Two Questions...

[WillyRBeek]

1) 4 or 5 days ago I bought a Bristlenose Catfish as I had heard they were excellent alge eaters, were not aggressive at all(Unlike Chinesee Alge Eaters), and only grew to be a few inchs(Unlike Plecos), but i've noticed that I barely ever see it, it spends most of its time, well, god knows where, I don't know where it's hiding, but I know it's not dead as I see it occasional on the back wall of the tank. So my question is: Is there something wrong with it, or are their feeding habits similar to plecos in that they mostly only feed in the dark?

2) I have a 25 gallon tank, fully cycled with an air pump, and i'm wondering if it would be safe to add any more fish in with the fish I have now? In my tank I currently have:

2 Angelfish
3 Redeye Tetras
1 Bristlenose Catfish
6 Corydora Catfish
1 Dalmation Molly
1 I'm not exactly sure what this fish is called, it's an orange colored fish that is roughly about in inch long

Now, i'm aware that down the road the 2 angelfish could be a problem as angelfish grow to be quite large, but at the moment neither of them are much bigger then about an 1 - 1 1/2 inchs, and within the next year or so I plan on upgrading to a 55 gallon tank or so.

Anyway any feedback you guys can give me would be great.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Willie and welcome to the forums!

Sounds like a really nice community of fish, nicely balanced and pretty good choices for your size tank. Sorry I don't know any serious technical things to tell you about your bristlenose - although not too surprised as its behaviour sounds like a lot of plecs.

How did you go about getting your filter cycled and how did you determine that its fully cycled?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[WillyRBeek]

Hi Willie and welcome to the forums!

Sounds like a really nice community of fish, nicely balanced and pretty good choices for your size tank. Sorry I don't know any serious technical things to tell you about your bristlenose - although not too surprised as its behaviour sounds like a lot of plecs.

How did you go about getting your filter cycled and how did you determine that its fully cycled?

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks, I actually just found this forum because I was searching for information on Dwarf ID Sharks and I typed it into google, and one of the posts on this forum was the only thing it found. Decided to register as this forum seems more active then the other one I frequent.

I'm pretty happy with the group of fish I got now, but I had a hell of a time with fish dying at the start as I was getting some pretty crummy advice from the folks at the Pet Store. As for the Bristlenose, i'm thinking it very well might be a nocturnal feeder, as I just turned the light off in the tank about 15 minutes ago, and I happened to glance over at it just after I posted my last message(The tank is set up about 3 feet from my computer) and noticed he was stuck to the front wall.

As for determining that it's fully cycled, for awhile I was having a serious problem with the ammonia levels in my tank, and I was forced to do a water change every 2 or 3 days, but it's been I think near 2 weeks now since I did my last water change, and I tested the ammonia and nitrite levels this morning and they were both still at 0(Or whatever the lowest level on the tester is, I know it's 0 on the ammonia one, I think the nitrite is the same).

 

[tenohfive]

If you're talking about the bristlenose plec, it is apparently nocturnal (according to my internet fishkeeping bible.)

 

[ALW]

You should keep the Red Eye Tetras in a least a group of 5, i would advise you to get more (as many as you can, the more the happer the fish will be). The bristlenose is acting like mine used too, so dont worry its normal behaviour. some are more active during the day, others are more nocturnal.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Willie and welcome to the forums!

Sounds like a really nice community of fish, nicely balanced and pretty good choices for your size tank. Sorry I don't know any serious technical things to tell you about your bristlenose - although not too surprised as its behaviour sounds like a lot of plecs.

How did you go about getting your filter cycled and how did you determine that its fully cycled?

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks, I actually just found this forum because I was searching for information on Dwarf ID Sharks and I typed it into google, and one of the posts on this forum was the only thing it found. Decided to register as this forum seems more active then the other one I frequent.

I'm pretty happy with the group of fish I got now, but I had a hell of a time with fish dying at the start as I was getting some pretty crummy advice from the folks at the Pet Store. As for the Bristlenose, i'm thinking it very well might be a nocturnal feeder, as I just turned the light off in the tank about 15 minutes ago, and I happened to glance over at it just after I posted my last message(The tank is set up about 3 feet from my computer) and noticed he was stuck to the front wall.

As for determining that it's fully cycled, for awhile I was having a serious problem with the ammonia levels in my tank, and I was forced to do a water change every 2 or 3 days, but it's been I think near 2 weeks now since I did my last water change, and I tested the ammonia and nitrite levels this morning and they were both still at 0(Or whatever the lowest level on the tester is, I know it's 0 on the ammonia one, I think the nitrite is the same).

Sounds like you are off and going fine now. The only reason I brought it up is that a fair number of folks like you stumble across the forum who have had to "cycle with fish" because of bad LFS advice but the cycling has managed to get accomplished and they are now past it and enjoying discussions about what fish to get. The problem sometimes then arrises that later they once again have trouble with "cycling" but because they never experienced a fishless cycle or otherwise had to look at the nitrogen cycle closely, they missed out on a thorough understanding of this area of fishkeeping that is so central to things.

Anyway, don't mean to bore you but there are some great articles pinned at the top of this "New to the Hobby" forum and for me (I'm returned to the hobby after many years away, so basically a beginner again) I found that many of the previous water chem and water change things I thought I knew, I really only knew superficially and really this forum made it easy to gain a deeper understanding. Some of the information is in the pinned articles but much of it hides in the threads as all these experienced members help each other and newcomers with various problems, so all of it ends up being pretty interesting, IMO.

Good luck on your stocking questions/decisions and I hope it turns out to be a good place for you too!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[WillyRBeek]

Hi Willie and welcome to the forums!

Sounds like a really nice community of fish, nicely balanced and pretty good choices for your size tank. Sorry I don't know any serious technical things to tell you about your bristlenose - although not too surprised as its behaviour sounds like a lot of plecs.

How did you go about getting your filter cycled and how did you determine that its fully cycled?

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks, I actually just found this forum because I was searching for information on Dwarf ID Sharks and I typed it into google, and one of the posts on this forum was the only thing it found. Decided to register as this forum seems more active then the other one I frequent.

I'm pretty happy with the group of fish I got now, but I had a hell of a time with fish dying at the start as I was getting some pretty crummy advice from the folks at the Pet Store. As for the Bristlenose, i'm thinking it very well might be a nocturnal feeder, as I just turned the light off in the tank about 15 minutes ago, and I happened to glance over at it just after I posted my last message(The tank is set up about 3 feet from my computer) and noticed he was stuck to the front wall.

As for determining that it's fully cycled, for awhile I was having a serious problem with the ammonia levels in my tank, and I was forced to do a water change every 2 or 3 days, but it's been I think near 2 weeks now since I did my last water change, and I tested the ammonia and nitrite levels this morning and they were both still at 0(Or whatever the lowest level on the tester is, I know it's 0 on the ammonia one, I think the nitrite is the same).

Sounds like you are off and going fine now. The only reason I brought it up is that a fair number of folks like you stumble across the forum who have had to "cycle with fish" because of bad LFS advice but the cycling has managed to get accomplished and they are now past it and enjoying discussions about what fish to get. The problem sometimes then arrises that later they once again have trouble with "cycling" but because they never experienced a fishless cycle or otherwise had to look at the nitrogen cycle closely, they missed out on a thorough understanding of this area of fishkeeping that is so central to things.

Anyway, don't mean to bore you but there are some great articles pinned at the top of this "New to the Hobby" forum and for me (I'm returned to the hobby after many years away, so basically a beginner again) I found that many of the previous water chem and water change things I thought I knew, I really only knew superficially and really this forum made it easy to gain a deeper understanding. Some of the information is in the pinned articles but much of it hides in the threads as all these experienced members help each other and newcomers with various problems, so all of it ends up being pretty interesting, IMO.

Good luck on your stocking questions/decisions and I hope it turns out to be a good place for you too!
~~waterdrop~~

Ya I originally had a huge problem with cycling my tank because the folks at the pet store never actually bothered to tell me about it. When I first bought the tank I was told it get it all set up, then wait 4-7 days, and then I could add my fish. So of course after about a week I went back and bought like 8 fish in total, and within a few days fish were dying like crazy. The folks at the pet store told me the problem was my high pH(Which is very high, but I later found out that as long as you take a little extra time to climatize the fish, the pH usually won't cause you a lot of problems), I was completely oblivious to the ammonia and nitrite levels. Also while this was going on I kept adding more new fish, as I was told my tank could handle a lot more(It can, but not when the cycle is just getting started). So by the time I discovered what was going on(Thanks to the other board I post on) and bought test kits for ammonia and nitrite, I found out my levels were sky high, and I was forced to do water changes every second day and occasionally every day for a month if not more. I still had a problem with fish dying for awhile, but I didn't bother replacing them till I got this mess sorted out. So anyway now, after a lot of casualties, I finally got things straightened out it seems.

Ya i'm a lot like, I used to have 2 smaller tanks(A 10g with goldfish and a 15g with tropical fish) when I was about 10 or 11 years old, but i'm 23 now so that was quite awhile ago, and when I decided to get back into the hobby, I found out everything I thought I knew about keeping fish was a load of crap basically, so i've pretty much had to completely start over as a fresh beginner.

 

[WillyRBeek]

You should keep the Red Eye Tetras in a least a group of 5, i would advise you to get more (as many as you can, the more the happer the fish will be). The bristlenose is acting like mine used too, so dont worry its normal behaviour. some are more active during the day, others are more nocturnal.

That would probably explain why the tetras are somewhat antisocial. They all look to be very healthy, but for the most part they just spend all day sitting in the back of the tank behind the big rock ornament and they really only swim around much during feeding time.

 

[frogger009]

Yeah, I had some bad advise from the LFS aswell, but managed not to lose any fish by pumping the tank full of chemicals for a week before I found this forum, then with some help and some mature media cycled my tank.

If your Bristlenose is anything like my Clown Pleco, you would be lucky to see him at all. My Clown Pleco hides out all day long and comes out to play at night.

 

[WillyRBeek]

Yeah, I had some bad advise from the LFS aswell, but managed not to lose any fish by pumping the tank full of chemicals for a week before I found this forum, then with some help and some mature media cycled my tank.

If your Bristlenose is anything like my Clown Pleco, you would be lucky to see him at all. My Clown Pleco hides out all day long and comes out to play at night.

Ya I got a sneaking suspicion that it is a nocturnal feeder. When I woke up this morning, before I turned the light on it was clung to the front wall of the tank, sucking away. I turned the light on, and went and hopped in the shower. When I came back, it was nowhere in sight, and I havn't seen it since.