Finally stocked -- sort of

[reybie]

After a week of fiddling with the tank after it cycled. I finally got some real fishes to go in the tank aside from my 3 unindentified guppies :)

I put in 1 dwarf powder blue gourami and a dwarf flame gourami. They each get their own side of the tank. Yesterday I added 13 cardinals but one bit the dust (or is that gravel) this morning, it looked pale to begin with and was the smallest of the bunch I got.

[Lady Hobbs]

You need to only add a few fish each week......like a couple......not add 15 at once. :(

[Chrona]

You can add in almost all your fish at the same time right after doing fishless cycling properly, but since you waited a week or so, all the excess bacteria died off and only enough remained to support the 3 guppies. Hence I think you will see some ammonia spikes within a few days.

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah. Adding too much at once overworks the bio-load. add a few per week.

[Drumachine09]

too many fish at once = ammonia overload

[Lady Hobbs]

And also it depends on the size of the tank. This is not a large addition for a 55 gallon but is too much at once for smaller tanks.

[reybie]

Sorry wasn't very clear on the original post. The 3 adult guppies went in first on Sunday, 2 dwarf gouramis added on Tuesday and yesterday the 13 (now 12 cardinals). Cycle finished on Friday if I remember correctly. Major water change before moving the 3 guppies of course.

[cocoa_pleco]

those tetras should have been spread out more

[genitor]

Feed sparingly and monitor water parameters, doing pwc's if you see any spikes and you should be fine. Congrats on your new tank!!

[Incredulous_Ed]

Congrats! Keep a close eye on ammonia though.

[reybie]

First big batch of cardinals did not fare very well. I went back to the LFS to bring in 5 of the deceased fishes and the same employee who had helped me previously informed me that the cardinals were back on quarantine. Whew! I guess I didn't kill 'em! So... I just got credit for some rummy nose for even exchange, and got 1 extra for free "just-in-case".

[Chrona]

First big batch of cardinals did not fare very well. I went back to the LFS to bring in 5 of the deceased fishes and the same employee who had helped me previously informed me that the cardinals were back on quarantine. Whew! I guess I didn't kill 'em! So... I just got credit for some rummy nose for even exchange, and got 1 extra for free "just-in-case".

Make sure with cardinals and rummynose tetras (which are especially sensitive to water parameters for their first 1-2 weeks) that you acclimate veeeeery slowly, ie float for 20 minutes, add 1/2 cup of water at a time every 10 minutes, dumping out excess water into the sink, for at least 2 hours. I lost my first batch of cardinals because I only acclimated for about 45 minutes, and have not lost any since. You need to keep in mind they just went through shipping from South America, not to mention they are lean and starving by the time they get to the LFS.

[reybie]

The rummynoses are doing really well. Much, much better than the cardinals when I first brought them home. It might have been to the rummynoses' advantage that I got them at night, floated for about an hour and then turned off the light for the rest of the night.

They're back and forth in front of the tank now... all 6 of them.