Almost Ready To Get Some Fish.

[jasmas]

Hi to all, my partner and myself are new to fish keeping, was her idea but i 2 have become very interested in it.
Have been posting on another forum, but you can never get too much advice so here we are. Due to posting elsewhere - tho' new, we have gained some much valued knowledge.
Okay we have a 400L Juwel tank. 60x20x24inches deep. Tank has substrate, gravel some deco and plants - not heavily planted, but a selection of plants. Need to get some bogwood.
Thankfully have gone for a fishless cycle. using prawns (had trouble sourcing ammonia). Did initially add cycle to get tank going, before knowing about fishless cycle.
Added 3 king prawns then another. Due to the smell replaced the 4 with 2 and weighted these down in an end of tight.
Cycle is going well and about 2 weeks in. Ammonia is now about 0.15. Nitrite at 5. Nitrate at 20. Nitrite been at 5 now for about 4-5 days. Expecting this to drop soon and rapidly. pH is about 7.2

when our readings are zero and zero. Following day going to remove the prawns, do a 75% water change. Check all readings again, then get fish later that day.
If this is not possible, coz of time. will add prawns again and get fish following day as how quick will bacteria die off?

From tank dimensions we can have 100 inches of fish. we want a community tank with nothing too big. Some shoals of between 10-18 small fish, 4-6 catfish maybe 2 different types. with others No discus or angels. maybe a few trophy fish.

How many fish should we start with? want enough to feed the bacteria.
what types would be good?
we are compiling our final full list so all are compatible but still not sure at mo'
I know some delicate fish would need a mature not just a cycled tank, but would tetras be ok?

Any help, guidance or criticism much appreciated.

 

[Silverlady]

I have some Black Phantom Tetras in my tank , and they are always displaying to each other.Very nice fish.
Cardinal Tetras are also great but prefer a Mature tank.

 

[HasGills]

From what I read some tetras are ok. Keep away from Neon Tetras as your first fish as they arnt very hardy and should be left until your tank has matured..

The advice i got from my LFS was to go with either mollies, platies or danios. I went the platy option.

 

[PaPeRo]

Platies and Mollies are not hardy fish..both get sick easily.

 

[Glod]

Platies are pretty robust fish in my experience. Mollies far less so. Be prepared for many many fry tho

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi to all, my partner and myself are new to fish keeping, was her idea but i 2 have become very interested in it.
Have been posting on another forum, but you can never get too much advice so here we are. Due to posting elsewhere - tho' new, we have gained some much valued knowledge.
Okay we have a 400L Juwel tank. 60x20x24inches deep. Tank has substrate, gravel some deco and plants - not heavily planted, but a selection of plants. Need to get some bogwood.
Thankfully have gone for a fishless cycle. using prawns (had trouble sourcing ammonia). Did initially add cycle to get tank going, before knowing about fishless cycle.
Added 3 king prawns then another. Due to the smell replaced the 4 with 2 and weighted these down in an end of tight.
Cycle is going well and about 2 weeks in. Ammonia is now about 0.15. Nitrite at 5. Nitrate at 20. Nitrite been at 5 now for about 4-5 days. Expecting this to drop soon and rapidly. pH is about 7.2

when our readings are zero and zero. Following day going to remove the prawns, do a 75% water change. Check all readings again, then get fish later that day.
If this is not possible, coz of time. will add prawns again and get fish following day as how quick will bacteria die off?

From tank dimensions we can have 100 inches of fish. we want a community tank with nothing too big. Some shoals of between 10-18 small fish, 4-6 catfish maybe 2 different types. with others No discus or angels. maybe a few trophy fish.

How many fish should we start with? want enough to feed the bacteria.
what types would be good?
we are compiling our final full list so all are compatible but still not sure at mo'
I know some delicate fish would need a mature not just a cycled tank, but would tetras be ok?

Any help, guidance or criticism much appreciated.

hello and welcome, sounds like your off to a great start, and a 400l tank for your first one very nice!

make sure you post some pics for us when your all set up.

few answers then......

bacteria die off - if kept in water bacteria will *start* to die off after 12 hrs, i'm not sure how fast it will die. I wouldn't add prawns again, they produce an awful lot of ammonia, just add a little pinch of fish food and this should see you through

how many fish you put in at first depends a little on what you want to stock, if there is anything delicate you may want to wait a few months until the tank is mature (not just cycled). other than that if your fishless cycle has gone well you can stock pretty much to full capacity, however i've always been dubious about doing this! Also half the fun of fishkeeping is going to the lfs and finding new fish, if you fully stock straight away you can never get anything new! I'd stock a decent proportion so it doesn't look empty, maybe 50% of capacity, then leave the rest until it's mature and to leave you some room to play with.

most tetra's are ok, except neon's... they're pretty weak, if you really like the look of them then try and find cardinals, they look almost exactly the same (the red and blue stripe's are the other way around) but they're much hardier

however if I was you I'd look at congo tetra's, i think they're gorgeous

mollies are really brackish water fish and do much better with salt, if you get these you won't be able to have catfish too

I'd get a nice big group of cories, then 1/2 larger catifsh/plecs (not a common, yes you've a big tank but still maybe not big enough!). a shoal of congo tetra's as they're larger than most and dead pretty, then 2/3 shoals of smaller fish. then a couple of 'centerpiece' fish, like gourami's, ram's, apistogramma's etc