My first tank!

[JoshMason37]

Hello everyone! This is my first post and tank! For Christmas I received an Interpret 5.5 gal glow life aquarium kit. It's pretty much set up for globefish, but it's compatible with any. I washed the tank only an hour after opening it and I washed the gravel in a spaghetti strainer so my water wouldn't cloud. I also set up the filter and dechlorinated the water. I had my tank set up and running by 12 pm and was so excited to finally have fish. I've had my eyes on gouramis for the longest time and couldn't wait to get one. So, I went to Petco today and bought a male Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami (coolest fish ever!) and 2 electric green glofish (the danio kind). I only got three fish because I understand the 5.5 gallons is a puny tank and I plan on upgrading to a 15 gallon at least and adding a female Flame Dwarf Gourami and a Swordtail (idk what color). So here's what I'm here for: When I dechlorinated the water I read the directions and it said .03 oz for every 2 gallons, but the cap had no measurements so I eyeballed it. Also I've researched A LOT about fish care these months, but I am totally a newbie and probably did a million things wrong setting up this tank, so I'm here for advice. But I also have a question, My globefish danios gobble up the food very quickly and the gourami, who is a lot slower obviously, got none. What I did was get a mesh pencil cup ( I don't have a net yet) and I restrained the danios while my DG ate some food. This method works but may be inefficient. I'm aware that gouramis are territorial and occasionally aggressive, but Pisces (my DG) seems to be really calm, but active. I feed both species tropical fish flakes. Saying all this I realize anyone reading this is probably cringing, but I'm a newbie, what can I say? I'm here for advice, any please don't worry about my tank size I plan on upgrading! I'm excited to join the aquarium community! ( I can send some pictures if you guys want)

 

[JoshMason37]

*glofish

 

[Wills]

Hi Josh, welcome to the hobby.

Unfortunately as you guesed you have made a few mistakes, but they are the mistakes that everyone makes so dont worry too much right now.

The first mistake is unfortunately adding fish so early after getting a tank. When we keep fish in tanks or ponds we need a colony of bacteria to develop in the filter which deal with the harmful chemicals created by fish poop, waste food and fish respiration, this bacteria is present in all waterways and help keep lakes, pools and rivers clean for the animals there. The primary chemical created is called ammonia which is quite harmful and can kill fish quite quickly, in a tank it is a three stage process we need the bacteria to work on. This article is a good introduction to what is going on in your tank http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

Do you have a water test kit? What are your ammonia and nitrite readings at the moment? You may need to start doing very regularly water changes to help your fish survive what we call the cycling process.

With your fish choices, the current tank is too small for your dwarf gourami for ever but as you said you are going to go bigger soon I wont go on about it. But with the glow fish, these are essentially Zebra Danios, which while small are super active and really they need to be in nice long tanks, they are also schooling fish which means that they should be kept in groups of at least 6 but if you can get a group of 10 or more that would be much better.

So first of all I would read up about the cycling process and then weigh up your plans long term for if you want to keep the glow fish or not. An alternative to the glowfish danios if you were able to take them back to the store would be something like Celestial Pearl Danios which are still bright colourful danios but are much smaller and happier in a smaller tank especially if it is well planted.

Hope that has helped
Wills

 

[King puff]

Welcome! Nice to see someone my age on this forum lol. The post above basically explains why you can't get fish this early. I made this mistake when I was starting out and most of my fish sadly passed away. The danios should not be put in pairs like most other fish because one of them becomes more dominant and ends up beating up on the other one. One of my favorite fish that I would suggest to you is endlers. They are like minitaure guppies put in my opinion, prettier. They also breed easily and will fit perfectly in your tank. Definitely keep us updated on the tank.

 

[JoshMason37]

Thanks this definitely helped!