Getting A Few New Fish...

[MattM1124]

Hey everyone! I actually have 2 questions....

1. I'm looking into getting a few new fish to add to my community tank and wanted to know if they would be compatible. I also don't want to get any fin nippers. My existing tank already has the following fish in it; 6 danio's, 5 glow light tetra's, and 1 male red swordtail. I had 6 glow light's but the one died and I also had another swordtail but he died as well. My tank size is 20 gallons. The fish I was looking to get were either Silver Hatchet's or Male Dwarf Gourami's. Or would I be able to get each with my tank size, which I doubt. I also would like to know if they would have to be kept in a school or not. Being my smaller tank and already have 12 fish in there I'm guessing I can only get a few. So what do you recommend, I'm open to other suggestions as well! I would like to have a few colorful fish in the tank since my danio's and glow lights aren't very colorful. My swordtail is though.

2. I have a quarantine tank set up and wanted to know how long you would recommend I leave my new fish in there when I get them before adding them to the community tank. Also, should I add anything just incase they have any kind of parasite that I can't see. I read that melafix was all natural and safe so could I add that into the water of the new fish or should I use the wait and see method of if any spots develop?

Thanks in advance
Matt

 

[umlaut31]

I think if you want colour - expand on the swordtails.. livebearers give great focus to a tank - you could get other colour variants and genders, which would be nice!

Dwarf gouramis are also cool - i think maybe 2-3 in your tank would be okay!

Silver hatchets are okay, IMO i don't really rate them - however there may be an issue with the danios and the hatchets both residing near the top of the tank (nothing serious - just might look cramped)

and sorry, I don't really know much about quarantine tanks - but melafix has always helped me out in tight spots (or white spots aha - I kill myself )

hope this helps

 

[minxfishy]

You really should leave all new fish in the QT for 4 weeks after purchase to ensure they dont have anything wrong with them or develop something once introduced to your water.

Unless there is a need you dont have to add anything to a QT either as using meds when they are not required is not a good idea, as the fish can build up a resistance to the meds. Good quality water and regular partial water changes as you would in your normal tank will be sufficient whilst in QT, unless of course they develop something in which case then you use the meds as required.