FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Well everything seemed fine last night. Still no amonia reading. How long does it take before the first amonia spike? My fish were all frisky this morning. I think they are getting used to the new tank. Poor things don't know what's in store for them.

I tested my water yesterday and read no amonia or nitrite. I tesed again this morning with the same readings. I need to pick up a nitrate testing kit to verrify that cycling is complete. The product I used was called Clear Zyne (looked it up yesterday when I went to my folks'). I also plan on going to my LFS today and getting some live plants and a bubble wall. Fun Fun Fun. This should be my last post in this thread. Thanks for reading

Tested my water yesterday, I'm getting amonia (~0.25ppm) and nitrite (~0.25ppm) readings. Now that I'm seeing nitrite does that mean the amonia should start to drop, or should it go up to around 0.5ppm first?

One sunset platy seemed stressed last night(clinched fins and hiding under a rock). He/She seemed fine & active this morning. I fed them a treat of blood worms last night . The angel, Serra, started to get a little more interested in them after she ate one. First thing she's really shown an interest in.

They are starting to get used to us. When I'm feeding them I've been sticking my finger in the tank about 1/2 inch to get them used to me. Last night the platies started to nibble on it. It was so cute .

I was kissing at Serra last night, our dog got jealous .

The plants are a great idea. Wisteria? I have one of those in my front yard. I must be thinking of something else. Anyway, I took a few pictures of everything.
http://www.corazontile.com/~fishprofiles/. They are rather large, I just transfered them straigt from my camera. And I think it's even bigger than a quarter.. Maybe a 1/2 dollar?

most of us have been there, and done that or worse. we have learned from our mistakes.
cycling with an angel isnt good, if its quarter size instead of dime size, youve got a chance of it makeing it threw.
watch your water quality, add your bacterail starter as directed, and keep your fingers crossed. if it looks good and healthy, it might just make it. stem plants- hornwort, wisteria, ect... will help eat up the ammonia and nitrates, id get some plants in their asap, thats your best chance at this point.
the platies- to tell the difference- males have long skinny anal fins, females have wider fuller anal fins. full grown females are also fuller bodied than males.

id also suggest getting a secong hang on the back type filter, itll help by giving more room for good bacteria, more filtration, and youll have a back up filter.

It was mostly ignorance on my part. I was originaly going to get a few platies. They are cheap & small. The Angel was an impule purchase. That is what we call in Magic, "A bad thing TM". So far everything is cool & I'm keeping a close eye on things and will be looking to get some Cycle if things get too crazy. I've been testing the water 2x a day.

Ignoring the angelfish, 7 platys isn't that many to cycle a 55 gallon with. I've also found that Platys are very hardy.

Boil, as long as he's got the situation under control, I see no reason for reprimanding. If the angel has made it thus far, than it will most likely live out the cycle. Angels, though not as hardy as say, a danio, can survive a relatively large range of water quality. The platies more likely than not will be fine.

"Poor things don't know what's in store for them"

What do you mean by that? And u shouldnt have gotten that many fish in the first place to cycle. You should have definatly got zebra danios, but not an angelfish and platies. They can die too easy

Well first off, I'm new to this hobby & these forums. So, Hi everyone!

About a year ago my folks built a beautiful 2,000 US Gallon pond in the back. My wife and I have been helping them get it established and fell in love with the fish. Right now it is stocked with:
4 baby Koi
3 adult Ryukin
2 baby Ryukin
2 baby Calico Fantials
2 baby Black Moor
a school (6+) of Shinners
a school (6+) of Comet goldfish.

The shinners were bought as bait. Lucky devils . The Comets were bought as feeders. Both were used last year to cycle the pond, and most survived the winter as the pond doesn't freeze.

My wife and I found ourselves entranced with the pond. We go over there daily at feeding time to enjoy them. They will even take food from your hand . We enjoyed the pond so much we decided to get a tank for our house.

First we did a lot of research, leading us to this site. We decided that a larger tank would look better and not be much more work than a small one. We spent a few days looking at different stores for the best deal. We finally settled on a 55 US Gallon starter kit. The kit came with everything we needed except gravel, plants, water & fish. We also got a stand to handle that kind of weight. We got the tank this past Sunday and set it up. We even put it against a weight bearing wall for safety.

Last night we went to the pet shop to get some fish to start cycling with. We knew we wanted to have an angelfish so were looking for something inexpensive to cycle with. We have read that Platys seem to do well with angelfish so started to look at those. Then I fell in love with an angelfish !

We settled on this:
3 Sunset Platys
2 Blue Rainbow Platys
2 Red Platys
1 White Angelfish

I couldn't resist the Angel. I hope she lives through the cycling. I just had to have her. She came up to the glass in the shop and gave me thos sad puppy (fish) eyes and said, "take me home!" .

I did put a bacteria starter in the tank and plan on keeping a close eye on the Amonia levels. If they get too high can I do a partial water change to help save my Angel? Should I have waited on her?

Also how do you sex the Platys? I think we got 2 male sunsets & 1 female with a pair of the other two types.

I hope to keep the mortalities to a minimum. I guess now all I can do is wait. I'm going to go home for lunch and watch my fish. So far they all seem happy (of course there is no amonia yet). I'll let you all know how they are doing when I get back.

Personally, by periodically adding the larger rocks from my pond, I've shortened the cycles of my tanks by quite a bit, and have never run across a problem. If you have other tanks, you could also use gravel from those Of course, I live in Cali, which means temps never hit below 55 F. You don't HAVE to move the fish, but do expect mortalities.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Klee 2004-06-29 12:08][/span]

I did put some bacteria in there I think it was Biospira. It said it would aid in the cycling process. I'm supoesed to put 3/4 teaspoon in every week for the first 4 weeks. It has a different (smaller and less frequent) dosage for upkeep.

The hornwort sounds like a good plant idea. We havn't gotten any living plants yet because I thought it would be harder to keep both the fish & the plants alive. We definitely want plants though.

The tank has lots of surface ariation now. The poor little platies have to work hard to swim against the current from the filter. Should I turn down the pump on the filter and try and get more surface movement?

Oh and my wife thinks the Angel is quarter sized not nickel sized.

We have gotten so much enjoyment out of the tank already! We went shopping all day Saturday, set it up all day Sunday, and spent all night last night and most of the morning watching our new fish.

by the way what is HTH a bit?

I wouldn't suggest substrate from the pond. Too likely you'll get something that the tank cannot handle. Additionally if it's too cold there would be no bacteria on it anyway.

Stop by your LCPS and pic up a bottle of Cycle or Biospira (cycle is more likely to be found). Increasing surface agitation while cycling or some heavy ammonia consuming plants such as hornwort will help. Water changes will lenghten the cycle which can also lead to stress.
HTH a bit .

^_^


[/font]

Well it is a pure white one, but it was from petco. I havn't found a local store that deals with JUST FISH. There is a place here that is called "Fins & Critters" but they mostly carry salt water fish & reptiles. I think I will try and get some substrate from the pond and put it in there. But what about partial water changes? Can I keep my amonia levels under control this way? I know it is used to keep nitrate from building up. I don't know anyone with a community tank & the pond is WAY TOO COLD! I knew I shouldn't have gotten that angel, but I just couldn't resist. I hope it doesn't turn into a $7 mistake.

All the more reason. Smaller fish are more fragile than larger ones (as if you didn't know that already). Here's what I say. Ask your lfs to hold the angel for you until your cycle is complete. Mine was more than happy to hold my pair of redeyes for a month. Or, if you have friends with good community tanks, dump'im in their first. If you decide to cycle with platies (to answer your question, males are small and skinny, while females are big and plump--males are more colorful, too), go with around 4, as the ammonia bioload for 7 plat's is a bit excessive. Also, if you desire, hang a mesh bag of the substrate from your pond in the aquarium, to help the bacteria grow...

PS: IMO, nickel sized angels for 7 bucks is fairly overpriced. But if it's a pure whitey and from a good (non-petsmart/petco) lfs, then the price is defenitely worth it.



[span class="edited"][Edited by Klee 2004-06-29 11:12][/span]

OS = Over Stocked? How many fish should I have then? The angel is small (about the size of a nickle). I didn't think that the Angelfish was that expensive ($7 US). I would feel bad if my inexperience led to the death of that fish.

An angelfish in cycling? Personally, I'd never put an angel or any other fancy (and expensive) fish into cycling. They're more sensitive to water quality than most cycling fishes that are commonly used (I might add that you're a bit OS for cycling). If you must go with live cycling, just buy 5-6 zebra danios, and a bit of bio-spira, and all's well. On another note, in a 55 gal, you could keep either a pair (buy around 6, let them pair off, and sell the remaining 4 back to the lfs) or a trio of angels, although it might be on the smallish side with the platies. Throw in some bottom feeders; aka rubber/bristlenose (algae wafers needed before a stable growth of algae is achieved), and either platies or smaller swordies (the later being longer lived and stunning).

[span class="edited"][Edited by Klee 2004-06-29 10:39][/span]