and all the ammonia, nitrate, etc.. are all where they're supposed to be. Do I change the water?, how much? and then do I add my new fish in right away?. What are some fish that I can put in my 5.5 gal that are as colorful as a goldfish? NO neon tetras.
Also can I remove all my zebra danios, and put all my new fish in.
2007-08-13 16:42:39 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Just an FYI, your nitrates won't spike and drop to 0. You should from this point on, always have some nitrates showing in the tank. Even planted tanks still show some nitrates. Ideally, you'll want to keep them under 20ppm.
When it's done cycling, I would do a small water change. It won't hurt anything. For your size tank, you're going to be limited really on the amount and types of fish you can put in there. Small colorful fish that would work in your tank....bettas, guppies, dwarf platies, and very many of those types either.
Don't add all your fish in at once. If you're moving the zebras out, I would add one fish at a time, every 1-2 weeks to give the bacteria from the cycle time to catch up to the added bioload. If you add all the fish at once, you're tank will go through a mini cycle, because the zebras are rather small and not much of a strain on the bacteria.
Also, don't add a pleco to the tank...they all grow too big for that size tank. And, dwarf puffers aren't brackish, they're a true fresh water puffer......
2007-08-13 18:15:55 · answer #1 · answered by tikitiki 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The correct levels should be as follows
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0
nitrate: 1-20ppm
you can put a betta in there and leave your zebra danios as well
also a cory cat or shrimps for the bottom
as well as live plants
and for the guy that said Dwarf puffers are brackish, you're dead wrong, they are tropical freshwater fish
Hope that helps
Good luck
EB
2007-08-14 01:29:25 · answer #2 · answered by Kribensis lover 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You don't do any water changes when everything reaches 0 ppm. You do a water change when you get your nitrate spike. From that point on, you just wait until your nitrates drop to 0. Then you can add fish at any time. I'm going to assume that, as you know about cycling, you know you can't have goldfish in that small of a tank, so I am assuming that you were only using goldfish as a color reference. I, personally, can't advise you to remove your danios if you mean to just toss them away, because I am against killing animals just for our pleasure. This is why I advocate fishless cycling. So, what you do with your danios will have to be up to you. Sad. Anyway, gouramis are very colorful as are swordtails and platys. Also rainbow fish, especially boesemani and praecox rainbows.
2007-08-13 23:59:42 · answer #3 · answered by Venice Girl 6 · 0⤊ 6⤋
You can put some glo-lite tetras in, along with an oto cat to help control algae growth. Plecos grow to be over a foot long, so you don't want one of them in your small tank.
2007-08-13 23:51:27 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can put guppys,pleco,betta if its brackish u can put a dwarf puffer but thats it if u put a dwarf puffer
2007-08-13 23:56:52 · answer #5 · answered by Ethan S 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋