What Order To Add Fish To New Tank?

[lon1000]

hi,
i'm about to get a new 55 uk gallon tank.. so far i'm looking at getting:

1 x RTBS
1 x Angel fish (or 2 if i can find a breeding pair)
6 x Rummy nose tetras
4 x rams (was looking at blue rams)..
1 x bristle nose pleco
3 x Apistogramma agassizii (Agassiz' Dwarf Cichlid )

and possibly an Indian Gourami (thoughts on that please).

i understand that the Red Tailed Black Shark can be agressive towards other fish, but the reason to get the tank was so that my mrs could get a "shark"! i will have other tanks setup so i can transfer the fish if theres a problem..

so my question is.. what order should i add the fish? put the aggressive ones in first? or the less aggressive first? or all at once? or does it even matter?

thanks
chris

 

[archamfr]

id do least aggresive first, so they can get used to the tank and become confident in it.
this i think will be much better than dumping them in a tank with aggresive fish already in, as the aggresive fish will want to defend territory and such.

 

[rdd1952]

My gut feeling would be the same for the same reasons but I don't have any experience or data to back that up.

 

[lon1000]

hi,
ok thanks for your help..

so i'm thinking of getting them in this order:

First:
1 x bristle nose pleco
6 x Rummy nose tetras

Second:
4 x rams (was looking at blue rams)..
2 x Indian Gourami

Third: if i can find anywhere that sells them..
3 x Apistogramma agassizii (Agassiz' Dwarf Cichlid)

Fourth:
1 x Angel fish (or 2 if i can find a breeding pair)
1 x RTBS

sound about right? What do people think in terms of number of fish.. its a 55 uk gallon tank.. is that enough? too few? too many?

thanks!

rgds
chris

 

[Musho3210]

other way around....

 

[lon1000]

ay? you recon more aggressive first? or have i got some of my list wrong?

thanks
chris

 

[rdd1952]

other way around....

Do you have any reason for thinking that aggressive should go in first? Actually there really aren't any aggressive fish in the stocking list except for the shark.

 

[Musho3210]

sorry, i messed up, i was thinking agressive first, sorry my mind is off today, went to bed at 1 got up at 6, spent 4 hours at summer school, not in my thinking mood...


Ignore what i said earlier, i got mixed up.

 

[lon1000]

ahah.. no worries ;-)

just rethinking the order slightly..

First:
1 x bristle nose pleco
6 x Rummy nose tetras

Second:
4 x rams (was looking at blue rams)..
2 x Indian Gourami

Third:
3 x Apistogramma agassizii (Agassiz' Dwarf Cichlid) if i can find anywhere that sells them in the UK..
1 x Angel fish (or 2 if i can find a breeding pair)

Fourth:
1 x RTBS

that way all the fish have a chance to settle in before the RTBS comes in..

rgds
chris

 

[rdd1952]

Are you planning on doing a fishless cycle, cloning the tank or cycling with fish? That could make a difference in your stocking order too.

 

[lon1000]

hi,
definately a fishless cycle, got my ammonia all lined up.. its a brand new 55 gallon tank.. also getting two 12 gallon breeding/timeout tanks that i've got a mate to make for me.. just working out what filters to put into those, worried about little baby fish (if we have any) getting sucked into the filters.. looking at something like this external or this internal.. any suggestions?

thanks
chris

 

[rdd1952]

If you do a fishless cycle, you could add all the fish at once, provided you can find them all. That was the problem when I set up my 75 gallon. I couldn't find the angelfish but I had no problem when I added them later. It's not an issue to go slowly but you will lose a lot of the bacteria you develop during the fishless cycle. As long as you don't increase the bioload too much each time you add fish, you shouldn't have an issue with a mini cycle. The second set of fish may need to be done in 2 seperate stockings though as that might be a bit much for the bacteria that will be there to handle the pleco and tetras (I would think that the rams and gouramis would produce more waste than the pleco and tetras). You could easily add both the 1st and 2nd set of fish at the beginning though as you will have plenty of bacteria.

Edit: On the filter,personally I prefer externals. The less equipment in the tank, the more room for fish. What ever you go with, make sure itis reated at least 1200lph as you need to turn the water at least 5 times per hour and your tank is about 250 liters.

 

[lon1000]

Edit: On the filter,personally I prefer externals. The less equipment in the tank, the more room for fish. What ever you go with, make sure itis reated at least 1200lph as you need to turn the water at least 5 times per hour and your tank is about 250 liters.

i was talking about the smaller 12 gallon breeding tanks for the new filters, the 55 gallon is coming with a proper external filter setup..

thanks for the advice..

the:
6 x Rummy nose tetras
4 x rams (was looking at blue rams)..
2 x Indian Gourami
i've got a supplier for online.. seen the bristle noses on ebay.. also gonna see what my LFS has, as they may have some of the fish i'm looking for..

then perhaps add the others slowly as and when i find a good supplier for them..

thanks
chris