How should I go about stocking?

[mlee0332]

I have the following fish in my 39g aquarium and am planning to out more:

1 neon
3 white cloud mms
3 guppies (1male:2females)

Here is what I plan to get:
9 more neons
2 more wcmm
1 more female guppy
5/6 cherry barbs.

What is a good order to go in? I want to beef up the schools I have before I add any barbs, but should I buy one for this school (or 2) and then next week buy one or 2 for the next school? What do you think?

 

[Erised]

Personally I'd get the female guppy and the wcmm first (at the same time). Then after about 2 weeks up the shoal of neons and give it another 2 weeks rest. Then add the barbs.

However, I seem to remember that cherry barbs are not shoaling first, but fish that do better when paired off? I might be wrong here, but ask some people about that first.

 

[mlee0332]

so add all 9 neons at once?!?!

 

[Erised]

With more fish, it can cause a mini-cycle to add that many fish at once ... however, with neons, them having a very small bio-load, I doubt that will happen. So yes, I'd add them all at once.

Ofcourse, it can't hurt to get someone elses opinion on this as well

 

[pjfish]

I agree with Erised about the order. If you don't want to add all 9 neons at once, then add half, wait a couple of weeks, and add the rest. But, I would add all of them before getting the barbs.

 

[tttnjfttt]

From personal experience, I've found its best to introduce an entire school of a new species at once. The fish will feel more secure and you will have less behavior issues, such as agression.

In my tank, over the course of 3 days, I added 2 zebra danios and 7 tiger barbs, more than trippling the bio load in a cycled tank, and never had an ammonia spike.