Transfer Of Cycling Fish

[DarkShadow435]

I have a question for anyone who can help. Is it ok to transfer a fish such as a zebra danio from an established tank, to an unestablished tank to start the unestablished tank cycling?

I have 5 zebra danios, and i wanted to transfer them from my 10 gal tank to my 50 gal tank (which needs to be cycled). Can i do this? Also, how many fish should i put in the 50 gal to cycle?

 

[Tolak]

There is no reason you couldn't do that, and zebra danios are one of the best fish to use for a traditional cycle. The general rule of thumb for a traditional cycle is 1" of hardy slim bodied fish with a maximum size of 2" for every 5 gallons of water. Those 5 danios would be an excellent choice for a traditional cycle in a 50.

It would also help if you could take some mature media from the 10 gallon & put it in the filter for the 50. Place it first in the sequence of media & it will transfer nitrifying bacteria to the new media. This will speed up the cycle.

You also may want to consider a fishless cycle. Ammonia & nitrite causes damage to fish, even a hardy fish like zebra danios. This usually results in a shorter lifespan at least, to some losses at worst due to cycling.

 

[jvoigt]

if you could i would bump it up to 10 danios.. i cycled my tank with 3 barbs, and 8 danios and the ammonia, nitrite spikes were very slow.

50 gallons is alot of water for 5 danios so unless you feed them very good then i would recomend adding a few more danios.. just make sure to watch your levels close so they dont get out of hand. IMO that worked for me.

another thing you probly are aware of is that once you take out your danios from your ten gallon you need to replace them with other fish or some type of ammonia to keep your cycle alive..

what are you planing on stocking your 10 and 50 with once they are cycled?

 

[DarkShadow435]

I asked the guy at Petco and he said the 5 danios would make the ammonia and nitrate spikes very low. I'm not sure what i want to stock the 50 gal with. Probably some nice small and medium community fish. The 10 (after i move the danios) will have 3 silver-tipped tetras, 1 fish that i cant figure out what it is (got mixed into the tetra bag when i bought them), 1 chinese algae eater, and 1 mystery snail. But once the 50 gal is established, the 2 mollies, the 3 tetras, and the snail will probably move over as well. After i'm done with the 50 gal, i'm redoing the 10 gal in a pirate theme.

 

[celaeno]

imo, i'd just buy some marineland bio-spira and dump it in the tank. introduce your fish on the same day and you should have no problems.