Does this sound a good plan for adding a few extra fish?

[Joey P]

Right now I have two tanks. A small 2 gallon tank with two neons that I'm looking to get rid of and a 40 gallon.

The 40 gallon has 5 tiger barbs, 1 pearl gourami, 1 flame (?) gourami, 1 red tail shark and a BN pleco. I'm just fishing up a salt/heat Ich treatment.

Yesterday I swapped out half the water for freshwater and started lowering the temperature. Today I'm going to swap out another half (so nearly all the salt is gone) and bring the heat back into the normal range.

My plan is that tomorrow I'll add the two neons to the 40 gallon tank and then pick up three more and quarantine them in the 2 gallon tank for 2 weeks or so. After they've been quarantined I can add them to the big tank and get rid of this annoying little 2 gallon thing. But, in the mean time, it's cycled, so I think it'll work to, over the course or two weeks, get a total of five neons into the 40 gallon tank.

 

[Joey P]

Something I thought about yesterday, when I strip down the old tank, I'll toss the filter from it in the 40 gallon filter. It's a Small filter so it'll fit inside my Aqueon 50/75 filter and I'll probably just forget it's there, but if I ever need to cycle another tank, that'll be nice to have.

In fact, that's how I seeded this tank when I first set it up.

 

[librarygirl]

The neons do need a larger tank, but the tiger barbs may go after them. The shark will need a larger tank as it matures as well. And the two gourami may eventually fight; it's generally not recommended to mix different gourami types for this reason.

 

[Joey P]

I realized that, about the neons, after the fact. I got into the whole fish thing, a few months ago, while at a pet store, and my daughter saw the black light tanks on display. A few hours later and we had the 1.8gallon Neon tank and three neons. A week or two later, one died* and we were down to two. They really zip around and I'd like to give them more space. In a perfect world, the Neon people wouldn't sell this stupid little bowl. Nothing about this design is good. It's nearly impossible to maintain.


The shark lays pretty low. He really keeps to himself. Spends a lot of the day under the drift wood and away from the other fish. He ventures out for 20 minutes here and there to clean the rocks and decorations, but he seems pretty friendly so far.
The gouramis have been ignoring each other for the most part as well. I've seen a little playfulness between them, but that's about it. The pearl spends most of it's time at the top of the tank, usually in one corner, the flame (?) spends, honestly, 15 hours a day at the opposite end, running up and down and up and down and up and down chasing it's reflection. I've thought about putting a background on that side, but then I won't be able to see in that side of the tank from where I'm sitting. She must be driving herself insane (he?).

IOW, so far, they've all been getting along very well, but I know it's early.

I don't intend to get another tank right now, but I'd like to get rid of the small one.


*The one that died seemed to have issues eating. It would 'try' to eat but it missed the food. It was strange to watch it. It was like watching Ted in Airplane with his drinking problem. The fish would go up for the food and just, miss it. I kinda wondered if it had sight problems.

 

[Joey P]

As much as I love the shark, sometimes I do wish I hadn't bought it. It seems like whenever I play with AqAdvisor, nearly everything comes up as "Your shark will eat this as soon as you put it in the tank, haha!" But, as I said, it seems like everything is doing well right now.

 

[Alyxx]

I realized that, about the neons, after the fact. I got into the whole fish thing, a few months ago, while at a pet store, and my daughter saw the black light tanks on display. A few hours later and we had the 1.8gallon Neon tank and three neons. A week or two later, one died* and we were down to two. They really zip around and I'd like to give them more space. In a perfect world, the Neon people wouldn't sell this stupid little bowl. Nothing about this design is good. It's nearly impossible to maintain.

The shark lays pretty low. He really keeps to himself. Spends a lot of the day under the drift wood and away from the other fish. He ventures out for 20 minutes here and there to clean the rocks and decorations, but he seems pretty friendly so far.
The gouramis have been ignoring each other for the most part as well. I've seen a little playfulness between them, but that's about it. The pearl spends most of it's time at the top of the tank, usually in one corner, the flame (?) spends, honestly, 15 hours a day at the opposite end, running up and down and up and down and up and down chasing it's reflection. I've thought about putting a background on that side, but then I won't be able to see in that side of the tank from where I'm sitting. She must be driving herself insane (he?).

IOW, so far, they've all been getting along very well, but I know it's early.

I don't intend to get another tank right now, but I'd like to get rid of the small one.

*The one that died seemed to have issues eating. It would 'try' to eat but it missed the food. It was strange to watch it. It was like watching Ted in Airplane with his drinking problem. The fish would go up for the food and just, miss it. I kinda wondered if it had sight problems.

By neons, do you mean neon tetras or glofish? Just wondering because the black light tanks are marketed for the glofish so if you got the neon colored fish on the box, you have glofish and not neon tetras, and the requirements for them are a little different as they are really genetically modified danios.

 

[Joey P]

They are glofish. I always get those mixed up. Looking at AqAdvisor with Glofish instead of Neon Tetras, I may be safe. It now doesn't say that the Tiger Barbs and Shark will kill the neons.

Maybe I should give it a shot with the two Glofish that I have and see what happens.

 

[Alyxx]

They are glofish. I always get those mixed up. Looking at AqAdvisor with Glofish instead of Neon Tetras, I may be safe. It now doesn't say that the Tiger Barbs and Shark will kill the neons.

Maybe I should give it a shot with the two Glofish that I have and see what happens.

Yes, the glofish should be big enough to avoid most of the danger the other fish pose, at least for now. When the shark matures more you may have to reevaluate the situation. The glofish still need to be in a group of at least 5, though.

 

[Joey P]

They're pretty small right now, they'll be the smallest in the tank, but they can swim pretty fast. I'd guess at least as fast as anything else in there. There's also a ton of decorations in the tank for hiding.
But, like I said, I only have two and I'd like to bring it up to 5, but I want to quarantine the incoming 3 (without setting up a third tank).
I'd like to put the two I have in the big tank and put the 3 I buy in the small tank for a few weeks and then move them to the big tank. I'd rather not have all 5 in the 2g tank. They'll be crowded and it would defeat the purpose of trying to quarantine them.

Or I could take the risk, buy three more and toss all 5 in the big tank at the same time.

 

[Alyxx]

They're pretty small right now, they'll be the smallest in the tank, but they can swim pretty fast. I'd guess at least as fast as anything else in there. There's also a ton of decorations in the tank for hiding.
But, like I said, I only have two and I'd like to bring it up to 5, but I want to quarantine the incoming 3 (without setting up a third tank).
I'd like to put the two I have in the big tank and put the 3 I buy in the small tank for a few weeks and then move them to the big tank. I'd rather not have all 5 in the 2g tank. They'll be crowded and it would defeat the purpose of trying to quarantine them.

Yes, that tank is far too small for one let alone 5. I don't know who came up with the idea of selling tiny tanks for glofish, they are modified zebra danios and zebra danios need 20 gallons minimum because of how active they are. They need lots of swimming space. And yes, they are fast. In fact they are often recommended as dither fish for tanks with large aggressive cichlids like jack dempseys, because in general they are usually too fast to be caught. Dither fish are fast moving fish that act as a signal that its ok for shyer fish to come out and swim. And quarantining is always a good plan. I think that the new three should be ok in the tiny tank for a week or two as long as you change their water often, at least every other day.

 

[Joey P]

Sounds good. I'll start drip acclimating them and get them in there tonight, right around lights out time.

 

[Joey P]

Well, the two Glofish are in. I watched them for a while. One of them ran around for a while with the group of barbs. I suppose I don't know if it was 'running around with' or 'being chased by'. Either way, it didn't seem like it was anything to be concerned about.
The other has managed to find out exactly how far into the corners he can force himself into. He found out how much more powerful the outputs are on the two filters in this tank then they were in on the little 2 gallon tank and he didn't seem to appreciate the Gouramis nosing around at him.

After about a half hour of making sure no one was going to eat anyone right away, I shut off the tank lights as well as the lights in the room to slow everyone down. I'll take a peek at them it a bit, but there's not much I can do at this point. As long as everyone survives the night and looks like they're all getting used to each other, I'll continue to move forward with the plan.

 

[Joey P]

12 hours later and they're both still alive. It took me a while to find them this morning though. They're both hiding behind the intake motor for the HOB filter.

The other fish are leaving them alone, but I really don't know how their night went.

Wait...one just came out. I suppose they are sort of in the pearl gourami's spot.

I think I'll wait a bit and see how they handle some frozen algae. They usually fills the tank and keeps everyone sort of distracted. Then maybe I'll leave the lights off for the day.

 

[Joey P]

Three new glofish in the little tank. Definitely too big for that little tank. How long should I leave them in there for? Few days? A week? Two weeks? They look healthy, but they only thing I really know how to look for is ich.

 

[Alyxx]

Three new glofish in the little tank. Definitely too big for that little tank. How long should I leave them in there for? Few days? A week? Two weeks? They look healthy, but they only thing I really know how to look for is ich.

I try to qt for at least two weeks. Keep an eye out for ich, stringy white poop, any cottony looking growths, and make sure they are eating. Keep the water very clean. Because they are in such a small space, you may have to take them out of QT early if they are looking really stressed out.

 

[Joey P]

So one of the three new Glofish in the small tank died overnight. I did a 25% water change last night and it was laying on the gravel in the morning. I tested the water this morning and everything was fine.

Also, now that the 2 original Glofish that were in that tank are now in the big tank under a regular light and not in such crowded conditions, I'm thinking one of them isn't actually a Glofish. I can get a better picture later (after work) if it helps. That's going to put me down to 3 Glofish and one other thing when this is all said and done.

On the upside, these two fish seem to be doing well in the new tank. For some reason, only one will come out at a time. The one I linked to above will be out swimming around happily for a few hours, then it'll disappear for a few hours and the other will show up for a while. But it's rare for me to see them both out at the same time. It may have something to do with them both sharing the same hiding spot.

 

[Alyxx]

So one of the three new Glofish in the small tank died overnight. I did a 25% water change last night and it was laying on the gravel in the morning. I tested the water this morning and everything was fine.

Also, now that the 2 original Glofish that were in that tank are now in the big tank under a regular light and not in such crowded conditions, I'm thinking one of them isn't actually a Glofish. I can get a better picture later (after work) if it helps. That's going to put me down to 3 Glofish and one other thing when this is all said and done.

On the upside, these two fish seem to be doing well in the new tank. For some reason, only one will come out at a time. The one I linked to above will be out swimming around happily for a few hours, then it'll disappear for a few hours and the other will show up for a while. But it's rare for me to see them both out at the same time. It may have something to do with them both sharing the same hiding spot.

The one you linked is a guppy. Sorry to hear you lost one, though. It is possible that the small tank just stressed it out too much, or it just wasn't very healthy to begin With, which is why quarantine is important. Keep an eye on the two that are still in quarantine for any signs of sickness. I would return the guppy if you can, and replace it with an actual glofish.
The glofish (zebra danios) do need a group of five or more to really feel comfortable, which is probably why they are hiding so much. I would just keep picking up a couple at a time to quarantine until you have a full school.