Recommended Amount Of First Fish Into A Tank

[stackem evs]

Just finished cycling a 45 gal tank. About to put my first shoal in, some nice hardy platies. My lfs says should only add 3 fish first then 3 more a week later, and each week after that.

Although planning to fill over a period of time this sounds excessive to me, would you agree with this or believe safe to add a larger amount 4-6, or maybe even 10.

Thanks

 

[Chri$]

You should be fine adding 4-6 at a time, 10 IMO would be to much.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Just finished cycling a 45 gal tank. About to put my first shoal in, some nice hardy platies. My lfs says should only add 3 fish first then 3 more a week later, and each week after that.

Although planning to fill over a period of time this sounds excessive to me, would you agree with this or believe safe to add a larger amount 4-6, or maybe even 10.

Thanks

How have you cycled your tank?

If you have fishless cycled it, follow link in my sig., then you can pretty much fully stock over a few days. This is far and away the best method and also the most humane. Try to get hold of some mature filter media to speed things up.

If you are cycling with fish then you will have to follow the advice of your LFS.

 

[dizzied]

He says the tank just finished cycling.

If you used a fishless cycle, you can just stock it full, unless you used a very small amount of ammonia to start it off.

 

[doresy]

good sized tank bearing in mind the rule of thumb....1" of fish to the gallon. Not being an expert myself i would say that adding fish in a shoal of up to 6 at a time would be ok. One thing to consider I would think is, if you add a same species shoal all at once it could establish a 'pecking order' at the start and settle down rather than doing it in stages? Others may disagree so I too will watch this post with interest

 

[mark.w.jones]

He says the tank just finished cycling.

Ive lost count of the number of people who say theyve "cycled" their tank which actually means they followed their LFS advice and left it running for a week before adding their neons.

 

[stackem evs]

He says the tank just finished cycling.
If you used a fishless cycle, you can just stock it full, unless you used a very small amount of ammonia to start it off.

Just finished a fishless cycle, readings of Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrate all zero. Want to start stock before have to restart the cycle.

BUT did use ammonia to start the cycle (along with mature media and bacteria from lfs)

 

[stackem evs]

He says the tank just finished cycling.

Ive lost count of the number of people who say theyve "cycled" their tank which actually means they followed their LFS advice and left it running for a week before adding their neons.

As per first post, I have just finished cycle (ammonia and nitrite spikes back to zero), ready to add first fish (so was a full fishless cycle [as readup on here and other sites), using sites like this has made me cleaver enough not to stick the neons in just yet (give it a day or two) ;-).

Going for platties as hardy option for first shoal. Do people agree should include whole shoal at once, as mentioned by doresy
to help them settle better?

 

[StuCarr]

Check your readings after your first fish. From what I understand if you fishless cycle you can stock quite heavily as soon as it is cycled. If you stock very lightly some of the bacteria in the filter will die off because there is not enough ammonia to feed them. This is what has happened to my filter.

I have just set up a tank, I used mature media from a friends filter, I added 4 Danios the same day, I checked the water every day and the readings where ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate rose to 40 ppm after 5 days. Then added 2 more Danios, readings stayed the same. Yesterday morning (10 days after first 4 Danios) I added 6 Flame Tetras, All the readings were ok, 24 hours later the Ammonia is 0, the Nitrite has risen to 0.25 and the Nitrate is 20. Will check the Nitrite again in a few hours, I was expecting the ammonia and Nitrite to rise because of the extra bio load on the filter. When I check again I'm expecting the levels to return to 0. (will post results)
Hope this helps
Stu

 

[mbbowman]

I think you would be fine with up to 6. Personally I added mine 3 at a time. The first 3 were mickey mouse platys (1m, 2f) and they were always swimming together and playing with the bubbles. Then I added 3 sunburst platys about 3 months later (1m, 2f), and they stuck together as well. They mingle a bit, but mostly still stick to their orginal groups. Just make sure you keep far more females than males...I think they are happier that way. The females dont get pestered as much and the males have plenty of girls to keep them occupied <g>.

However many you choose I think you will really enjoy your platys!