Adding to my freshwater aquarium?

Question

I have two catfish, small, a pleco and four neons. I have just got my aquarium to a point where i can add more fish. Any recommendaions on the safest way and the best fish???

Answer 1

Carefully. First of all, be sure that the behaviors of the fish you want to add will work with the behaviors of the fish you already have. You don't want fish that will pester/eat your current residents or vice versa. The best way to know about a fish species' behavior is read about it, or look it up on the internet, unless you have a fish person that you trust who knows all this stuff.

Once you've decided on the fish you want to add, you need to prepare an isolation tank. I use a big old round fishbowl, but I put in a filter and an air bubbler. Whatever you use, be sure you have the filter and air. You can innoculate the water in the isolation tank with water from your established tank to speed up the water cycling.

Unfortunately, many commercially available fish are raised in a soup of antibiotics to allow overcrowding and less than sanitary conditions, then stressed by shipping, and no sooner do you buy them and put them in your tank than they bloom with all manner of horrible diseases and everyone gets sick and dies. Thus the isolation tank.

Put your new fish in the isolation tank and watch for disease for 2-4 weeks. Save your purchase receipt, so you can get replacement fish if they die. This also alerts the fish seller to the fact that his suppliers are not providing healthy fish.

Once you're sure the new fish are healthy, put them in a plastic bag of water from the isolation tank, blow some air into it and tie it off, and let it float in your established tank for 2-4 hours so that the water temperatures equilibrate. Then open the bag, turn 'em loose and enjoy.

Sorry it's so complicated. If you have a friend/trusted fish source who can provide you with known-healthy fish, you can skip a lot of this stuff; but it pays to be cautious. Even healthy fish are stressed by water changes and may have different immunities from yours just from living in a different situation.