First Fish Addings

[agusf]

hello
im almost done fishless cycling. i plan on adding my catfish tommorrow
like 4 otos, but then again as i was reasearching i found out that otos die easily.
so I basically need a good fish thats good to start with. any ideas?

 

[ZoddyZod]

morning, so you found an ammonia test kit then? Otherwise how do you know that your cycle has finised?

what size tank have you got? Zebra Danios are a great starter fish....very active when kept in groups of 6+

 

[agusf]

yup. in one of my other threads i say that i called pro-lfs and they had nh3 tester in stock.

my tank is 150 liter, 80 cm * 30 cm * 40 cm
with 200 liter filter 3 live plants bogwood and a hiding rock.
ill post pictures later when i find out how to.
would zebra danios go with cardinal tetras and guppys and otos?

 

[ZoddyZod]

yup. in one of my other threads i say that i called pro-lfs and they had nh3 tester in stock.

my tank is 150 liter, 80 cm * 30 cm * 40 cm
with 200 liter filter 3 live plants bogwood and a hiding rock.
ill post pictures later when i find out how to.
would zebra danios go with cardinal tetras and guppys and otos?

yes, they are a very peaceful species but very active. They like to chase each other but should not annoy any of the otehr fish you've mentioned.

I would delay getting the otos until your tank has been running for several months. They need a good amount of algae and a newly set up tank is unlikely to be able to provide that.

since you've got your test kit, have you checked your pH? Cardinal tetras prefer soft water (pH 7 or lower)

 

[agusf]

my ph is 8-8.5, same as my tap water.

 

[OldMan47]

You may have some trouble with the cardinals in your water but the zebras and guppies will do fine. As Zoddy said, zebras will chase each other almost constantly, it is just their nature. Part of that chasing in adult zebras is breeding activity, but unless you are set up for zebra breeding you will seldom see any fry resulting.

 

[ZoddyZod]

my ph is 8-8.5, same as my tap water.

then I would avoid cardinals, they aren't going to thrive in that pH. They may do ok, but they may well have a reduced lifespan.

since you have a realtively high pH, you might want to consider African cichlids. These mostly enjoy pH of 8+ and are some of the most colourful freshwater fish. Here's an example called a Yellow Lab

http/www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/african-cichlids/electric-yellow-lab/100004.asp

if you want advice on how to stock your 150L with African cichlids, then try posting in the Old World Cichlids section. They should be able to give you some great tips.

 

[agusf]

alright, here are my results:
nh4= 0
no2= 0,05
no3= 0,5
kh = 6
fe = 1
ph = 8-8.5

I have 3 plants, a hiding rock (big)
and two hiding garden pots (small)
A piece of bogwood(medium)
in my tank are=
4 zebra dainos
3 bronze cory

what do i do now?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The only way I know of for you to get a true reading of "0.05 no2" is if you diluted a solution of known nitrite concentration to 0.05 and then compared its colour to the colour of your tank water test... Do you mean 0.5?

If so, you need to do a MASSIVE water change pronto, as in syphoning out all the water except a minimal amount to cover your fish, as these levels of nitrite are very toxic.

A few hours later, after another test, you may need to do another similar water change. You need a true reading of zero for both ammonia and nitrite according to the test colourmetric chart.

You may need to continue doing such huge water changes (all with correct doseage of de-chlorinator added) until your tank is "cycled" (has a large enough colony of both ammonia-processing and nitrite-processing to give twice daily readings of zero for a minimum of a week, ideally a fortnight).

Be very conservative with regards to feeding for the first 30 hours or so, as most fish are too stressed to eat during this settling in period. See if a single flake/pellet gets rapidly eaten during this time. Once they are eating, its just enough food the size of an eye per fish per day, so that all food is eaten and not much waste (including ammonia) is created by the fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, Agree with NOTG, this does not sound like fishless cycling since there are fish in there Agusf! If there are fish in the tank then you are in a fish-in cycling situation!

Also agree that its sounds like you might be in what we call the "Nitrite Spike" stage of fish-in cycling (the second phase of cycling is often characterized by zero ppm ammonia but higher readings of nitrite(NO2) in the water.)

The goal in fish-in cycling is to figure out a pattern of water changes that keep your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm on a continuing basis (this is so that the ammonia won't cause permanent gill damamge and the nitrite perament nerve damage.) To start, run your set of tests twice a day, in the morning and evening and post up the results here in your thread for the members to see and help with.

The water changes need to be done with a gravel-cleaning siphon and the return water needs to be treated for chlorine/chloramines and roughly temperature matched with your hand (since the water changes will probably need to be large to get then nitrite out.)

~~waterdrop~~