I get my first fish for my new tank tomorrow!

[GuppyMCG]

My tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now, just poking along. I tossed a shrimp in the tank from the freezer and let it rot for a bit and it spiked and the ammonia and its now back to zero. Seems it really did speed things up!

There are a cpl small fish stores in my area and a few big name pet stores i'm going to scope out for my fish/snails tomorrow. I've got my eye on a pair of Purple Firefish, or a Yellow Watchman Goby. I've already constructed a PVC O-shaped tunnel for a future Goby. I just need to find the right barnacle for the opening.

My tank is pretty bleak right now. It's a Fish Only 12 gallon, so I need to make each fish count seeing as I don't have much space. I've got some pretty good ideas brewing for decor and will be posting pics up soon!

 

[Sarcothelia]

Don't add the fish until the ammonia is zero and you can say definitively that spiking is done. When you do, you could add a pistol shrimp and partnered goby to liven up the tank, but only when it is 100% cycled!

 

[GuppyMCG]

Dont worry, i've been carefully monitoring the tanks nitrogen cycle. Will the shrimp eat regular food or pellets? I've had good luck with shrimps in all my freshwaters but didn't think about one for my saltwater. I was just looking up the pistol shrimps, seems like almost everybody's yellow watchman befriends the shrimp.

 

[gwolfe]

Just make sure to do those weekly water changes, and to top off with freshwater due to evaporation. You may want to invest into a protein skimmer, which will help you in the long run for water quality. Oh yeah, don't overstock your aquarium. It's a common thing. It's always better to under-stock than to over-stock.
Hope this helps!
-Garrett

 

[gwolfe]

You can feed your shrimp frozen algae and sometimes even frozen Brine shrimp. If you get a cleaner shrimp, it will clean the fish of parasites and diseases!!