Questions about fishless cycling

[JHawk]

I need a little advice...my plants & fish came yesterday and I'm a little disappointed. I think its the presentation of the fish & plants...Kind of boring. I ordered a school of dwarf neon rainbowfish(12). They looked very pretty in their pictures online but now that I see them in the tank, they look very bland. Yea, in certain light they appear to shimmer different colors and they are interesting schoolers...I also ordered some corys-three dwarf and three pandas, a few killifish that also look very bland, and some SAE's that all died upon arrival (They looked to be the most interesting looking ones!). So basically, I've got a tank full of bland colorless fish. Any ideas on what to add to these boys to bring some color to the mix? The plants look OK...I guess it's all the hype of waiting for it and seeing all these beautiful tanks on line and then putting your together. Just having some buyers remorse.

 

[TankGirl]

The rainbows will color up - don't worry. They almost always look like this until they get established in their new tank with good water conditions and quality food, with plenty of variety. I am sorry about the SAE's, I purchased some from them about 6 months ago and they all died as well in quarrantine, despite my efforts - AZGardens will give you your money back.

Basically the shipping process is stressful for fish so they will almost always arrive looking kindof crummy, but with some good care they'll look better soon.

 

[mattrox]

Give it a couple of weeks with high quality food and good tank conditions and your fish will look spectacular.

 

[JHawk]

Here is the final result...[/img]