[dorioh]

I am just loving my new hobby. I just put my 29g aquarium up on Friday. On Sunday I added some liquid that is suppose to help get the tank cycle going. On Monday I took some of my tank water in and had it tested. When they said it looked great, my excitement took charge and I bought some fish: 2 dalmation mollies, 2 golden panda mollies and 2 black phantom tetras. I also bought 3 live plants.

Four+ days later, things are going well. On the second day of having the fish in, one of the dalmation mollies didn't look too happy. I had nothing to test the water with so I sent my husband on an errand and did a 20% water change (adding the appropriate amount of "start liquid". When I got the test strips everything looked good. The next day the dalmation looked great again and the water was really clear (it had been a bit cloudy before). I'm continuing to test the water daily with great results.

The 3rd day we had BABIES! None survived as each time I spotted one, I then watched one of the mollies gobbling him up. I don't plan to raise any fish, but it was fun to see those tiny fry - and learn still more about this great hobby.

Now - for an actual question - should I wait longer to add more fish or do you think the tank is sufficiently cycled? Here's what I'm thinking for my next purchase or two:

3 more golden pandas (to get closer to a "school"
A guppy or two
Gourami
possible a khuli loach

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Dori

 

[Embouck7]

A cycle will take a while to complete the first time. Secondly test strips are garbage (lots of ways to get a bad result there)
As far as your fish list goes I think you can add them all (someone may know better than me). If it were my tank I would wait another week just to be sure then add your guppies and mollies at the same time, wait a few days then add the gourami... Maybe the loach, not sure if thats a good addition