fish stocking question

M

mizzie

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Dec 4, 2009
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Yea! Our tank is finally cycled. I bring the ammonia levels up to 4 every day and within 24 hours it's back to 0. Nitrites are 0, nitrates are 10, pH is 7. We are good to go and are going to go get fish tomorrow. It's going to be exciting to have fish in there after looking at an empty tank for 2.5 months.

I've been reading all about acclimating the fish to the tank (floating the bag, adding tank water to bag slowly, don't let bag water get in tank) and I think we are ready. It's a 29 gal and the plan is: 1 Dwarf Gourami, 12 Neon Tetras, 6 Peppered Cories (or other similarly sized cory) and 6 Ghost shrimp.

But I do have one question. I've heard that you shouldn't get all your fish in one go because the tank won't be able to handle the sudden increase in bio-load. Unfortunately, we live quite a ways from the FS we plan to buy from, it's about a 3 hour drive. I'm a little worried about the drive, but we are bringing a large cooler and some blankets/towels to keep the bags from being shaken and the temp stable. I'm more then willing to make the drive for better fish, but I'd rather not make it 3-4 times.

Like I said, I've been bringing the ammonia level up to 4 every day and the bacteria are handling that. Do you think it would be ok to get all our fish tomorrow, or should we only get some? If you think we should only get some of them, which would be the better ones to start with?
 
No,dont get them all at once. I would get 6 at a time,that should be ok. I dont think it makes any difference which ones are first.
 
well, the nice part is that your tank is already ready for a sizeable bioload, because you cycled it without fish.

However, you don't know just how much bioload your tank can handle at the moment, so I would split that up into two trips. First, the neons, and then the corydoras, but I wouldn't pair a Dwarf Gourami with ghost shrimp, unless you are getting the shrimp specifically as a snack.
 
I think you should get the Peppered Corydoras and Ghost Shrimps first, then the Neons and the Gourami.

If you put more ammonia more than you put a week before, it would act like "adding more fish" so that your tank would be prepared for the new inhabitants. Not sure how well the Ghost Shrimps would be with the Dwarf Gouramies though.
 
Hmm, ok. I'll talk to the hubby about doing it in two trips. About the gourami and the shrimp, everything I found said that they should be fine, but I know there are some smart people here. Is there another variety of shrimp (larger, maybe) that would work better with the dwarf gourami? Or should I forget the shrimp all together?

Are the tetras still ok with the dwarf gourami? Everything I found said they would be too, but they are small.
 
Neon tetras should be fine with Dwarf Gouramies. As for the shrimp, a different alternative are Amano Shrimps, they get to about 2 inches max, eat algae but are a little more expensive than Ghost Shrimp. Most Ghost Shrimps are around 99 cents so might as well try the Ghost Shrimps. Dwarf Gouramies shouldn't bother the shrimp though.
 
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