Harlequins Just Home

[Royster]

just got my first batch of 6 harlequins home this afternoon, lowered them into the tank in the fish shop bag around 5.30 and spent the next 55 mins putting a cup of water in in 5 min intervals ,so about now ,2 hours later they look happy swimming around the 60l tank, but i have a few questions....

with the stress of the move from fish shop to my house and the change of tanks etc i don't want to freak them out more by putting the light on straight away, so how long should i wait to let them aclimatise to there new home ?

and should i feed them tonight of would they still be freaked out from the move ?


or am i being over cautious ?

 

[Jamepsss]

or am i being over cautious ?

Yes

They've probably been fed already so I'd leave that until tomorrow. You can stick the light on and enjoy your new fish though. Harlequins are tough little fellas.

 

[Royster]

cheers guys, i've the light on and am enjoying away, wish my wife would enjoy them as much .....

cheers for the help guys

 

[Tizer]

lol, my wifes the same

 

[L_Plates]

Any chance of a photo Royster i will be getting some harlequins in the near future and would love to see some images of your new arrivals

LP

 

[scottinnes]

ive 6 harlequins to but there greedy buggers i would put pics up of mine but they move to quick lol

 

[Royster]

they move very fast and don't stop long enough to get a clear photo but leave it with me and i'll do anything to get a good photo.

ive only a 60l tank so what i was thinking was adding another 6 ( making 12 altogether), but i don't want to over crowd them .thoughts ?

also i want to get get something to creep the bottom of the tank to eat algae but am unsure what to get since my tank is small.

 

[scottinnes]

im not sure how many harlequins you could fit

but ive got a few bronze cory catfish there usually on the bottom and eat algae and all that

 

[Royster]

Are they ( I take it you've more than one) in a 60l tank ?

 

[scottinnes]

well ive a 88litre tank lol but ive got 6 of them

 

[coldcazzie]

If you want cories you could get some pygmy cories instead of the more common bronze/albino/etc ones. They only get about an inch long, thus meaning you could have a group of 6 or 8 instead of only about 4 of the others that get to 2-3 inches long. But they don't eat algae. You'd need a fish like a bristlenose or something to do that. Whatever you do don't buy a common pleco from the fish shop, no matter what they tell you about it "only growing to the size of the tank" they are lying! You could get a few shrimp? Your LFS may sell some amano shrimp or you could buy some cherry shrimp from one of the members on here who sells them. They would eat the algae and would be something a little different in your tank. You may even be able to get away with both cories and shrimp but it depends on your filtration/planting/other tankmates etc

 

[Tizer]

What sort of filter do you have on the tank? Might help answer how many fish you can have. Also what are the dimensions? or even make/model of the tank.

 

[tanksalot]

I agree with coldcazzie that pygmy cories would be good.

As for algae-eating, in my heavily planted 64L tank I have an Otocinclus and 3 Zebra Nerite snails who do a fab job of munching through the algae - I haven't needed to clean the glass for months at a time, and even when I do it's just a case of removing the little bits they've missed. They won't eat all types of algae (not Black Brush, for example) but they're still pretty effective and practical for a small tank.

I also have Red Cherry shrimp in my clean-up crew, but they are a mixed blessing as far as I'm concerned because without too much encouragement they will breed out of control, and in a small tank that's not good news. It wasn't long before I had to start removing the excess - I worked out the other day I'd traded over 140 of them at my local fish shop in the space of just a couple of months, and I'm still inundated with more on the way ! In retrospect, I should probably have gone for Amano shrimp as they are good algae-eaters (apparently) and, like the Zebra Nerite snails, do not breed in freshwater.

Anyway, hope my ramblings are of some use!

 

[anon02]

If you have decent filtration and keep on top of tank maintenance you could add 6 pygmy corys which would feed from the bottom and 2 dwarf otocinclus which eat mainly algae

 

[Royster]

My tank is a hagan Marina 60l with a Marina s15 slimline filter

And at the minute my only tennents are 6 harlequins but I'm looking to get 6 more once my tank is a little more established

Cheers for the advice and fast replies