New Year, New member, New tank, New problems

[Bjuice]

Hey everyone,
My name is Matt and I just set up a brand new 20g tank that i would love to eventually stock with shrimp species only. I used a mix of fluorite/eco complete substrate. I planted it heavily and will be using a aqueon optibright plus LED. I got everything situated and I feel good about how it looks thus far.... this is the part where most of you will either point and laugh, or some will be angry. So I decided to try a quick cycle with 4 dalmation platys and filter media from my 8 year old (well established bb) tank. So I fall asleep with my new tank + tank mates to the left of my bedstand, feeling great, excited to get the cycle finished.

I wake up this morning, turn on my light and I see 40-50 fry swimming around and the adults trying to eat them. So the problem here now Is i have 4 adult platys, and 40 babies in a 3 day old, uncycled aquarium. I wanted to use this tank for shrimp species.


So my question is. Will this tank even be able to cycle properly with all these babies in the tank? Are they all going to be eaten by the adults? Are my dreams of having a "shrimp only tank" gone with the wind? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mikey11]

they will probably eat some of them.....how many will survive depends on if you have good hiding places for the fry to hide and feel comfortable

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

If you have seeded the filter from the other tank you should be fine with adding fish just keep an eye on your levels and do your water changes as needed.

As for the babies issue, relying on the parents to eat them is not always a good plan I once had a small livebearer tank and thought I had all males.... I didnt haha!! Maybe try and put the males or the females back in the main tank?

Wills

 

[Bjuice]

Thanks a lot for the input guys, I think I might keep the1 adult male and return the other 3 females back to the store. I don't want any more fry in the tanks.

Do you think I can pull off a successful cycle with the 1 adult male and all the fry without any casualties?

Serves me right for using these molly to cycle my new tank... I guess I will attempt to raise the fry with the 1 adult male and find a home for them when they are a bit bigger.

Thanks again for your time!

Matt

 

[Byron]

Matt, welcome to TFF.

Please do not use fish to cycle an aquarium. This is extremely cruel to the fish. Second, if you do not want the fish permanently, do not acquire them; they have needs and deserve better.

As for cycling, with live plants you do not need to cycle. Plants need nitrogen, and most aquatic species prefer it as ammonium (ammonia). And they can assimilate quite a lot, and faster than the nitrifying bacteria. If the plants are growing, you do not need to attempt any form of cycling. Now, as you should have worked out, the plants have benefited the platies and saved them internal damage and death, so you lucked out. You should return all the adult platies if you only want shrimp. Fish will eat shrimp normally anyway.

Byron.