cycling and stocking my new five gallon
- Thread starter maxwellag
- Start date
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FWIW, I keep a group of all male guppies, have for years, and have no problems between them. I don't feel females are crucial in the mix at all.
I've had a shy dwarf gourami, but they aren't all that way. Many larger gourami's are big bullies that aren't shy at all. Sparkling gourami's are fairly shy. They do best with fish their size and smaller.
Are you sure? I live in a small town and can find it just about anywhere..the grocery store, ace hardware, lowes, home depot, wal mart.. Maybe poke around a bit more if you get a chance.
librarygirl
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Yeah cycling with fish food can be messy, which is why ammonia is more accurate and cleaner. I'm afraid .5 ammonia isn't high enough to create a good biofilter. It should be at least 2 before we can see how much it goes down overnight.
siva said:FWIW, I keep a group of all male guppies, have for years, and have no problems between them. I don't feel females are crucial in the mix at all.
I've had a shy dwarf gourami, but they aren't all that way. Many larger gourami's are big bullies that aren't shy at all. Sparkling gourami's are fairly shy. They do best with fish their size and smaller.
Are you sure? I live in a small town and can find it just about anywhere..the grocery store, ace hardware, lowes, home depot, wal mart.. Maybe poke around a bit more if you get a chance.
I know. The main reason I want females is so I can selectively breed, and have really pretty ones.
jetajockey said:
Yeah, that's what ill do. I have two weird, possibly mutated ones that are mostly silver, with some bloches of random colors (purple, orange, pink, green) and one has a weird extra long tail. Here, take a look;
librarygirl
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Well, that's something. It seems like it processed the ammonia and nitrites from last night in 12 hours, if the tests are accurate (you're using the liquid kit and not strips, right?); sorry if that's been asked before, I forgot.
I would wait until tonight to add more food and test again to see where the ammonia is. I wish you could get it up higher than .5 at each dose though.
librarygirl
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Well I doubt it got higher than .5 that quickly.
It seems you're adding the fish food right into the tank like you had fish in there right? Do you have a mesh bag or some pantyhose (that are clean and haven't been washed with soap or detergents) you can use to put the fish food in? That way it decays in the bag and doesn't get all over your tank. Cycling with fish food is messy and can cause a lot of nasties in your tank as well as it being very filthy.
I fear we probably won't be able to get ammonia high enough to really grow a good colony, and after you add fish there may be some ammonia/nitrite spikes, but we'll see what happens. I'm trying to do some research on how much fish food to put in for a fishless cycle but I haven't yet been able to come up with a consistent answer. Although one person on another forum said she adds 2-3 flakes every 12 hours but it doesn't really produce a lot of ammonia, not like adding pure ammonia would. Thats' what worries me I guess, but if we can be sure that at least SOME ammonia is being converted overnight consistently then maybe you can stock slowly as long as your diligent in testing the water every day and do water changes as needed.
I agree. If I do stock today, I am only putting one guppy in. I will get two females and one male in total. If I do get them all at once, I will be putting two of them in a bucket with an airstone for quarantine, until atleast there is less than .25 ammonia again. The reason I might get all at once is because I can't go to the store that is the best near me very often...
librarygirl
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Well if you do get the fish you may as well clean out your entire tank of the leftover fish food (really vacuum the gravel and change all the water out and rinse out the filter pads in the OLD tank water, not tap water!) and put them in. Putting the fish in a bucket for a while it's basically putting them in an uncycled tank which would be worse long-term b/c there's no filter or heater in the bucket. THey have to poo and pee and be fed in the bucket which causes ammonia, so either way you'll be having to do a lot of water changes. May as well keep them in the tank.
If you do put fish in there PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE test the water twice per day. ANY TIME ammonia or nitrite reach 0.25 or more or/and nitrate reach 20 or more you have to do a water change to get all the levels as close to zero as possible. You may have to change water every day, let the tests dictate how much water you replace. Don't forget to temperature match the water and use a dechlorinator and don't put too many in at once. This could be a lot of work for many weeks, so if you aren't up for it, don't get the fish yet.
I hope you're doing weekly testing and water changes on your other tanks too, don't forget about those
TheJT
Aquarium Advice Activist
Looks like it.
I'm not there quite yet.
I'm not there quite yet.
TheJT
Aquarium Advice Activist
At least I'm expecting something similar.
