Fishless Cycle Officaially Over!

[cheerycherry]

I did a week of my "proving" that all was fine in my tank after the fishless cycle and this mornings was perfect readings and did a large change yesterday to get the nitrates down so today I finally went out to purchase some cichlids woooot

Anyway my lfs would only sell me 4 fish I explained to her I did a fishless cycle and had a week of 0 ammonia and nitrites etc and told her this mornings water stats and size of tank and she would only let me have 4 fish? I Really wanted to get my synodontis but she wouldnt let me and said id have to wait a minimum of 2 weeks before I could purchase anymore???

I thought the point of a fishless cycle was so you could add a few fish at a time or am I wrong on that? My main concern is I have a male and female (not sure what they are) and the male is already hassling the female chasing her into the rock caves ive left the lights off to help but you can still see him doing it now I know this is to be expected with cichlids and you need to overstock to help with aggresssion but how am I going to do that when my lfs will only sell me a few every few weeks?

Happy to finally have my fish but very confused.

 

[Declan]

I did a week of my "proving" that all was fine in my tank after the fishless cycle and this mornings was perfect readings and did a large change yesterday to get the nitrates down so today I finally went out to purchase some cichlids woooot

Anyway my lfs would only sell me 4 fish I explained to her I did a fishless cycle and had a week of 0 ammonia and nitrites etc and told her this mornings water stats and size of tank and she would only let me have 4 fish? I Really wanted to get my synodontis but she wouldnt let me and said id have to wait a minimum of 2 weeks before I could purchase anymore???

I thought the point of a fishless cycle was so you could add a few fish at a time or am I wrong on that? My main concern is I have a male and female (not sure what they are) and the male is already hassling the female chasing her into the rock caves ive left the lights off to help but you can still see him doing it now I know this is to be expected with cichlids and you need to overstock to help with aggresssion but how am I going to do that when my lfs will only sell me a few every few weeks?

Happy to finally have my fish but very confused.

Are there any other 'LFS' around?

They may see a different point of view and sell you some more cichilids..

If not just tell a white lie..

D.

 

[cheerycherry]

There is one other lfs near me but everytime ive been in there they had quite a few dead fish and a few ive seen which look like they have ich so i dont really want to take the risk.Also i have a cadbury garden centre near me but they have 2 tanks with cichids but mostly all the same ones and not even that many.

The one I like is maidenhead aquatics tanks are so well looked after and they have some lovely synodontis there but of course now they know me I cant fib about it and they have a huge range of cichlids.Just a bit peeved with it to be honest

 

[Mikaila31]

Tell them you got another tank and the fish will be going in the other tank. Thats what I did when my LPS wouldn't let me put swordtails and tetras in the same tank. But of course they went in the same tank when I got home.

 

[cheerycherry]

yeah could do I guess.just thought they would have preferred me to get a few to curb the aggression

 

[OldMan47]

Once you have fish in your tank, it is best to take your stocking slowly. The LFS may be a bit heavy handed in their approach but I would rather deal there than with one that would give me anything I ask for with no comments. It sounds like they want you to be successful and thus keep coming back for years rather than make a big sale once. I think they deserve your thanks for that.