Hi! I’m soph, I’m new!

[REEFTIDE]

Welcome!

 

[new fish owner!]

Hi! Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. Sadly my orange guppy and my new yellow guppy died .
the Red tailed Dalmatian platy is still alive though! So we are planning to get a panda platy to add to the tank and that’s all.

I think 2 fish is a good amount for now. Is this ok?

 

[new fish owner!]

Or is a 5 gallon to small for 2 platies?

 

[new fish owner!]

And also
i researched and it said that 2 platies cant live in 5 gallons because they grow to 3 inches. We have another tank we can
set up and move 1 of them into if we had to. ( sorry for so much posts)

 

[Sharkbait19]

I haven’t seen a platy over 2 inches, you could probably have 2 in the 5, just be ready to upgrade when it feels cramped. Two males may fight.
Sorry to hear about the guppies...too much inbreeding these days, can’t get healthy ones easily.

 

[new fish owner!]

Also, do I need to wait for my tank to fully cycle before adding the new platie? And if not, do I need to quarantine the new platie first

 

[new fish owner!]

My tank has been running for about 2 weeks btw.

 

[Sharkbait19]

If the tank isn’t cycled, no fish should be in it. Sounds like it would be cycled and could be added, but quarantining is a good idea if you have a tank for it.

 

[new fish owner!]

Oh ok.

about the cycling water thing. We waited 1-2 days when we first got the tank and added water conditioner/ added water. Then after the 1-2 days we got the fish. but I’ve heard online that it takes 6-8 weeks to fully cycle.. should we wait on getting any more fish until 6-8 weeks?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Oh ok.

about the cycling water thing. We waited 1-2 days when we first got the tank and added water conditioner/ added water. Then after the 1-2 days we got the fish. but I’ve heard online that it takes 6-8 weeks to fully cycle.. should we wait on getting any more fish until 6-8 weeks?

All tanks are different, having a fish in the tank does speed up cycles. What you can do is get a bottle of bacteria (dr. Tim’s) and it helps to speed up a cycle. Probably won’t have much a difference if you get it now vs later.

 

[ChefReeferThomas]

Understanding what the cycle is and how it works helps to get a better picture of why the fish may keep dying.

When you dechlorinate water, you essentially open it up to bacteria. There are way too many different types of bacteria to count, but you essentially want the ones that turn ammonia from fish poop & food waste into different forms of nitrogen to thrive. This is what keeps the water from becoming toxic to the fish, the ammonia being produced by fish turds is not all that different from ammonia under your sink.

Nitrate & Nitrite are both byproducts of the bacteria consuming the ammonia. But here’s the trick, plants that photosynthesize love many of the forms of organic nitrogen (aka nitrite and nitrate) and if you see algae in the tank then that means the job is being done by the bacteria.

here’s the thing though, nitrate and nitrite are still toxic to fish and algae is an eyesore. So when you do a water change think about where sources of ammonia are. The less of that, the less nitrogen. Keep in mind a 20% water change will likely only remove 20% of these chemicals. So regular changes, + some filter cleaning is what keeps fish healthy and the right bacteria thriving.

(sorry about the novel, but I really did simplify it to the best of my capability.)