my cousin 175 gal tank
- Thread starter Jay223
- Start date
The angelfish will eventually make a snack out of the neon tetras. Your cousin needs to either choose community, semi aggressive, or whatever type of fish species she wants to have in her tank. She also needs to choose better starter fish IF she is doing a fish cycle. Neons and Angels both are not good choices as they aren't very hardy fish.
Remember, also, that if she is doing a fish cycle (cycling the tank with fish), she can't put too many in at a time. Probably something like6-8 for that size of a tank would be OK. Better though would be for her to buy her entire stock of fish and bio-spira. She needs to follow the directions carefully though.
the best luck I have had for cycling fish are Platies. They are very hardy. I would agree with no more than 8. She is going to also want to make sure she has a good water testing kit. After a few weeks to a month I would than add some zebra danios. Maybe 8. These are also hardy. I would not move to neon tetras or angels until the tank is well established 4 - 6 months. By then she will have a good handle on the water parameters. Also she is lucky with a big tank because the larger the tank the easier to keep stable. If she wants tetras before 4 - 6 months try lemon tetras, although they can be a little aggressive. Tell her to also talk to LFS. They have great advice for starting new tanks.
Tank cycling is the process the water goes through when new fish are added to a tank. It is the stages that fish wastes and excess foods, etc go through as they break down from harmful ammonia to less harmful nitrites and nitrates. If these levels get to high the fish can die or become very stressed. Cycling happens everytime you add a fish to a tank. When a tank is new (empty of fish) cycling is even more important. The water can spike changes very quickly. That is why she should pick a fish that is hardy.