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Am I ready for fish?
- Thread starter JennJenn
- Start date
Baker
Fish Fanatic
The way you will know the cycle has finished is when you notice a complete conversion of any source of ammonia has turned to nitrate. I don't know your history with this tank but if you introduced ammonia, monitored its transition into nitrites, and then also monitored that transition into nitrates with no more spikes in the former 2, then your cycle is complete. This does not, however, mean that the tank is necessarily ready for a complete stock of fish. It's still important to introduce fish in small numbers 'every 2-3 weeks apart' (my opinion) to ensure that if BB reproduction is necessary to sustain your load that it has sufficient time to fill in.
I not only recommend waiting 3 weeks to give the BB time to fill in, but also use this time to acclimate the fish to their new surrounding in a minimal stress environment, as well as monitor the new fish to get myself acquainted with each individuals personality, and finally to observe and treat any potential ailments. I find 3 weeks to be sufficient time, but in some cases, diseases or parasites are undetectable for up to 6 weeks. Use your disgression when moving on to the next batch of fish.
EDIT: as a side note, some fish do not cope well in few numbers, even for only small periods of time, so it's not always best to add only 2-3 fish at a time. This is the case with many schooling fish, which cope better being introduced in large enough groups that they do not feel alone.
I not only recommend waiting 3 weeks to give the BB time to fill in, but also use this time to acclimate the fish to their new surrounding in a minimal stress environment, as well as monitor the new fish to get myself acquainted with each individuals personality, and finally to observe and treat any potential ailments. I find 3 weeks to be sufficient time, but in some cases, diseases or parasites are undetectable for up to 6 weeks. Use your disgression when moving on to the next batch of fish.
EDIT: as a side note, some fish do not cope well in few numbers, even for only small periods of time, so it's not always best to add only 2-3 fish at a time. This is the case with many schooling fish, which cope better being introduced in large enough groups that they do not feel alone.
Thank you! I did decide to get myself a pair of Kribs yesterday. After a lot of reading they really interested me. They are about 2"-M & 1.5"-F. I watched them in the store for a while, they seemed to be a pair already. They are still a little skittish and will continue to be from what I have read but their colours have changed drastically overnight. They are both so bright today, hopefully they enjoy the work I have put into this tank. I'm a newbie and will be keeping this simple, as these fish don't go with a lot anyways.
Thank you for the 3 week rule. I will ensure I adhere to that. The lfs said to add them closer and in fact say 3 weeks is to much time between. << This is where I went wrong the first go around I'm sure. I will not be taking anymore advice from them. Anything to sell a fish!
I would like to add some kind of clean up crew at a later date, like maybe a month. Do you have any recommendations whether it be a single fish or very small group. (Kuhli Loach, gives me the creeps & I don't enjoy looking at them. Nothing snake shaped as I have a huge phobia.) I would also like to add something that will spend most of their time in the higher region of the tank, schooling maybe 3-5 that stay smaller. My tank is 20 gallons and I don't want to over crowd that would be it.
Any recommendations would be welcome. Oh and who should I add first. The clean up crew or the schoolers?
Thank you for your advice
Recommendation 1: Keep a very close on your ammonia and nitrite for this first week. If you see any spike, you need to take action. If the spike is ammonia, check it against this calculator and complete a water change to keep the 'free ammonia' below 0.05ppm.
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php
If the spike is nitrite, you can add salt (yup, regular old fashioned sodium chloride) to deal with it and keep it from affecting your fish negatively. NOTE: You'll need to keep track of the amount of salt in your tank for the future to know how much dosing will be needed with water changes, etc. (Feel free to post here if this happens and questions exist.) Option 2 is that water changes will also lower nitrites... if you prefer that option. Salt will help the cycle go faster, but the water change route is simpler.
Recommendation 2: Your pH is at the extreme max for kribs... they prefer lower pH. 7.5 is about the highest you'd want to have for Kribs, which is right about where you are. Add some driftwood to the tank... the fish will prefer this, it adds elements of 'interest' to your tank... and most of all will help lower the pH slightly. The down side is that the wood will release 'tannins' into the water (tannic acid, which is how it lowers the pH) which will color the water a slight yellowish-brown or 'tea'-colored. If the color bothers you, CARBON can be added to the filter to remove the tannins and replaced as needed. Eventually the wood will slow down the release of tannins and you probably won't notice the color. (Before adding the wood, if you want to minimize the tannins, you can soak the wood - by pouring boiling water over the wood...)
***side note on tannins*** it is perfectly safe to your fish and preferred by some fish... "Blackwater" set-ups require tannins be present in the tank.
Recommendation 3: Is this the 20 gallon tank? If so, there's not going to be a ton of room in that tank, and it would be important to only add 'fast' fish to the tank as when these fish breed, they are highly territorial. As such, provide them with plenty of 'cover' and break up the tank well, so that each species has its own space. In that size tank, I'd recommend only one species of shoaling fish to mix with the kribs. Much more than that and you'd be dealing with overcrowding.
Suitable fish would include: small tetras, rasboras or similar.
I'd suggest Harlequin rasboras. These are lovely little fish, dwell in the upper areas and rarely go down (aka... krib territory) Harlys are also readily available, reasonably priced and hardy as they come - great 'beginner' fish. And when the water is perfect, their colors really are second to none.
Recommendation 4: Before adding the new shoal of fish... whenever you decide to do that... remove the kribs... rearrange the tank decor to break up any territory they might have established, introduce the new shoal, and then after a half hour or so... reintroduce the kribs. This will help to keep the kribs from thinking of the tank as 'theirs' with their previously established territory and help the new fish to acclimate into their new home, without unwelcoming kribs causing a stir.
Kribs information: http://seriouslyfish.com/species/pelvicachromis-pulcher/
Harlequin rasbora information: http://seriouslyfish.com/species/Trigonostigma-heteromorpha
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php
If the spike is nitrite, you can add salt (yup, regular old fashioned sodium chloride) to deal with it and keep it from affecting your fish negatively. NOTE: You'll need to keep track of the amount of salt in your tank for the future to know how much dosing will be needed with water changes, etc. (Feel free to post here if this happens and questions exist.) Option 2 is that water changes will also lower nitrites... if you prefer that option. Salt will help the cycle go faster, but the water change route is simpler.
Recommendation 2: Your pH is at the extreme max for kribs... they prefer lower pH. 7.5 is about the highest you'd want to have for Kribs, which is right about where you are. Add some driftwood to the tank... the fish will prefer this, it adds elements of 'interest' to your tank... and most of all will help lower the pH slightly. The down side is that the wood will release 'tannins' into the water (tannic acid, which is how it lowers the pH) which will color the water a slight yellowish-brown or 'tea'-colored. If the color bothers you, CARBON can be added to the filter to remove the tannins and replaced as needed. Eventually the wood will slow down the release of tannins and you probably won't notice the color. (Before adding the wood, if you want to minimize the tannins, you can soak the wood - by pouring boiling water over the wood...)
***side note on tannins*** it is perfectly safe to your fish and preferred by some fish... "Blackwater" set-ups require tannins be present in the tank.
Recommendation 3: Is this the 20 gallon tank? If so, there's not going to be a ton of room in that tank, and it would be important to only add 'fast' fish to the tank as when these fish breed, they are highly territorial. As such, provide them with plenty of 'cover' and break up the tank well, so that each species has its own space. In that size tank, I'd recommend only one species of shoaling fish to mix with the kribs. Much more than that and you'd be dealing with overcrowding.
Suitable fish would include: small tetras, rasboras or similar.
I'd suggest Harlequin rasboras. These are lovely little fish, dwell in the upper areas and rarely go down (aka... krib territory) Harlys are also readily available, reasonably priced and hardy as they come - great 'beginner' fish. And when the water is perfect, their colors really are second to none.
Recommendation 4: Before adding the new shoal of fish... whenever you decide to do that... remove the kribs... rearrange the tank decor to break up any territory they might have established, introduce the new shoal, and then after a half hour or so... reintroduce the kribs. This will help to keep the kribs from thinking of the tank as 'theirs' with their previously established territory and help the new fish to acclimate into their new home, without unwelcoming kribs causing a stir.
Kribs information: http://seriouslyfish.com/species/pelvicachromis-pulcher/
Harlequin rasbora information: http://seriouslyfish.com/species/Trigonostigma-heteromorpha
Baker
Fish Fanatic
Well the LFS isn't entirely wrong, as I mentioned, some fish will be more stressed out than others in solidarity. For instance, let's say you wanted a school of 20 neon tetras, from the standpoint of the fishes comfort, it would not be best to add 2 neons every 3 weeks until you get to 20. It would take far too long for one thing, but also the neons would be more stressed out than they would be if you introduced, say, 5 at a time every 2 weeks. Furthermore smaller fish generally have much lower bioloads and it doesn't cause as much of a flux in water parameters to add higher numbers.
So obviously how the individual fish are feeling in their new environmental transition is a factor, but another, arguably more important factor, is monitoring new inhabitants for things like flukes and worms which is really where the extended QT time frame comes into play. It's a lot harder to catch diseases early when the new fish aren't isolated and at the front of your attention.
Anyway, to your question on clean up crews. Bottom feeders and algae eaters both truly benefit from being added later rather than early on in your new tanks lifespan. I try to make myself wait until my tank has been running for at least 6 months before adding these groups of fish. It ensures that water parameters are stable and algae and other microfauna have had adequate time to saturate the environment. Supplementary foods are important but I find that the fish really benefit from being able to graze freely on established algae in the tank.
You can get by adding some algae eating varieties early and just feeding algae wafers, etc. but for other species, it's very important that they have natural food sources inside the tank already. This is the case for things like shrimp and otocinclus (which in my opinion are my two top choices for a 20 gallon aquarium. Your choices range from snails and shrimp, to dwarf species of plecos such as bristlenose and rubber lips, otocinclus catfish, and a few others including some live bearer species like Florida flag fish. There are others but I don't recommend them for you right now because of difficulty in keeping/size incompatibility.
I personally think based on your prerequisites that you would enjoy otocinclus catfish, they are small, active if given a comfortable environment, and semi-easy to take care of if you can manage to get them through the first couple weeks. Otos are infamous for dying early on but usually thrive if they make it through the transition from the wild to their permanent home. Just know that they are rather social and ideally are kept at a minimum of 5 fish and their success is largely dependent on natural algae in the aquarium. This may not be possible for you depending on the type and amount of schooling fish you end up picking.
My second choice would be amano shrimp, they're relatively cheap and easy and a good first pick as they are probably the most efficient shrimp when it comes to doing their job as a cleaner, they can survive off algae and algae wafers but will also polish off pretty much any other fish food if they can find it. I don't know how they would fare with the kribs however.
And if nothing else, a nice bristlenose is a very good staple for most people as well, maxing out at about 5 inches they won't get overly large, and are quite peaceful and easy to care for.
As for where these fish will spend most of their time in the tank, algae eaters are evolved for eating directly from surfaces and thus spend most of their time on the bottom/ sides of the tank. Though otos are particularly active and will often eat and rest on foliage and hard scapes as well as the sides of the tank. Though shrimp do swim around every so often and are really fun to watch.
I'll reaffirm before I go that for best results, it's ideal to wait for noticeable algae growth before adding algae eaters to a tank.
Hope this helps, good luck with your tank
So obviously how the individual fish are feeling in their new environmental transition is a factor, but another, arguably more important factor, is monitoring new inhabitants for things like flukes and worms which is really where the extended QT time frame comes into play. It's a lot harder to catch diseases early when the new fish aren't isolated and at the front of your attention.
Anyway, to your question on clean up crews. Bottom feeders and algae eaters both truly benefit from being added later rather than early on in your new tanks lifespan. I try to make myself wait until my tank has been running for at least 6 months before adding these groups of fish. It ensures that water parameters are stable and algae and other microfauna have had adequate time to saturate the environment. Supplementary foods are important but I find that the fish really benefit from being able to graze freely on established algae in the tank.
You can get by adding some algae eating varieties early and just feeding algae wafers, etc. but for other species, it's very important that they have natural food sources inside the tank already. This is the case for things like shrimp and otocinclus (which in my opinion are my two top choices for a 20 gallon aquarium. Your choices range from snails and shrimp, to dwarf species of plecos such as bristlenose and rubber lips, otocinclus catfish, and a few others including some live bearer species like Florida flag fish. There are others but I don't recommend them for you right now because of difficulty in keeping/size incompatibility.
I personally think based on your prerequisites that you would enjoy otocinclus catfish, they are small, active if given a comfortable environment, and semi-easy to take care of if you can manage to get them through the first couple weeks. Otos are infamous for dying early on but usually thrive if they make it through the transition from the wild to their permanent home. Just know that they are rather social and ideally are kept at a minimum of 5 fish and their success is largely dependent on natural algae in the aquarium. This may not be possible for you depending on the type and amount of schooling fish you end up picking.
My second choice would be amano shrimp, they're relatively cheap and easy and a good first pick as they are probably the most efficient shrimp when it comes to doing their job as a cleaner, they can survive off algae and algae wafers but will also polish off pretty much any other fish food if they can find it. I don't know how they would fare with the kribs however.
And if nothing else, a nice bristlenose is a very good staple for most people as well, maxing out at about 5 inches they won't get overly large, and are quite peaceful and easy to care for.
As for where these fish will spend most of their time in the tank, algae eaters are evolved for eating directly from surfaces and thus spend most of their time on the bottom/ sides of the tank. Though otos are particularly active and will often eat and rest on foliage and hard scapes as well as the sides of the tank. Though shrimp do swim around every so often and are really fun to watch.
I'll reaffirm before I go that for best results, it's ideal to wait for noticeable algae growth before adding algae eaters to a tank.
Hope this helps, good luck with your tank
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