Adding Schooling Fish

[--Matt--]

Hey Everyone,
I am new to aquaria, just cycled a 20 gallon tank and am wanting to add a school of 6 or 7 harlequin rasboras. Everything i have read says to add new fish 1-3 at a time, but contradictory to that i have read schooling fish will be stressed or potentially aggressive/territorial if not enough are added. What is the best way to add a school of fish???

 

[Catfish Lover]

I'm assuming you did a fishless cycle, if so go ahead and add them all.

 

[Mebbid]

Hey Everyone,
I am new to aquaria, just cycled a 20 gallon tank and am wanting to add a school of 6 or 7 harlequin rasboras. Everything i have read says to add new fish 1-3 at a time, but contradictory to that i have read schooling fish will be stressed or potentially aggressive/territorial if not enough are added. What is the best way to add a school of fish???

It all depends on the size of tank and amount of filtration you have. The more water and filtration you have the less of a problem it will be to add large groups.
For example, on my 55g with 200g worth of filtration, adding an entire school of fish isn't really going to make much of a difference on my bio filter. But on a 20g it is much better to add things more slowly. That being said, if you just finished a fishless cycle; your bio filter will never be stronger so feel free to fully stock the tank right away if you choose.

 

[BBradbury]

Rasboras

Hey Everyone,
I am new to aquaria, just cycled a 20 gallon tank and am wanting to add a school of 6 or 7 harlequin rasboras. Everything i have read says to add new fish 1-3 at a time, but contradictory to that i have read schooling fish will be stressed or potentially aggressive/territorial if not enough are added. What is the best way to add a school of fish???

Hello Matt...

A 20 gallon tank is pretty small, but so are Rasboras and very peaceful fish. If you kept the tank extremely clean and added some plants before putting in the fish, then you could add six or so and keep them. A good tank maintenance routine, that included large, frequent water changes wouldn't hurt.

B

 

[--Matt--]

thanks for the replies. I did not do a fishless cycle, i had a couple Zebra Danios, then i bought that miracle tank cycle garbage and some cheap test strips which i used incorrectly assumed my tank was cycled and started adding more fish. Ultimately i lost quite a few. I bought the API master test kit and realized my tank was nowhere near cycled. Then my filter broke, and i had to replace it losing any bio-filter i had. I finally purchased a sponge filter purely for bio-filter and within a week it cycled. Ammonia, and nitraites at 0 for a month, nitrates stay under 10ppm. I gravel vacuum once a week and do 20 percent water change twice a week. Sundays i dont feed the fish to clear their digestive track.

 

[Mebbid]

thanks for the replies. I did not do a fishless cycle, i had a couple Zebra Danios, then i bought that miracle tank cycle garbage and some cheap test strips which i used incorrectly assumed my tank was cycled and started adding more fish. Ultimately i lost quite a few. I bought the API master test kit and realized my tank was nowhere near cycled. Then my filter broke, and i had to replace it losing any bio-filter i had. I finally purchased a sponge filter purely for bio-filter and within a week it cycled. Ammonia, and nitraites at 0 for a month, nitrates stay under 10ppm. I gravel vacuum once a week and do 20 percent water change twice a week. Sundays i dont feed the fish to clear their digestive track.

Ahh. Well then I would only add a few fish a time for certain. In the future if your filter breaks you can just add the filter media to the new filter to have an automatically cycled tank.

 

[Michlol101]

If everything's fine now, I'd go ahead and add them