Is It Possible That My Tank Is Cycled Already?

[GreenA]

and another day (day 4) without water changes and all is still good

. keeping those fingers crossed!!

 

[KittyKat]

Just to clarify, "good" is ammonia and nitrite at 0 ppm and absolutely no change from that…?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If it stays like that I can finally introduce my first Corys!!! So so exited.

I would not be thinking of sensitive fish like Corydoras until the tank has cycled and then matured at least a month, far too risky. What other fish do you have in mind?

 

[GreenA]

I would not be thinking of sensitive fish like Corydoras until the tank has cycled and then matured at least a month, far too risky. What other fish do you have in mind?

Well, I would really love 4+ Rosy Barbs but I have Guppies in there and I don't want the Barbs to start nipping them and I don't think my tank is big enough for them.... so that's a no no
Then I would either love a school of Neon Tetras or Normans Lampeyes or even Emerald Dwarf Rasboa (not sure if the last 2 are suitable for my tank tho).
Another group of fish I'd like to introduce are Dwarf Neon Blue Rainbowfish
Or maybe a Clown Pleco but again, I'm not sure if the tank is big enough....

so these are a couple of fish that I'd love to add but I'm not done with my research, yet. What do you think? And I won't rush things. If I need to wait another 4 weeks for Corys then so be it. But I'll research some more and maybe I'll find a fish that would like to live in my tank.

By the way, it's day 5 and water parameters are still beautiful!

(and yes KittyKat by that I mean everything is in the zeros (ammonia and nitrite)

)

 

[KittyKat]

Well, I would really love 4+ Rosy Barbs but I have Guppies in there and I don't want the Barbs to start nipping them and I don't think my tank is big enough for them.... so that's a no no
Then I would either love a school of Neon Tetras or Normans Lampeyes or even Emerald Dwarf Rasboa (not sure if the last 2 are suitable for my tank tho).
Another group of fish I'd like to introduce are Dwarf Neon Blue Rainbowfish
Or maybe a Clown Pleco but again, I'm not sure if the tank is big enough....

What are the dimensions?
Rosy barbs are schooling, same as all other barbs…

so these are a couple of fish that I'd love to add but I'm not done with my research, yet. What do you think? And I won't rush things. If I need to wait another 4 weeks for Corys then so be it. But I'll research some more and maybe I'll find a fish that would like to live in my tank.

There should be plenty of compatible ones, you just need to look around

 

[GreenA]

Umm, my dimensions are 75cm length, 40cm width and hight I think. Not sure exactly. It's also a bow front dunno if that matters tho.

 

[KittyKat]

Yes, it matters because some fish require a certain bottom area of the tank as part of their territory.

So your current stocking is:
* 2m guppies
* 1m 1f swordtails
* 1m 1f mollies

And you're going to go up to this first
* 2m guppies
* 1m 2f swordtails
* 1m 2f mollies
* 8-10 Corys

Which, if your tank is 20 gallons as you say (75*40*40 cm gives me 31 gallons), leaves you fully stocked because those females are going to be dropping 10-200 fry every four weeks (30-60 is most common). If there is not enough cover for at least some of the fry to survive, then there is probably not enough cover for the females to hide from the advances of the males either.

This is one of the troubles of having more than one livebearer species per tank, which I personally do not recommend.

 

[GreenA]

Ok. I've got a friend who wants Guppies and Swordtails and is currently doing her fishless cycle and is about 4 weeks in. So I think I will give my livebearers to her as she would have bought them anyway from a shop. Don't get me wrong, I do like them but the only reason I chose these fish in the first place was due to my former LFS. The guy there recommended them to me to cycle my tank....but that was when I didn't know better. So once my friend has the fishes which could I add out of my list? Thanks for the help by the way. Really appreciate it.

 

[GreenA]

Also, I have just measured my tank and it is 70*35*40* which gives me according to a volume calculator 98 litres and therefore 21.5 UK gallons. However that was calculated as rectangle without the bow front in mind which should only give me about another couple of litres.
Funny that, when I bought it it stated it was 90 litres.....

 

[KittyKat]

Great, once your friend's tank is cycled (and make sure she does the qualifying week), let her know that she should get at least one other female swordtail, or maybe even two.

90 litres is accurate in that the tank will probably contain 90 litres of water. For example, my 65 litre volume tank only holds 40-50 litres after substrate, décor, filter, heater and an inch off the top. By the way, I was working on US gallons, so that was about the right number of Imperial gallons.

So, once you're going to start stocking again, you want at least the following:
And you're going to go up to this first
* 1m 2f mollies
* 8-10 Corys

(What is your pH?)

Which you could increase to something like:
And you're going to go up to this first
* 1m 2f mollies
* 10-15 schooling fish of one species
* 8-10 Corys

Rosy barbs grow too large at 5-6", so aren't suitable. Ideally, you should be looking at fish which grow to a maximum of 2" long for mid-water schoolers. What about 7m 8f Puntius titteya (cherry barb)? They are similar to rosy barbs, but don't grow as large. P. gelius (golden barb), P. (Barbus) manipurensis, P. erythromycter, P. cumingii… all of those are not nippy, as far as I am aware, although most barbs aren't, if kept in decent numbers. But anyway! I'm not going to take away all of your fun of reading about all these species Here's a photo index of Cyprinidae: http/fishbase.org/identification/SpeciesList.php?famcode=122&genus=&areacode=&c_code=&spines=&fins=&sortby=species

If you want tetras, any of the standard ones should be ok. Again, stick to those which max out at 5 cm!

 

[GreenA]

Cool KittyKat. Thanks for your help. I'll let my mate know about the quali week. So I'll start with adding the Mollie and have a read about these other barbs.

My pH is 8.2, we have very hard water here. However, I asked the guy at my new LFS who also has fishes himself and he said that all their fish are in the local tap water, even the Discuss and apparently they are doing just fine. I just don't want to fiddle with the pH as I have read that these pH adjusters only work for a couple of days and need constant monitoring and also that it is way too stressful on fish. I'll just make sure I look for fish that like the harder water I guess.

Thanks again for all your advice

 

[KittyKat]

My pH is 8.2, we have very hard water here. However, I asked the guy at my new LFS who also has fishes himself and he said that all their fish are in the local tap water, even the Discuss and apparently they are doing just fine. I just don't want to fiddle with the pH as I have read that these pH adjusters only work for a couple of days and need constant monitoring and also that it is way too stressful on fish. I'll just make sure I look for fish that like the harder water I guess.

You read right about that one There are two important points to consider when keeping softwater fish in hard water: some species are more susceptible to diseases (bacterial and fungal) and they probably won't breed successfully.

Still, I prefer to aim for ideal parameters, but I don't see why you should have any problems with barbs, rasboras, etc.

 

[GreenA]

Yeah, that is a good point. I think as I am new to all this I'll stick with the more compatible fish. Once I am more experienced I can aim for more delicate fish and perfect water parameters.

Thanks again

 

[GreenA]

Day 6 and all's still thumbs up. Getting there

 

[KittyKat]

p.s. moving hard water fish to soft water is not a good idea, unlike the other way around. Many hard water fish can not do well for long in soft water: this is most commonly seen in livebearers. For more information, read about osmoregulation.