Just Got My First Glofish Tetra, Have A Few Questions

I just set up this 10 gallon tank for my kids. They saw glofish at a local pet store and want them. The pet store sales person recommended that we just buy one fish to cycle the tank, since it's a brand new tank. I have some aged tap water(sitting 2 days) and put in 5 ml of water conditioner to make sure all chlorines are eliminated. The heater keeps the tank at 78 degrees. I have blue LED lighting and a 10 gallon filter. I also bought 5lbs of glofish gravel(the kind that has most black gravels sprinkled with some color ones).
I bought one single red glofish tetra(don't know the sex yet and I don't really care), and put it into the tank. The fish seems to be happy and alert, swim up and down(maybe feeling very lonely). It's color is very bright under the dark blue LED lighting.
My questions are:
1. How much tropical flake should I feed the fish. Since I only have one, I don't want to put in too much. So far I only put in 3 tiny piece of flakes into the tank and the fish ate them all. How often and how much should I feed it?
2. Eventually I want to have 5 or six glofish tetras in the tank(I didn't like the danios), and maybe one or two glofish barbs. I heard tetras are very aggressive when they are not in a group. so if I put in a second glofish tetra, will they fight it out? Will tetra fight the barb?
3. how often should I change the water? and what percentage should be changed? 1/3 tank? 1/2 tank? Since there are only one fish in the tank there isn't going to be a lot of pollutant, so I guess I don't have to change it weekly. Should I bring some water to test in my local pet store(it says free water testing).

Thanks for the answers in advance.

 

1. Only what he or she will eat in one minute, in an uncycled tank it’s very important not to over feed. I recommend reading abou the nitrogen cycle. Just press on the word cycle.
2. I would only recommend having tetras since it is such a small tank, they honestly need a larger floor plan but that’s really too late. They are schooling fish and exist in the wild in the hundreds and thousand swimming at once. So I recommend filling up the rest of the tank with the tetras( fish get very lonely and this causes them stress which can lead to disease).
3. As for the water changes since this is an uncycled tnak for the next 4-8 weeks you’ll have to do a lot of water changes to keep the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrite down. The ammonia will spike then the nitrite and then all that will be left is the nitrate. You will read about this during reading about the nitrogen cycle. The reason you need to change it so often is ammonia causes burns on the fish and nitrites damage a lot of their internal systems. If you don’t want to drive to the store often to make sure that these chemicals are at a dangerous level which is basically any level then I do recommend getting the API freshwater test kit, you can monitor it much easier with it and it gives a ton of test for a reasonable price. As for the water change amount when you see the spikes in these chemicals do either one 59% water change if it’s a high spike or daily 25% water changes for three days if it’s a low spike. Another way to limit these spikes is with the declorinator known as seachem prime. It bind me the harmful ammonia and nitrite so they aren’t harmful for the fish for 24 hours.
Welcome to the wonderful and complex world of fishkeeping, it is truely I unlike owning any other pet.

 

1. Only what he or she will eat in one minute, in an uncycled tank it’s very important not to over feed. I recommend reading abou the nitrogen cycle. Just press on the word cycle.
2. I would only recommend having tetras since it is such a small tank, they honestly need a larger floor plan but that’s really too late. They are schooling fish and exist in the wild in the hundreds and thousand swimming at once. So I recommend filling up the rest of the tank with the tetras( fish get very lonely and this causes them stress which can lead to disease).
3. As for the water changes since this is an uncycled tnak for the next 4-8 weeks you’ll have to do a lot of water changes to keep the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrite down. The ammonia will spike then the nitrite and then all that will be left is the nitrate. You will read about this during reading about the nitrogen cycle. The reason you need to change it so often is ammonia causes burns on the fish and nitrites damage a lot of their internal systems. If you don’t want to drive to the store often to make sure that these chemicals are at a dangerous level which is basically any level then I do recommend getting the API freshwater test kit, you can monitor it much easier with it and it gives a ton of test for a reasonable price. As for the water change amount when you see the spikes in these chemicals do either one 59% water change if it’s a high spike or daily 25% water changes for three days if it’s a low spike. Another way to limit these spikes is with the declorinator known as seachem prime. It bind me the harmful ammonia and nitrite so they aren’t harmful for the fish for 24 hours.
Welcome to the wonderful and complex world of fishkeeping, it is truely I unlike owning any other pet.

Thank you Jacob! I will get the test strips and monitor the ammonia levels. I'm a chemist myself so that cycle isn't something new to me. I'm wondering if there's something for sale like a beneficial bacteria colony which I can add to the tank to shorten the cycle, or maybe live rocks. I'll try to keep the feeding minimum. How do I know the fish (tetra) is truely hungry? Does the fish show a particular sign like swim near bottom or something? Thanks.

Also, in the future when I get more glofish, will they breed? I'm just wondering what will say, a red glofish breed with a neon green glofish, produce? I know they are genetically modified to have some sort of jellyfish glowing gene inserted in them, or maybe they are sterile. Just some thoughts.

 

The only way to really shorten the nitrogen cycle is to add mature media to your filter, if you have anyone you know who has an established tank you can ask if you can have their old filter cartrage of biological media. This will allow it to be cycled within a few days. Fish don’t really have the part of the brain like we do that tells them to stop eating so a lot of fish will eat until they hurt themselves. You can try just feeding them small amounts twice a day that should satisfy their hunger and allow them to thrive and grow. I only know a little abou the genetics behind glowfish and because of that I’m not sure if when the diffeeent colors breed they come out colorful or albino, I do know they successfully breed the same colors, so I’m not really sure about how the mixed colors would turn out, whether it be a blended trait variety or if the separate genes affect the pigment and cause albinism. Tetras are fairly hard to breed so I don’t think you’ll have any problems with them breeding in the tank. They generally need a larger tank and very specific water conditions to successfully spawn.
Edit: their are biological agents that are marketed to decrease the time of the cycle but many of these are not very useful. The only one I’ve heard actually do a lot are the tetra brand one and seachem stability.

 

IMO Jacob nailed it.

Not test strips, the API master test kit.

Only thing I disagree with is bottled beneficial bacteria. I used TetraSafeStart to cycle my first tank. Shake the bottle hard, pour the entire bottle into the filter, wait 14 days. You should be cycled. Feed lightly during this time.

And when you need new declorinator to remove the chlorine from your tap water, buy Prime like he said. Best water conditioner on the market IMO.

Last thing, don’t wash your filter cartridge in tap water, or replace it.. that’s where your beneficial bacteria live and tap will kill the bacteria (chlorine) or if you are changing cartridges, you are just throwing it away.

 

Also, in the future when I get more glofish, will they breed? I'm just wondering what will say, a red glofish breed with a neon green glofish, produce? I know they are genetically modified to have some sort of jellyfish glowing gene inserted in them, or maybe they are sterile. Just some thoughts.

These Glo Fish are supposedly infertile but yet some of them have bred in captivity, perhaps even to someone on this forum... Interestingly they are the only genetically modified animal available for sale here in the USA and if yours do breed, be aware that it is illegal to sale the offspring.

 

A group of 6 or 7 tetras should be ok in your 10 gal tank. They will school together and feel much more safe in a small group vs being alone. Also you might consider adding 3 Panda Corys or JuliI Corys to your tank. They stay at the bottom and are very peaceful fish. Also fun to watch as they scurry around the tank, sometimes at break neck speeds. Good Luck with your cycle.

 

Thanks for all the input. Here's a picture of the tank right now. Only one glofish before the nitrogen cycling complete(I read it takes about 2 months).

 

I still have 4 glowfish that I bought 3 years ago when I stated my tank. They are tough as nails. The first one has been with me since the beginning survived an ich outbreak that killed off all of his tankmates. He survived out of sheer luck and now he is the biggest fish in my tank. They look great in my planted tank.

 

Thanks for all the input. Here's a picture of the tank right now. Only one glofish before the nitrogen cycling complete(I read it takes about 2 months). View attachment 467368

Read my post above about TetraSafeStart.

No need to wait 60 days when you can donin 1/4 of the time.

And if it doesn’t work (it will if you follow directions) you’re out $9.

 

Just had water tested today at petco(they do it for free) and they said there's only trace amount of ammonia or ammonium, no nitrite either, but some nitrate. Does that mean my tank's already cycled? It's just been around 5 days since I set it up that's quicker than I thought. This is not a brand new tank though. I used it to keep a turtle maybe some bacteria is already on the wall(I just rinsed the wall before putting water in).

I just found this item on Amazon "seachem ammonia monitor" which seems to be a good idea. Does anybody use it? I want to keep an eye on my ammonia level but don't want to do the testing all the time. Amazon has some bad reviews on that product so I'm not sure if I should get it.

 

I just found this item on Amazon "seachem ammonia monitor" which seems to be a good idea. Does anybody use it? I want to keep an eye on my ammonia level but don't want to do the testing all the time. Amazon has some bad reviews on that product so I'm not sure if I should get it.

The 'alert' series is meant to be secondary. If you want it you should have a test kit as well.