Adding Fish In Two Weeks

hihi100202 · Aug 5, 2010

Ok, so i think i might actually buy fish this time. Friday im going to the store to look at prices. My 10 gallon will finally be stocked! Its been cycleing for about... oh two months? the 5 gallon for my betta is going to be set up soon. very exciting.

Tank inhabitants to-be:
x1dwarf gourami
x6 neon tetras maybe switch a few out for black neons if there is any?)
x8-9 ghost shrimp

will add neons first, the shrimp, the the dg.

ellena · Aug 6, 2010

Exciting! How many times have you changed your mind on stocking during the cycle? :lol:

Presume you're doing fishless? If so, you should add all the fish the same day, or all those bacteria you've been building up will start to die.
Neons aren't recommended for newly setup tanks, even cycled ones. See what other tetras your LFS have in when you're ready to buy :good:

N0body Of The Goat · Aug 6, 2010

ellena said:
Presume you're doing fishless? If so, you should add all the fish the same day, or all those bacteria you've been building up will start to die.

Personally, I would rather stock a cycled tank slowly and have some excess bacteria die, as opposed to stocking a tank quickly and have some excess fish (for the bacterial colonies present at the time) die...

hihi100202 · Aug 6, 2010

well whats been happening is i've fish-less cycled for the first month and a half, then I sold A five gallon,(which my betta lived in) because I thought i would have a 10 gallon betta tank. THEN i decide this current stocking. So now i will be buying a 5 gallon before the fish. So my tank is mature, And the betta is waiting in the small "hospital" tank until I get another 5 gallon. :good:

Ive been sorta thinking about male fancy guppies instead of neons, but ive had guppies before i I want something new. They were out of stock for black neons, so I'm still not sure on pricing. Although i think they should be around the same as regular neons.

Maybe I could think about other small schooling fish, but It would have to live with the DG and shrimp. I want the DG to be sort of a centerpiece fish, and I love watching the shrimp, they are hysterical!

Hope that made sense

ellena · Aug 8, 2010

N0body Of The Goat said:
ellena said:

Presume you're doing fishless? If so, you should add all the fish the same day, or all those bacteria you've been building up will start to die.

Click to expand...

Personally, I would rather stock a cycled tank slowly and have some excess bacteria die, as opposed to stocking a tank quickly and have some excess fish (for the bacterial colonies present at the time) die...

But that's the recommended way to stock after a fishless cycle. If you cycle to 5ppm you have ample bacteria to support 1" per gallon of fish, so 10" in this case. If you then only add 2" of fish for a couple of weeks say, bacteria will die off as there is only 2"'s worth of food being produced for them. When you add more fish, you will be in a mini fish-in cycle as though you never did the fishless in the first place.
I wasn't thinking for the good of the bacteria, rather that their presence is for the good of the fish.