[Cannonbolt]

My tank currently contains 2 Otos. I plan on ordering 6x Celestial Pearl Danio and also 5x Cory Hastatus. I know it's best to add fish slowly to allow bacterial colonies to throttle up to keep pace but I was really hoping to not have to pay the $$$ for express shipping twice. I've read that the CPDs are minimal in bioload due to their diminutive size and lack of constant activity. Has anyone added small amounts of ammonia to help ease larger transitions? Obviously I wouldn't add much ammonia, I don't want to endanger the Otos but perhaps small, consistent amounts until I add the new fish?

 

[HypnoticAquatic]

do not add any ammonia to a tank with fish that is a disaster waiting to happen! how big of a tank is this? and how long has it been up and running? if you have to add all the fish at once then you will have to do constant wc (say everyother day do 10-20%) until the bio can catch up and handle the load solo prob after a week do less wc just test your water if u see ammo lvls then do a wc then retest the next day or two until they reach zero so u dont harm your fauna

 

[KrazyFish]

it is never a good idea to add too many fish at once to a new aquarium - but I understand your delema.

Don't even think about adding amonia to the water now your ottos would die. You could try adding some food to the tank - as it decays it will increase the bacteria levels. Or you could add some mulm or filter media from an existing tank (if you have one or maybe get some from a LFS or friend). this will help emmensly and won't kill your ottos.

 

[VeeSe]

Agree with everybody else. Adding ammonia would be a disaster.

 

[Cannonbolt]

Thanks for warning me against adding the ammonia, I'm glad I asked! I'm not sure what mulm is but seeing as I don't know know anyone else with an aquarium I don't think I'll be getting any of that. I guess I will add some flakes to deteriorate leading up to the fish being added then I'll keep doing water changes often. Thanks for the advice!

 

[HypnoticAquatic]

adding the flake food is just another way to get ammo into the tank imo is not needed at all, the fish you add will do this with there poop thats why u are needing to do the wc more frequent to not let the levels of ammo build up so they harm the fish so imo it would just be wasting food and deteriorating the water quality for nothing. so just keep your test kit out and test it every other day is your levels are safe then no wc needed wait and retest in a couple days then if it says u have ammo levels above 0 do a small wc and retest in how ever many days it took befor it registerd a number above 0, and doing so with less and less water changes you will have slowly rebuilt your bio bacteria up to handle the load by itself.

you still never stated what size tank this is in as it does play a factor!! say if its in a smaller tank 10-20g vs a 40-55g there is a huge diff on stability so remember that small tanks are much more unstable thus requiring much more attn. more frequently

 

[shrimpNewbie]

don't over feed for no reason, I don't see a problem with adding the fish, just keep water changes at a daily 10-20% daily for 2 weeks and you'll do fine. The fact that people fear adding to a bioload is irrational. The people that have problems are those that start up a tank and a week later assume they can max out their bioload, however if your tank is well established your bioload capacity is much higher than you assume, nitrifying bacteria are on basically every surface of the aquarium even on the glass.

My advice assuming your tank has been up for over a month and you still supplement bacteria with stuff like seachem stability is to quarantine the fish and then add them to your tank, for the first few weeks do daily 10%-20% water changes if possible and watch for stress. testing is way over rated and unless you calibrate your tests correctly they are useless, assuming you don't have professional water testing equipment that is.



as for the above recommendation to test every other day and wc only if your test tells you to. I find this is asking for a problem if you wait for your test to show signs of ammo it could already affect the fish better safe than sorry, just give the fish fresh water it is far healthier for them, rather than them swimming in waste water filtered or not

 

[astrosag]

If your tank is a 20G +, moderately planted and has been running for a while with a large canister filter, I don't think you'll have any problem adding the new fish. I would, however, suggest doing daily water changes of at least 20% just to be sure. After a week or so, I fully expect your tank to handle the increased bioload.

 

[HypnoticAquatic]

don't over feed for no reason, I don't see a problem with adding the fish, just keep water changes at a daily 10-20% daily for 2 weeks and you'll do fine. The fact that people fear adding to a bioload is irrational. The people that have problems are those that start up a tank and a week later assume they can max out their bioload, however if your tank is well established your bioload capacity is much higher than you assume, nitrifying bacteria are on basically every surface of the aquarium even on the glass.

My advice assuming your tank has been up for over a month and you still supplement bacteria with stuff like seachem stability is to quarantine the fish and then add them to your tank, for the first few weeks do daily 10%-20% water changes if possible and watch for stress. testing is way over rated and unless you calibrate your tests correctly they are useless, assuming you don't have professional water testing equipment that is.



as for the above recommendation to test every other day and wc only if your test tells you to. I find this is asking for a problem if you wait for your test to show signs of ammo it could already affect the fish better safe than sorry, just give the fish fresh water it is far healthier for them, rather than them swimming in waste water filtered or not

i can say with 100% its not asking for a problem that is why you are testing the water, if you have 0ppm of ammo then there is no need to do a wc as the bio load is handling it but if it starts showing small levels of ammo then you need to do wc to help until the bio can handle it all. this is without knowing what tank size to a large tank should have no problem with this but a smaller tank isnt going to be able to handle what a large tank could due to water volume. there is no way with 0ppm of ammo that it can affect the fish in a negative way now if it gets to .25-.5 then yes without a doubt that can and will have a negative effect on there well being

 

[garfieldnfish]

I have both hastatus corys and CPDs and neither are heavy poopers. I would add all of them at one time even in a 10 gal. Do small water changes every other day for a week and feed lightly. If they come with Express they should have only missed 2 maybe 3 days of food. So if you feed them only every other day for the next 2 weeks they will be fine and your tank will be able to adjust.