My First Fish Has Been Added... Bit Of A Good Surprise!

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm heading off to the LFS shortly, to at least look around the stock again, but I'm seriously tempted to buy my first fish for my heavily planted tank (finished a 75% water change 30 mins ago, added 80ml Tetra AquaSafe de-chlorinator)!

I could play it ultra safe and get say 6 Zebra Danios. I sort of like them, but they are not on my "must be in the tank" wishlist, which includes other fish that will use the upper levels of the Rio 240...

School of ~5 Celebes Halfbeaks
School of 5-8 Celebes Rainbows
School of 5-8 Neon Dwarf Rainbows
Pair of Opsarius pulchellus (Green-Barred Danio) <--- These are my absolutely must have, everything must be safe to be with these ~11cm, relatively new fish to the hobby
3-5 Giant Danios? Like them in own right, but thinking of them more for good "playmates" for the Opsarius (as I doubt I will be able to source more Ops)

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Well, I'm back from the LFS...

With no fish!

I took a sample of tank water for them to test, as the Nutrafin colour charts for nitrates and nitrites do not look similar to my test tube results. I still have unsafe nitrites (0.3) after the 75% water change I did this lunchtime, while the nitrate level was fine.

So I'm going to see what developes between now and Sunday, which may mean another big water change...

• Its so bizarre seeing good juvenile sized Opsarius (currently ~8cm) and thinking they could share a tank with Rainbow youngsters, currently ~4cm!
• I still love the quirkly look and behaviour of the 6 Humphead Glassfish they have, almost a cross between tetras and cichlids.
• They've had a dwarf Lionhead species cichlid for a while now which seems to have had a growth spirt since I last went, has really plumped out, was nice to see him/her bouncing along the tank base for a change, rather than swimming like crazy to maintain a mid-tank level in the back corner!
• The Empire Gudgeon looked lovely, almost like different coloured Forktail Blue-Eye Rainbows.
• An interesting new fish they had in was some sort of freshwater Goby, Siphodon?
• There's not many Rabbit Snails left now, only three that are a decent size and do not have concerning damage to the top peak of their shell (the pointy-end).
• I noticed neither of the two remaining Halfbeak females (large and not that colourful) looked too happy, they seemed to have some minor damage or a small growth at what should be the end of their upward curled jaw.
• Still 5 Celebes Rainbows left, containing a dominant and a submissive male, the latter of which has lost his upper black display fin. The random male Forktail is still in there with them, looking all confused!
• The Tropheus moori morillo pair still share a tank with two young Cneopomas, but tensions are now running high is there, depsite all of them looking lovely... The dominant male Tropheus is bullying the other three fish to corners of the tank! At least he is not biting at them now, just charges over like a bull and puts the brakes on several millimetres from their face
  

 

[Nick16]

the key to success in this hobby is not to rush mate.

make sure your levels are all fine. Many of us in the planted game use little tips and tricks to keep ammonia down such as zeolite but i wouldnt recommend that to you mate, as your better of leaning the basics first before cutting corners!

stick with hardy fish: Danio, White clouds. these are your two best options. unfortunately, neons and livebearers are no longer hardy fish due to poor selection and breeding.

the wait gives you more time to brush up on your planting skills mate!

Lastly, get pond dechlor mate. i use 3ml when i do a 50% W/C on my 450L planted. its so much cheaper. i wouldnt even bother using it, but i have some sensitive stock in there at the mo. many of us (me included) dont use it on standard community set ups. BUT... CHECK WHATS COMMING OUT YOUR TAP!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Had an interesting development since yesterday lunchtime... The nitrites appear to have dropped to 0.1!

Going to do another test tomorrow to confirm, but I believe I may be ready for some fish this weekend.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

And so it begins...

6 Pearl Danios are 20 minutes into acclimatization in an unlit tank!

Water readings were good at home, LFS confirmed and probably rightly, swayed me away from Dwarf Neon or Katubu Rainbows as first fish (they strongly suggested I choose from White Cloud Mountain Minnows; Platys; Zebra/ Orange Zebra/ Leopard/ Pearl Danios).

Must confess I had never noticed their lovely sheen before today and have not researched them at all over the last six weeks.

Right, time to add some tank water by pippette every 15 minutes or so

...

 

[Harlequins]

Good luck with your danios,

just remember to keep a check on your stats daily,even though your nitrite was 0.1 a few days ago,really you should go 7 days with zeros for both ammonia/nitrite before fish are added.

White cloud mountain minnows are for cooler temps,can tolerate maybe 22 degrees at the most,so probably not a good idea in a tropical set up.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Thanks!

The LFS confirmed 0 nitrites, while my Nutrafin test showed the lowest shade of 0.1. Nitrates (the one which has the most awful colour matching scheme) were 15 at the LFS, which is pretty good for our local tap water, which can naturally contain upto 40.

I'm aware of the "qualifying week" which is good practice for fishless and low real plant setups, but I have loads of fast growers (Cambomba; Ludwigia; Dwarf Hairgrass; Eleocharis rose; [floating plant which has a 'daughter' extension plant with 5 days; [a forest of saw-edged leaf variety with reddy brown stem species with new buds) and some slow growers (Pogosternum helferi; [a dwarf Microsorum species]; Microsum pteropus mother plant) with a Dennerle CO[sub]2 [/sub]system, enabling me to do a "silent cycle." I also added 200ml of Tetra SafeStart an hour ago as an insurance policy.

Removed 50% of floating bag water 20 mins ago and replaced with same amount of tank water, time for another dose (playing it cautious due to CO[sub]2 [/sub]having lowered tap water pH to 7.6 from LFS natural water water pH of 8.2)...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Well the six of them seem to be getting on well so far... I swear they have coloured up significantly in the two hours they have been in the tank (might well be wrong, but I noticed two seperate pairs courting with each other and then noticed some small brown egg-shaped balls on the back of a Java Fern leaf)!

Not the best of pics, but here is a shot of five of them taken a few minutes ago (one of them seems to be spending less schooling time than the others)

 

[PDSimon]

I think a lot of people who have shoaling fish experience one that just swims away on its own or with other fish