Best fish to cycle an aquarium with,

eatmysox

So I have heard mixed thoughts about this from different people and wondering if anyone had suggestions. I was told never to do it with goldfish? I would love to use something that I plan on stocking the tank with so I don't have to move it to a separate tank after.

BEARitone

It is going to depend the size of your tank and what you ultimately want to keep in it.


Goldfish are not good for a number of reasons, mainly being that you have to find a home for them once the tank is cycled. They are also very very sensitive to water parameters and susceptible to diseases. Also they enjoy a temperature(under 70) that makes for slow bacteria growth(much faster at 80 or above). They are just not a hardy fish.


Zebra Danios are one of the most popular. My Platties are doing really well, they have a healthy apatite, they are energetic, and they have no behavior that suggests they are feeling stress or sickness(lethargy, rapid respiration, inflamed gills, ect).

I would also suggest getting some live plants and seachem prime to help with ammonia and nitrite levels. Check parameters often!

Spooki

I've heard lamp eye/ red eye tetras (Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae) are good to cycle with.

burnsbabe

It is worth noting that you don't have to cycle with fish. A simple search of this forum for "fishless cycle" ought to bring you up to speed on that method.

I've cycled with White Cloud Mountain Minnows and Pristella Tetras, both of which are pretty hardy.

eatmysox

Its gong to be a 30 gallon tank and the inhabitants are going to be:

Calmwaters

I would put as many plants in it as you can that will help with the cycle and make it alot less stressful on the fish. Hopefully you can put lots of plants and that will make it kind of automatically cycle in a way because it will have enough plants to control the ammonia and stuff.

Redknee

I'd say zebra danios but i'd also like to say that your tank is to small for all the fish you intend to put inside of it.
Your water will be always dirty, fish will be stressed and you will not enjoy your tank.
But you can also ignore what i just said.
Also you will have problems keeping all fish happy as some like higher temps while others like lower temps.
27-30 for the rams and the neon tetras like 20-25 (in celsius).
There is no way you can keep both happy.(Same goes for the other fish).

eatmysox

I will definitly take your suggestions into consideration, for the overstocking i use aqadvisor it is wonderful and is very effective at telling stocking levels. I also am using a filter with 600gph and do weekly 40-50% water changes on all of my tanks so it shouldn't be to much more work. This tank will also end up being heavily planted once all of the plants grow in. I will look into the compatibility of the fish again i thought they were all good at a happy medium of 75-77

Calmwaters

I have to agree with redknee that is to many fish. I know on the other thread I said it sounded good but now that I really look at the list I relize how many fish it is. And I hope you are not planning on trying to add all of them at once that would be a very bad idea because it would be way to much of a bioload at once. The rams are very delicate when it come to water parimeters. I would definatly wait on them and I would seriously consider possiably leaveing out one of the tetras. If your plants were full grown I would be more willing to add more than one type of fish at a time but with them still being on the small side I would only add one kind at a time.

eatmysox

Yes they will be quarantined and added slowly so I don't overload it.