Let's Try That Again

While Fe continues to swim defiantly he was looking lonely. His refusal to capitulate to my inept attempts at fish keeping left me in a rough spot. With him in there I couldn't cycle the tank fishlessly, the ammonia levels a fishless cycle generates would be lethal, even for him. However cycling the tank naturally would take too long as we're going on vacation at the end of July and a fish fueled cycle would certainly drag on for that long, if not in ammonia then certainly in nitrites. Perhaps I'm too impatient but just leaving the tank as is and doing nothing for almost a month doesn't sit well with me.

So I decided to cheat.

Yes, cheat. If you read this you know that I knocked the idea of dump in starter bacteria not too long ago. What I did is I asked the guy at my fish store exactly how he gets his tanks going. He recommended this stuff:

Well I bought a bottle, yes it is refrigerated, and I used it. If this stuff works as advertised and the way the fish store guy says it does I should take care of most of the cycling process in a few days as the bacteria take up residence in the tank.

I also bought three more mickey mouse platys. So far Mickey II, Donald, and Goofy are all doing well. In fact the three of them are more lively and active than Mickey ever was. When they see someone coming up to the tank they move up to the glass and beg for food. When I moved the thermometer and temperature probe in the tank they gathered around my hand and wouldn't leave my hand or the items alone for a while afterwards.


While platys are not listed as schooling fish in anything I've seen I think that having a few more of their kind might be helping with their quick acclimation.

We'll see if my cheating is going to pay off.