How long do you wait?

[amr427]

Once your empty/planted tank is FINALLY ready for fish, how long do you wait in between adding each species?

I just added 6 tetras to my tank and I tell ya I just want to get more fish now! But I know I should wait and see how the tank reacts before adding another species, just wondering how long does everyone typically wait? Are there any indicators to watch for?

Thanks!

[Dwayne Brown]

It depends, 

What Species are you thinking of adding?

How many of each species?

Is the tank fully cycled?

Is it planted?

what size is the tank?

These last two only I follow but what substrate, and filter type?

[StockEwe49]

I don't think I am totally qualified to answer this but I'll try! I Would just wait a little bit see how the tetras do (1-2 weeks?) watch for any diseases/parasites. then add the fish later (possibly with general cure if you are invested in a new certain fish). I'm sure someone else has a better answer! 🙂

[amr427]

On 10/4/2021 at 3:46 PM, Dwayne Brown said:

It depends, 

What Species are you thinking of adding?

How many of each species?

Is the tank fully cycled?

Is it planted?

what size is the tank?

These last two only I follow but what substrate, and filter type?

Either Kuhli loaches or corydoras, leaning corys next. Still trying to decide on my top level species.

Probably 3 corys.

Tank in cycled.

Tank is planted.

15gal tank

Eco-complete substrate and I am using the filter sponge block with biomax blocks and carbon that is standard on a Fluval Flex 15. Also using a nano pump with air stone in the tank.

[Dwayne Brown]

First off beautiful tank and I love the pristella tetras. How long is "just added" I would wait about 3-4 days before adding the cory's.

 

If your interested my suggestion for a topwater fish would be Some clown killifish, or Dwarf hatchetfish. 

[Colu]

I would add a small group of fish every 2 weeks to give the benefial bacterial time catch up with the bio load

[laritheloud]

I wait 2 to 4 weeks. Example, I'm working on stocking my 55 gallon, started with half of a school. Waited two weeks, finished off the school and brought their numbers to 12. I gave them antibiotics in food for a bit of mouth rot, and now I'm treating for parasites just in case. 

I'm getting the next batch of fish this week and putting them in my quarantine tank, where they'll live for the next 3 to 4 weeks before I add them in with my schoolers. 🙂 My general policy is to move one batch of fish to the main tank, clean the quarantine, then add the next round of fish to the quarantine tank while the display settles. By the time a small batch is finished with quarantine enough time has passed to add them to the display.

[lefty o]

i go with approx a week. that gives the tanks bacteria time to adjust to the new current bio load.

[Ken]

I wait until the water tests tell me the biological filtration has caught up. It varies, but isn't very long. As soon as the ammonia and nitrite go down again more fish!

[Scapexghost]

I would wait a week, to make sure the tetra are healthy. If the tetra break out with ich in two days you'll be much better out w/o other fish in the tank. After a week you can be reasonably confident the tetra are healthy. 

[Odd Duck]

I also tend to wait at least 2-4 weeks between fish adds.  I quarantine for 4 weeks but will sometimes run a couple QT tanks at a time.  So I get fish, they go into QT, treat as/if needed, get fish, into different QT (NOT the same QT), treat if needed, first fish get to go in the display no less than 4 weeks after they make it into my tank, no less than 4 weeks past any sign of disease, whichever is LONGER.  Once the second QT tank is ready, they can go into the display.

I shorted this process by about a week (no actual disease seen, but a couple fish didn’t look perfect, I convinced myself they were just geriatric) and ended up with a mild case of Ich in my 100 gallon display!  Low salt, heat, and a UV filter resolved it quickly and I’m over 30 days past the last lesion, still running the UV filter.

I just ordered in some fish yesterday.  They’ll go into QT, etc.  For me, it’s not worth the risk of getting diseases started in my tanks.  It’s bad enough that pests can come in on plants, with snails, etc, there’s no point in pushing too hard on the biofiltration maturing.  Everybody ends up sorry when they do because you’re much more likely to battle algae issues if you push it.  This is the point where more patience pays off in the long run.

[Guppysnail]

I wait 30-60 days between adds to a main tank. I quarantine all incoming first but after the add I wait again. I want to make certain they are healthy as the extra stress from joining a community lowers their immunity so if they are negatively impacted from something in my tank or something they picked up along the way it presents before I add more. I do not medicate in quarantine just observe closely (except guppies because 99% of the time they need it so I just do it) if I am adding a sufficiently large group I add in staged groups of 4-8. I wait 2 days per fish so 4 fish 8 days, 8 fish 16 days. I cannot for the life of me remember where I picked up the two day thing. I’ve just done it that way for so long I don’t really think much about it. 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Flumpweesel]

As long as I can bare, but at least until I'm sure my tank chemistry is happy and I've not been bounced into a new cycle.    But the longer I wait the better stock decisions I make and adding slowly lets you focus on each new pet properly.  Learning to enjoy going slowly saves you the most money in this hobby but that is certainly hindsight in my case. 

Oh and I'd pick cory's personally I have really enjoyed having them in my tank. 

 

[Torrey]

On 10/4/2021 at 2:42 PM, amr427 said:

Once your empty/planted tank is FINALLY ready for fish, how long do you wait in between adding each species?

I just added 6 tetras to my tank and I tell ya I just want to get more fish now! But I know I should wait and see how the tank reacts before adding another species, just wondering how long does everyone typically wait? Are there any indicators to watch for?

Thanks!

I feed my tank as if the fish are already in there. 

I add up to 6 fish, and then test parameters and watch the tank to see how everyone is doing. If I am adding fish to a new tank from one of my already established tanks, then I wait a minimum of a week (or at least 2 API tests that show 0/0/5+ for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, whichever takes longer).

If I am putting brand new fish I ordered/bought into the aquarium, then I still add a max of 6 small fish **after** 30 days of quarantine. For a large tank (like my 4') I may have 4 different quarantines going, and even if they all started QT at the same time, I am only going to add max of 6 fish from a single QT (after 30 day quarantine/ 2 weeks no symptoms) wait and observe for a minimum of 2 weeks, and then add a max of 6 fish from a single QT (again, after a minimum of 30 day QT/ and minimum of 2 weeks no symptoms).

Continue until my QT are empty. 

[Jeff]

Every addition to the display tank goes to the quarantine tank first. So, 1 week for medicating (this is for being pro-active of course. If you're medicating for re-actively due to a disease upon receiving, that's a whole different situation). However, I like to leave them in QT for one additional week, just to ensure I'm good to go.

This gives plenty of time for the fish in the display tank to get acclimated before anything else joins it. 

Edited October 7, 2021 by Jeff