Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Tizme on July 31, 2024, 05:00:51 PM
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Hi at the moment I am waiting for rest of hardscape to be delivered. After I have planted , and done my fishless cycle I am planning to get the following.
15 cardinal tetras
15 celestial pearl danio
9 threadfin rainbow
7 corys ( not sure which yet. But small)
I also want a statement fish. Was thinking about 3 honey gourami.
Will honey gourami be ok. Or are the other fish to boisterous
Which fish should I add first
My tank is a 180l rio with the internal filter
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As I understand it, the Juwel Rio's dimensions are 101cm (W) x 41cm (D) x 50cm (H), and your choices of fish are fine for a tank with its footprint. Numbers also seem fine, although you can check with the Community Creator on here.
All lovely fish.
As for the cories, panda cories might work well size-wise .v. the other fish. Sometimes it's best to leave cories until the tank is more mature and has developed a biofilm (eg 9+ months old) but yours might be fine if you didn't deepclean it after the predecessor fish and if it wasn't too long ago.
As for the fishes' compatibility with one another, @Sue might be the best person to advise on this.
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The fish you suggest are compatible with each other, but we need some more details to know they are OK with your water.
The fish you suggest are soft water fish, except perhaps celestial pearl danios. So you need to find out how hard your tap water is. The easiest way is to look on your water company's website; it could be under 'in your area' (or however they phrase it) or water quality report. You need a number and the unit of measurement as UK water companies sometimes use strange units so we have to convert into the two units used in fish keeping.
A few comments on your fish list -
Threadfin rainbows are often sold as just males. If you want to observe their behaviour with males and females, spend the fishless cycling time looking for somewhere that stocks females.
Celestial pearl danios can be very shy fish so make sure there's lots of places for them to hide in. It sounds wrong, but the more hiding places there are, the more likely they'll be out and about as they know there's somewhere to run and hide.
Cories do better in larger numbers - and on sand rather than gravel.
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Ty for replying
My water hardness is 6.86 Clarke.
I am getting sand specifically for Cory's
My tank will be well planted with caves as well for hiding
My lfs had threadfin in but they were far to young to tell if male or female. So I might have problems there. I don't think it's fair for a group of single sex. But maybe I'm wrong. I want 1 male to at least 2 female.
My main concern is would the threadfin be to boisterous for a honey gourami.
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@Sue the tank has been empty for a couple of weeks. So it's a complete clean. New media. Everything.
I will run a fishless cycle and wait for the plants to root in before adding corys.
I was thinking of adding the CPD first so they have time to adjust to the tank.
I am dreading the fishless cycle. 🥺
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Fish profiles use the units dH and ppm for hardness; your 6.86 Clarke converts to 5.5 dH and 98 ppm. You have soft water. Make a note of those numbers to use in research.
Your hardness is right at the bottom of the hardness range for celestial pearl danios.
I have never kept threadfin rainbows as I've only once seen females in a shop (and by the time my quarantine tank was ready they'd all gone) so I can't say from experience of they'd be OK with honey gouramis.
If you do a fishless cycle, you can add all the fish at once. You will have grown more than enough bacteria to support a fully stocked tank, and if you add fish a few at a time you'll risk losing a lot of the bacteria you've spent ages growing. If you can source all the fish from the same shop at the same time, it would also mean you don't need a quarantine tank - if you get a few fish from one shop then a few weeks later get some more form a different shop it is advised to quarantine the new fish in a separate tank to avoid the new ones bringing in a disease and infecting the ones already there.
Fishless cycling isn't as hard as it sounds. Basically, add ammonia and test the water and add more ammonia when the results show certain target readings. The hard bit is finding ammonia; the usual source nowadays is Dr Tim's ammonium chloride, sold on Amazon and eBay. The bottle tells you how many drops to add per gallon - that's American gallons so 180 litres = 47 US gallons.
Tetra Safe Start will speed up a cycle as that is one of the two brands which contain the correct species of nitrite eating bacteria.
You mention plants - do you plan a lot of them or just a few slow growing plants?
If you plan a lot, you could opt for a plant or silent cycle. This involves planting the tank and waiting until they are actively growing, then adding fish a few at a time. Taking a photo of the newly planted tank gives something to compare the plants to. It is sensible to test for ammonia and nitrite for several days after each batch of fish are added, and only adding more fish if they remain at zero.
However, if just few slow growing plants are wanted, it is better to do a fishless cycle then add the plants. Just a few slow growers aren't enough to deal with the waste from a tankful of fish. Fishless cycling involves adding a whole dose of ammonia at once while fish make ammonia in tiny amounts 24 hours a day; some plants can't cope with a dose of ammonia added all at once which is why plants should not be added during fishless cycling.
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Ty so much. The way you have explained makes so much sense.
I plan on buying 9 in vitro plants and 3 in blister packe. All tropica range so they are safe.
So it looks like I'm better planting after the cycle and just before getting the fish.
I didn't think about if I got a few at once I might lose bacteria. But yes I do plan on buying all from the same place.
Ty so much
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I've just spotted a typo in my last post :-[
I have edited the post to add the word 'not' so the last sentence now reads
"why plants should not be added during fishless cycling"
Sorry for any confusion :-[