Next addition to the tank?

[BirdOfPray]

Quick rundown: the tank is a 30-gallon hex, 24" tall, 18" in diameter, 20" at the widest point. Fully cycled, and has been stable since I added 5 corys last Saturday -- no spikes of any kind. My stocking plan is 5 corydoras trilineatus (already added), 6-9 cardinal tetras, 1 German blue ram, and 6 marbled hatchetfish. The soonest I'd be adding any fish would be Thursday or Friday, but I could certainly wait longer if advisable.

My questions are...

1) Could I consider adding a BN or 4-5 otos to the stocking plan or is that just pushing it? I'm ok with not adding anything -- it's just a thought.

2) If the answer is yes, would one be better than the other or is it just a matter of taste? I do know to feed them vegetables and algae wafers, and there's driftwood in the tank for a BN.

3) Which fish should I add next (with or without the algae eaters added to my stocking plan)? The LFS I'm buying from has always had healthy-looking fish that seem less stressed than in any other store I've seen, if that makes a difference.

As always, many thanks for any advice! Trying to get the tank stocked as smoothly and non-stressfully as possible. :)

[Dave66]

You'd want to stage your additions; at least two weeks per, and just a few fish at each addition. So perhaps three neons every two weeks until your school is built, followed by the hatchets, three per addition, then two weeks later, the ram.

I recommend you drip acclimate each addition at least two hours before introduction, since the characins and dwarf cichlid you listed are all sensitive to chemistry changes in water. That's why rushed acclimation accounting for temperature only kill so many fish in weeks or months after introduction.

IMHO Otocinclus group and a bristlenose catfish would be too much for a tank your size, and both species, particularly the Otocinclus, are challenging to feed correctly in a community setup.

Dave

[jaysee]

I would do (did do) cardinals AND neons, since the cards stay higher in the water and the neons stay low.

Neons and cardinals have low bioloads, so IMO you are safe to add the entire school at once. I added my school of 12 neons all at once and experienced no spikes.

[mac]

For me I would get the Bn for your tank. I have found Ottos a bit of a pain to feed and keep alive, due to feeding.

As for the adding of the Tetras I would get the full size school strait off. Mostly due to their light bio load. Drip acclimatizing them is best.

With the Hatches I would give it bit of time between the Neons and them, before adding the Hatchets.

Other wise it sounds great. Pics??

mac

[jaysee]

You can prepare your tank to take entire schools of fish at once by adjusting your feeding. The week before you plan on adding a school, increase your feeding. The extra food leads to more waste, which builds up the bacteria colonies. After you introduce the school, cut back on feeding and you'll be in the clear.

[MonkeyPox]

and run the risk of increasing your phosphates and algae.

[jaysee]

It's just a week. I routinely do this without consequence.

If you're worried about the risk of algae and phosphates, then do it for 5 days.

[mac]

and run the risk of increasing your phosphates and algae.

Really just upping the food is not going to give much bother at all. All that is happening is more waster produced by the fish, which helps give a kick start to the bacteria to multiply faster, than just getting use to a certain amount of fish in the tank with corresponding amount of waste.

To get a over dose of Phosphates would mean a awful lot of over feeding. Just one to 2 more pinches of flake, or sinking tabs or water ever is being added wont affect the tank at all. More so given the size, and the plants.

mac

[MonkeyPox]

Sorry Mac. If you are adding enough food to have a demonstrable impact on your bacteria colony through ammonia byproduct, you will up your phosphates.

The much better solution is to introduce new fish steadily over a few weeks rather then all at once. It's safer from a bio-load and diagnostic perspective.

[BirdOfPray]

I'm keeping the fish spaced two weeks apart -- actually, it works out well because we get paid every two weeks and that's when I get more spending money that I can blow on fish. ;) Technically Friday would be 13 days instead of two weeks, so I could wait another day if one day will make the difference.

So it's best to skip the BN/otos due to bioload? I've kept otos before and didn't have trouble feeding them -- they really liked fresh zucchini and similar vegetables. We buy ridiculous amounts of produce, so providing fresh veggies is no problem. Would there just be too much competition for the veggies and algae wafers with the other fish in the tank? I kept my otos with guppies and corys previously... although I made the sad mistake of only keeping two because I didn't realize they were schooling fish. They were still alive when I gave the tank to a friend when I moved away -- so I had them in the tank for a year or two and was able to keep them fed.

So the general consensus is cardinals, hatchets, and then the ram, right? Would 6 or 9 be a better final number for cardinals? Think I'd pass on neons, at least until I get everything else in and see how it's all working.

As far as building up the bactera culture for new additions, I wound up cycling using Seachem Stability and I can add a dose when I add fish to give the bacteria a boost. I was really skeptical about it at first, but it did cycle the tank within a week and everything has been stable since, so I'm turning into a believer.

ETA: Will try to take pictures of the tank as-is today! You'll have to ignore a slight algae build-up -- I haven't cleaned it off since I wasn't sure about adding algae eaters. Other than that and still being pretty empty, I'm very pleased with the way it's turning out!