Hi. I have a 4 ft long 55 gal tank, housing 2 honey red gouramis, 3 small clown loaches, and 6 celestial pearl danios (locally bred, not wild caught, for those concerned about this species). In a couple of weeks I am planning to put in one more kind of fish, and I've decided on cherry barbs. This time, when I buy new fish, I'll do it right and quarantine them. My QT tank is a 2 ft long 20 gal. My question for everyone is twofold: How many cherry barbs can I fit in my 55? And can all these fish fit in the QT tank? If not, what's the maximum amount I should buy at once based on the size of the QT? I was planning on quarantining them for 2 weeks. Thank you!
QT tank size question.
- Thread starter LeahK
- Start date
qt is temporary housing as a result not the same rules apply on keeping the fish.
qt should last 2-4 weeks if the fish reamin healthy.
how many were you planning on keeping?
you should be able to keep a school of them(6+) in the 20 with no issues.
qt should last 2-4 weeks if the fish reamin healthy.
how many were you planning on keeping?
you should be able to keep a school of them(6+) in the 20 with no issues.
no you should be fine.
it is temporary and many times the fish you getting are not adults.
even so you can compensate with water changes.
it is temporary and many times the fish you getting are not adults.
even so you can compensate with water changes.
i kept 6 in my 16g for a month for qt and they did just fine. you should get more females than males as the males tend to chase the ladies a good bit. i got 2m/4f and it has worked otu really well
Thanks again. Both you guys who've responded today also helped me out in mid-December when my 20 gal went haywire with ammonia after Rid-Ich+ killed all the tiny copepods in the tank. In case you're interested in an update, everything's ok now, as far as I can tell. I replaced all the gravel, which helped for about 30 hours, and then the ammonia began to creep up again. I figured that the filter bacteria needed some time to recoup after losing all the gravel bacteria, but since I was leaving for vacation the next day, I knew I wouldn't be around to monitor and do water changes. So, in a last-ditch effort to fix things, I quickly set up my 55 gal tank--something I'd been planning to do _after_ vacation. But I hoped that with a larger system, the bacteria would have a chance to recover before the ammonia levels became measurable. And so far, that seems to be the case. I've been gone for almost 20 days, and the house-sitter reports that everything's doing fine. So, thanks again! I can't wait to get back on the 14th and go shop for my barbs.
Updated question
Hi -- I will definitely post some pics as soon as everyone is in the 55. I just got my barbs last night. I ended up with rosy barbs instead of cherries, and I'm very happy with them. My main tank is a 55, so I kind of wanted something bigger than cherries anyway. Plus, to my surprise the fish store was carrying the longfinned variety, and they're really pretty. They are currently in qt. Before purchasing, I read online that rosy barbs (and I guess all barbs) are especially susceptible to velvet, and that many commercial tanks carry velvet. So I bought some coppersafe along with the fish, just in case I needed it. The fish all look fine, but I've heard that velvet is hard to diagnose until it's almost too late. My question is: Does anyone think I should treat the qt tank with coppersafe as a proactive measure, in case the fish are infected but it's not yet visible? Normally I would avoid dumping in meds proactively in my main tank, but this is qt. And I've got loaches in the main tank, who are susceptible to skin diseases, so I don't want to add any barbs harboring as-yet-invisible velvet.
Hi -- I will definitely post some pics as soon as everyone is in the 55. I just got my barbs last night. I ended up with rosy barbs instead of cherries, and I'm very happy with them. My main tank is a 55, so I kind of wanted something bigger than cherries anyway. Plus, to my surprise the fish store was carrying the longfinned variety, and they're really pretty. They are currently in qt. Before purchasing, I read online that rosy barbs (and I guess all barbs) are especially susceptible to velvet, and that many commercial tanks carry velvet. So I bought some coppersafe along with the fish, just in case I needed it. The fish all look fine, but I've heard that velvet is hard to diagnose until it's almost too late. My question is: Does anyone think I should treat the qt tank with coppersafe as a proactive measure, in case the fish are infected but it's not yet visible? Normally I would avoid dumping in meds proactively in my main tank, but this is qt. And I've got loaches in the main tank, who are susceptible to skin diseases, so I don't want to add any barbs harboring as-yet-invisible velvet.
