Stocking Question-How many?

[Pickles12807]

I'm currently cycling my first tank, it's a 20 gallon long with an Aquaclear 30. The process is going well, so I'm trying to get prepared for when it's time to start adding fish. My plan is to add:

1 honey gourami
10 harlequin rasboras
10 glowlight tetras

The question I have is how many fish can I add at once? I know it's generally recommended that only 2-3 fish be added at a time, but I wasn't sure if that is still true with an initial startup. I have been cycling using Dr Tim's ammonia, getting my tank up to 3-4ppm.


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[Yorg]

Hi Pickles12807:

Yes, even with an initial startup you shouldn't add too many fish at once. Your biofilter is newly established and you don't want to overload it.

One approach might be to split up the harlequins: get five now and the other five in a week or so when you're confident that the biofilter is keeping up. Or you could bring the gourami home, see how the tank handles him and his feeding for a few days, then go pick up half of the harlequins or tetras.

Is that reasonable for you to do, given where you live and where your supplier is?

-Yorg

I'm currently cycling my first tank, it's a 20 gallon long with an Aquaclear 30. The process is going well, so I'm trying to get prepared for when it's time to start adding fish. My plan is to add:

1 honey gourami
10 harlequin rasboras
10 glowlight tetras

The question I have is how many fish can I add at once? I know it's generally recommended that only 2-3 fish be added at a time, but I wasn't sure if that is still true with an initial startup. I have been cycling using Dr Tim's ammonia, getting my tank up to 3-4ppm.


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[NigelK8485]

Hm, I've been told the opposite. Your tank is already processing 3-4ppm of ammonia, so you should be fine adding all your stock at once. If you add just a few fish at a time your excess bacteria will starve off and then you'll have to slowly introduce fish to let it build back up. It doesn't make sense to build up bacteria to process that much ammonia just to kill a large portion off....just to build it back up...


Maybe some more people will chime in.


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[absolutangel04]

I see no reason not to add the fish one group at a time. I would add all 10 of either species first. Then, go ahead and add the other 11 fish after you are sure everything is going well. These are fairly small fish and honestly don't have a crazy bad bioload. Make super sure not to over feed, and keep an eye on your parameters.
In theory, you might be able to add them all at once. Personally, I am not in favor of that because things can go wrong and then you will be doing a lot of pwc to keep things going well. If you are able to make multiple trips easily to the store where you plan to purchase, I would split it up. If you have to order online, it is up to you if you want to do everything at once or break it up.

 

[Pickles12807]

The LFS I found with the best looking fish is only about 20 minutes away, so I can definitely make multiple trips if I need to. I would prefer to do a school of 10 one week and then the other school of 10 + the honey gourami the next week if possible, but am willing to make more trips if need be.


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[absolutangel04]

That should work fine. Make sure to do testing to make sure you are ready for the next batch the following week. It may end up being better to wait like 2 weeks between batches, but let the parameters be the deciding factor. Good luck, and get pictures!