NEW FISH!

[christianblu]

(28 Gallon Tank, 10 plants, 6 fish. Resun Magi-700 filter, Resun heater running at 80f)

Hi all,

This is my first posting so please stick with me!

I have recently purchased a tank and have had it settle for a couple of weeks, i am raising freshwater tropical fish.
Theres a few questions i would like help with and forgive me if they are very basic.
I just added my first fish yesterday and therefore my tank will cycle i understand that much.
I did not add any salt to the tank before i placed my fish in, will this matter?
I did not dechlorinate my water before adding it to my tank, wil this matter?

Also, the fish i have purchased are 3 blackwidow tetras and 3 red wag platies, i was told these were hardier fish and would be best suited to survive while cycling my tank.

One of my tetras is larger than the other two and has blackened fins, while the other two have clear fins, i was wondering if this was a matter of them being a different sex or something else?

My larger tetra was ruler of the tank yesterday when i added them, up to the point where i went to bed. I came down this morning to find he/she hiding away at the lower back of the tank behind my ornamental barrel while the others are swimming all over and occasionally coming down to (what looks liketo me) attack the larger tetra. Is this a problem?

Thanks for any help you all can give me.

Christian.

 

[S-kate]

If you had the tank running for a couple weeks, you don't need the dechlorinater. Chlorine evaporates over a day or so. Although chloramine doesn't. You also don't need aquarium salt, some people use it, some only use it as medication...

 

[christianblu]

Cheers S-Kate for the help, that has cleared up a few things for me. If anyone could still help me with the sexing of my tetras i would be very grateful.
Also another problem, as stated i have 10 plants in the tank, but no lighting as yet! the plants are all going a shade of yellow and i was wondering if the lighting is neccessary and as my tank is cycling whether it will effect the spikes i ammonia and nitrite, as always any help would be gratefully apreciated!

Thanks,
Christian.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

thae plants will die without adequate light and make your ammonia spike. not a good thing in a new tank. i suggest getting some good lighting fast, or removind dead plants emidiately.

 

[Toam]

gotta agree with yahoofishkeeper on that one, your plants definitely need the light. If it's simply a matter of you weren't sure if it would affect the water than I'd add the light right now because it shouldn't affect your tank cycling, in fact the plants with proper lighting will benefit your tank a lot. If it's a matter of money, remove any dead plants for now if you have any, prune back any dead leaves of the still living, and try to get some light on that tank, open windows, put a lamp over it? something to help those plants survive until proper lighting can be purchased.

 

[christianblu]

Thanks for the help Toam.

Just bought a 20w bulb and a flourecent lighting controller. Will this be enough? The light will be about 17.5" from the bottom of the tank.

 

[Big Vine]

christianblu,

Welcome to the forum!
To put your lighting situation into perspective...

Many of the very low-lit tanks that I have come across on this forum are maintained by people who are using about 1.5 watts of fluorescent lighting per gallon of tankwater. At this level of lighting, low-light plants can survive, but more demanding ones will simply wither away and die.

Your 28 gallon tank, with a 20 watt bulb, has less than 1 watt of lighting per gallon, and so it seems that you will need to obtain better (more) lighting in order to keep even low-light plants healthy. You may need to look into some sort of DIY ("do it yourself") lighting setup to get more light in there.

As for your question about the tetras...
They can be very difficult to sex, and I believe it is quite likely that the coloration on the larger tetra is slightly different because of the fact that it is older than the others; hence, more mature coloration.

I would just keep an eye on them and make sure none of them are getting picked on too much. Normally this isn't a huge issue with tetras (in other words, it is normal for them to sort of 'pick on' one another to a certain extent), but your tank is cycling, and any added stress may result in fish losses. Normally the solution to tetras picking on one another is to ensure that they are in a group of 5 or more individuals (preferrably of the same species). However, adding more fish to your cycling tank would not be recommended at this time.

Hope this helps.
Big Vine