One fish, 24 gal., one week -- no ammonia

live food!

Swimfins said:
I woudn't worry about a long term commitment to the shrimp. You can leave them there as fish food eventually. In my experience they don't last long (a few weeks or months) and they are fun to watch while you have them.
When they were in their molting period, my gourami treated themselves to lunch. :rolleyes:
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Hee! Somehow, I feel better about them as fish food than just flushing them. I might do that (will check with hubby first). I think I saw those at one of our local fish stores. I need to make a shopping list -- new test strips, new dechlorinator, new plants?, new ghost shrimp?...

BTW, I enjoyed the photos of your tank in your link. I was orignally planning to get a pair of pearl gouramis but after reading about them, it sounds like they are more shy than the honey gouramis. How are yours in your community tank? I see you have a betta in a seperate bowl. It looks planted? How's that set up?

Thanks!
 
Gourami and bettas are fish with alot of personality. You never know.
My betta was fine with my pearl gourami, but he savaged a guppy tail.
Some others are fine with guppy.....I dunno.
You can just get a cupful of your friends substrate and sprinkle it over yours,
which I did for my big tank and it worked well. Or you can get some of his filter material and stick it in yours (probably better because this is where the good bacteria lives). A nylon bag or stocking will do fine.

Also, I have no experience with prime. I use aqua-plus (available at walmart)
If you have zeolite (white stone chips) in your filter medium, this might also be why your not showing any amonia. Some new filters come with zeolite in them, I've noticed. (As did my eheim 2215 canister filter.) You might want to remove it fi you have it and place some of your friends filter material in there. As well, if you can't get any filter material, you can just squeeze some juice out of his, (yuk!) and add the juice to your own filter medium.

At this point, I wouldn't mess with co2 and plants. Just get your tank cycled.
Co2 needs to be measured, ph and kh and gh.......Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!! You can learn about all this later. I think you've got enough to think about right now lol......

Also, I wouldn't worry about his 'fishkeeping', except to be certain he has no disease in his tank. Overstocking wil just mean more bacteria in his filter. You don't want to introduce any disease into your own tank, beware, otherwise go for it.
 
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If you have one small fish in a 20 gallon tank, you are doing small and regular water changes, 10% every 4 to 5 days, I suspect the fish is fine, the tank is fine. After 2 weeks, unless you see ammonia or nitrite building up, then I'd add more fish. If you begin to see ammonia, then increase the water changes to 5 gallons, even 10 gallon, as needed to keep ammonia below 1ppm. If you can import some bacteria from an active, healthy tank, you will get through this start up time much faster. I'm not

You don't need new test strips, they are much less dependable than the drops you say you have now. You don't need new dechlorinator, Prime is the best there is IMO. If you feel the need to get something, get a Seachem ammonia alert, it will detect ammonia when Prime is used. Plants are OK if your lighting is sufficient. If not, that will just decay in the tank.

As for a newbie for getting bacteria from -- I wouldn't. Too likely to have overstocked and stressed fish, ich and other parasites in wait.

This hobby WILL teach you patience!
 
My betta resides in a bowl near the computer (his choice) He didn't take much liking to the 25g tank. I guess he prefers confined space. He's in a bowl with a silk flower. It means more water changes, but you do what you have to do to keep 'em happy lol :)
 
action taken

Well, thanks everyone for your advice. I went to the store today and got a Seachem ammonia alert, which says the ammonia is fine (they didn't have the Ammonia Shield). I also bought a few plants, which came from a planted tank with a few fish in it. We planted these and added some of the water they were packed in. (We have an 18 inch, 15 watt Mutri Grow Freshwater Aquarium Plant Lamp by Coralife, BTW.)

Turns out our neighbor just changed his filter. Decided not to borrow his slime.

Maybe I'll get a some ghost shrimp, too. I think I might need them for some algae that seems to be growing on our driftwood (white hairs?).

So, how long should I wait before I add more fish? I was thinking I'd wait a week and see how things are going.

And what should I add next? Eventually, I was hoping to have 8 Neon Tetras, 2 Honey gouramis, and 3 Kuhli Loaches.

Thanks!
 
The gouramis and the betta just won't work toegther. In fact I would be surprised if the 2 honey gouramis worked together. They are all from the same family of fish and are very aggressive to each other. I woudl think about at least moving the betta to his own 5 gallon tank.
 
labyrinth fish

TKOS said:
The gouramis and the betta just won't work toegther. In fact I would be surprised if the 2 honey gouramis worked together. They are all from the same family of fish and are very aggressive to each other. I woudl think about at least moving the betta to his own 5 gallon tank.
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We were thinking about a betta condo in the big tank, but maybe an additional tank would be better.

It's interesting how much conflicting information there is on betta-gourami compatability. It must work sometimes because several books and websites have recommended it. We were thinking honey gouramis would be worth a try because of their reputation as exceptionally friendly gouramis. I'd be interested to hear about your experience. What type of gouramis? Pearl? Honey?

But this is the first I've heard of the gouramis bickering. Wouldn't a male and female pair be OK?

Thanks for the input!
 
I'm not sure where your information is coming from so its hard to comment on this or that. But…

Gouramis and Bettas are both Labyrinth fish. As a group they're known to be territorially aggressize towards conspecifics. The degree to which they're aggressive varies from species to species and from individual to individual. Its also influenced by the particulars of their enviroment. The violence is typically male against male, although females can also be aggressive and the males will sometimes attack the females, especially during spawning.

I have a pair of Pearls that for the most part ignore the rest of the fish and swim placidly around the tank, sometimes together and sometimes not. Very beautiful fish. They don't go into spawning mode very often, but when they have it gets pretty wild. I don't think the female would survive it in a smaller tank.

You'll find folks who have kept this or that fish together and there wasn't a problem. Or there was. There is a strong potential for a problem.

Most Honey's are actually Dwarf Gouramis and most of those are males.
 
gourami compatability

Yes, I'm pretty sure we'll have to remove the betta. Or, maybe we won't get the gouramis. (BTW - I think the suggestion of bettas with gouramis came from Setting Up a Freshwater Aquarium by Gregory Skomal and timstropicals.com.)

carpguy said:
I have a pair of Pearls that for the most part ignore the rest of the fish and swim placidly around the tank, sometimes together and sometimes not. Very beautiful fish.
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I noticed in your tank specs that your loaches were hassling your gouramis. I wonder if I'd have problems with Kuhli Loaches and gouramis?

carpguy said:
Most Honey's are actually Dwarf Gouramis and most of those are males.
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Really? So a pair is unlikely? Expensive? Hmm. Decisions, decisions.
 
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