Fish are Home

[aklaum]

The day finally came. The fishless cycle is over. My son and I went to the LFS today and got our fish. We now have a 20g aquarium with:

2 - Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami
3 - Mickey Mouse Platys
5 - Neon Tetras
1 - Spotted Cory
1 - Mystery Snail
2 - Ghost Shrimp

My son, my wife and me have had our faces glued to this tank for two hours. We were chomping at the bit for 2 hours before that as we floated bags and then slowly added water to the bags. Talk about anticipation.

We did a light feeding to see how that would go. The ghost shrimp are absolute pigs. I saw one shrimp eat two flakes that were twice the size of his head. Everyone got some though.

Even though the fishless cycle was a bit frustrating looking at a dark empty tank for 4 weeks. It was really cool to be able to bring home everyone at once and have an instantly diverse and interesting tank.

I am definitely hooked.

[hurricanejedi]

I'd be really interested to know how your tanks progresses over the next week or two. I've been told differing advice from soooo many different people. Many say after a fishless cycle you should do the full bio-load otherwise you will have bacteria die-off and will have to do slow introductions. Others tell me that I'm inexperienced and would benefit from doing slow additions to get the hang of things.

I started my fishless cycle last night so I've only begun the process! Your lucky to be done :P .

[aklaum]

I'll be happy to post periodic updates for the next few weeks if nobody objects. Being able to fully stock the tank was a big drive for me to choose fishless cycle (besides being humane).

It occurs to me that I know very little about how to tell if they are happy by their behavior. I basically know:

1. If they are alive or dead (all alive).
2. If they are gasping for air and hanging out at the water surface that is bad (they are not).

They all ate last night so that is good. Other than that how do you judge their behavior? Here's a quick breakdown of observations.

Gourami - These guys are pretty subdued and pretty much cruise around the tank, mostly together. Seems like there may be some shoving between them on occasion. Something like affectionate siblings. They tend to hide out the most out of all the fish.

Platys - The three stooges are like three hyper kids. They are all over the tank mostly together and constantly checking things out.

Tetras - Funnly little group of guys that seem to like looking out of the side of the tank alot. Not afraid to go anywhere in the tank except under the filter output which tends to blow them around.

Cory - Swim around...sniff for food...eat...rest...repeat

Shrimp - Have I checked this pebble yet?...How about this one?...repeat

Snail - Um..yeah..think I'm going to stay right here on the glass...repeat.

Any thoughts?

[rrkss]

I've always added my full fish stock after a fishless cycle. Never had any ammonia or nitrites detected in those tanks. I like to add the full fishload because I can take care of any diseases like ich in one shot and never have to worry about it again. It is such a pain to slowly stock up a tank because every fish needs to be QTed or I risk introducing a disease into a disease free tank. My rule is to just stock it up in one shot, knock out any diseases and enjoy my disease free cycled tank.

[Emg]

I would get your cory a partner.....though I believe you've got that stocked about full for a 20gallon. Cories much prefer to be with others of thier own kind...at least one other anyway.

Sounds like a nice grouping though...is this a 20long...or a 20tall ?

[aklaum]

The tank is a 20g high. I asked about the cory when I was at the LFS. The label on the tank said 1+ which was their designation for 1 or more, plus the employee said that it would be fine by itself.

The problem with actually going to the LFS is that you can't take Aquaria Central with you. This is the biggest LFS around that is not a super chain and they have a great selection. Unfortunately they are 40 minutes away so I couldn't repeatedly go and scope out what they had. Plus they just have so much it would have taken me hours to write it down.

So there I was in front of a tank of spotted corys and the label said adult size was 2" and that they could be alone (1+) and the employee confirmed. So I grabbed it.

How big of a problem is it going to be if cory doesn't have a friend?

[Flowerhorn916]

get the cory a friend or 2 it wont affect yoru tank much and they will be much happier

[thesydmonster]

I agree, you will see the cories be more active and natural and comfortable in your tank in a group of 3 or more. Try to get the same type of cory. Glad you like your new set up :)

[aklaum]

hurricanejedi asked that I post an update over the next few weeks. I am now on day 14. Four days ago (Saturday) I did the first vacuum and water change (15%). Later that night I brought home a new friend for the Cory. So now we have two Spotted Julii Corys. You can definitely tell the difference. They go everywhere together and rest together. Definitely buddies.

Before I did the water change the tank parameters were:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40ppm
pH - 7.2
Alkalinity - 3.6 meq/L
Hardness - 75
Temp - 77

So everything seems ok. As I said in another post my tap water is very soft with a pH of 6.2. I found that adding 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per 3 gallons of makeup water gets me up to pH 7.2. I also have a mesh bag with a handful of aragonite in the filter which acts as a buffer and keeps the pH at 7.2. So that worked out well.

While AC was having the bandwidth problem I found out (shhh...on another forum) that I was way overfeeding them. So I have now found out the correct amount of food to be consumed in 2-3 minutes (2 minutes 20 seconds acutally) I am then splitting that up into two portions and feeding once in the morning and once in the evening.

After the addition of the new Cory and the water change one of the Gouramis began a strange repetitive swim circle on one side of the tank. I checked him for sores, parasites etc. but nothing. He did it for two days and then quit so I'm just keeping an eye on him.

I found the Mystery Snail stuck to the filter intake the other morning. Freed him. He seems ok.

So hurricanejedi, based on my water parameters I think it is safe to say that yes, after completing a fishless cycle with 3-5ppm of ammonia you can fully stock your tank.

[hurricanejedi]

Wonderful. I was just thinking about this thread before I came on. I'm half way through my fishless cycle. My ammonia is gone in 24 hours so I keep redosing. I wonder how long it will take to develop my nitrite eaters. The first step only lasted 1.5 weeks to go from 3-4ppm to 0.

[aklaum]

That's about how long that part of my cycle lasted. Then another 2.5 weeks to complete the cycle. Sounds like you are on track. Your tank is almost 2 1/2 times bigger than mine so you will get to have even more fun picking your inhabitants than I did! Let me know when you do.

P.S. Your avatar inspired my wife and I to go on an hour long Bengal google spree the other night. Beautiful cats! Perhaps when the kids all grow up.