Quarantine New Fish for a newly cycled empty tank?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 7/20/2023 at 2:47 PM, FishRKool28 said:

I was just thinking that, should I do like Cory does and take a plastic bag around the cycles sponge filter and squeeze it and let all that bacteria get trapped into the bag, then put cycled sponge filter back in gravel and add the plastic bag of water and bacteria to the quarantine tank w the new sponge filter? Bear with me my apologies, I’m a newb and wanna get this right!

You can absolutely do that! The advantage to the plastic bag is that it can help trap all the mulm and good stuff you want instead of it just falling off into the existing tank. If you just pull the sponge out of the tank, as it comes above the water line all the mulm and bacteria and detritus just starts to run back into the tank with the water coming off the sponge. 
 

In my experience, the bag can be a little tricky to get around the sponge without fluffing stuff off of it, but just go slow and use a ziploc that has an opening that’s decently bigger than the sponge. Regardless of how slow and careful you are, you will inevitably fluff some stuff into the water column but it’s all good! It will make its way back to the filter again over time. I’ve been cleaning sponge filters for 3 years and it’s still a pain to get it in the bag sometimes, lol. 
 

Also, no need to apologize for asking questions! We’re all here to help each other and want to see each other success with our fish adventures. We all just want you to have successful tanks that are healthy ecosystems for your fish so you can enjoy the tank for many years to come. 
 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[Odd Duck]

If your tanks are close together I’ve been known to just hold something under the wet sponge filter and drop it into the QT tank and squeeze it a couple times as close to the new, running sponge as is handy.  You don’t need to do a full on cleaning of the seasoned sponge, just a few squeezes is plenty to seed the new sponge.  Some temporary cloudiness of the new tank is what you’re going for.  You don’t need it to be cloudy for hours (no big deal if it is).

[Odd Duck]

On 7/20/2023 at 3:54 PM, FishRKool28 said:

Yea I got worried that the Rasboras are already down to 8 so I ordered 10 more from AquaHuna, since they’re from same place and same species I should be able to just add them in upon arrival? I think my biggest problem is thinking too much and too much question surfing, I was worried since they only have 8 they’ll be even more stressed 

Don’t get too carried away adding too many fish too fast.  Even a cycled tank can get overloaded when you double the number of fish.  Are you planning to only have rasboras and nothing else?  18 is a lot, even for micro-rasboras.  You should be OK with adding them but you’ll be restarting quarantine timing when you add them.  You’ll need to test frequently until you’re certain there aren’t any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes that need to be dealt with from more than doubling the bioload.

Oh, and don’t worry about asking too many questions.  It’s far better to ask questions if the answers can help keep your fish healthier!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 7/20/2023 at 3:03 PM, Odd Duck said:

Don’t get too carried away adding too many fish too fast.  Even a cycled tank can get overloaded when you double the number of fish.

Completely agree with this. Considering you’ve already ordered them, you’ll have to do your best to not overload your newly cycled tank, and/or the new QT tub when you get it up and running. Whether you choose to put the new batch into the display tank or the QT tub will be up to you. 
 

The only other thing I have to add is that, just because they’re coming from the same place and the same species does not mean they are from the same “batch”. Aqua Huna, I’m sure, goes through thousand and thousands of those Chili’s throughout the year. They get em in, they ship em out. They get another batch in, they ship those out. Rinse and repeat over and over and over again. 
 

Overall, do LOTS of testing on both tanks (I would be testing daily on both) and be prepared to do daily water changes on both the tanks as ammonia and nitrite show up. 

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 3:57 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

You can absolutely do that! The advantage to the plastic bag is that it can help trap all the mulm and good stuff you want instead of it just falling off into the existing tank. If you just pull the sponge out of the tank, as it comes above the water line all the mulm and bacteria and detritus just starts to run back into the tank with the water coming off the sponge. 
 

In my experience, the bag can be a little tricky to get around the sponge without fluffing stuff off of it, but just go slow and use a ziploc that has an opening that’s decently bigger than the sponge. Regardless of how slow and careful you are, you will inevitably fluff some stuff into the water column but it’s all good! It will make its way back to the filter again over time. I’ve been cleaning sponge filters for 3 years and it’s still a pain to get it in the bag sometimes, lol. 
 

Also, no need to apologize for asking questions! We’re all here to help each other and want to see each other success with our fish adventures. We all just want you to have successful tanks that are healthy ecosystems for your fish so you can enjoy the tank for many years to come. 
 

 

Well I will definitely do the bag method to the best of my ability lol. Appreciate your insight though! 
 

Yea I just feel like a dumb newb with every question I post but again I appreciate everyone being helpful and offering advice. 
 

Forgot to mention, I did grind up some freeze dried shrimp brine and fed the rasboras this morning just to see they’re reaction, they feasted! Going forward I’m going to feed once every other day until they are settled in the tank then maybe increase to twice every other day.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

For sure. I think feeding every other day for now is totally suitable. 
 

All my tanks get fed at least once per day, at night when I’m off work. Certain tanks also get fed in the morning before I leave for work. 
 

Every other day makes a lot of sense right now. As your tanks mature you could easily bump that up to once every day. You just gotta take things slow when you increase things to not overload the ecosystem. 

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 4:03 PM, Odd Duck said:

Don’t get too carried away adding too many fish too fast.  Even a cycled tank can get overloaded when you double the number of fish.  Are you planning to only have rasboras and nothing else?  18 is a lot, even for micro-rasboras.  You should be OK with adding them but you’ll be restarting quarantine timing when you add them.  You’ll need to test frequently until you’re certain there aren’t any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes that need to be dealt with from more than doubling the bioload.

Oh, and don’t worry about asking too many questions.  It’s far better to ask questions if the answers can help keep your fish healthier!

Yea the Rasboras and Shrimp will be the only aquatic life in this tank, I am slightly concerned about over stocking but I think since they’re nano fish I should ok 🤞🏻. This is my only tank other than my sons 5 gal Betta so I don’t mind doing the work to keep all my fish happy, I test the water every morning and when I get home from work. 

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 4:14 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Completely agree with this. Considering you’ve already ordered them, you’ll have to do your best to not overload your newly cycled tank, and/or the new QT tub when you get it up and running. Whether you choose to put the new batch into the display tank or the QT tub will be up to you. 
 

The only other thing I have to add is that, just because they’re coming from the same place and the same species does not mean they are from the same “batch”. Aqua Huna, I’m sure, goes through thousand and thousands of those Chili’s throughout the year. They get em in, they ship em out. They get another batch in, they ship those out. Rinse and repeat over and over and over again. 
 

Overall, do LOTS of testing on both tanks (I would be testing daily on both) and be prepared to do daily water changes on both the tanks as ammonia and nitrite show up. 

Yea I was kind of just freaking out last night since I was down to 9, my thought process was I didn’t wanna add more stress to them by having small numbers so I ordered more, and more shrimp. I will monitor the water daily like I have been and test twice a day like I have been. Would y’all combat any type of spike (ammonia, nitrite) with water changes? I did a 25% water change the night before the fish and shrimp got here because my nitrates were at 50 ppm.

 

 As of this morning 

Ammonia- 0 ppm

Nitrite- 0 ppm

Nitrate- 25ppm

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

18 fish, even though they’re nano fish, might be pushing it. However, remember that it will all depend on how much you’re feeding and how much you want to be bound to water changes. 
 

For instance, my Chili tank is a 20 gallon long blackwater tank with 22 Chili’s, 9 Green Neon Tetras, lots of Cherry shrimp, lots of Ramshorn snails, and a handful of dwarf crayfish. This tank has been up and running for 3 years and started as a shrimp only tank. Then, about 4 months ago I’d say, I transitioned it to a blackwater tank and removed most of the shrimp, snails, and crayfish to see if the ones I left in the tank could make the blackwater transition. Once that was all squared away, I got 20 Chili’s and quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks total, and then added them to the blackwater tank. Then, I got the Green Neons and again, quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks before adding them to the display tank. They get fed crushed Krill flake in the morning, baby brine shrimp at night, and Xtreme shrimpee pellets every other day for the invertebrates. Sounds like a lot, but I have a giant Pothos growing out of the tank. The Pothos sucks up so much nutrients that I have to fertilize the tank twice per week, and I do a 10% water change weekly, which is the smallest amount of water change on any of my tanks. All my other tanks get 25-30% weekly water changes, but I want to keep the tannins in the tank and the Pothos just eats through nutrients so fast. Keep in mind this tank only has a small Aquarium Coop sponge filter and that’s it. 
 

I also have a 10 gallon tank with probably 50 endlers in it. Started with a trio, and they have just bred like crazy. Sounds like a lot (and it is), but it’s also an aquaponics tank. The strawberries, flowers, and other edible plants utilize so many nutrients that I have to dose Easy Green 3x what the bottle says for nitrates to still be present between water changes. This tank only has a nano Aquarium Coop sponge filter and Java moss (and all the live plants in the aquaponics tray). The edible plants and flowers do a lot of the work for me and allow that many fish in a small set up. 
 

How much work you have to do all depends on how things are set up and how much you feed. 

On 7/20/2023 at 3:58 PM, FishRKool28 said:

Would y’all combat any type of spike (ammonia, nitrite) with water changes?

Most likely, yes. 0.25 ammonia I’m okay with and might use Prime to help get through it. I would test daily and if it got above 0.25 I would do a water change. That’s also because my tanks are so established. In a new set up I might do it differently.
 

Regardless of tenure of the tank, 0.5 and above I would do a 50% water change to get it back down to 0.25. Same goes for nitrite, for me personally. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[Odd Duck]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:03 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

18 fish, even though they’re nano fish, might be pushing it. However, remember that it will all depend on how much you’re feeding and how much you want to be bound to water changes. 
 

For instance, my Chili tank is a 20 gallon long blackwater tank with 22 Chili’s, 9 Green Neon Tetras, lots of Cherry shrimp, lots of Ramshorn snails, and a handful of dwarf crayfish. This tank has been up and running for 3 years and started as a shrimp only tank. Then, about 4 months ago I’d say, I transitioned it to a blackwater tank and removed most of the shrimp, snails, and crayfish to see if they could make the blackwater transition. Once that was all squared away, I got 20 Chili’s and quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks total, and then added them to the blackwater tank. Then, I got the Green Neons and again, quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks before adding them to the display tank. They get fed crushed Krill flake in the morning, baby brine shrimp at night, and Xtreme shrimpee pellets every other day for the invertebrates. Sounds like a lot, but I have a giant Pothos growing out of the tank. The Pothos sucks up so much nutrients that I have to fertilize the tank twice per week, and I do a 10% water change weekly, which is the smallest amount of water change on any of my tanks. All my other tanks get 25-30% weekly water changes, but I want to keep the tannins in the tank and the Pothos just eats through nutrients so fast. 
 

I also have a 10 gallon tank with probably 50 endlers in it. Started with a trio, and they have just bred like crazy. Sounds like a lot (and it is), but it’s also an aquaponics tank. The strawberries, flowers, and other edible plants utilize so many nutrients that I have to dose Easy Green 3x what the bottle says for nitrates to still be present between water changes. 
 

How much work you have to do all depends on how things are set up and how much you feed. 

Most likely, yes. 0.25 ammonia I’m okay with and might use Prime to help get through it. 0.5 and above I would do a 50% water change to get it back down to 0.25. Same goes for nitrite, for me personally. 

Yep, all of this.  There are so many variables.  That’s why that 1” of fish per gallon isn’t really anything but a bare starting point to get an idea of how much you can stock a tank.  I don’t like to push stocking until a tank has been set up and stable for many months to a year or more, and even then I don’t push much because I don’t want to do water changes every week.  I’m lazy.  I have pothos growing from nearly every tank and lots of plants.  My heaviest load tank has tons of emergent plants which eat up ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

The more you push the more likely you’ll have a crash.  Neons, remember?

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:11 PM, Odd Duck said:

Yep, all of this.  There are so many variables.  That’s why that 1” of fish per gallon isn’t really anything but a bare starting point to get an idea of how much you can stock a tank.  I don’t like to push stocking until a tank has been set up and stable for many months to a year or more, and even then I don’t push much because I don’t want to do water changes every week.  I’m lazy.  I have pothos growing from nearly every tank and lots of plants.  My heaviest load tank has tons of emergent plants which eat up ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

The more you push the more likely you’ll have a crash.  Neons, remember?

Yea I took that into account before ordering, but I was really concerned with them having small numbers and adding more stress. 
 

I don’t mind putting in the work to keep them all happy, I do need to upgrade the way I do water changes. All I have is a crappy plastic bin and a cheap siphon from petco to extract the water, then I use my sons old Nano betta tank to fill with new water and treat with Prime. I’d prefer one big bucket for the old water and a better way to siphon 🤷🏻‍♂️. 
 

I would have only ordered like 5 Rasboras if I could have but Petco doesn’t have any and AquaHuna is a 10 count minimum

On 7/20/2023 at 5:11 PM, Odd Duck said:

Yep, all of this.  There are so many variables.  That’s why that 1” of fish per gallon isn’t really anything but a bare starting point to get an idea of how much you can stock a tank.  I don’t like to push stocking until a tank has been set up and stable for many months to a year or more, and even then I don’t push much because I don’t want to do water changes every week.  I’m lazy.  I have pothos growing from nearly every tank and lots of plants.  My heaviest load tank has tons of emergent plants which eat up ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

The more you push the more likely you’ll have a crash.  Neons, remember?

Also the Neons were all my fault, i got impatient with the nitrogen cycle and had super high nitrite levels but figured I could add fish and combat with Prime and Stability… we see how well that worked 😔.

Im learning this hobby requires patience and more patience

[FishRKool28]

This is what I’m feeding the Chili Rasboras and the Cherry Shrimp

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 7/20/2023 at 4:22 PM, FishRKool28 said:

I do need to upgrade the way I do water changes.

When I first got into the hobby, making things to make water changes easier was one of my favorite things! Some simple 3/8” vinyl tubing with some sponge shoved in the end, and a plastic clamp for siphoning water out into a 5 gallon bucket can work wonders. This allows extraction of water to be hands free, and the sponge in the end of the tubing ensures my fish (from fry to adult Angels) don’t get sucked up. 
 

A small pump and some tubing, with a clamp, can also make water going back into the tank a breeze and mostly hands-free. 
 

Here’s some of the things I’ve built specifically for making water changes more efficient:

3/8” tubing with sponge to siphon water out without sucking up fish. 

PVC with sponge shoved in the end for siphoning other tanks.

Bigger PVC set up (with ball valve) for the bigger tanks.

Water going back in tanks with a small pump and a 5 gallon bucket. I also use this pump to take water out as these tanks are just a few inches off the ground and gravity can’t really assist with water coming out. 

 

Before I had my Python I built this. Connected a pond pump to the end of the tubing, and that pump sat in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Fill up the bucket, start pumping, and have another 5 gallon bucket to fill additional water. Keep filling the bucket with the pump in it until water is filled back in the tank. This hooked over the rim of the tank and the holes in the pvc end caps ensured gentle flow back in the tank to not disturb the substrate and uproot plants. I eventually sold this to another fish keeping friend once I got my Python. 
 

As you can tell, I like building things to make water changes more efficient, hands-free, and this allows me to drain and refill tanks at the same time. I have 14 tanks, and it takes me 4-5 hours weekly to do all my maintenance thanks to these tools. 

On 7/20/2023 at 4:22 PM, FishRKool28 said:

Im learning this hobby requires patience and more patience

Yup! This hobby taught me the same thing. And that mistakes happen, but they’re just a learning opportunity. 

On 7/20/2023 at 4:36 PM, FishRKool28 said:

This is what I’m feeding the Chili Rasboras and the Cherry Shrimp

I assume you’re rotating through all of this, and not doing all of it every time you feed?

I would stay away from the green beans for the shrimp. The shrimp could pick at that for a week and not finish it. Green beans are great for Pleco’s, but not so much shrimp. 
 

I was feeding my Pleco’s daily with zucchini and green beans at one point and that’s the only bacteria bloom I’ve ever experienced. After working through that I cut way back on the veggies. 

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:46 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

When I first got into the hobby, making things to make water changes easier was one of my favorite things! Some simple 3/8” vinyl tubing with some sponge shoved in the end, and a plastic clamp for siphoning water out into a 5 gallon bucket can work wonders. This allows extraction of water to be hands free, and the sponge in the end of the tubing ensures my fish (from fry to adult Angels) don’t get sucked up. 
 

A small pump and some tubing, with a clamp, can also make water going back into the tank a breeze and mostly hands-free. 
 

Here’s some of the things I’ve built specifically for making water changes more efficient:

3/8” tubing with sponge to siphon water out without sucking up fish. 

PVC with sponge shoved in the end for siphoning other tanks.

Bigger PVC set up (with ball valve) for the bigger tanks.

Water going back in tanks with a small pump and a 5 gallon bucket. I also use this pump to take water out as these tanks are just a few inches off the ground and gravity can’t really assist with water coming out. 

 

Before I had my Python I built this. Connected a pond pump to the end of the tubing, and that pump sat in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Fill up the bucket, start pumping, and have another 5 gallon bucket to fill additional water. Keep filling the bucket with the pump in it until water is filled back in the tank. This hooked over the rim of the tank and the holes in the pvc end caps ensured gentle flow back in the tank to not disturb the substrate and uproot plants. I eventually sold this to another fish keeping friend once I got my Python. 
 

As you can tell, I like building things to make water changes more efficient, hands-free, and this allows me to drain and refill tanks at the same time. I have 14 tanks, and it takes me 4-5 hours weekly to do all my maintenance thanks to these tools. 

Yup! This hobby taught me the same thing. And that mistakes happen, but they’re just a learning opportunity. 

I assume you’re rotating through all of this, and not doing all of it every time you feed?

I would stay away from the green beans for the shrimp. The shrimp could pick at that for a week and not finish it. Green beans are great for Pleco’s, but not so much shrimp. 
 

I was feeding my Pleco’s daily with zucchini and green beans at one point and that’s the only bacteria bloom I’ve ever experienced. After working through that I cut way back on the veggies. 

Very cool diy builds there! Yea I work in a power plant so we have all that stuff, I was thinking of making a make shift python out of some tubing here.

 

As far as the feeding note I posted, No definitely not feeding all at once lol, I’m going to rotate different things and see what they really like and don’t. The only thing I’ve fed the shrimp was one Hikari Algae wafer yesterday and they ate about half of it so I cleaned the leftover out best I could before work

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I only use the Python for tanks 20 gallon tall and bigger. All my 10 gallons, and the 20 long (due to in being the same height as a 10 gallon) I use the tubing with the sponge in the end, or the smaller pvc contraption to take water out, and then the small pump and the tubing to put water back in. Considering it’s just a couple gallons, and the Python is rather big, it just doesn’t make sense on the small tanks. For me anyways. 

Food lists look pretty great! Per usual, I do have some thoughts though, lol. 
 

Shrimp: Remember that they will eat the flakes and pellets that the fish miss. Personally, I wouldn’t feed “extra pellets and flake” for them. Feed them the algae wafers or bottom wafers every other day, and if you feed the fish flake/pellets on the days you don’t feed the wafers they’ll still get some flake. Instead of green beans I would do zucchini. It gets “mushier” faster and the shrimp can actually eat that. With shrimp, just remember that a little goes a long way! I hate having to siphon/pick out leftover food. I really dig the Xtreme shrimpee pellets. Hikari crab cuisine is another good one. Here’s a picture of the shrimpee pellets next to a standard Hikari algae wafer:

Fish: Again, a pretty great list! My only thought is that if you go frozen bloodworms, make sure they’re not the “Jumbo” variety. I really like this specific one from Hikari, and I can only get it from one LFS in my area:

They’re small, so most of my fish can enjoy them. From my Pea Puffers all the way up to my adult angels. Chili’s are tiny with tiny mouths! I do frozen baby brine shrimp (that I hatch myself) instead of bloodworms for them. Freeze dried bloodworms might be your better option. 
 

Also, try not to go “food crazy”. When I was new I was trying anything and everything, and then ended up with a bunch of barely used foods that went stale. Find the few things you like and your fish like and stick to those to cut down on just throwing things away or feeding spoiled/stale foods that could get your fish sick.

I also buy things in bulk (like Xtreme Krill) and then the small Xtreme Spirulina, and mix my own Community Crave (so I have more Krill than their actual mix). I take from the big containers, and mix into a smaller container. That way, I’m not exposing the big containers to oxygen multiple times per day in an attempt to keep the bulk as fresh as possible, and daily open the little container instead. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[FishRKool28]

On 7/20/2023 at 6:31 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I only use the Python for tanks 20 gallon tall and bigger. All my 10 gallons, and the 20 long (due to in being the same height as a 10 gallon) I use the tubing with the sponge in the end, or the smaller pvc contraption to take water out, and then the small pump and the tubing to put water back in. Considering it’s just a couple gallons, and the Python is rather big, it just doesn’t make sense on the small tanks. For me anyways. 

Food lists look pretty great! Per usual, I do have some thoughts though, lol. 
 

Shrimp: Remember that they will eat the flakes and pellets that the fish miss. Personally, I wouldn’t feed “extra pellets and flake” for them. Feed them the algae wafers or bottom wafers every other day, and if you feed the fish flake/pellets on the days you don’t feed the wafers they’ll still get some flake. Instead of green beans I would do zucchini. It gets “mushier” faster and the shrimp can actually eat that. With shrimp, just remember that a little goes a long way! I hate having to siphon/pick out leftover food. I really dig the Xtreme shrimpee pellets. Hikari crab cuisine is another good one. Here’s a picture of the shrimpee pellets next to a standard Hikari algae wafer:

Fish: Again, a pretty great list! My only thought is that if you go frozen bloodworms, make sure they’re not the “Jumbo” variety. I really like this specific one from Hikari, and I can only get it from one LFS in my area:

They’re small, so most of my fish can enjoy them. From my Pea Puffers all the way up to my adult angels. Chili’s are tiny with tiny mouths! I do frozen baby brine shrimp (that I hatch myself) instead of bloodworms for them. Freeze dried bloodworms might be your better option. 
 

Also, try not to go “food crazy”. When I was new I was trying anything and everything, and then ended up with a bunch of barely used foods that went stale. Find the few things you like and your fish like and stick to those to cut down on just throwing things away or feeding spoiled/stale foods that could get your fish sick.

I also buy things in bulk (like Xtreme Krill) and then the small Xtreme Spirulina, and mix my own Community Crave (so I have more Krill than their actual mix). I take from the big containers, and mix into a smaller container. That way, I’m not exposing the big containers to oxygen multiple times per day in an attempt to keep the bulk as fresh as possible, and daily open the little container instead. 

Very sound advice, yea I wasn’t going to open up everything I’m going to try 1 or 2 types of foods for the shrimp and fish and stick with that for a while. Really curious to try out the repashy community, I see YouTube videos of shrimp devouring it

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 7/20/2023 at 5:54 PM, FishRKool28 said:

Really curious to try out the repashy community, I see YouTube videos of shrimp devouring it

I bought a bottle of Repashy and have literally mixed it up once lol. It’s great, but I honestly always forget I even have it. 

[FishRKool28]

Update*** 

All fish alive and well, although I did see one swimming up top? 
 

0- Ammonia

0- Nitrite

25- Nitrate

[Odd Duck]

I’m not sure why you’re feeding twice but every other day?  That’s MORE likely to cause an ammonia spike than feeding once a day.  I would feed every other day until you get all filters up to speed, but not two feedings on the day you feed.  I don’t even feed my fish every day.  I skip at least one day a week and my tanks are nearly all over a year old and well seasoned.  I only feed twice a day if I have certain types of fry in a fairly young, or recently reset tank.

I would probably only feed the shrimp twice a week, tops.  They’re going to find leftover, missed flake or other food easily.  That’s part of the benefit of having them.  I suspect you’re overfeeding by quite a bit just from how many foods you have on your list with only one small tank running.  Those foods will definitely go stale before you can use them up even if you got the smallest containers of each.  The Hikari algae wafers are great but I would feed only 1/4 of one to 20 shrimp no more than every other week so you can use your shrimp specific pellets most of the time.  The shrimp only need about those 3 pellets in @AllFishNoBrakes’s pic every other to every third day at most.  Nearly everybody overfeeds shrimp, especially early on.  And nearly everybody overfeeds fish early on.

The chilis aren’t really going to go for the algae wafers.  They feed top to middle water and really don’t go to the bottom much at all.  I’m not sure they can even eat bloodworms.  They have very tiny mouths.  They can’t eat whiteworms and they’re about the same size as most bloodworms.  They will eat Grindal worms but adults are about half the diameter of adult whiteworms or average bloodworms.  Bloodworms will be a variable sizes since they are the larvae of a midge (non-biting fly).  They might be able to eat the smallest bloodworms but likely won’t be able to eat medium to larger ones.

You will be doing yourself and your fish a huge favor by only feeding once every other day until you get your biofiltration up to speed.  Make sure you’re feeding fine/small enough food that your fish can actually eat it - I crumble my flakes to near powder when feeding my chilis.  You have to feed what the smallest mouth in the tank can handle.  Bigger fish can always eat smaller food.  My Jack Dempseys only like food that’s about 4 mm.  Anything bigger they don’t eat as well.  I’m sure some Jacks are less picky.  But my Jacks are about 10” and don’t like big food.  Look at how small small your chili’s mouth are feed appropriate size food.

[FishRKool28]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:25 AM, Odd Duck said:

I’m not sure why you’re feeding twice but every other day?  That’s MORE likely to cause an ammonia spike than feeding once a day.  I would feed every other day until you get all filters up to speed, but not two feedings on the day you feed.  I don’t even feed my fish every day.  I skip at least one day a week and my tanks are nearly all over a year old and well seasoned.  I only feed twice a day if I have certain types of fry in a fairly young, or recently reset tank.

I would probably only feed the shrimp twice a week, tops.  They’re going to find leftover, missed flake or other food easily.  That’s part of the benefit of having them.  I suspect you’re overfeeding by quite a bit just from how many foods you have on your list with only one small tank running.  Those foods will definitely go stale before you can use them up even if you got the smallest containers of each.  The Hikari algae wafers are great but I would feed only 1/4 of one to 20 shrimp no more than every other week so you can use your shrimp specific pellets most of the time.  The shrimp only need about those 3 pellets in @AllFishNoBrakes’s pic every other to every third day at most.  Nearly everybody overfeeds shrimp, especially early on.  And nearly everybody overfeeds fish early on.

The chilis aren’t really going to go for the algae wafers.  They feed top to middle water and really don’t go to the bottom much at all.  I’m not sure they can even eat bloodworms.  They have very tiny mouths.  They can’t eat whiteworms and they’re about the same size as most bloodworms.  They will eat Grindal worms but adults are about half the diameter of adult whiteworms or average bloodworms.  Bloodworms will be a variable sizes since they are the larvae of a midge (non-biting fly).  They might be able to eat the smallest bloodworms but likely won’t be able to eat medium to larger ones.

You will be doing yourself and your fish a huge favor by only feeding once every other day until you get your biofiltration up to speed.  Make sure you’re feeding fine/small enough food that your fish can actually eat it - I crumble my flakes to near powder when feeding my chilis.  You have to feed what the smallest mouth in the tank can handle.  Bigger fish can always eat smaller food.  My Jack Dempseys only like food that’s about 4 mm.  Anything bigger they don’t eat as well.  I’m sure some Jacks are less picky.  But my Jacks are about 10” and don’t like big food.  Look at how small small your chili’s mouth are feed appropriate size food.

I have all those foods on my list as a variety to see what they like and don’t like. I’m not feeding all those foods at once. I’m not feeding twice a day yet and the reason I went with that is because that’s how we feed my sons betta and we’ve had him since last November. Once the Rasboras are settled in and they have their color back I will prob just feed once a day, and I have been crumbling up their flakes to almost powder.
 

Right now I’m just feeding fish once every other day and to your point I’ll prob only feed the shrimp twice a week.

[FishRKool28]

Well bad news, I’m down to 2 Rasboras left. They are just steadily dying. I check my water regularly and I have

0 ammonia

0 Nitrite,

10 ppm nitrate

my GH is 75 and KH 40

I don’t get it?? the cherry shrimp are doing just fine and thriving. 

The Neon Tetras was completely my fault because I had a high nitrite level, and now with a cycled tank and good water parameters I still have all my fish die. Very disheartening, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.