Frustration with Pet Store !!!!

[James Hammett]

I have been cycling my tank since 2/12/2018. IT is cycled and I have 3 hermit crabs in it but need to continue to add live stock. I decided to put a clownfish or two in-the tank to make sure the bacteria had food. The guy at petco refused to sell me a clown saying that I needed to start with a fire Goby. Because the clown needed a social group and the tank needed more cleaners first. Can you help me make sense of this. Is what he is saying true? Is there a balance? I read and watched videos and thought I had a good handle on this first few weeks. My students opted to go with clowns to keep the system fed and continue to raise money to extend the CUC in the coming weeks. Now they will come to school tomorrow and there will be no fish.... FRUSTRATED

 

[Ludders]

Nothing wrong adding 2 clownfish first. If they are not already a pair, select 2 that appear to be compatible with each other and pick one significantly smaller than the other.

 

[lilchris_357]

Clowns are the perfect first fish to add to a tank due to they are in the damsel family and they are very hardy fish. What are your Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels? If you are showing no ammonia or Nitrites, you are good to add clowns. You don't need a clean up crew yet, there is nothing to clean up. Go to a LFS (NOT PETCO) and get advise and fish from them. Just my .02 cents.

 

[sbash]

Yeah, take that advice with a, heh, grain of salt...

Does your tank have a screen or a cover? Otherwise that firefish will jump out! (did he even bring that up?)

Can you go somewhere else to get a couple clowns?

 

[Sipec]

I have been cycling my tank since 2/12/2018. IT is cycled and I have 3 hermit crabs in it but need to continue to add live stock. I decided to put a clownfish or two in-the tank to make sure the bacteria had food. The guy at petco refused to sell me a clown saying that I needed to start with a fire Goby. Because the clown needed a social group and the tank needed more cleaners first. Can you help me make sense of this. Is what he is saying true? Is there a balance? I read and watched videos and thought I had a good handle on this first few weeks. My students opted to go with clowns to keep the system fed and continue to raise money to extend the CUC in the coming weeks. Now they will come to school tomorrow and there will be no fish.... FRUSTRATED

+1. How big is your tank?

 

[James Hammett]

Here are my numbers through Monday of this week, we added 3 hermits (Bluelegged) that afternoon. We did another test yesterday and the numbers were the same, i just didnt take another picture of the board where he students are tracking their data.

 

[James Hammett]

3

+1. How big is your tank?

2 GAl. Bio CUbe LED

 

[James Hammett]

32 Gal. Biocube LED

 

[James Hammett]

Yeah, take that advice with a, heh, grain of salt...

Does your tank have a screen or a cover? Otherwise that firefish will jump out! (did he even bring that up?)

Can you go somewhere else to get a couple clowns?

I will go to a LFS after school I ran to the PETCO while on plan to try to get the fish. the LFS is a bit further away.

 

[Sipec]

I will go to a LFS after school I ran to the PETCO while on plan to try to get the fish. the LFS is a bit further away.

Sounds good. Are you going to do any kind of fancy clownfish?

 

[GoVols]

Clowns are the perfect first fish to add to a tank due to they are in the damsel family and they are very hardy fish. What are your Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels? If you are showing no ammonia or Nitrites, you are good to add clowns. You don't need a clean up crew yet, there is nothing to clean up. Go to a LFS (NOT PETCO) and get advise and fish from them. Just my .02 cents.

+1
We used to cycle a new tank with a pair of clown fish... ;Oldman

 

[James Hammett]

I hadn’t thought about fancy clowns... with the budget we have a s a class we are very limited... (unless my wife isn’t looking) so I was thinking a pair of ordinary clowns... although I think the nations are beautiful