How Long Between Fish Additions?

[OfficialThomas]

Hi!

So I recently added a betta fish to my 20 gallon display aquarium that has some neon tetras and some guppies. I want to add more neon tetras but I am wondering how long should I wait after adding the betta to add the neon tetras to my display tank?

Does it matter how long you wait?

Thanks!

[nabokovfan87]

@OfficialThomas It definitely can matter.  You have a pretty good size tank.  There is a few things to consider here, but I will try to give you a bit of an overview on my thought process for adding fish.

1.  You have a betta in the tank, which just means you want to add fish that the betta will be unlikely to harm.  Don't add too few, and make sure they will be ok long term.

2.  You want to slowly add the bioload, which just means to make sure you're testing and have some safeguards for the process. (I'll explain more on this below)

3.  You want to add one species at a time to allow that species to be able to school and protect itself.  This also helps with stress to give the group comfort in numbers.

Safeguards:
-Moving hardscape and decor resets the boundaries on the tank and forces the species to find new territory.  This is important for species that are aggressive or semi-aggressive.
-Have a well developed filtration system.  This might be age, but this is moreso the type of filtration and having adequate filtration for the FINAL bioload in the tank.  (AqAdvisor is a tool you can use to check this as well)
-Have something like carbon or stability on hand for emergency use.  Aquarium salt can also be used to help with ammonia burns or nitrite issues if you run into a big spike.

Let's say you have 3 species to add to this betta tank.  1 school of 10 and 2 other schools of 6-8 fish.  I would ensure the filtration is in place for the full capacity of that tank with all of the fish in the tank.  I would add the largest school first just to ensure that the betta is used to having companions in the tank.  Smaller schools might be at risk for getting attacked easily.  You would give yourself a minimum of 2 weeks between adding fish.  If possible 3 weeks is better.  This gives the filtration time to do it's thing as well as 1-2 water changes in between adding new fish.  When you do add in new fish, be sure to test daily for at least 1 week.  You want to see ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0.  If you do not, then consider the methods above or moving the fish to their old aquarium and reviewing filtration.  If you add the fish and right away you see 2.0 ppm of ammonia for an extended period, it likely means you don't have adequate filtration and the tank is not cycled.  This is what we want to avoid.  If you see a very small ammonia bump and it goes away in 1-2 days, that is fine and tolerable.  (0.25 or below being small and tolerable)  You can dose in dechlorinator 1x every 24 hours in that instance as an emergency method.

[Lennie]

On 8/4/2023 at 9:17 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

@OfficialThomas It definitely can matter.  You have a pretty good size tank.  There is a few things to consider here, but I will try to give you a bit of an overview on my thought process for adding fish.

1.  You have a betta in the tank, which just means you want to add fish that the betta will be unlikely to harm.  Don't add too few, and make sure they will be ok long term.

2.  You want to slowly add the bioload, which just means to make sure you're testing and have some safeguards for the process. (I'll explain more on this below)

3.  You want to add one species at a time to allow that species to be able to school and protect itself.  This also helps with stress to give the group comfort in numbers.

Safeguards:
-Moving hardscape and decor resets the boundaries on the tank and forces the species to find new territory.  This is important for species that are aggressive or semi-aggressive.
-Have a well developed filtration system.  This might be age, but this is moreso the type of filtration and having adequate filtration for the FINAL bioload in the tank.  (AqAdvisor is a tool you can use to check this as well)
-Have something like carbon or stability on hand for emergency use.  Aquarium salt can also be used to help with ammonia burns or nitrite issues if you run into a big spike.

Let's say you have 3 species to add to this betta tank.  1 school of 10 and 2 other schools of 6-8 fish.  I would ensure the filtration is in place for the full capacity of that tank with all of the fish in the tank.  I would add the largest school first just to ensure that the betta is used to having companions in the tank.  Smaller schools might be at risk for getting attacked easily.  You would give yourself a minimum of 2 weeks between adding fish.  If possible 3 weeks is better.  This gives the filtration time to do it's thing as well as 1-2 water changes in between adding new fish.  When you do add in new fish, be sure to test daily for at least 1 week.  You want to see ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0.  If you do not, then consider the methods above or moving the fish to their old aquarium and reviewing filtration.  If you add the fish and right away you see 2.0 ppm of ammonia for an extended period, it likely means you don't have adequate filtration and the tank is not cycled.  This is what we want to avoid.  If you see a very small ammonia bump and it goes away in 1-2 days, that is fine and tolerable.  (0.25 or below being small and tolerable)  You can dose in dechlorinator 1x every 24 hours in that instance as an emergency method.

They said they wanna increase the number of existing school of neons. so there is already neons and guppies and they already went into the tank before betta claim the whole tank as its territory. No need to move anything or whatsoever

You are quite lucky I must say. All bettas of mine would try to kill guppies %100. And very likely would hate neons due to their flashy colors. You must have a really calm one, good news

keep an eye on your parameters. Bettas bioload isnt that big in my experience. I personally have never observed an off parameters after adding a betta to a tank myself. If you see no readings of ammonia and nitrite, which I believe you shouldn’t just by adding a betta to a tank with guppies and neons already, you can increase the school more. To be on the safe side maybe wait for a week or at least couple days🤷🏻‍♂️ It may help to keep the amount of feedings lower for some days when the new school is added

 

peace,

 

 

 

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/3/2023 at 11:53 PM, Lennie said:

They said they wanna increase the number of existing school of neons. so there is already neons and guppies and they already went into the tank before betta claim the whole tank as its territory. No need to move anything or whatsoever

You are quite lucky I must say. All bettas of mine would try to kill guppies %100. And very likely would hate neons due to their flashy colors. You must have a really calm one, good news

Got it! Yeah I think it really helped to add the neon tetras and guppies first and then let the betta after. The betta completely ignores the other fish. I also have a planted tank and right now it is very understocked.

On 8/3/2023 at 11:17 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

@OfficialThomas It definitely can matter.  You have a pretty good size tank.  There is a few things to consider here, but I will try to give you a bit of an overview on my thought process for adding fish.

1.  You have a betta in the tank, which just means you want to add fish that the betta will be unlikely to harm.  Don't add too few, and make sure they will be ok long term.

2.  You want to slowly add the bioload, which just means to make sure you're testing and have some safeguards for the process. (I'll explain more on this below)

3.  You want to add one species at a time to allow that species to be able to school and protect itself.  This also helps with stress to give the group comfort in numbers.

Safeguards:
-Moving hardscape and decor resets the boundaries on the tank and forces the species to find new territory.  This is important for species that are aggressive or semi-aggressive.
-Have a well developed filtration system.  This might be age, but this is moreso the type of filtration and having adequate filtration for the FINAL bioload in the tank.  (AqAdvisor is a tool you can use to check this as well)
-Have something like carbon or stability on hand for emergency use.  Aquarium salt can also be used to help with ammonia burns or nitrite issues if you run into a big spike.

Let's say you have 3 species to add to this betta tank.  1 school of 10 and 2 other schools of 6-8 fish.  I would ensure the filtration is in place for the full capacity of that tank with all of the fish in the tank.  I would add the largest school first just to ensure that the betta is used to having companions in the tank.  Smaller schools might be at risk for getting attacked easily.  You would give yourself a minimum of 2 weeks between adding fish.  If possible 3 weeks is better.  This gives the filtration time to do it's thing as well as 1-2 water changes in between adding new fish.  When you do add in new fish, be sure to test daily for at least 1 week.  You want to see ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0.  If you do not, then consider the methods above or moving the fish to their old aquarium and reviewing filtration.  If you add the fish and right away you see 2.0 ppm of ammonia for an extended period, it likely means you don't have adequate filtration and the tank is not cycled.  This is what we want to avoid.  If you see a very small ammonia bump and it goes away in 1-2 days, that is fine and tolerable.  (0.25 or below being small and tolerable)  You can dose in dechlorinator 1x every 24 hours in that instance as an emergency method.

Thank you! I already have some neon tetras and guppies in the tank right now and the betta is not harming them at all. The tank is definitely cycled (been running for a year) and has many live plants.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/4/2023 at 12:14 AM, OfficialThomas said:

Thank you! I already have some neon tetras and guppies in the tank right now and the betta is not harming them at all. The tank is definitely cycled (been running for a year) and has many live plants.

Just add one school, give it a week or two, add the rest.  It's hard to say specifically without numbers of fish involved, but you seem to be fine.  Just be sure to check for disease well on all of the new fish, QT preferred.  It sounds like you've already done that.

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/4/2023 at 12:34 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Just add one school, give it a week or two, add the rest.  It's hard to say specifically without numbers of fish involved, but you seem to be fine.  Just be sure to check for disease well on all of the new fish, QT preferred.  It sounds like you've already done that.

Got it. I am hoping to drive to the Coop store tomorrow so hopefully the fish will be pretty healthy.

Thanks for your help!