seano

Hello all,

I was given 16 gallon tank as a gift a while ago, I currently have 6 danios and 6 amano shrimp, would like to add some colour so would be grateful for some suggestions and advise if its wise to add more to this tank?

fyi - the tank is a 16 gallon biorb life collection and I do regular water/filter changes.

Wish I had been introduced to this years ago!!

Thanks,

Sean.

jdhef

Welcome to FishLore!

The first thing I would suggest is that you read and understand the nitrogen cycle. (Just click the underlined words). It is the most important concept to understand when keeping fish.

Basically fish produce ammonia which is toxic and will kill them. But in time a bacteria forms the eats ammonia but releases nitrites (which are also toxic). In time a new bacteria forms which eats nitrites but releases nitrates. Nitrates are no toxic in low quanties.

Regular partial water changes are required to keep nitrate levels low enough for the fish to tolerate them. Most of this benificial bacteria colonizes in your filter media, so you generally only want to rinse the media in dechlorinated water (I use dirty tank water during my water changes) since chlorine will kill the bacteria. You really only want to change the filter media when it is absolutley falling apart. (Carbon on the other hand needs to be changes every 3 weeks).

So until you are fully cycled (reading zero ammonia, zero nitites and some nitrates) I wouldn't consider adding any additional fish.

To keep the fish that you already have alive you will need to do daily 50% water changes using a product such as Prime to detox ammonia and nitrates for 24 hours (at which point you will be doing another 50% water change) until your tank fully cycles.

Best of luck.

Jaysee

How about a honey dwarf gourami? If you have hiding spots fot the shrimp, I think they'll be okay when they molt.