Adding school to a newish tank?

[amrictor]

I'm in the process of establishing a 20g long tank. I just moved and brought my year old male swordtail who’s been on his own all summer into this tank with all his old filter media and I’d like to put in a school of maybe 7-8 serpae or skirt tetras (depending on local availability). I've never kept schooling fish before and I don’t want to add them all at once and get a giant ammonia bloom but I’m nervous to add too few and have the fish be stressed and aggressive in too small of a school.

Any recommendations for an introduction schedule? or experience introducing schools to relatively new/lightly stocked tanks?

 

[Delapool]

A water test kit on ammonia, ph, etc I find useful. If the fish are quite small may not be too much bio-load.

 

[rlederer]

If the tank is cycled, then there is no problem. Check the pH, ammonia, and so forth and if all is well, add the school. If it is not cycled, wait. I'd be a bit concerned about the swordtail as they can be nippers.

 

[Fresh2o]

Speaking of nippers, you may want to think twice about getting the Serpae tetras.

 

[amrictor]

If the tank is cycled, then there is no problem. Check the pH, ammonia, and so forth and if all is well, add the school. If it is not cycled, wait. I'd be a bit concerned about the swordtail as they can be nippers.

I added 5 skirt tetras to the tank today and will add in another 3 pretty soon. I knew that there could be problems with nipping going in and I'm keeping a close eye on the swordtail, especially while I'm waiting to get the rest of the school in and I'm ready to divide it off until the skirts are settled down if I notice problems, or permanently move the swordtail to another tank if I don't think the community will work out at all. That said, I haven't noticed any particularly aggressive behavior from any of them yet. Obviously, I'll continue to monitor them.

 

[ledwards22]

I have a 29 gallon hexagon flat back. Love this tank. I only have1 filter on this tank but it has 6 glowfish, (1 of ea color) and 4 glow danios. I have 2 bubble wand LED lights so the fish really light up. As for a community in my 40 gallon tank I have 5 bloodfin tetras, 5 zebra danios, 2 red minor tetras, 4 black skirts, 5 sunburst platys, 2 red wag platys, 2 redeye tetras. I bought these tanks a week apart and been up a few months.so far so good, only fish I lost was 2 guppies that jumped out the back. Which the remaining 7 have there own tank. In the 40 i have a whisper millennium 3000 and a tetra ex70 together pump 595gph, 3 different airstones. As long as filtration is good do what you want. Obviously don't fill up to much of the physical swimming space, and aggressors.