Is this a good combo of fish

[bettaninja]

Hi!

We finally got some fish yesterday for our 155L tank - 3 zebra danios and 3 leopard danios. But we lost 2 of the zebras overnight
We're going back to the lfs today to get them replaced.

We are planning on having the following fish. Is it too many and are they compatible? Also, what order should we buy the fish? I heard that clown loaches should be added last because they do not have scales and are more sensitive. Can we get new fish each week or should we wait longer?

2 upside down catfish
2-4 Honey Gourami
2-4 dwarf blue gourami
2 Bristlenose catfish
1-2 Corys
6 rummy nose tetras
3 clown loach
4 siamese algae eaters (not the Chinese ones, also known as sucking loach?)
1 rainbow shark
4 flying foxes

thanks!

 

[Lynz781]

I would certainly wait. I'm waiting three months til my tank has matured. For the moment i just have six danios. I would wait and see if you can keep yours alive. Maybe things aren't right in your tank yet.

 

[newfishies]

have you cycled your tank? do you have test results? (nitrate, nitrite and amonia?)

 

[jflowers]

I would reccomend 2-4 honey gourami OR 2 dwarf gourami, not both and not more than 2 dwarfs as they are teratorial. Also taking into account thier adult size, forget the clown loaches.

And yes as newfishes said, did you cycle and how?

[EDIT: Sorry to hear about the two danios. When I first started I got three danios and put them in a new tank without knowing about cycling, I still have them, they are very hardy, maybe you got a bad batch from your lfs.]

Jon

 

[bettaninja]

We had been adding Sera Nitrivec to the tank for 2 weeks under instruction from the lfs. We added plants after about 1 week and they were growing fine with new shoots appearing. We also tested pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate throughout the period and saw that the ammonia dropped to from about 0.3 to less than 0.1. The NO2 was less than 0.1 and the NO3 was 5 on the day we got fish. The pH has always been between 7.2 and 7.5. The other 4 danios seem to be fine, swimming around, exploring, chasing each other and eating well.

We took some water with us today along with our 2 dead zebras and the lfs tested our water. To our surprise it came out at pH of 6.0. But we weren't convinced that this was quite true (even the guy at the lfs said that all the fish should have suffered given such a change in pH). He told us to do a 25% water change today and tomorrow.

We bought a different pH tester. We had Hagen to start with. We came home and measured the tank water, the water we took with us to the lfs and the water that came from the lfs and all read roughly the same, about 7.5 but definitely not 6.0. We even did a test and tested a vial with some vinegar added, just to make sure our test kit was reading correctly, and sure enough they gave an acidic reading. So both pH kits came out with 7.5 readings for the above.

The 2 that died were not happy from the beginning. The small one kept hiding and the big zebra's colouring looked cloudy and pale. I think they may have died from stress and not pH or anything else in the water.

Should we do a water change? I don't want to stress the fish out even more and I don't want to do it based on incorrect data that we may have gotten from the fish shop.

 

[bettaninja]

Oops, sorry to confuse but I meant that we had been doing the Nitrivec treatment for 2 weeks before we got the fish.

 

[The_Gilly]

when was the last time you did a water change? If it was a few days ago doing a 25% change now will be fine.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If you haven't really cycled, I'd get some platies maybe. Lol they can be blooming hardy, they survived 100% nitrate in my friends tank.... And they seem OK, they're multiplying like mad. And don't feel bad about the danios, I think I got a bad batch of guppies. Mine only survived 2 days.

 

[bettaninja]

I'm pretty sure the tank is not 100% cycled. We did a 25% water change yesterday. The danios were so curious, had to be really careful not to suck them up when we vacuumed the gravel. They are so curious and really outgoing if you can say that about fish. I got 2 replacements from my fish shop and so far so good. Just as boisterous as our initial 4 danios.

We are keeping an eye on them and doing water tests everyday. They are eating well and seem very happy in their new surroundings... fingers crossed.

We'll probably try to wait 3-4 weeks before getting any more new fish.

 

[endilliteracy]

If you want corys I suggest getting more than 2. They like to swim in ground of 3-4. They are pretty small so I think about 3 or 4 would do good in your tank. Don't buy just one, he will be lonely. I bought one not researching them first (stupid move) and I learned they like to be in groups. I didn't have enough room in my 10 gallon to add more so I returned him to TFS and they put him with the other corys. He seemed so much happier. He would just sit at the bottom of my tank and do nothing. )

 

[bettaninja]

The 6 danios are doing really well. The ammonia reading from the tank is zero but the nitrite seems to be spiking. We are finding that we need to change the water almost daily to bring the nitrite levels down to acceptable levels. But the danios are not showing any signs of discomfort. They are feeding really well, and after a feed they all swim down to the bottom to look for missed food.

Still a while before we get new fish I think... need to wait for the tank to settle.

But I still don't know what order to get the fish (from my original list above). Can we get the corys or gouramis next or leave them for a bit later on in the stocking process?

 

[loafybones]

I don't think it really matter what order you get the fish in. With my first tank I gt he cheapest first just incase I had any deaths!!

wait until the levels are correct before adding new fish though and watever you do, only add a few at a time. I made the mistake of adding loads at once and it caused an ammonia spike which killed a lot of my fish, including two rather expensive clown loaches! I also got white spot (well not me personally!) which took ages to get rid of. Doh!!

 

[Dragonscales]

Upside down catfish should be kept in groups of at least three as they enjoy each other's company.

As for cycling with fish, I would think that in this day and age that would be an extinct practice. It is both inhumane and completely unneccesary as well as a possible cause of problems in one's tank. When a fish is used to cycle a tank it creates stress for the fish which can then lead to it getting sick, sometimes the illness is contagious and your brand new tank is now filled with pathogens which your other new additions will catch. End result, you end up with a tank full of dead fish and sit there wondering why they are dropping like flies. A much better alternative (for you and the fish) is using bottled pure ammonia. It is clean, fast and every bit as good (better if you consider the fish don't suffer and neither does your wallet) than a fish cycle. There should be a pinned topic on this forum in regards to this I think.

 

[jflowers]

As for cycling with fish, I would think that in this day and age that would be an extinct practice.

Fishless cycling is not so straight forward in the UK, kitchen ammonia is usually all that is available and that usually has additives. Whenever I see a post about fishless cycling from a member in the UK I ask where they got the pure ammonia from. The answer is usually from a friend who works in a lab or that they used kitchen ammonia.

Can any UK members tell me what you used please? I have cycled with fish, but would like to know for future reference. At the moment I have enough tanks and filters to get new tanks cycled straight off, but you never know

Jon

 

[bettaninja]

Dragonscales - from reading what has been posted on various sites, I agree that fishless cycling is definitely more humane.

However when we had setup our tank, we did it based on advise from our LFS. They said to use Sera nitrivec for 14 days. I checked the ammonia and nitrite levels and they were zero. I thought that the nitrivec was meant to cycle the tank. I realised after that it probably doesn't do this because we had the nitrites going up after we added the fish. No high levels of ammonia though.

I do care a lot about the fish and worry endlessly when I'm at work about whether or not they are ok and what I can do to make it better for them. Unfortunately, I've got them now and can't really speed up the cycling of the tank. Which is why I am waiting for the tank to fully stabilise before adding more fish and then, only adding a couple at a time.