First Fish?

[Becca M]

Sorry, I know this question has been asked many times!

We bought a new Juwel Rio 125l tank on Wednesday and set it all up. It has now been going with the filter and heater on, five plants, a rock and a bit of wood in for two days. I have added stress coat and stress zyme. We now want to get fish in as soon as possible, but reading around many different websites say from 2 to 10 days. I was looking at getting platies or guppies to start off with. When and what fish should we add to our tank?

Thanks!

 

[Marshall..]

Just aim for fish that suit your ph level and take it slow I personally won't add fish for 3 weeks and that way the water has cycled properly.
Please do not rush to put your fish in or you will lose most if not all of them.Concentrate on planting the aquarium up if you can't resist doing stuff with the tank
good luck!

 

[Becca M]

Thanks for the fast response!

Which fish would you recommend when the water has cycled properly?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i would recommend looking at this about fishless cycling.

IMO it's the safest most humane way to set up a tank before adding fish.

what do you want in the tank, small fish, big fish, colour, shoals or individuals etc? there's so many options if you give us some clues as to the look you want we can recommend some fish.

 

[thegnu]

Becca
it depends if you do a fishless cycle or a fish cycle. i don't know why they sold you stress coat and stress zyme, i had better be careful here because i probably have used the same shop. pick up some filter start and Aquarium pharmaceuticals master test kit. use the filter start as it says on the box and add 5 flakes off food everyday. after 9 days check for ammonia it should be almost nil and check for nitrites, they should be, now showing. i would now add 3 platties not guppies and feed just 5 flakes a day. do a 10% (about 12L) water change every 3 days. after 20 days you should see nitrates appearing and when the nitrItes have gone your tank is cycled and you can add more fish, but only 3 in 1 week

 

[Becca M]

Wow thanks for the advice. We bought it from pets at home in Kings Lynn...

Theres nothing in particular we like, just generally colourful, not too aggressive and fun to watch.

Thanks

EDIT: Just realised you are in Norwich! A friend recommended a shop near the airport. Do you know if its any good?

 

[Angel98]

Sorry to hi-jack your post but ive been fishless cycling for 4 days now, 5th day today, ive been doing the "Add Daily" method, when do i check my water too see if there are any changes? Can i add fish flakes to? Any help would be great

 

[thegnu]

the advice i gave can only work as quick if you use some form of bacteria culture. i used filter start made by interpet when i set up 3 36"x12"x12" breeding tanks just by adding flake food as this rots and turns into ammonia which the bacteria need to live and multiply. if you have been adding pure ammonia in your add daily method i would stick to that as both sources might be too much. here is a chart for a typical cycle. using some form of bacteria speeds this up

http/www.bestfish.com/newtank3.html

 

[thegnu]

Becca,
i know the one you mean "the giant pet store" it used to be quite good but has gone down hill a bit now. try a new one in norwich called hellesdon barns first right at the lights past pc world opp the petrol st

 

[Angel98]

the advice i gave can only work as quick if you use some form of bacteria culture. i used filter start made by interpet when i set up 3 36"x12"x12" breeding tanks just by adding flake food as this rots and turns into ammonia which the bacteria need to live and multiply. if you have been adding pure ammonia in your add daily method i would stick to that as both sources might be too much. here is a chart for a typical cycle. using some form of bacteria speeds this up

http/www.bestfish.com/newtank3.html

Yeah thought it might be a bit to much, i will stick to what im doing then! Can you add plants or will all the ammonia im putting in kill them off? Thanks for the advice

 

[thegnu]

yeah add plants for sure, the more the better, they will actually feed on the ammonia too.