HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, my roommates sister offloaded a 45 gallon tank with 6 fish on me. I have a little experience since my grandma kept fish when i was growing up, but I would love any advice. There's 1 plecostomus, 1 guppie, and I'm not sure about the other 4. The tank was in a sorry state, horribly dirty and almost brown water, so I put the fish in a big cooler with a bubbler, which they were in for 5 hours or so. I deep cleaned the tank and bought new gravel. Then cycled it for a couple hours before adding the fish. I kept about 2 cups of old tank water to help with the tanks bioactive cultures, as well as a few pieces of the old decor with algae still on it, and 3 live plants. So I'm hoping the water is good enough to re-establish equilibrium soon. Any advice? I'll post photos soon

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I am a fish-keeper too! though I just started a few months ago

Its good that you kept some of the bioactive cultures.

I can't really help much, since i only just started fish keeping.
Hopefully somebody more experienced can help!
Welcome to the fish-keeping world! Good Luck!

Watch the water parameters closely - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. (Twice a day, even!) That heavy of a cleaning can easily throw the tank into a new bacterial cycle. It doesn't take much to make the fish sick, and they'll be stressed from everything they've been through. It might take a few days to notice if there's a problem or the filter isn't keeping up. Water doesn't contain nearly enough bacteria to do anything helpful, unfortunately.

Understood. Currently I have no tests or way to get them immediately but I will be ordering a good test kit for aquarium water on pay day. I wish I didn't have to clean it completely but man it was bad, I was surprised they even were alive. Here's a couple pictures of them, they are actually already doing amazing, no sluggishness, no ick, or bloat, or any other diseases I know of. They're happy I hope.

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