Author Topic: Number of Fish for tank (Read 9998 times) 25 replies

Sue · « **Reply #20 on:** July 08, 2013, 11:07:16 AM »

Unfortunatley, no. You need to grow all those bacteria in the filter to make the tank safe for fish. But if you add nothing, the very tiny amount of bacteria in your tapwater will die off and not mulitply. They need food to multiply, and for the first colony of bacteria this food is ammonia. If you don't add it in some form, they won't multiply. The second colony is not a problem - once you've got the first bacteria on their way, they'll make the nitrite that the second ones use as food.
So just letting the tank sit will not do anything. Ammonia can be from a few fish (their 'urine'), a bottle of ammonia or fish food (fish food decomposes to make ammonia). You need to add one of those three.
When I say a few fish, the rule says that for cycling with fish the maximum amount of fish is 1 inch per 5 American gallons. Your tank is 37 litres = 10 US galls. So you can cycle with 2 inches of fish. What I mean by that is - look at the adult size of the fish you like and see how many of those would add up to 2 inches. For example, if you liked them you could get 2 male endlers. But that would also involve doing a lot of water changes to get rid of the excess ammonia and then nitrite till all the bacteria have grown.

Plants can help, but to use them to cycle the tank it has to be planted like a jungle with well growing plants. I am useless with plants so I only know the outline of this method not the detail. Plants can use ammonia as food, so if you have enough of them and just a few fish the plants use all the ammonia. But you have to be good at growing aquatic plants to do this.

Cinders · « **Reply #21 on:** July 08, 2013, 11:17:46 AM »

Ok Sue, thanks. So I will do a fishless cycle then and hope that it doesn't take too long, as I can't wait to get started on adding the fish.

Cinders · « **Reply #22 on:** July 09, 2013, 04:06:53 PM »

Hi Sue, I have a friend who has a tank that has been running for years. If he lets me have some bacteria from his filter, what exactly would he have to take out, would it be a piece of the filter media or just the liquid from it.

Sue · « **Reply #23 on:** July 09, 2013, 04:24:09 PM »

The best thing would be some of his media. If he has sponges, chop it up to make it fit in yours. If it's ceramic noodles, get/make a mesh bag for them. He can afford to give you up to a third of his media, but he must feed his fish lightly for a few days after and monitor his ammonia and nitrite levels. And get him some new media of his choice to replace what you take

. Then you can either use this media to do a faster than usual fishless cycle, or maybe get some fish - if you have a third of his media, you could get just under a third of the amount fish in his tank. If he has big fish, you would have to get small ones for the size of your tank, so estimate how many little fish would equal his big fish.
You would treat his media like a fish. As soon as it's removed from his tank it must go in a bag of his tank water, then taken home straight away and put in your filter. If you need to chop up a sponge be as quick as you can and don't let it get dry as that will kill the bacteria. Then add ammonia or get fish as soon as possible. It is now known the bacetria don't starve within a day or two, but if they are kept without a food source they will go dormant, and the longer it is the longer they take to 'wake up' and start working again.

If he is not willing to give you some media, the second best is for him to squeeze/swoosh his media (the dirtier the better) in a tub of tank water and for you to pour that into your filter as soon as you can. Then add ammonia immediately. Yes it will be very mucky but that goo will contain some bacteria. You won't get as many bacteria this way, so use the goo to start a fishless cycle rather than get fish.

Cinders · « **Reply #24 on:** July 09, 2013, 06:27:07 PM »

Thank you Sue, appreciate that help. My friend is away on holiday at the moment, but will be back at the weekend, when I am hoping to get my tank set up, so by the following weekend I should be almost ready for fish. I am so impatient aren't I !! Have been to Romsey World of Water today looking at all the lovely fish I can have. Keep changing my mind now.

Sue · « **Reply #25 on:** July 09, 2013, 07:44:28 PM »

That's the downside to fishkeeping. You get your tank set up and stocked just the way you want it, then you go in a shop and see some gorgeous fish you don't have room for

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Number Of Fish For Tank

Number Of Fish For Tank

Author Topic: Number of Fish for tank (Read 9998 times) 25 replies

Sue

Re: Number of Fish for tank

Cinders

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Cinders

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Sue

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Cinders

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Sue

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