New Fish - A Few Questions

[jaclynl]

Hi Everyone,

I finally made it through my fishless cycle and purchased 6 fish last week. I have a 10 gallon and bought 4 Zebra Danios and 4 Pygmy Cories. They are all doing great. Swimming, eating and they look healthy.

I tested my water 2 days after I got them and Ammonia and Nitrites were both 0ppm, as they are today.

1- I bought the fish a week ago, should I go a 10% water change today?
2- How much and how often should I be feeding these guys. I have been feeding them once in the morning and once before bed, only about what they can eat in 2-3 minutes, making sure some sinks for the Cories
3- How long should I leave the light on? I basically turn it on at 8am, feed them and then at 11pm I feed them and then turn it off...is that okay?

Thanks,
Jaclyn

PS the guy at the fish store was great, he even knew about fishless cycling!

 

[rdd1952]

1. Most people recommend a water change and gravel vacuum weekly, anywhere from 15 to 25 percent. It helps replace evaporated water and replinish needed minerals in the water and of course, the gravel vac removed fish poo and prevents it from breaking down and causing ammonia issues.
2. It sounds like you are fine. The key is there not being any excess food that lays around and decays. That will cause issues with your water stats. Personally, I only feed once a day but a lot of people do the same as you and feed twice. If you later decide to switch to once a day, the evening feeding just after the lights are out will be best as that is when the corys would be most active.
3. Lighting time really depends on whether you have live plants or not. If no, then you really only need the lights on when you are there to view the fish. The fish certainly don't need them as there is plenty of ambient light during the day. If you do have plants, then 10 to 12 hours a day is about the norm.

 

[OldMan47]

You are doing fine with your feeding regime Jaclyn L. As long as the fish are all getting some food every day and there are no leftovers, all will be fine.
The light is on too long in my opinion. The problem is having it on longer than about 10 hours a day is likely to result in an algae problem that is difficult to get under control. Unless you have plants in the tank, just put the tank lights on in the evening when you are home to view the fish and leave it off the rest of the time. The fish themselves don't really need the light as long as you don't keep the tank in a cave or something similar. You judge your water change amount and frequency based on what it takes to prevent nitrates increasing more than 20 ppm above your tap water. That may be anywhere from 10 % a week to 50% a week depending on the bioload of the tank. If it only takes 10% a week to keep up, you may even be able to go to 2 weeks changes of 20%. The overstocked people on here will tell you that weekly is a must but I seldom change water that often with my light tank stockings.

 

[waterdrop]

Will just add another voice here that I agree with all the details from both posts above.

"You judge your water change amount and frequency based on what it takes to prevent nitrates increasing more than 20 ppm above your tap water."

This is a golden sentence from OM47. We all talk about and hand out advice about being sure to do weekly water change gravel cleans but its important once a beginner has established the importance of this to begin gaining the finesse to know the range of what works well in their tank. The most important thing is to pay attention to doing some kind of regular water change and never get into a "period" of not doing them. The gravel cleaning should always be coupled with any change so that more of the excess debris will be regularly removed. Fish really respond to a well-maintained tank, they are clearly happy and responsive to their environment.

~~waterdrop~~