new tank (to me), new danio and rosy barbs--a few questions

SST

Hi,

A friend just passed along her 30 gallon tank. Yippee!!!! We kept the gravel wet and the filter wet but I only got about 5 gallons of water. I moved in some silk plants from another tank and I might even move in a sponge filter from the other tank to help it stabilize. I'm sure it will go through a mini-cycle.

My questions:

It's stocked with one Giant Danio and two rosy barbs. I know both of these are schooling fish. Which one should I increase the numbers of first? how many at a time? how fast to introduce new fish? Are there other types of fish that they will school with-specifically the Giant Danio.

AND...I have two small zebra danios in a small tank that were waiting for the acquisition of the larger tank (I had no idea I was getting fish, too). Can I put the smaller danios in with the big danio or with the big guy eat them for lunch?

Can my Apple Snail go in the tank with these types of fishies or will they eat him for dinner?

Thanks!

SST

Fortunately, we didn't break the cycle in the move. No ammonia or nitrites this morning, 10 ppm of nitrates. Woo hoo!

I added the 2 small zebra danios. Everyone had to check them out and now all seems fine. I'll keep an eye on them but they all seem to be chasing each other around. I'd be happy to rehome the Giant Danio, but if he's happy schooling with the little danios and the barbs, I'll keep him around.

Next in will be the snail. I've gotta rig up a string to his veggie clip so I can hoist it in and out to feed 'em. Maybe in a few days. Maybe tonight. LOL. The betta fish will be getting a tank upgrade too, and I need the filter from the snail's tank, so we'll see. The betta will be getting his own 10 gal. with maybe a shoal of pygmy cories to keep him company.

willow

glad it's going well,
are you stil incresing the groups. ?

SST

I haven't yet. Didn't want to move too fast and havne't taken the time to test again. I'll test water paramaters this weekend and see how the numbers look, then probably add four more zebra danios.

Decided against adding the snail. The previous owner said the barbs ate her snail, so mine went into the new 10 gal. with the betta. They didn't get along in the 5 gallon but they are doing great in the new 10.

How long should I wait before adding more rosy barbs?

willow

hi
well after you teast the water,you will have an idea on how the
filter is doing,then add a small group at a time,re test the water
and stock slowly until you feel all is well.
best thing is going slow(that's hard i know) however it gives the filter
time to catch up with the new amount of waste.

SST

UPDATE:

Well, lots has happened. I started out with three fish (2 rosy barbs and one Giant Danio), and now have five fish(2 rosy barbs, one Zebra Danio, 2 otos). BUT...

I got the tank with 2 rosy barbs and one Giant Danio. I added two zebra danios from another tank I had. Everyone got along swimmingly. 5 fish total.

Then I added four zebra danios and two otos from the LFS. The danios were pretty small. So, 11 fish total. Everyone got along for about 10 days or so, then every day a Zebra Danio would be found floating. One time I only found half the fish! When the carnage finished, all four new zebra danios had died plus one of the older zebra danios. Leaving me with 6 fishies. The otos were just fine. They hid alot.

THEN, to top it off. we left on a 3-day vacation and when we came back we couldnt' find the big Giant Danio. The booger had somehow jumped out of the tiny space around the filter and died. Down to 5 fish. Though those 5 seemed much happier. We saw more of the otos.

Now I'm going to add more rosy barbs. See my schooling question in a separate post!

Whew!

okiemavis

It's probably a good idea to add some more otos as well, you'll see a lot more of them in a group of 6+

teh13371

be sure to change your water more and better, so more deaths are less likely. and i agree with okie, add more otos first. wait for a little while after adding them so they get comfortable and then, if you want to, add some more. i would wait for at least a week, maybe two or three. i dont know much about barbs, but maybe add one or two more, preferably five, for a proper group. after you get those, maybe one or two giant danios again if you want to try those again.

SST

I don't think it was water quality that killed the little zebra danios. They were pretty beat up, not simply floaters.

I never liked the Giant Danio. It was unfortunate that he took a dive as I was in the process of rehomeing (hmm...tough word to spell) him.

Good news though! I just got a python syphon water changer thingie. Can't wait to hook it up and try it. Can't stand doing the buckets with the 30 gal.

Thanks for relying teh. 8)