Add More Fish During Cycling?

[juicebox]

There's still a little ick on him, but not too bad, the fungus is mostly gone now too, but he has a LOT of fin damage, once of them is almost completely gone. I'm not sure if that will grow back or not?

if the fin has been too damaged it might not grow back.

First off, I realized yesterday when talking with the LFS, that I do NOT have Rosy Barbs, I have Male Neon Rosy Barb's, which are apparently different, and don't get quite as big as the Rosy's. Anyone have experience with them? Please tell me they are NOT painted.... I really hope they are not, I do NOT want to support that practice in ANY way!

i don't think neon rosy's are dyed. from what i've read they're the result of breeding/inbreeding, though i don't know too much about barbs.

So... the Neon Rosy's are at it again! They are mean little devils! I have 2 that are almost all red, and one that is more silver, and they won't leave him alone. They mutilated the first silverish Rosy to the point where I had to Euthanize it I really hope they leave this guy alone.

Everywhere I read says they should be in larger groups, of 6 or more, do you think adding more would make them be less aggressive? I am still cycling unfortunately, but my levels are good, Ammonia is less than 0.5, Nitrite is below 2 (a while after feeding, then drops a little).

The Tiger barbs don't bother anyone, they just happily swim around together, but the Rosy's are always attacking....

What should I do? Add more Neon Rosy's? Just hope for the best?

yes, making a bigger group would distribute the aggression more evenly so that no one barb would get picked on too much. i think you should wait until your tank cycles before adding any more.

 

[ab420]

There's still a little ick on him, but not too bad, the fungus is mostly gone now too, but he has a LOT of fin damage, once of them is almost completely gone. I'm not sure if that will grow back or not?

if the fin has been too damaged it might not grow back.

First off, I realized yesterday when talking with the LFS, that I do NOT have Rosy Barbs, I have Male Neon Rosy Barb's, which are apparently different, and don't get quite as big as the Rosy's. Anyone have experience with them? Please tell me they are NOT painted.... I really hope they are not, I do NOT want to support that practice in ANY way!

i don't think neon rosy's are dyed. from what i've read they're the result of breeding/inbreeding, though i don't know too much about barbs.

So... the Neon Rosy's are at it again! They are mean little devils! I have 2 that are almost all red, and one that is more silver, and they won't leave him alone. They mutilated the first silverish Rosy to the point where I had to Euthanize it I really hope they leave this guy alone.

Everywhere I read says they should be in larger groups, of 6 or more, do you think adding more would make them be less aggressive? I am still cycling unfortunately, but my levels are good, Ammonia is less than 0.5, Nitrite is below 2 (a while after feeding, then drops a little).

The Tiger barbs don't bother anyone, they just happily swim around together, but the Rosy's are always attacking....

What should I do? Add more Neon Rosy's? Just hope for the best?

yes, making a bigger group would distribute the aggression more evenly so that no one barb would get picked on too much. i think you should wait until your tank cycles before adding any more.

So... BIG update:
The Rosy's are just plain mean to the Tiger's, so I moved them out of the 29 gallon. I'm going to get a 15 gallon today that will eventually be the home of the 4 Tiger barbs, maybe 2 more?

So, now I have 3 Neon Rosy Barb's in my 29 gallon tank. BUT... I've been reading that they can apparently get up to 6"!!! I was told they would only be 3.5"-4" max...

The 29ga. has been cycling for about a month now, but I started it with some used filter media and about 3 gallons of water, from a tank that had been cycling for a few weeks before that. I also used Stress-Zyme, although I've been hearing that it doesn't work as well as it says...

At this point, my ammonia levels are between 0-0.25 (never .25 but right in the middle a while after I feed, then it drops back to 0). The nitrite levels are from 0-0.5 (reaching around 0.4 then dropping back to 0) same pattern as the ammonia, just behind in time. Nitrates are between 5 and 20 depending on when I test.

So, I'm not quite there, but pretty close, the levels are low enough I think I could add 1 or 2 more without problems. Like I said, both the ammonia and nitrite will drop to 0 a while after feeding. I fed them yesterday around 4pm, about 6 small flakes, a while later I did a small water change (about 3 gallons, like I said small... it was more to do some gravel vac work). I'm not going to feed them today, and in a little while, I'm going to test all the levels, and possibly do another water change. I'm guessing Im not going to show any ammonia or nitrite when I test, so I think I may be ok to add a couple, what do you think?

 

[ab420]

Well, I don't really have as much room as I thought, so I just bought a 10 gallon tank for the Tiger Barbs, with the 4 of them, at 2.5"-3" expected size that would be 10-12 gallons needed, but I just don't have room for anymore right now! I got a Whisper 20 filter setup for multiple reasons, 1) with the 4 of them, they will need good filtration, 2) They use the same cartridges as my 29 gallon.

The plan, is to grab about 2 gallons from the 5 gallon tank they are in right now, then take 5 gallons from the 29 gal. tank. That would be 7 gallons, hopefully that will be high enough for he filter to work, so I can run the filter and air pump for a while, before finally adding the last 3 gallons from the 5 when I move the fish over.

I am going to take the filter cartridge from my 29 gallon, and put that in the 10 gallon, to get some bacteria in there, plus I'm going to borrow some gravel from the 5 gallon and the 29 gallon (same gravel type), as well as a small rock formation, plus I also got Bio-Spira, so I think the tank should get a good start (i hope...)