New Or Old?

K

KevinF

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Mar 10, 2003
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I am looking for an opinion.

As I mentioned in one of my recent postings I was unlucky to lose most of my fish to ICH so I am looking to start over again from scratch. I have the survivors from my large tank now housed in a small 10 gallon till I can get up and running again.

The surviving fish are quite small and not very mature. In fact out of those most were the original carriers of the ICH and they came through it (batch of neons from a DIY store BIG mistake!)

What I would like to know is that when I am ready to add fish back into my main tank again do you think it is worth buying some larger more mature fish as apposed to smaller new borns/ weeks old. It does prove more expensive to buy bigger fish but I think it may be worth it in the long run for a more mature looking tank.

This might seem sound silly because part of keeping fish ect is watching them grow and all that but I am a little bit miffed when I went through two years only to lose them all within a two week period

On the other hand a lot of you may think I might be being impatient and should start from scratch again?

Let me know
 
I also have had a kill-off due to something I was never able to ID. In less than 24 hours I lost 16 barbs and a 4 year old alge eater. I too was miffed . . .

Now I use a Quarantine Tank (Q/T) for every fish I bring home. New family members spend two weeks in a Q/T tank with a sponge filter, a plastic plant, an untreated terra cotta pot and only room light (no hood lighting). They are fed the same variety of food as the main tank, and at the same time.
So far I have had 0 deaths in my established tanks, and many fewer losses of new fish as they are able to acclimate to my water and conditions before they meet their new tankmates.
 
i'd get younger fish for the reasons already mentioned. Also, Im thinking if they're younger their metabolism must be faster and therefore in a better position to fight disease.

I myself never buy adult fish. When you buy them young

a) you know what conditions they've been in and what they've eaten for most of their lives

b) You dont have the problem of buying a 'wild caught' fish thats age is unknown.

c) as previously mentioned, you have the fish for longer.

Andy
 
we are not against adult or teenage fish.Thats exactly what you need to add to a tank full of large preditor fish.But in your case small might be best.
Also try to find out why ich wiped out your tank most fish if healthy can fight off ich quite easy.
 
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