Cycling - One month

[skimpy]

I have had my tank cycling for one month now (fish cycling I afraid - did not know about fishless cycling when I started)

Put in 6 guppies after one week (5 died in 24 hours - lfs said they had problem with the fish in tank that 5 came from) the sixth fish was from a different tank in the shop and has survived. I have had levels go up and down and done appropriate water changes.

My levels became stable again last saturday and my lfs said if they stay level till next week I can have choose 6 fish.

Well Sat through to today (Wed) so far my levels are
ph 8 - now 7.8
ammonia 0 now still 0
Nitrite 0 now still 0
Nitrate 0 now 10

(ammonia & nitrite have not changed and I've tested every day.

Anyway I would like to get 5 guppies to make me back up to 6 again but i was thinking of 3 male and 2 female. Is this a good combination.

Also I wanted an algae eater but not too big. The lfs has suggested a Dwarf Otocinclus (Otocinclus affinis) - I looked this fish up and some literature say that you need to be an expert not a beginner with this fish. Any comments

I am aware that if i get 6 fish on Saturday I am back where i started and i will monitor my levels every day because the cycling will start over again.

But hey - Flicker my one guppy is so nice (see below) once I had started the (fish) cycling i could not get rid of him and go to (fishless) cycling.

 

[tstenback]

First off glad to see things have worked out.

For your guppies either get all males or get 2 females for each male or the females will be hounded by the males, will stress out and may die or get ill and cause you some grief in you r new tank.

Ottos can be very hard to acclimate to a new tank, but if you take your time then you should be all right. They also like each others company so at least 2. They stay small 1.5 inches max.

As for your cycle after you add the new fish. You may get a bit of a jump in nitrite but it should only last a couple of days or so and should not get as high as the original cycle.

And you are right Flicker is a nice looking guppy

 

[luxum]

Don't add otos yet, they are delicate and don't appreciate cycling conditions at all. Wait until your tank is well established and has lots of algae before introducing them.

 

[skimpy]

Thanks Terry

You say take your time to aclimate the ottos - What does this mean?

Also i thought i read somewhere about 2 female to 1 male guppy, which is why i asked - thanks - i will most probably stick to just male for now. I would like to breed guppies but i will wait till i am more experienced and have a breeding tank.

 

[skimpy]

Thanks luxam

I do have some brown algae growing over the plants and stones, are you saying i need to wait till it is well established?

 

[tstenback]

acclimating fish to your tank means when you buy them at the lfs they are in a bag. Bring the bag home and float it in your tank for about 15 mins. Then take some of your tank water and add it to the bag. Wait another 15-30 mins. normally i repeat this proces twice before netting the fish into the tank(dont pour lfs water into your tank) However for ottos i usually do this 3-4 times and stretch the wait out to about 45 mins each time. They seem to do better that way. They are a fragile fish initially but once establish they are quite hardy. HTH

 

[luxum]

Yeh that brown algae will disappear in a few weeks, its normal when a tank is cycling but disappears as quickly as it arrived. Otos are very sensitive, when you add them to a tank they need good conditions or they die. They don't tolerate ammonia or nitrite at all, and a shift in Ph can do them in. As you noted, when you add 5 more guppies to your tank that only has enough bacteria to support one now, you are going to start cycling again, and otos probably won't survive that. I would wait until the tank was well established (at least 80% of the full fish load) and had a nice growth of algae, say 3-6 months from now. But i've had real bad luck with otos so i err on the side of caution with them.

 

[skimpy]

Thanks to you both, you were very helpful

 

[ProGolferCL6]

dont worry about trying to breed guppies...i bought some feeder guppies for my angelfish and the angelfish didnt want to eat them...i started with 5 now i have about 20 feeder guppies....it seems like every other day there are a few more lol