Best cold water cycling fish?
- Thread starter Tomato Sandwich
- Start date
Definitely not.. they won't have just magically cycled. I'd suggest investing in a master test kit, if they're in unfiltered containers the readings are probably all over the place. Using a test kit (the dropper kind, not strips) is the only way of knowing if your tanks cycled. Guessing doesn't work.
Just a quick suggestion, why don't you just dump shrimp in (from a grocery store)? You basically need ammonia to build up for ammonia-feeding bacteria to kick in right? So basically, the reason why you would want a live fish in your tank is for it to pooh in there and start producing ammonia. Pooh is not the only thing that produces that. What's the point of having sacrificial fishes when you can spare them? Just keep on feeding the bacteria and you'll tank will cycle in time. And I completely agree with the testing kits. you could never guess if your water is fine or not.*BOUNCINGS
aside from ammonia, dead shrimp from the store brings a bunch of other uneccessary nasties into the water, that you may not want (phosphates)
I still think pure ammonia is the best way to go...also the cheapest way hands down
I still think pure ammonia is the best way to go...also the cheapest way hands down
Just a question though... if I need ammonia, and I do water changes in my other tank because of a build up of ammonia.. couldn't I just put the water I take out of my other tanks in the new tank?
Or is that absolutely crazy and I don't understand something?
water from your other tank will normally NOT speed your process up becuase only a tiny minority of beneficial bacteria hang out in the water column (majority are in porous decor and in your filter media)
Now if that other water has ammonia in it (like more than 1ppm ammo) then you can use that water to help feed the bacteria in your new tank (assuming you will seed it with established filter media like Sharkee suggested
Now if that other water has ammonia in it (like more than 1ppm ammo) then you can use that water to help feed the bacteria in your new tank (assuming you will seed it with established filter media like Sharkee suggested
I have been searching through pictures and can't match mine to a species of pleco... these are the best pics I can get, they are pretty blurry, but you can see shape. He's spotted and doesn't have a weird shaped mouth like a rubberlip, just a normal one. 1/4 inch "long whiskers". Can anyone help me place him?
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Yes, yes you were. It unfortunately happens a lot. My upside down catfish was sold to me as a "small pleco" from Walmart (don't ask). I posted pics of him on here and was told "Ummmmmmm...that looks like an upside down catfish to us!" Sure enough, several months later, he's a happy, healthy bouncing upside down catfish. Apparently he was just a juvie when I got him (he was less than 1" long...now he's close to 2.25" long!).
maybe becuase you should be searching for "peppered corydoras" or cries in general, not pleco
cories are tropical fish and will not like cool water
cories are tropical fish and will not like cool water
Yeah that's a good plan. If you want to keep the tank for you goldfish unheated and want an algae eater, try and looking into hillstream loaches, they're coldwater algae eaters. They're also often sold as "butterfly plecos", "hong kong plecos" (which they're not.. they're loaches), "butterfly loaches" etc. Quite an odd looking fish that stays small, have a look on google