Fishlesscycling.com - Cycle Your Tank Without Harming Any Fish

• 10 gallon tank minimum (or a 5 gallon if you keep only 3-4 male guppy's, platies or balloon mollies in there, BUT a 15 gallon minimum for swordtails)

• Filter appropriate to tank size

• Heater

• Thermometer (temps. Should always be between 76-82 degrees)

• Gravel for the bottom (about 1-2 inch is recommended

• Live plants like Anubis, sword plant, water sprite…

• Decorations with no sharp edges

• Very important, if you get swordtails, always have a hood, they're really good jumpers!!

Before you purchase any fish, you need to get your tank cycled – refer to cycling articles

Once your tank is cycled you can start adding fish, but never more then 3-5 at a time with one week apart

Livebearers can all coexist if you get the middle of the parameters you would need for each one of them, like as follows:

pH 7.0 – 7.8

Hardness 20 – 30

Temperature 76 – 82 *F

Are fine for all of them.

Also when buying fish, they should always be on the 2:1 ratio, that means 2 females to 1 male to cut down stress for the females (if you have only 1female to 1male he will harass her to death because of wanting to mate with her).

You can also always do an all male tank though, since they're not aggressive with each other and you don't have to worry about fry if you don't want any.

Once they breed, they breed like rabbits.

Care and Food:

Always watch your temperature, it should be around 76-82*F, if you live in a warmer area, it will go up to 86 in the summer, but it's not dangerous to them.

Also keep your tank clean, that means do weekly partial water changes of 25% with a gravel siphon, replace your carbon cartridge every 4-6 weeks and you won't have any problems.

The better the filter and the less fish, the better the health of your fish will be.

What I also do, is putting in aquarium salt into my tanks once a week, about 1 tablespoon to 5 gallons, which also keeps diseases at bay, and especially mollies will love you for it.

Livebearers are omnivorous scavengers (eat everything), so you should provide them with a balanced and exchanged diet.

They love baby brine shrimp (BBS) once in a while, as well as frozen food, dried shrimp, flake food and they will also eat from the algae pellets if you have bottom dwellers.

I feed my tropicals twice a day, whatever they will eat in under 5 min; the rest will be taken out with a net. That way you don't have to worry about fungus growth in your tank from uneaten food and don't have to deal with ammonia spikes.

I also fast them once a week for a whole day to prevent constipation.

Also NEVER use these vacation feeder blocks if you go on vacation, they will only pollute your tank and ruin a well established tank. If you really don't have anybody for feeding them while you're away, get an automated feeder (but try it out for a few days if it works properly).

If you're only gone for up to 7 days, don't worry about them, they won't die, just get a timer if you don't have one for the light, which should be left on for 10 – 12 hours during the day and turned off for 12-14 hours at night.

Companions:

They can live with all other freshwater tropicals as long they are in the parameters range mentioned above.

Example:

Rasboras tetras betta Danios

Also any kind of Cory cats (bottom dwellers)

Sample tank setups for fish communities

10 gallon tank:

1 male betta

5 neon tetras

3 mollies

3 platies

3 Cory cats

3 guppies

3 mollies

3 platies

5 rasboras

3 Cory cats

3 guppies

3 lemon tetra's

6 zebra Danios

3 Cory cats

3 platies

3 mollies

6 peal Danios

3 Cory cats

Species only:

15 guppy's

3 Cory's

15 platies

3 Cory's

6-10 mollies (depending on size)

3 Cory's

15 gallon tank:

3 swordtails

3 mollies

3 platies

5 rasboras

5 cardinal tetras

3-5 Cory's

3 swordtails

6 Danios

5 platies

5 guppies

3-5 Cory's

In a 15 gallon tank you could keep up to 6 swordtails with 3-5 Cory's as a species only tank.

5 gallon tank:

1 male betta

3 male platies

2 apple snails

4 male balloon mollies

2 apple snails

4 male guppies

2-3 ghost shrimps

DON'T PUT SWORDTAILS INTO A 5 GALLON TANK!!!!!

Final Thoughts:

These setups may sound overcrowded to you, but these are all low waste fish and can easily coexist with each other.

If you keep up with regular partial water changes, you shouldn't have any problems at all.

Also keep in mind, not to overfeed your fish.

What I also do, is fasting my fish for one whole day out of the week, this prevents from constipation and swim bladder problems.

I wish each one of you happy fish keeping and joy in your hobby.

Written by: Evelyn