How should I introduce my fish?

[Paintballer99]

Well, My Nitrites read ALMOST 0, it was very close, but I did have some ammonia left, so to get to the point, I'm going to get my fish very soon, and how should I introduce them? The petstore is a half an hour away, and with school year comming up, I don't want to make too many trips.

Here are the fish
3 guppies
2 platies
1 dwarf gourami
7 neon tetras
10 RCS

BTW the tank is a 20 long if that means anything....

 

[zpromoter]

Making a few trips is definately going to be your best option, leaving about a week or so inbetween the introductions. If it were up to me, here is what I would do:

Introduce the guppies and the platies first. Wait about one week and then introduce the neons and the RCS. Check your water perameters and then add the gourami.

You don't want to overload your bioload in the tank or throw off the balance in the tank. If you take the time to add them in stages, you will be much better off and your fish will thank you for it. The gourami is probably the most sensitive fish on your list, so I would make sure that you have a bioload already built up before adding it.

 

[Conski]

Yea dont get 25 fish the first day it his 0 like i did for my first 20 long and kill everything in a week. do it over a period of time introducing maybe 3 fish the first week then 1 or 2 weeks later another 3

 

[jm1212]

i would pick guppies or platies and get more of them, and get another neon to round out the group at 8.

dont add all at once. start with the platies and work to the neons.

 

[excuzzzeme]

Emily Post has some good books about how to make proper introductions.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If the tank has been fishlessly cycled and done so properly, you should fully stock it immediately. You have made the effort to have it cycled for a full fish load, not doing so somewhat defeats the point of doing a fishless cycle.

In cycling with fish it is necessary to introduce fish gradually over time.

 

[Paintballer99]

If the tank has been fishlessly cycled and done so properly, you should fully stock it immediately. You have made the effort to have it cycled for a full fish load, not doing so somewhat defeats the point of doing a fishless cycle.

In cycling with fish it is necessary to introduce fish gradually over time.

Are your sure about this, Because everyone said I should do it slowly

 

[shenzhenluohan]

IME add the platies first as they seem to be indestructable. Followed by guppies, finally tetras just by experience the livebearers seem to be more hardy than the tetras.

 

[andyjs]

If the tank has been fishlessly cycled and done so properly, you should fully stock it immediately. You have made the effort to have it cycled for a full fish load, not doing so somewhat defeats the point of doing a fishless cycle.

In cycling with fish it is necessary to introduce fish gradually over time.

I agree. If you fishless cycle adding bottled ammonia, this should create a bacterial population that can support a bioload a lot larger than what a normally stocked tank would have. In some cases with more fragile fish species that do better in mature tanks, it might be best to add them later, but for hardy species, you can go ahead and fully stock as soon as the cycle is complete

 

[Paintballer99]

And all of my fish are hardy fish? If so, I'll just get all of them. (that may be a bit because my nitrites are taking a few days to fully reach 0)