Adding Fish Once Cycled

[blackers92]

Ok so I have read that once a tank is cycled you should slowly add fish at a slow rate.

I intend on putting two bristlenose plecos in very soon, i currently have 4 zebra danios and would also like to add 2 more to encourage shoaling, would this be recommended or a bad idea?

i also want to add more live plants as it seems empty should i introduce the fish and then plants at a later time, or all at once? i dont want to stress the fish too much. I presume the bristlenose will be like 2-3 cms, so what should i feed them? i fear that the community flake will get eaten by the danios? would small BN's still eat cucumber?

The tank is 140 litres and there is bogwood for the BN's

any advice would be appreciated

 

[fishyfeet]

If you have two fish types which you are talking about you need to feed two completely different foods. One for fish that feed from the surface which danios would do, and sinking pellets for the bottom feeders ie catfish. Some fish will nibble either, like corys will roar to the surface grab a bit of flake and then go back down to the bottom, like wise guppies will nibble away at some sinking pellet but soon move when a large plec come towards them. Feed catfish sinking spiralin flakes, bloodworm pellets, all kinds of food,as long as it sink to the bottom where they feed from, if there is algae in your tank and the catfish are young then leave them to eat that, keep an eye and see if they actually remove some algae, as some catfish are bred in algae free tanks and fed on other food so they wont know what algae is. Yes they will eat any greens but with only two you dont want to add much, i add a chunk of courette with over 40 babies (1 to 2 inches) and its taken several days for it to go.

I always plant first whilst waiting for the tank to cycle, then add fish slowly giving the bactia time to catch up.
Dont forget plecs are heavier waste producers as they eat constantly and therefore produce more waste than other fish.

30 gal tank is quite a nice size and you need a good group of danios about 10 or so id say.

 

[waterdrop]

Correct: For a Fish-In cycle you simply begin additions at 2 or 3 fish (this varies of course just like the kinds of differences one sees with respect to stocking - very little fish being very different from very big fish) at a time with a week or two in-between to allow the bacteria to catch up.

[For a Fishless Cycle the first stocking can be as large as the tank can handle, but usually isn't because some of the fish choices will be of fish that need the tank to age more or would be better introduced later because of availability, expense or the settling of other species. In fishless cycling, any introductions -after- the first one are small and spaced apart, just as specified above for fish-in cycling.]

Zebras and BN plecs should be good introduction choices after the fish-in cycle has completed. Zebras in particular are pretty hardy. The are not shoaling fish in the same sense as tetras but they do stay together in the manner of minnows and the bigger the group the better as far as they are concerned. I'll leave the BN diet to others here who actually have them and relate their experience!

Adding plants will certainly not stress the fish, they will welcome it! I would take my time though and research the species I intend to add, seeing if they fit my plant-growing approach (eg. low-light approach vs. high-tech approach vs. NPT.) An important question is whether any plants so far has done well.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[blackers92]

Its actually 37

i would love to have 10 but I hope to have 5 yoyo loaches in the near future,
i thought that if i had more then 6 with the 5 loaches and 2 BN it would be to much,

my tank flow rate is 1100 LPH if that means anything, i will definatly get sinking pellets then, i doubt the fish will have algae at my LFS hopefully they will adapt.

 

[blackers92]

to waterdrop,

so far most of my plants with are looking very healthy, the limnophila which i thought wouldnt grow in my tank has had about 2 inches of new growth where as the other two havent had as much. I lost one plant as it had a terrible root system and would just float to the top. I would like some smaller foreground plants and a larger background one.

I also have had over 12 snails i got rid of them and left 2 as I have read they can become a major pest what are your thoughts on this

 

[blackers92]

Well its almost 12.30am in australia now so I am going to bed,

just a few more questions that will hopefully get answered,
i have been feeding my danios standard gold fish flakes should i continue doing this, if not can I get a food that both danio/yoyo loaches and goldfish will like, that way I can convince my parents to buy it as we have a family pond.

Also would something like this

http/cgi.ebay.com.au/Tropical-Fish-Food-1KG-16m-Spirulina-Algae-Wafers-Discs_W0QQitemZ260480255757QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Pet_Supplies?hash=item3ca5d5470d

be suitable for bristlenose, as I am still in school and make less then aus $100 a week (saving for uni ) and obviously other expenses i dont have alot of money to spend of fishfood, i know its probably cruel but I cant spend $30-40 on flakes, atleast not while I am at school 5 days a week, i can supplement the algae wafers with cucumber and other vegetables.

anyway im sure it will all end out good, thanks again for all the help

 

[drobbyb]

Feeding goldfish flakes isn't ideal, but you should be ok to feed them until you can buy some tropical flakes. Your bristlenose might like some algae wafers too.

 

[waterdrop]

Nice to hear you're getting some success with the plants...