thanks for your opinion! Curious if you think the butterfly fish would still eat the fully grown (~2") Cherry Barbs or Xray Tetras if I leave it for last going in the tank? Really like the looks of the BFly fish floating around on top (it and the Botias are the 2 I really liked the most). Will consider hatchets too, thx.
Advice for Noob?
- Thread starter Oiler3535
- Start date
The one inch rule works alright for small fish like tetras and small barbs. But it should be more like one gallon per cubic inch of adult fish and even then it is less than perfect. Use the classic example of the 10 inch Oscar. One inch per gallon only needs 10 gallons. But that fish is much more like 50 cubic inches and 50 gallons for that O would be much more reasonable.
If you cannot quarantine new fish it might be better to cut your stock a bit and put all your fish in at the same time. Before that I would look into doing a fish-less cycle with added ammonia to build a bacteria colony that can better handle adding all the fish at once.
Any way you do it a liquid test kit is a must. You will want to monitor water parameters closely and be prepared to do large water changes tell the tank is well established.
You will get many different views on the usefulness of aquarium salt. But if adding all the fish at once I would recommend you use it at one tablespoon per five gallons, at least tell you are sure the fish are healthy and the tank is established. Some of the fish you get will likely be very stressed already and a few losses at the start are not necessarily a failure on your part.
If you cannot quarantine new fish it might be better to cut your stock a bit and put all your fish in at the same time. Before that I would look into doing a fish-less cycle with added ammonia to build a bacteria colony that can better handle adding all the fish at once.
Any way you do it a liquid test kit is a must. You will want to monitor water parameters closely and be prepared to do large water changes tell the tank is well established.
You will get many different views on the usefulness of aquarium salt. But if adding all the fish at once I would recommend you use it at one tablespoon per five gallons, at least tell you are sure the fish are healthy and the tank is established. Some of the fish you get will likely be very stressed already and a few losses at the start are not necessarily a failure on your part.
No, even then it doesn't work. You can overstock according to the inch per gallon rule and not actually be overstocked......
Hi and welcome. I am curious about the "stuff" that is supposed to cycle your tank. I am assuming that it is some sort of nitrifying bacteria. If that is the case, I was under the impression that you should add fish sooner than a week in order to feed the bacteria. I may be wrong, and I am sure someone will give a correction if that is the case, but the bacteria need the ammonia from the fish waste to survive. If they die, before you add fish, then you will need to add fish very slowly. Like maybe 2 at a time and test water for several days after first addition. If the water is safe, then you can add more gradually, testing as you go. As I said, I may be wrong and the bacteria can survive for a week without ammonia, so please everyone chime in on this.
If you overstock by the rule and are not actually overstocked then I would say it worked. I would think the goal is to not over stock. But I think most experienced fish keepers would agree that the rule is hardly ever very useful.
It would be a lot more useful and much easier if every fish gets a few numbers added:
X.X gallons of water needed per fish
HxWxD minimum dimension tank
A-B recommended minimum and maximum number of this fish per tank
Instead of inches, you subtract the gallons per fish until the tank is empty. That should cover most cases.
Im using this Colony "stuff". And you are correct, I add it just before the first fish. I doubt it would die, just stay in suspension like in the bottle, but instructions say just before fish and I'll be following instructions! Want my fish to live . Still think ill add fish slowly and test regularly though. http://acrylictankmanufacturing.com/products/water-treatment/biologicals/colony-nitrifying-bacteria/
