First Few Hours With Neon Tetras And Harlequins In New Tank

[crmpicco]

I have just added four Neon Tetras and three Harlequins to my tropical tank. These are the first fish that have been in my new setup.

What do I need to look out for and carry out within the first few hours (and days) of having these fish in my tank?

On the recommendation of P@H I have set the tank temperature to 26 degrees Celsius and bought some Tetramin Tropical food on the way out - they didn't actually advise me what food to buy.

Cheers,
Picco
twitter.com/crmpicco

 

[Gvilleguy]

Hi - is your tank cycled yet, or you are cycling the filter with fish in it?

 

[Peter C]

or did P@H not tell you about cycling? lol

 

[crmpicco]

Hi - is your tank cycled yet, or you are cycling the filter with fish in it?

Yes, the tank is cycled. I converted from a cold water tank to a tropical tank. I've done a 100% water change and have been cycling the tank for over a week now, in fact close to 10 days. I done a level check and everything seemed ok. Should I re-test now fish are in?

or did P@H not tell you about cycling? lol

Actually, no. I got very little advice. I mentioned I had been cycling the tank and they didn't ask any more. I think they were happy to just give me the fish and see me out the door as they were quite busy at the time...

 

[Gvilleguy]

If you have test kits, then, yes, I would check ammonia and nitrite levels every few days just to see how it's going. If those levels go up then you'll need to do some water changes to keep them under control. I hope everything goes well with your new fish.

 

[Peter C]

if your using the same filter and keeping similar amounts of fish then you should be ok

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

26C? That is far too high and why Cardinals are recommended for high end tropical, turn the thermostat down to 23C and let the tank water cool naturally.

 

[crmpicco]

If you have test kits, then, yes, I would check ammonia and nitrite levels every few days just to see how it's going. If those levels go up then you'll need to do some water changes to keep them under control. I hope everything goes well with your new fish.

Yes, I have test kits. So I'll test the water out tomorrow. Should I have the filter flow set to low?

if your using the same filter and keeping similar amounts of fish then you should be ok

I'm using the same filter with the same media as in my cold water setup.

26C? That is far too high and why Cardinals are recommended for high end tropical, turn the thermostat down to 23C and let the tank water cool naturally.

Really? So should I drop the temp immediately? Not sure what you mean about cardinals.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I have Rasboras and Neons at 24 - 25C...I thought the acceptable range was 23-27C.

 

[crmpicco]

I have just done a levels test and it came out as the following:

pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0/0.25ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm

The ammonia level doesn't seem to be flat 0 anymore, so surely this is a good thing. I have dropped the temperature to 25C.

Are these levels safe for my fish? If not, then what do I need to do to make the water safe?

 

[JohnDyer]

You should keep track of the levels, maybe test once a day for a week, and start doing water changes if you get any more ammonia. 10 days quite a while for the filter bacteria to be without food, they might have died off a little.
26C is a bit on the higher end for Neons and Harlequins. I think N0body of the Goat means that you should have gotten cardinals if you wanted to keep your tank that warm.

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Well, you want your ammonia levels at 0.

This may seem funny but it may have been better to do the conversion all over in a faster manner. As time goes by, the bennificial bacterial in your filter media does off without the presence of ammonia.

That being said, you may have lost a good percentage of it so I'd be sure to keep testing and do water changes as necessary to keep the levels down.

As far as temperature goes, I'm sure in the wild these fish are not always at a perfect 20-something degrees. It fluctuates with the time of day, so dont beat yourself up about that at all. Just don't cook them or freeze them. Hahaha

So, all fish have ideal temperatures and water conditions that they thrive in so go ahead and research it. Find out the happy medium for all the fish in your tank and enjoy. Your fish will be happy and you will have a perfect target for your stats, even though they may be a bit unstable now.

Best of luck, enjoy tropical. I sure do

 

[Dazzler666]

Mot wanting to be the bearer of bad news but i once put tetras in an uncycled tank and they all died within hours!! . They are not very hardy so if you should suffer some losses dont think its something you doing wrong.
A abive, if you got ammonia readings then water change, water change, water change!!!
Fingers crossed alll goes ok for you!!