Window of Opportunity after fishless cycle.

[Vivienne]

Just doing a fishless cycling and deciding which fish to put in a community tank. Noticed at lfs's that stock doesn't seem so good now. Is the availability of many fish seasonal ? If so, when do you get the best selection available ?

Real question: After fishless cycle, we'll probably need to visit 2 or 3 lfs's (from a half hour drive to a one hour drive away) to get the fish we really want. How long do we have after adding the last dose of ammonia to get all the fish in, before bacteria start dying back ?

I'd prefer to get all fish from one place, then spend time aclimatising them and keeping an eye on them, rather than add one batch and tear off to the next shop to get more.

Could I add all the fish over a 2 or a 3 day period ?

 

[Sky042]

I like to dose the night before then that morning do the large water change and buy fish that night.

However I will say that recently I had to visit several places. I stocked my tanks over the course of lets say 48 hours from the last ammonia dose and had no problems.

Also though it'll depend on how heavily you're stocking. In my case I added only about 24 inches of fish into a 125 gallon tank.

2 days you might be ok. But 3 I think is pushing it.
Your best bet would be to just continue feeding the tank for a day or two while you scope out where you're going to buy your fish from. Also what I've done is ask the owner what day they order their fish and what day they recieve them. This way I can ask for something specific to be ordered and then pick it up the day they come in.

 

[Vivienne]

Thanks, that's really helpful - spreading the purchasing over 2 days will be much easier and if I do my research before hand I'll know exactly what to get from where. I know one of the shops has a fortnightly cycle of delivery/quarantine so it might be worth feeding the tank with ammonia for an extra couple of days so I visit the shop just after they re-stock rather than before. I'll call the shops to find this out.