Bit Of A Situation Here!

[plecostomus-mad]

to cut a long story short, my brother asked me last night what fish i will be stocking my tank with, i replied 2 clown pleco's and some peppered corys/catfish.

today he came by with 2 clear bags with a paper bag around each, i KNEW what was coming!

he only went out and bought me 2 x clown plecos and 3 pepperd corys!!( i know i need 5 ) i was like WOW! but i was also quite concerned as my tank isnt cycled yet and i did explain this to him but he saw them and bought them on impulse.

they all seem happy for the moment, the plecos are pretty active as they are both wanting to claim the wood as there territory.lol. when i set my tank up, i did it with pleco's in mind as they will be my main fish in the tank.....s there are many caves, a 14 inch long x 6 inch wide( at widest point )piece of bog wood, a nice piece of light slate, i broke up a medium sized terracotta pot and smoothed off all the edges with a file, these made caves and also a half drain pipe 7 inches long as a breeding cave( soon to be siliconed on top and rolled in the gravel to look like part of the floor )

i will be checking the water stats very often and changing water when needed,i feel this will be VERY often indeed.

im not mad at my brother because he only had good intentions and didnt know the complications of adding them now, but what a present!! i love clown plecos and he knew this.lol

i will upload pics asap so you can all see how beautiful and perfect they are

the corys look like a heard of cows grazing on the bottom of the tank, if one changes direction, the rest do too, amazing to watch

any advice would be welcomed

mark

EDIT: I say breeding cave because i hope nature takes its course, i know clown plecos are hard as hell to breed!

 

[meguro]

could u take some filter media out from a mature filter that u have on one of ur other tanks and use it to help with this tank?

 

[plecostomus-mad]

could u take some filter media out from a mature filter that u have on one of ur other tanks and use it to help with this tank?

the other 2 tanks i have are not set up yet

here are the pics of the clown plecos and the tank.

 

[allie95]

Nice looking tank.

 

[MOW4T]

my sister done the same thing a few months ago, bought me a malawi to go in with my green terror

nobody you know haeve a mature tank you can get media from? or anyone on here close to where u live might be able/willing to help!?

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

That really was very nice of your brother, but you could be looking at high mortality with an uncylced tank for those fish. Try and see if you can get hold of some bactinetts (spl). Maidenhead aquatics tend to sell them and they'll seed your filter up immediately.
P.

 

[Bobtastic]

All you need to do is test the water regularly and perform 30-50% water change where necessary.

In my experience fishin cycles are a lot quicker than fishless cycles, but by their nature are stressful and/or damaging to the fish if not done correctly.

 

[shelaghfishface]

hope you said thankyou dont stress over it, just test and water changes as and when.. its more likely to go wrong if your worrying

 

[plecostomus-mad]

just tested the water and there is a nitrate spike!, water changes maybe twice a day depending on test readings. hope they can cope with that

 

[JenCliBee]

How far are you into the cycle?, It wasn't the best of things to have them brought but i admire your brother for the purchases.

Really testing and doing the water changes are the only option apart from either seeing if your LFS could hold them till the tank is fully cycled or as mentioned, getting some mature media.

The clowns look biggish so may be far better at handling any sort of short term spikes but from my experience cory's wont so readily except them. The problem you have would be the cory's been affected by the spikes which then entails the plecs suffering from any potential illness caused from been stressed and subjected to the water stats that the cory's might get.

 

[shelaghfishface]

are you sure its nitrAte and not nitrIte ?

and do as many WC as you like.. leave an hour test and do another..dont worry you cant do too many

 

[plecostomus-mad]

are you sure its nitrAte and not nitrIte ?

and do as many WC as you like.. leave an hour test and do another..dont worry you cant do too many

yes sorry, nitrIte, thanks for noticing that ammonia and nitrate are pretty normal, ammonia was 0.25ppm and nitrate was 5.0ppm, nitrite however was 5.0 + !!

How far are you into the cycle?

tank was started on the 6th of November so about 3 weeks

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i have decided to give the tetras away to help keep the bio load down slightly. should improve things, even if its just a little.