Zebra Pleco

[adamgaskin]

Is a zebra pleco a good fish to introduce as the first fish in an 80litre (21 US gallon) tank?

cheers peeps!

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Zebra plecs are very very hard to come by now and usually fetch alot of money. Have you fishless cycled your tank?
No, you wouldn't wanna put a z.plec in your tank until it's matured and stable.
Not sure I know what catfish would cope as an early edition, but someone here will. All mine were introduced well after the tanks were cycled. Some synos cope very well in young tanks but not in ones uncycled.
Hugs,
P.

 

[adamgaskin]

cool so anyone got ideas on a good pleco/catfish?cant be too big though because its basically an 80 litre cube

cheers ppl

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

I suggest you have a look through this site here. A good comprehensive list of a great deal of catfish and it'll tell you what size they grow to aswell. You woldn't want anything very big in a tank that size and many plecs would outgrow it within a few years.
Hugs,
P.

 

[dwarfgourami]

If you are looking for a catfish as your first fish for a tank that's done a fishless cycle, then you should go for a tankbred species, one of the older species that have been around in the aquarium world and are used to the conditions. Something like a bristlenose or a small school of corydoras. The hardier corys can certainly go in an new cycled tank, mine did and were fine.

Anything very expensive, like a zebra plec, is going to be expensive precisely because it is more sensitive- so save that for later. Anything that has no common name but only an L number is also likely to be tricky. Also avoid the common plec as it gets far too big for your tank. And otos because they need a mature tank. Likewise panda corys.

edit: you might even find the bristlenose a bit much, as it is quite a heavy waste producer. Depends on what else you want to keep though.

 

[bunjiweb]

Why anyone would even WANT To cycle with a £150 fish is beyond belief... Cycle with some cheap platies, if you dont want them after the cycle,take them back to your LFS, although i strongly reccomend against this!

The only commonly available plecs suitable for an 80L tank are the Clown pleco, bulldog plec & bristlenose plec, although remember, all plecs can be messy, so make sure your filter is up to it. Just bare in mind, no catfish should be in your tank until your tank is at least a month old, i.e. left plenty of time for your bacteria to build up and at least start to mature, but the later you add them the better they generally do.

Ben

 

[adamgaskin]

cheers guys

 

[bunjiweb]

post pics when your tank is on its way!

Ben

 

[adamgaskin]

indeed i shall but how do i do it?

 

[bunjiweb]

If the picture is under about 100K you can attach it in the Members pictures section. Better is to use a Photoupload website (there are tons about that are easy to use and free!).

Just remember, don't be afraid to ask, don't rush into buying something if you aren't sure about and the LFS assistants dont seem to be able to give you reliable info, then come and post!

Ben

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You should read up on how to do a fishless cycle in the pinned articles at the top of the beginner section of this forum, they will also explain to you how to avoid a new tank syndrome disaster- you will need to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites and also some dechlorinator/water conditioner as well from your local fish store.
I would personally do a fishless cycle, they are quicker to do, don't put your fish's health at risk and you can stock the tank to its limit straight away after you have done one while a cycle with fish can months until the tank is stable and you can only stock it very little for the first couple of months and have to do alot more water changes on average.
If you chose to have any livebearers in your tank(like mollys, platys, guppys etc) bear in mind that in mixed gender or all female groups they breed alot and its vital to get the right gender ratios as well in any group- you can find more info on livebearers in the pinned articles in the livebearer section .

 

[bunjiweb]

I would DEFFINATELY disagree that you can stock a tank to its limit after doing a fishless cycle. Sure you could add a couple of varieties of fish quite happily, but adding alot of stock to an immature bacteria stock is a bad idea, whether you have cycled with fish or not.

Run the tank for a week, then add a couple of small hardy fish (platies, danios etc.) for at least another 3 weeks. Then your tank should be fully cycled and you can start to add fish, Try to leave a gap of about a week between buying fish if you can so that the bacteria can properly catch up.

Ben

 

[adamgaskin]

I was thinking of 3 cherry barbs to start. Iv heard they are quite hary. If not some black widow tetras. Do both of these work well with neon tetras as i want to get these later on and more impotantly, some of the small plecos/catfish? These are what im looking at once the tank matures

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would DEFFINATELY disagree that you can stock a tank to its limit after doing a fishless cycle. Sure you could add a couple of varieties of fish quite happily, but adding alot of stock to an immature bacteria stock is a bad idea, whether you have cycled with fish or not.

Run the tank for a week, then add a couple of small hardy fish (platies, danios etc.) for at least another 3 weeks. Then your tank should be fully cycled and you can start to add fish, Try to leave a gap of about a week between buying fish if you can so that the bacteria can properly catch up.

Ben

The thing about doing a fishless cycle is you add large quanitys of ammonia while you are cycling the tank, quanitys that would naturally kill fish straight away. When ammonia and nitrites are back to 0 you can add the fish, the bacterial colony is much larger from the fishless cycle because you can allow large ammonia levels to rise in the tank for it to thrive on. If you only add a small quantity of fish after the cycle you will start losing the extra bacteria.
There is nothing dangerous than stocking the tank lots(as long as you don't exceed its normal stocking limits and the fish species are fine being add so soon together) after a fishless cycle- its a different matter though when you cycle with fish as you cannot allow large levels of ammonia to build up in the tank due to the health risks to your fish, so the filter bacteria takes alot longer to develop which is partly why cycling with fish takes a longer time than cycling without fish.
There is no point in leaving the tank empty for the first week when doing a cycle with fish though, it does nothing to help the start of the cycle as while there is nothing creating ammonia in the tank your filter bacteria will not develop- its also very difficult to cycle a tank in a month while cycling with fish.