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What is the safest way to add new fish and how many can I add at a time2007-11-24 23:12:04

I have a 29 gallon bowfront tank with 2 beautiful blue gourami s . They had ich 10 days ago. I have read all of the recommended sites and there are conflicting opinions about how long to wait. I have been reading these posts and I know there is a lot of experience and knowledge here. My tank is 6 weeks running. I have lost all the fish except Jack and Jill. They are 3 and 4 inches respectively. This is important to me, I have had insomnia and the Doc thought they would help me unwind. Guess what? They do!! I am now sleeping about 4 hours..Be gentle with me I am new to this. Thanks!!

Answers:

the safest way to add fish is to have an up and running quarantine tank so when you buy new fish you can quarantine them and pick up any diseases they may have and treat before adding them into your existing tank.

i always add 2 or 3 fish at a time depending on the breed and size,

i then leave it a week before adding any more,

i would wait a few weeks and keep doing water changes and testing the levels in the tank before getting any more fish

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You can add a few more fish, maybe some angelfish would do nicely. They are beautiful and get easy to keep once the tank is established. I'd say it could be ready for some hardy fish, I find my fish stop dying at about 2 months+, but you can probably put a few more in pretty soon. Angelfish might die at first a lot at first, so don't get discouraged, but if you have been having problems, wait and make sure everything goes O.K. for a week or so then add some more fish. You can add like 1-2 fish every day or every other day, the longer you wait, the better. Goodluck. Don't overcrowd the tank. Then you'll get more problems. Make sure you are prepared for max size.

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Have you got test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? Easiest way to know if it's safe to add more fish is if your ammonia and nitrites are reading 0 and you've got some nitrates (nitrates should be less than 25, but it's normal for them to be higher, it just means you need to do a water change, 25% or so). That means your tank is cycled, and you've got a colony of good bacteria established. Then you can add a couple more fish, wait a week or so for your bacteria to catch up, then check your levels again. If ammonia and nitrite are at 0, you can add more fish. Repeat until your tank is fully stocked.

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You generally do not want to add too many fish at a time because you will overwhelm the beneficial bacteria colony and might trigger an ammonia spike.