An unexpected new tank...

[jglover]

Hi,

Well, my son is now the proud owner of a 6 gallon Eclipse tank, courtesy of my parents. It's a long story but involves my son saving a field mouse from a dog, the subsequent death of said mouse, his desire for his own pet and my folks indulgences to their grandson.....

My dad used to have fish back many years ago, late 60's into the early 70's. Back then you went to Woolworth's and bought a tank, filters/media etc., and the fish then set it up and let it run. So this is what they did with my Grandson, only these days it's Petsmart. When they ask is he could have a tank, I never figured it would come home with him that afternoon.......

So, what I have is a 6 gallon Eclipse with fish in it already.....a dwarf Gourami, three glowlight tetras and small cory. I've been doing some reading here and there, and of course, my dad never considered cycling the tank, because you always just put the fish in it back in his day.

Well, I've tried to correct the situation as best I could. I've been checking the tank for NH3/NO2 (so far so good), doing water changes every other day and have added some hornwort and anacharis to try to help out with the nutrient balance in the tank. The filter supposedly runs about 75 gph so I should be getting somewhere around 10 water changes an hour.

So far (day 6), everyone seems okay. All the fish are active and eating. i realize we are going to have to a cycle with fish here, so what is the best way to proceed? I can't take back the fish as they have already been named by son so I'm going to try to make do with what we have. I've already told him the tank is at its limit for the number of fish he can have (probably overstocked a bit actually).

On the positive side, this has rekindled my desire to have a larger set up, though someone will need to convince my wife we need a tank in the family room!

John

 

[jm1212]

what are your water parameters? it would be a great idea to get a test kit. that way you can monitor ammoina and nitrite more frequently than if you were to bring it into the store.

dwarf gouramis tend to be pretty sensative to any ammoina or nitrite in the water.

also, your tank is a bit to small for a school of corydoras and a school of tetras and a gourami. you should probably take back the corydoras and the tetras. a 6 gallon tank is really only big enough for the dwarf gourami. if you were to take everything back, you could fit in a small school of neon tetras.

 

[inkyjenn]

please take the cory back. cories NEED groups to thrive. a single one will stress out in a pretty short amount of time and die.

thank you though for coming here and doing some research. it will mean that your son has a happy pet that will live for a reasonable length of time

 

[Hollygirl]

Your son has already named the fish, and they were a gift from the grandparents. I think a larger set up would be great! Just my two cents.

 

[jglover]

what are your water parameters? it would be a great idea to get a test kit. that way you can monitor ammoina and nitrite more frequently than if you were to bring it into the store.

Thanks jon for the reply. So far both the ammonia levels and nitrites have been undetected using the API kits. I've been checking it daily.

also, your tank is a bit to small for a school of corydoras and a school of tetras and a gourami. you should probably take back the corydoras and the tetras. a 6 gallon tank is really only big enough for the dwarf gourami. if you were to take everything back, you could fit in a small school of neon tetras.

Well, taking back the fish will be difficult as I have no clue as to where any receipts are for this setup, as my dad and my son set it up this weekend while I was away, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to try to make due. I've tried to let my son know this is going to be potential problem but as the set-up was a gift from well meaning grandparents, it would be hard for him to understand taking the fish back.

I know that is not the ideal solution, but it is what I am going to have to work through....hence my using these websites for research. I'm hoping with keeping a close watch on the water quality and the water changes will keep the nutrient levels in check.

To be honest, the whole idea of cycling a tank was entirely new to me, yet it makes perfect sense from a chemistry standpoint. If I can keep these guys alive until I can get another tank, that would seem to be the best solution. I'm looking to go with something larger, along the lines of a 20L tank. After watching the fish in my son's tank, I realized I missed having a nice sized tank so I'm going to be setting up a larger system this weekend and doing a fishless cycle on that tank.

In the interim, could a smaller tank, such a 3-5 gallon be set up and ran through a fishless cycle quickly enough to be used as a temporary home until I can get a 20L up and going?

John

 

[pavemike]

please take the cory back. cories NEED groups to thrive. a single one will stress out in a pretty short amount of time and die.

thank you though for coming here and doing some research. it will mean that your son has a happy pet that will live for a reasonable length of time

I would have to disagree with this. I really hate how pet stores keep 20-30 DG's (dwarf gouramis) in a single tank. This leads people to think that they enjoy the company of eachother. In reality, these are juvie DGs that do fine with each other, but once they get a little more mature, they can get pretty agressive with thier own species. I made this mistake when i first got into the hobby. I bought 4 DG's and put them into a 29 gallon (rookie mistake). These guys did nothing but kick the poopie out of eachother all day, staking out thier corners of the tank. I had to do some creative rearanging and move every DG to his own tank where they were happy as a pig in poopie. I currently have 2 DGs in a planted 125 gallon. They are great fish, and do well with all the other inhabitants (danios, cories, barbs, etc), but these two guys will manage to find eachother and have a little tustle before one backs down. Morale of this long drawn out rambling adventure is please dont add any more gouramis into your 6 gallon. One is just fine, and he will be happy with just about any different small, somewhat calm fish you decide to add with him. Good luck! And remember to keep up on your water changes until you get your cycle complete!!!

 

[DAVIDFBT]

Why not just start with the 20L? A tank takes about the same amount of time to cycle if its a 3 gallon or a 200 gallon tank, as long as there is a continous and large enough Ammonia source. With a 20L, you could get keep your Dwarf Gourami, add 5 more tetras, and get 4 more Corys.

 

[jglover]

please take the cory back. cories NEED groups to thrive. a single one will stress out in a pretty short amount of time and die.

thank you though for coming here and doing some research. it will mean that your son has a happy pet that will live for a reasonable length of time

Hi inkyjenn,

Well, this particular cory already has some problems. I guess my folks did not look closely at the fish. When I got home and looked at him, both is doral fin and tail had been nipped away to nothing. So far, six days in, he seems to be doing well and is quite active in the the tank. As I said in my previous post, I'm looking to get a larger tank soon, so I'd like to be able to keep the poor little guy alive till I can get a larger tank cycled and ready. Then I'll get him three or four more little dwarf cory buddies to swim with.

To my way of thinking though, it was unconscionable for the store to even sell this fish to obvious aquairum newbies such as my parents and my son.

I do feel sorry for him and want to see him make it. My son calls him Gimpy. He does well so far, active and feeds enthusiastically, so I really want to see Gimpy make it!

John

 

[jglover]

Morale of this long drawn out rambling adventure is please dont add any more gouramis into your 6 gallon. One is just fine, and he will be happy with just about any different small, somewhat calm fish you decide to add with him. Good luck! And remember to keep up on your water changes until you get your cycle complete!!!

Well, there are no more fish going in to this 6 gallon tank, it is already full to the gills....literally and physically.

I've been doing about a 33% water change so far, and it seems to be keeping the ammonia in check. No nitrites detected so far and I've been able to keep the ammonia to under 0.25mg/L.

The Gourami so far has showed no aggression at all towards the tetras in the tank. He hangs out at the top in the floating hornwort and the tetras school about in the mid to lower level.

John

 

[jglover]

Your son has already named the fish, and they were a gift from the grandparents. I think a larger set up would be great! Just my two cents.

Oh yes, he most certainly has named them all! I'm working on getting larger tank, it just looks like an endless cycle of water changes and test kits from here on out.

John