Should i take a punt

[Seisage]

Every time anyone buys fish at my LFS they ask what distance it is to home. They have customers from London coming up often and use larger bags or even individual bags depending on the fish size = to the distance. Perhaps you could ask Maidenhead for a larger bag or even splitting the group of tetras into 2 bags? Always call them before you go to save you a trip if they don’t have any left.

This is a good tip. My closest LFS is a little over 100 miles away, so next time I get fish, I might ask for a larger bag. I've made that trip with fish, frogs, and shrimp before and had no issues, but if they have larger bags available, then I'm all for trying it out. They have split shrimp into two bags for me before, so that's also an option.

@Country joe - you should relocate to Canada. Around here, a 66 mile round trip is going to a local store!

The place I think of as my local place for buying fish is near the airport where I pick up shipped boxes, and that's an 8 hour round trip.

Large countries with large states/provinces really skew one's perspective. Around here, traveling 33 miles will only ever take me about 40 minutes, maximum. That's practically nothing! If I had an LFS that close, I'd be going there for everything. A friend of mine will be moving 4 hours south soon, and I know there's a good fish store down there. I've been genuinely considering picking up some fish or shrimp when I go to help him move. And yes, it does still feel relatively local.

 

[Country joe]

Well I got a surprise I was wanting to buy celestial pearl danios, my excellent local shop won't keep them, so I went today to my local pets at home store, I've never bought any fish from them, the assistant turned up with a mobile phone, and said she had as a first time buyer, she would have to ask me some questions, this has never happened to me buying fish from my local shop, and maidenhead aquatics, started with my address and details, then how long have I had fish how many aquariums do you have, and what type of fish do you keep, so there you go.

 

[Essjay]

Pets at Home have done this for a long time. It's to cover themselves, not to help you. They may take all those details, but ask them something and they are unlikely to have a clue.
Do they still let you buy a maximum of 6 fish?

 

[Country joe]

I don't know, I only wanted 6, because they were really small, I said to her I wonder if I should buy eight. But she never answered.

 

[Essjay]

With celestial pearl danios, I'd have bought a lot more than 6, probably around 18 of them. They are a shy fish which do best in large numbers. Being small they don't have a big bioload.

 

[Country joe]

With celestial pearl danios, I'd have bought a lot more than 6, probably around 18 of them. They are a shy fish which do best in large numbers. Being small they don't have a big bioload.

I bought them for my 70 litre tank, I have 12 black neon tetras and now 6 celestial pearl danios, I would also wish to add some Ember tetras, how many embers, and how many more celestial pearl danios could I have in this tank.
Another question, since buying the fluval canister with just the water intakes in and out in the tank it takes up less room, my oase corner filter is okay but still takes up a lot of room in my 70 litre tank, thinking of replacing it with a fluval 107, but I don't want to transfer the sponges as I want to fill the the trays with ceramics, if running the two filter, how long should they run together before I can take the oase out.

 

[Essjay]

I'd get another half dozen celestial pearl danios and 10 embers.

You need to run both filters for at least 2 months. The bacteria numbers will increase as you add more fish, but as they live in biofilm they don't move much. The numbers increase by the current bacteria splitting into two so the two new ones will be created in the same place as the original single bacterium. Once the fish numbers remain stable, the bacteria numbers also remain stable - the bacteria constantly die and more being created to keep the numbers stable. When you add a second filter it does not instantly grow more bacteria; their numbers are controlled by their food. It takes a while for both filters to have a colony of bacteria and they'll be spread between the two. After removing the old filter, monitor ammonia and nitrite daily till you are sure they are staying at zero. If they read above zero, do a water change.

If you don't want to run two filters together and risk creating a whirlpool in the tank, the simplest way is to put the sponges in the new filter and surround with ceramics, putting the left over ceramics in the cupboard. In a couple of months remove a sponge and add ceramics to replace it. A month later remove another sponge and replace with ceramics and so on till all the sponges are gone.

 

[Country joe]

Great advice as usual, will go with changing sponges over, filter has only been running for 3 weeks, I used goop, so I will leave it a couple of months before changing it