restocking my childrens tank!!!

T

tessr

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Jan 2, 2008
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Hi :) everyone, my children have lost their goldfish last week due to age as he was nearly 4 years old, i've cleaned out their tank and replaced the gravel as they want to get some fish to go in it and as it has been running 2 days without fish in it i checked the water readings and it has the following
the tank is a 60 litre!
ph 7.6 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5
the filter is the same one as i was running for the goldfish!! my question is shouldn't this tank need cycling as my new tank is doing or does the water readings mean it's already cycled?
also my children would like to have some baby fish! but i don't want to be suddenly overrun with babies!! I was thinking of guppies but how many should i think of getting? any :help: would be greatly appreciated!!!
 
How big is the tank? You will either need to add something to the tank until you get fish to keep the bacteria alive, or will have to cycle. I would guess that the nitrate is surviving off residual waste somewhere in the tank/filters.

Sorry just read its a 60 liter tank, which I think is 15 gallons. You could probably get a school of small tetras (10) and some cory cats for the bottom (6). I don't know if I would get livebearers, from what I have read they reproduce like crazy and you would need to do something with the babies and would probably overstock your tank.
 
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tessr said:
Hi :) everyone, my children have lost their goldfish last week due to age as he was nearly 4 years old
Click to expand...

Normal lifespan of the common goldfish is anything up to 20 years. The record is 43. Yours did not die of old age.
 
Yeah, goldfish live many, many years. He probably just grew too large for his tank and died.

If your tank is indeed 15 gallons, you will not want to get too many fish. Or you can be like me, I have a third tank cycling as we speak, lol. Plus a pond. My guppies are proving to be quite prolific, plus the fact I just got several more---so if you do get guppies, just get a few, and make sure you have a plan on what to do with the babies. Many pet shops won't take them.

I don't think your tank is fully cycled yet, but I'm no expert on that. I would hold off on getting new fish for a bit, and keep testing the water every day to see if the parameters hold.
 
The tank should still be cycled if it hasn't been empty of fish for more than a couple of days and the filter has still been running, if it has been longer than that the bacteria will have dyed off and you will need to cycle again or seeded from a different established tank.
 
I'd get a school of tetra or rasbora that get no more than 1.50 inches when full grown.
 
I definitely agree that your goldfish did not die of old age...

Your tank looks cycled but it may not be able to handle all of the new bioload at once, so stock slowly. Abcdefghi's stocking plan (10 tetras, 6 corys, maybe a dwarf gourami for centerpiece) would work fine for a 15 gallon-ish tank.
 
Your goldfish died of stunting not old age. I would go with abcdefghi's stocking plan except replace the corys with kuhli loaches.
 
Perhaps a pair of small gouramis - honeys for example (avoid dwarfs because of disease issues) and a small school of harlequins. Add some khulis and you've got an Asian themed small tank. A rather attractive one at that.
 
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