds kind of silly, but it goes over everything (or almost everything) you need to know. It's not the most up to date information, but it has a lot of information about fishless cycling and it's a great reference book. It also has a few sheets in it about some community tank starter fish. 
 
I would recommend starting it after you leave, because you can keep a close eye on it. 
 
I also have a 29 gallon tank! I bought my ammonia at shoprite, believe it or not, they had plain ammonia without any sulfates or scents! There's a few different ways to get your tank cycled, such as fish food (messier), and raw shrimp/fish (I don't recommend due to introducing foreign bacteria and the increased chance of mold and fungus). This site has a great informative cycling tab and there are a lot of differing opinions on 'how much' to add between websites. I averaged between them, and my tank is flourishing! 
 
Good luck with your tank! 

 

[nic1]

They look like serpae tetra to me but I could be wrong... If they are then they are nippers and probably would go for anything fancy!

You could start it when you get back, but there's also the good old fashion dead shrimp way depending on how long you're going away for....
Chuck in a dead cut up shrimp and turn the heat up to decompose the body quickly, this will cause an ammonia spike but the only problem here is that the spikes are all over the place.... The longer you leave it in there the better.
About adding the ammonia then someone else here would be better informed than me, I have always bought second hand filters and used old filter media to seed my tanks, personally I have never used pure ammonia , sorry I couldn't help there.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I also recommend fish-less cycling, and glad that you're willing to take the fish back and give it a try! I would post those questions you have HERE but I will also try to answer them.
 
1 - The desired level is 3ppm, the calculator has unfortunately not been updated. Delete the 5 and replace it with a 3.
2 - This is the strength of your ammonia, yes it should say on the bottle what it is. By the way, you don't want any with surfactants or additives. Just ammonia and water. You can find this at Ace Hardware.
3 - This is the amount of ammonia you would take out of the container of ammonia and then put into the tank to bring it up to 3ppm. I would get a syringe or pipette for this, you can find them online or possibly at your pharmacy.
 
I would wait until you get back from vacation to start the cycle. Be sure to pick up a liquid test kit as well as the test strips are notoriously inaccurate.
 
While you can use something like fish food or dead shrimp, this is messy and you cannot measure how much ammonia it will put off and you also have to wait for it to break down.
 
To answer your main question on the fishies, those are indeed serpae tetras. HERE is what the buenos aires tetras should look like.
I recommend using that site for fish info in the future (but also be sure to post here with any questions you have, we're all happy to help!)