My First Fish

[l33d5.dr]

Hi everyone,
At last my tank is cycled and today I bought my first fish.I've got 2 gold ram,2 honey gourami,6 rosy tetra.Would it be ok to add some blue ram,I always thought they were aggresive but read a few posts that say they are not.My tank is a jewel 180,the powerhead creates a really strong current that the fish didn't seem to like at first but they appear to have settled down a bit now.Do all fish like a strong current or do some prefer calmer water.If the gourami want to build a nest it will soon be wrecked because of the current.I plan on getting clown loach and kebensis,would these be compatible with what I've got.
Thanks

 

[Biulu]

Gouramis prefer a smooth water surface, so little current. Which sex are your gouramis? Please note that you should not keep a pair, but rather 1 male to 2 females to avoid the female is being hassled too much. Blue rams do get agressive while breeding, otherwise they are calm.

 

[Lynda B]

I would've added my fish a little slower than that. Expect your filter to struggle a bit as it now adjusts to such a large change in bioload. Keep an eye on your water, do tests about every 3 days and water changes religiously every week, unless your water tests show that your ammonia has spiked.

 

[l33d5.dr]

Thanks for the replies.I got a male and female.The female is very shy at the moment,spends most of the time on the bottom but when I put a bit of food in she came out and joined in the feeding frenzy then went and hid again.The male does not go near her but will keep a check on them.The other female at lfs looked a bit rough so didn't buy it.I thought I would have to add a few fish to start with to make sure the bacteria in the filter get enough ammonia to feed on.It's been cycling for 5 weeks and when I added ammonia to get a reading of 5ppm it was back to 0 in about 14 hours.I will also keep a check on this,I plan to do a partial water change tomorrow so will test everything before I do.Thanks again.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Depending on what kind of Ammonia levels that were maintained during fishless cycling the bio-filter may be fine. 5 ppms of Ammonia is more than what a full stocking would produce daily. That being said, it's still very important to keep doing daily checks for the next few weeks just to be sure.

 

[rdd1952]

Depending on what kind of Ammonia levels that were maintained during fishless cycling the bio-filter may be fine. 5 ppms of Ammonia is more than what a full stocking would produce daily. That being said, it's still very important to keep doing daily checks for the next few weeks just to be sure.

I agree. If the fishless cycle was done by constantly raising the ammonia to 4 or 5 ppm, there will be plenty of bacteria to handle the bioload. Actually, since the tank is over 40 gallons, that is a rather light load and part of the bacteria will die off from lack of food.

You mentioned that you planned to get clown loaches. IMO, your tank isn't big enough as they need to be in groups and you plan to upgrade to a larger tank in the next year or so.

 

[l33d5.dr]

Hi prudential,
I've looked in a few books and some web sites and the info on clown loaches is very confusing.Some say they grow to 12" others say they grow to 4".Which is true.The biggest I've seen in lfs was about 4".If I buy a small one(about 1")how quick would it grow.I would like to get a bigger tank in the future so how much time would I have before the clown loach gets too big for my tank.Thanks

 

[rdd1952]

Most everything I've read lists 12" as a max although this site says 14" and up to 24". This site says 16" and that they grow pretty rapidly to about 5" and then their growth rate slows.

Edit: I think one reason that you don't see a lot of large clowns is that too many people do keep them in tanks that are too small thus stunting them and they also dont keep them in groups of 5 or more which may stress them.