first fish

sinfulhorse

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I am two weeks into a fishless cycle on a 25 gallon tank

I have lots of brown algae in the tank and was thinking of kicking things off with either a couple of Otocinclus or Bristlenoses

Aternatively a Butterfly plec

Then I will introduce some small schooling fish a couple of weeks later - Danios or Tetras

Anyone strongly object to me starting this way?

Thanks
 
Not stronly objecting but I was told at my lfs that plecs and catfish are too sensitive to aid cycling a tank. You might be better off starting with a few hardy fish like platys or dannios (don't say it Wolf!) Better still to wait another couple of weeks. If you do decide to get fish now just keep testing that water daily for ammonia and nitrites and do necessary water changes.
 
bristle nose plec are not a good cycling fish and otocinclus need a well matured tank as they are very fragile fish
butterfly plecos( hillstream loaches) are a coldwaterfish and need fast flowing water.

ZD would be a good choice as a starter fish because they are very hardy.
you may also want to consider white cloud mountain minnows if you really want a hillstream loach.
 
my tropical fish book tells me that Butterfly Plecs (Peckoltia pulcher) (suckermouth catfish) like water at 23-28 Centigrade and is ideal for a community tank and is great for algae - it doesn't say anything about fast flowing cold water
 
they are also called hillstream loaches.

In the wild, they will be seen in fast flowing rivers, attached to rocks with their large mouths and eating algea off them.

My girlfriend has one in her 12 gallon tank set at 76F and it is doing fine but I would advise against them. You're better off with a small plec
 
Stick with the fishless cycle. You are probably half way through. Introducing fish, especially the wrong types, due to a lack of patience will just harm the fish an restart your cycle.

No Otos, they are too sensitive to cycle with. In fact if you cycle with fish you will have to wait until the tank is fully matured to add otos (which will eat your brown algae). If you cycle fishlessly then you should be ok adding them straight away (mine were).
 
Peckoltia pulcher is not the same as a hillstream loach (homaloptera, gastromyzon and pseudogastromyzon being the main genera - there are many species). The confusion comes from the peckoltia being called a 'butterfly pleco' while the hillstream loach is often called a 'chinese butterfly plec'. Hillstream loaches are not plecos and they aren't realy loaches either :p Make sure you know which fish you are thinking about buying before you get it as hillstream loaches have very specific requirements and won't fit into your average community tank and some peckoltias might get too big for the smaller community set-up.
 
^ it's all true


not that she needs any backing up cos she obviously knows her stuff but there are various fish known as a butterfly plec, check out L068 on planetcatfish.com and the hongkong loach on loaches.com, they are very different fish often sold under the same name
 

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