Adding Fish

[Annemarie]

Hello! So after a little over four weeks of cycling my aquarium is finally ready for fish. There are some plants and all that and they look happy so I don’t think anything is wrong (parameters are testing at 0 for nitrite and ammonia) but that’s not quite my question.

On Sunday I added 3 neon tetras to the aquarium. While I know you should add fish like those in one group all at once I was worried that if I ever did that my bacteria would be overwhelmed and the fish would die. I really don’t want the tetras to remain in a group of 3 for long so I wanted to know when I could add 3 more. I was hoping to do so by this Sunday but if not that’s alright too. I figured with the filtration and aquarium size about 3 fish a week (none of them would be large in size anyway) would be fine as long as the parameters stayed perfect. Is this okay? Or should I wait longer to add more fish?

 

[Fishmanic]

How large is your tank? Did you follow the guidelines on this site for a fishless cycle?

 

[Colin_T]

Filter bacteria can double its population every couple of hours. Adding 10 neon tetras won't overload a filter because the new bacteria will simply grow over a couple of hours and build up in sufficient numbers to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels at 0.

How big is the tank (length x width x height)?

If there is room to keep 10 or more neons, then buy them all at once so you have less chance of new ones introducing a disease. Check the fish at the shop and make sure they are all perfect and have no unusual colours, blotches patches, etc. If any fish in the tank is not perfect, don't get any from that tank.

 

[Annemarie]

It’s a 36 bowfront so I’m not sure how well my measurements will be but I think it’s about 30 inches long, 23 inches high, and 12 inches deep. Again I’m not exactly sure but each of those measurements can only be about 1 or two inches off. Each time I tried to figure out the measurements online I got different answers.

Yes I followed the guidelines for a fishless cycle and oh lord! I had no clue the bacteria multiplied so fast! I’ll be sure to add more tetras in as soon as I can (as long as everything continues to run smoothly in the aquarium).

Thank you so much!

 

[Byron]

You mention live plants, and these will do more at removing ammonia than the bacteria can keep up with, if the plants are fast growing species. Floating plants are best for this. So you may have no worries adding fish.

And always add the entire group of a shoaling species, always. The fish will settle in faster with much less stress. And while it is not so relevant with neon tetra, some species do develop strong hierarchies and this can occur quite quickly in a new environment so having all of them there helps a lot.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I concur with @Byron, not only do live plants look better than fake ones, they help to suck up the Ammonia in a fish tank. Always add the hole shoal of fish, don’t just get one, or two, before you get the rest, as this will stress out the fish.