A Few Stocking Questions Please

[Deacon211]

Hey all,

I was in here asking some cycling advice a few weeks back and you all really helped me out. I was hoping for your advice again.

I'm running a Aqueon Bowfront 16gal, air stone, Aqueon 10 filter. After some cycling trauma, I have the tank fairly well settled down now with still just a nagging trace of Ammonia. I was stocked with

2 Guppies (1 a long suffering veteran, 1 a six week new guy)
4 Celestial Pearl Danios
1 Cherry Shrimp

Just this last weekend I came back from a week vacation to find my young Guppy with a quarter of his tail gone. Fearing spreading the disease I put him in a new, out of the box, 1 gal tank and tried to treat him with Antibiotics. Sadly, the little guy was dead within 36 hours. The rest seem to remain healthy.

So, my questions are as follows:

1. My remaining Guppy seems to be looking for his friend and I was going to get a replacement. Assuming I quarantine him for a week, should I be concerned about the new guppy contracting fin rot from the quarantine tank?

2. If so, how would you recommend cleaning the 1 gal? Soap? Sun? Just rinse and air dry?

3. Can an unestablished tank be used for quarantine if I do daily water changes?

3. My original stocking plan was 2 Guppies, 4 CBPs, 1 shrimp, 5 Diamond Tetras (Allowable in AqAdvisor). Since I'm running this tank for the Guppy, can I simultaneously quarantine the 5 Tetras for the week? Quarters will be pretty tight, but if it's only for a short period...

Thanks for any input in advance!

Deacon

 

[librarygirl]

Hi, my replies below in blue....

Hey all,

I was in here asking some cycling advice a few weeks back and you all really helped me out. I was hoping for your advice again.

I'm running a Aqueon Bowfront 16gal, air stone, Aqueon 10 filter. After some cycling trauma, I have the tank fairly well settled down now with still just a nagging trace of Ammonia. I was stocked with
First I'll suggest adding more filtration; an Aquaclear 30 would do nicely. You an either run it with your current filter or move the media from your current filter to the Aquaclear and then fill it the rest of the way with some of the media the AC comes with.

2 Guppies (1 a long suffering veteran, 1 a six week new guy)
4 Celestial Pearl Danios
1 Cherry Shrimp

Just this last weekend I came back from a week vacation to find my young Guppy with a quarter of his tail gone. Fearing spreading the disease I put him in a new, out of the box, 1 gal tank and tried to treat him with Antibiotics. Sadly, the little guy was dead within 36 hours. The rest seem to remain healthy.

So, my questions are as follows:

1. My remaining Guppy seems to be looking for his friend and I was going to get a replacement. Assuming I quarantine him for a week, should I be concerned about the new guppy contracting fin rot from the quarantine tank?
I wouldn't think so; typically fin rot isn't a disease in itself but a symptom of something else, usually poor water quality. With that being said I think a 1 gal is way too small for a quarantine; the fish will be stressed already and in such a small tank (potentially without a heater) it will just make it worse. Guppies are also pretty messy so in a 1 gal the ammonia levels are going to rise which is going to make the situation worse for the fish. I'd suggest at least a 5 gal for a QT; larger if you want to QT more fish at once.

2. If so, how would you recommend cleaning the 1 gal? Soap? Sun? Just rinse and air dry? You can clean it with water and vinegar and rinse it well and dry it out, but as I said above a 1 gal is pretty small for a QT.

3. Can an unestablished tank be used for quarantine if I do daily water changes? Yes. Once your main tank is cycled you can usually pull some media from the main tank to use in a QT tank but since your tank is new I wouldn't advise pulling media from it yet. Again though, any fish in a 1 gal, particularly a guppy, might be a bad idea.

3. My original stocking plan was 2 Guppies, 4 CBPs, 1 shrimp, 5 Diamond Tetras (Allowable in AqAdvisor). Since I'm running this tank for the Guppy, can I simultaneously quarantine the 5 Tetras for the week? Quarters will be pretty tight, but if it's only for a short period...
I'd actually increase the CPDs to 8. I have them too, lovely fish, and they feel more secure with larger numbers and you have the room for 8. Also I'm not sure if shrimp NEED to be in groups but I would think they might and they add almost nothing to the bioload of the tank so I'd add more of those too. I would not put all of those fish in a 1 gal QT.

Thanks for any input in advance!

Deacon

 

[TOMatt]

I'm pretty new, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt...

2. Don't use soap. maybe a tiny bit of bleach mixed with water, and rinse really well. When I got my used 20g tank, I just put it in the bathtub and blasted it for a while with the high-pressure showerhead. That seemed to work, but i don't think the previous owner had any diseased fish.

3. I wouldn't run an unestablished tank for quarantine. Since you're using a "10" filter on a 16g tank (i THINK the 10 refers to the recommended gallon amount), i'd get a second "10" filter. Run them both simultaneously on your main aquarium to get the beneficial bacteria into the new filter. Once that has caught up, you can move it to a quarantine tank. That would leave your main one with the original filter, and one that can be moved between the two tanks as needed, keeping them both established properly.

Good luck, and I hope someone more knowledgeable can offer more advice.


Edit: LibraryGirl just gave you some good advice while I typed.

 

[Deacon211]

Thanks for the quick replies!

The issue I have with a larger quarantine tank is just room to put it in my house. If a 1 gal is too small, I almost wonder if just adding the Guppy to the main tank might not just wind up being better as long as I keep an eye on him.

I'll need to check out adding another filter. The 10 came with the tank and I thought that the number didn't match with the capacity, but I could be completely wrong. The CBPs are pretty, but small. The local fish store doesn't seem to ever have them and ordering online is crazy expensive. I was hoping for the Diamonds to liven up the tank, but I won't be able to do both.

My wife loves the shrimp on the other hand! She'd love to have a second I think.

Ah, as always, much to think about. Well, I appreciate the help, guys. I guess I have some thinking to do.

Deacon

 

[librarygirl]

You could just add the guppy to the main tank. Just get it from a source you trust and make sure they are healthy in the store. Is the one you have now male or female? If you add another of the same gender that's fine, but if you add one other of the opposite gender it's likely that the male will harass the female to death. If you can get more CPDs, I'd add more. They can be stunning in larger numbers (plus if they feel safer you'll see them more). Also for the shrimp, get more than two

 

[Deacon211]

Hmmm,

I have always kept 3 or 2 males, and they usually seem to make fast friends.

There is a local fish store chain that has very healthy looking stock and reputedly gets them from a high end fish supplier. I could get the guppy from them. They seem to have trouble getting CPDs though, although I've heard the same story from all the LFSs.

I got the CPDs originally from Liveaquaria. They came fine save one, but with almost half the cost coming from shipping, the price per fish is kind of high...higher when one dies in shipping which happened to me. Still, were I to get another 4 or 5, instead of one as I had intended, it would make it somewhat cheaper. They are actually pretty bold in my tank. One even liked to swim with the Guppies, which surprised me.

Do you all have any other suggestions for a final fish or two to add a little life to the tank? I had had my heart set on a blue Gourami, but I heard such negative things about them I gave up on one. I'd just like a last little bit of variety to make the tank interesting while keeping the fish happy!

I can't tell you how helpful I have found this forum!

Deacon

 

[Rivercats]

First off Diamond tetras get way too big to keep in a 16 gallon tank. I keep and have kept them off an on over the past 30 years. Normal size gouramis' all would grow too large not to mention too aggressive for a tank that size. I personally would get your 2nd guppy and increase your CPD's. If you have to have another fish look into honey gourami's (sunset honey and golden honey are other color varieties) or dwarf gourami males. Just get one for a centerpiece fish and your full up (unless you want to add a couple more shrimp.

 

[Deacon211]

Thanks Rivercats,

I'm surprised to hear that about the Tetras. I ran the config on AqAdvisor and it said I would be OK with 2/5/5 of Guppies, CPDs, and DTs respectively. I was under the impression that AA was generally pretty conservative, but that all rumor of course.

It was specifically a Dwarf Gourami that I was looking at. But I had heard that they were genetically poor stock and likely to not last long.

So, I just got back home with another Guppy and a shrimp. If I bring up my CPDs to, say 8, is there room for one more of something else and what would it be assuming Gouramis are off the list? Or am I discounting Gouramis too quickly?

 

[Rivercats]

CPD"s are so small you could do 8 and still have room IMO for a honey gourami. Honey gourami's are not in the dwarf gourami group but are still small. They are not prone to issues that some dwarf g's are. And they do come in Sunset Honey and Golden Honey. Monday we were out and stopped at the only LFS I will buy from and they actually had the biggest male Diamond I had ever seen. They said they took it from a friend. Mine always got big but this guy was a brute. I honestly had to stop and do a double take to be sure I was really seeing a Diamond. I figure this guy had to have been older or was kept in a huge tank for a long time. I honestly don't like alot of what that AA says, yeah it has it's uses but alot of the info and stocking levels IMO are way off. But anyway if you ever get a 55 or larger get some Diamonds as they are cool fish.

 

[Deacon211]

Cool, I'll definitely check out the Honey Gouramis. That would make a nice interesting tank I think.

Thanks everybody for the advice!

Deacon