First Fish?

[doubledee]

Hi,

I've set my 180l tank and added some ammonia. I haven't done a fishless cycle before (it wasn't heard of when I last kept fish!) and am looking forward to seeing what happens.

All the fish I want to add are considered to be delicate and unsuitable for a new tank (rummy nosed tetras, corydoras, plecs) so can anyone recommend something as a first fish? I was thinking along the lines of black neons as part of a South American setup. How many should I add at first as the fishless cycle listed on this site says I can add a full stock of fish? I'm kind of wary of doing that and would prefer to take it easy, adding a few at a time to make sure everything is ok for the fish.

If I bin the idea of sticking with South American fish only, I also thought about harlequin rasboras or a pair of either honey/dwarf gourami. Again, would they be suitable as a first fish? I kept various fish before and my first fish were always guppies in all my tanks, followed by cory's, gourami, barbs etc (bread and butter fish).

I added one piece of bogwood (curio) as it didn't seem to be staining the water that I was soaking it in and so far so good. The other pieces I have (mangrove root purchased from zooplus) are also not staining the water but are making a bit of a mess with bits falling off. They've been sitting in a bucket of cold de-chlorinated water for about 5 days now and there is no tannin leaking, should it be okay to add? Is boiling really necessary for bogwood, if it hasn't stained the water?
Cheers in advance!

 

[smmetz]

Boiling helps get tanins out faster, and some people do it to disinfect the wood. Howver if there are no tanins coming out, I would not bother. I have also heard that boiling wood is not always recommended. If the piece is not a hardwood, I heard that it can deteriorate the wood, causing it to fall apart more in your tank and decompose faster than it otherwise would.

As for first fish - the harlequin rasboras and honey gourami would probably be OK. I think that dwarf gourami are more sensative though. (I could be wrong about that)

 

[Castellop123]

Cheers...

 

[three-fingers]

If you want hardy South American fish, I would recommend red eye tetras as the first fish to add to the tank. They are extremely hardy, and great characters. They act like piranhas when feeding them treat foods like prawns, but are very peaceful with other fish in the tank.
They typically grow 2"-3" so 6 of them would be a good number to start with.
They are also very easy to breed, mine spawn all the time, but they will eat the eggs .

Good call about not fully stocking the tank straight away btw, I would never do that either .