New Tank, Cycling At The Moment

[scouse_andy]

Thanks for all that info. I was only planning on keeping one or the other as I don't want to be overrun and they are fairly similar as you mentioned. I think I may well go for a small group of sunset platy (one male and 3/4 female). Would these be OK at 25 degrees and with the pearl gourami that I plan to buy in the long run?

Thanks again, Andy.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for all that info. I was only planning on keeping one or the other as I don't want to be overrun and they are fairly similar as you mentioned. I think I may well go for a small group of sunset platy (one male and 3/4 female). Would these be OK at 25 degrees and with the pearl gourami that I plan to buy in the long run?

Thanks again, Andy.

Sounds good to me- they should be fine with the gouramis too . Platys aren't too particular about temp, 25 degrees is ideal for them though .

 

[scouse_andy]

Fantastic, thanks for all your help. I think I'm pretty sorted in my mind abot what I want to do now then. When my tank cycles I have been told that I can stock it quite fully immediately. Is this true? I don't want to overload things or harm my first fish. How would it be if I put in 4 or 5 platys, 6 cherry barb and six corys.

I realise that under normal circumstances this would be a huge load on the filter but, unless I have misunderstood something badly I think the cycled tank would be able to cope.

Am I right or way off the mark?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Fantastic, thanks for all your help. I think I'm pretty sorted in my mind abot what I want to do now then. When my tank cycles I have been told that I can stock it quite fully immediately. Is this true? I don't want to overload things or harm my first fish. How would it be if I put in 4 or 5 platys, 6 cherry barb and six corys.

I realise that under normal circumstances this would be a huge load on the filter but, unless I have misunderstood something badly I think the cycled tank would be able to cope.

Am I right or way off the mark?

Glad to help .

As far as i am aware you can stock a tank which has been fishless cycled entirely if you want, but personally i would not buy all the fish at once as more than often, fish bought at petshops are often carrying one desease of one sort or another and may infect all of your new fish once in your tank. So i would buy a large percentage on the fish you are planning on getting, but not all of them just yet in case you encounter any deseases or parasites amoungst the fish and have to treat them. After you've bought your first lot of fish, i would let them settle in for a couple of weeks at the least so they can adjust to the new tank and also so you can easily spot any problems that may arise amoungst them .

If the tank in the shop you are buying your fish from has unhealthy ones, i would avoid buying any fish from it as some parasites and deseases on fish can be particularly infectious and may also not show the symptoms of the desease or parasite imediately (like whitespot).
Check fish in the petshop for things like;
a. If they are underweight/skinny looking at all
b. Have inflamed anus or white/string poop
c. Hanging around the bottom or top of the tank a lot when they shouldn't be
d. Gasping or rapid breathing
e. Flicking or rubbing themselves on objects in the tank
f. Cottony or slimey looking infections or growths on the fish or general discolouration
g. Spots like white sand grain sized spots on the fish or dusting of fine gold like spots on fish etc.
h. Tattered looking or ripped fins/fins with chunks missing out of them
i. Swimming about like they have lost their balance like swimming around in spirals
j. Bent spine or warped looking flesh
k. Suspicious patchs of discolouration on fish
l. Missing scales or scales sticking out
m. Blood like markings under the skin
n. Cloudy looking eyes or eyes popping out
o. Bloated apperance
p. Fish generally not very active for its type/looks under the weather

Etc etc...There are many things you should look out for when buying new fish. Also, i would also ask the staff at the shop how long the fish you are intending on buying have been there for- if they only arrived that day, i would avoid buying them for a day or so as many fish in petshops are made to endure many hours or even days of more or less being constantly transported from one place to another and so are very stressed/unsettled and hungry by the time they end up in the petshop.
Letting them settle into the petshops tanks for a day or more will help improve the chances of you successfully acclimatising the fish to your tank. If you are concerned the fish you want could be sold during the time you are waiting for them to settle into the petshops tanks, you can ask if the staff put your fish aside/keep your fish for a couple of days first before you buy them (most petshops will more than happily do this for you) .

Edit: Have you got any food for the fish you are going to get yet? A varied diet is best for fish, fish flakes or pelets aren't nesarsarily good for all fish.
I always find it also helps to have a couple of meds in stock too even if you have no sick fish, sometimes problems can arise with fish through no fault of your own and it always helps if you can treat any problems that arise with them as soon as posible .

 

[scouse_andy]

I have some Tetra tropical flakes and will be getting some sinking food for the corys too. I thought it was best to not stock it too heavily too quickly as I can then look out for behaviour of the fish and identify problems quickly. I have a very good LFS nearby, The Goldfish Bowl in Oxford, so I'll keep a good eye on the fish to check that they look healthy. Are the Corys, Cherry Barbs and Platies good fish to put in first?

I would then check things are settling down OK and then put in the Glowlight Tetra a couple of months down the line.

Things like the Rasbora, Chain Loach and Pearl Gourami I would obviously wait at least 6 months to put in as I believe the filter needs to be more mature.

Does that seem OK? I'll have to sort out some photos of the tank when it is cycled, planted and partially stocked. I'm really excited already!

 

[scouse_andy]

I forgot to mention....

a good point about meds. This is something that I know absolutely nothing about. What are good multi purpose meds to have to hand? Melafix.. anything else?

Cheers.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I have some Tetra tropical flakes and will be getting some sinking food for the corys too. I thought it was best to not stock it too heavily too quickly as I can then look out for behaviour of the fish and identify problems quickly. I have a very good LFS nearby, The Goldfish Bowl in Oxford, so I'll keep a good eye on the fish to check that they look healthy. Are the Corys, Cherry Barbs and Platies good fish to put in first?

I would then check things are settling down OK and then put in the Glowlight Tetra a couple of months down the line.

Things like the Rasbora, Chain Loach and Pearl Gourami I would obviously wait at least 6 months to put in as I believe the filter needs to be more mature.

Does that seem OK? I'll have to sort out some photos of the tank when it is cycled, planted and partially stocked. I'm really excited already!

I forgot to mention....

a good point about meds. This is something that I know absolutely nothing about. What are good multi purpose meds to have to hand? Melafix.. anything else?

Cheers.

With feeding the fish, pretty much all of your fish are insectivores/omnivores, so i would advise getting some frozen foods (dried ones are ok, but not as nutritious as frozen or live foods) like bloodworms, krill or daphinia (which will be readily accepted by all of your fish, particularly the bloodworms). I would avoid tubifex as it has been known to come from waters contaminated with raw sewage (live tubifex can also pass on internal parasites to fish).
Some veg in their diet is important too- TetraPro vegetable flakes are an easy way to get veg into your fishes diet, they look like this;

http/www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/fish/food/fi...kes/tetra/37609

Algae wafers or tablets are a good way to get veg into chain loaches diet as well, the platys may also eat them from time to time as well .


With meds, some good multi-purpose meds or ones generally good at treating common aquarium fish deseases are;
a. Pimafix- treats internal and external bacterial infections as well as fungal ones.
b. Melafix- can treat external problems like finrot, but is not a particularly strong med and is more commonly used as an extra med when treating external deseases or treating fish which have been physically injured/wounded. I would say though that this med is not as useful as Pimafix though as the Pimafix can treat pretty much anything that melafix can treat, but pimafix is also stronger in my opinion.
c. "Anti-white spot" and "anti velvet and slime" by Interpet will cover the vast majority of parasites which effect fish, the anti velvet and slime one will also treat parasites like flukes as well (basically it treats the parasites oodinium, amyloodimium, dactylogyrus, gyrodactylus, chilodonella, ichthyobodo/costia, trichodina and brooklynella).
d. "Anti internal bacteria" by interpet is a good strong and effective anti internal bacteria med, i've had much success with treating internal bacteria in fish with this particularly when it is combined with some small doses of pimafix.

These 4-5 meds cover a large majority of common fish deseases/parasites, the only one i can think of that they do not cover at all is internal parasites, but meds for internal parasites are hard to come by and are not regularly sold in many shops. Such meds are still ones i am doing a lot of research on, as it seems that although some claim to treat internal parasites, not all are very effective at doing so.
But if you avoid fish with inflamed anus and stringy or white looking poop and which look underweight, you should be able to avoid buying fish infected with internal parasites (as these are the most common symptoms of internal parasites). Fish affected with internal bacteria (which is a lot more common on the whole than internal parasites) can also display symptoms like white/stringy looking poop and are underweight, but an inflamed anus is a symptom that is classic of internal parasites and is not realy a symptom of any other desease or parasite.


The fish you are planning on introducing to the tank first sound good to me as well .

 

[Dave Spencer]

If you were to add a lot of plants right now, then you are adding the most efficient method of Ammonia removal to your tank. I added a lot of plants to my tank from day one and my tank never actually cycled due to the plants stripping the Ammonia of its Nitrogen straight away.

Once you have a healthy mass of plants growing in your tank, the bacteria culture in your filter will actually diminish in numbers. With an inert substrate you are going to have to think about water column fertilisation, although your fish may provide a fair amount of this in a mid tech tank. Tropica plant Nutrition is considered to be the best source of trace elements.

If you decide to buy Amazon Swords then root tablet fertilisers will be worth considering, because these plants are heavy root feeders.

Dave.

 

[scouse_andy]

I'll look into the meds thing a bit. Will probably go with the pimafix and then maybe the treatment for whitespot as well.

I will get hold of some freeze dried food too.

As for the planting, I have come this far with the cycle and don't really want to interrupt it. I had considered planting first but wanted to get my filter sorted. I have read that in an established heavily planted aquarium the eco-system pretty much takes care of itself but I wanted to get my filter right first as I'm so new to this.

I was planning on getting some fertiliser in bags which can either sit in the Juwel filter or at the back of the aquarium and needs changing once every 3 months called Pro Aqua from Greenline. They also do a big selection of plants (120 for 20 quid) so I'll plant that lot as soon as it cycles then see what does well with my water conditions and lighting and go from there.

Many thanks for all your help. I've got quite a good idea of where I'm going now with the stocking I think. I can fine tune the planting as I see what works.

 

[scouse_andy]

Just been doing some reading up on platies and hear they are rather partial to plants, if that's the case then I think I'll give them a miss, I don't want my aquascaping ruined.

On the subject of meds... I have read that pure tea tree oil is an effective substitute for pimafix/melafix for clearing up infections/fin rot etc. Does anybody have any experience of this?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Just been doing some reading up on platies and hear they are rather partial to plants, if that's the case then I think I'll give them a miss, I don't want my aquascaping ruined.

On the subject of meds... I have read that pure tea tree oil is an effective substitute for pimafix/melafix for clearing up infections/fin rot etc. Does anybody have any experience of this?

Nope platys don't eat plants at all, i've been keeping them for years (both platys and live plants) and the plants are thriving in the tank while the platys show no interest in them at all.


Never used pure tea tree oil as a substitute to pimafix or melafix though, so can't help you there. Would have thought that such an oil would kill the fish, like clove oil.