At My Limits?

[ddgbumblebee]

Hi,
For the past 6 months my 4ft. 375L aquarium has been running happily, thankfully without disease (yet- I'm always on the lookout) and I was wondering wether my stocking for this tank is at it's limits or over. Here is what is currently stocked:
- 30 Neon Tetras
- 10 Black Phantom Tetras
- 10 Head & Tail Light Tetras
- 5 Platies (Breeding group)
- 2 Gold Longfin Danios (Breeding Pair)
- 3 Bristlenose Plecostomus
- 2 Chinese Algae Eaters (One gold, one regular)
- 2 Albino Corydoras Catfish (Yes, I need to bump this school up to 6)
- 2 Clown Loaches
The Clown Loaches were purchased because of and extreme overun of snails (literally millions- I'm not overdoing it either) and now one is REALLY fat. I am wanting to increase the Clown Loach school to six also but I don't think my aquarium is going to be able to take them, especially as they may eventually grow to be a ft. long each. What are all of your opinions on this, what should I do? I am even more concerned lately of overstocking as one of my platys have had 45 fry (all successful) and so they are now also adding to the bioload.
Other than that my female danio is heavily pregnant and my female Black Phantom Tetras are also pregnant.
Dylan
Would love to hear some opinions on what to do!?

 

[Holly12]

Hi,
For the past 6 months my 4ft. 375L aquarium has been running happily, thankfully without disease (yet- I'm always on the lookout) and I was wondering wether my stocking for this tank is at it's limits or over. Here is what is currently stocked:
- 30 Neon Tetras
- 10 Black Phantom Tetras
- 10 Head & Tail Light Tetras
- 5 Platies (Breeding group)
- 2 Gold Longfin Danios (Breeding Pair)
- 3 Bristlenose Plecostomus
- 2 Chinese Algae Eaters (One gold, one regular)
- 2 Albino Corydoras Catfish (Yes, I need to bump this school up to 6)
- 2 Clown Loaches
The Clown Loaches were purchased because of and extreme overun of snails (literally millions- I'm not overdoing it either) and now one is REALLY fat. I am wanting to increase the Clown Loach school to six also but I don't think my aquarium is going to be able to take them, especially as they may eventually grow to be a ft. long each. What are all of your opinions on this, what should I do? I am even more concerned lately of overstocking as one of my platys have had 45 fry (all successful) and so they are now also adding to the bioload.
Other than that my female danio is heavily pregnant and my female Black Phantom Tetras are also pregnant.
Dylan
Would love to hear some opinions on what to do!?

WOW!! lol that is alot of fish to bad you don't have a picture of your tank I would love to see it.

 

[K_Hedin]

I go by the rule of thumb of 1" of fish per Gallon. Knowing basically how big the fish can get full grown I would say with the fry you are probably just over the limit. If you stay on top of changing the water, there is good circulation, and you haven't had a problem with spikes in the past then I would say you might be alright. I would for sure try and get a fry tank setup though. Seems like you will be having a lot of fish come along and need a place to keep them until they are big enough to sell/trade/giveaway/feed. I am pretty new to all of this though so maybe somebody else can help give you a better idea.

 

[markandhisfish]

the only real issue i can see is , as you say the clown loaches , but they are very slow growing fish , altho they do prefer to be in groups. maybe re-home those and swap for a couple of dwarf cichlids such as bolivian rams . the extra bioload from the fry is going to be negligable , the only problem you could run into if theres a high survival rate is overcrowding.

 

[ddgbumblebee]

Yes, I agree with what everyone has said. I do have two other small (well, very small- a 20L and I think a 30L?) aquariums that aren't in use at the moment. I could use those for the fry I just need to buy a heater and an air-pump to give some circulation because I suppose I could just do a water change every couple of days or so instead of buying a filter couldn't I?
Also, I think I'll have to go with this idea as another female platy is about to give birth...lucky I have two breeder boxes. Would I still be ok to add another 4 Corys and then another 4 Clown Loaches though, as I think they are sad not having many friends? I think I will be able to give them a bigger tank in a few years or so, so I think I should be safe, hopefully they will grow rather slow until then.
I would love to swap the clown loaches for something else, however, I still get constant snail issues which these guys happily eat, so I have to have them, otherwise my tank looks overun. Not unless anyone knows a a small snail eating fish (by nail eating I mean snaill crazed!)
Dylan
Thanks for all of your help!

 

[K_Hedin]

Well personally fry are free food unless you want them to grow up. Then I would suggest getting the other tanks setup. Maybe a LFS will give you credit for the guys that mature. That way you can earn credits and get some equipment that is needed. As for adding a couple of guys. Like I said before, 1" per gallon so I think your tank can handle it without the fry trying to mature in there. Eventually the growing fish would be a bio overload.

What created your snail problem? Did you get live plants with snails that you can't get under control? If you really want them gone and have a couple of buckets that all of the fish can be okay in for a few day then you could just completely clean your tank out using cleaners(bleach and making sure you rinse everything very very well) and then use a little of the water from each bucket to the tank back to being cycled. Don't know if the snails are really bothering you though.

 

[ddgbumblebee]

No, I definately want these guys to grow up. Just enjoy watching the little fellas grow. I am very near having one completely set up. Now I just need a few more things. My lfs won't do that. I've already tried and they just won't accept it. Yes, I will have to plan a bigger tank for the future.
In regards to the snails, I honestly don't know what brought it on. Yes, I have LOTS of live plants in my aquarium and everything was going great until I noticed a tiny little snail crawling up the glass one day and so quickly I threw it outside as I didn't want them multiplying but after around two weeks my whole tank was overun and every plant destroyed. I tried all of the luring and hand removal and it just didn't work. So I went down to my lfs and bought two clown loaches (it was the most I could afford that day) and a week after no snails and two very large and full clown loaches. At the moment one is at around 5cm and the other is nearly 10cm long. I really don't want to dismantle my whole tank as I tried it during one water change and was unsuccessful and also, I rather like the clown loaches and they have done me a huge favour!
Dylan
Thanks again for your reply

 

[ddgbumblebee]

Bit of an update (even though it's only been an hour or something) I have come up with this interesting idea and have just put it into practice. I have a small acrylic tank that is rather light and so in my large tank I slowly added water into it as its base was on the surface. I continued doing this until it didn't sink but it pushed upwards onto the hood which keeps it secure. This way the babies have around 10L+ of free swimming space. I have also added floating plants to give them a bit of retreat from my lights and am going to replace 50% of this water every few days to keep oxygen levels up. The only problem I can see with this is that there is no surface movement which I'm not quite sure as yet how to counter-act so ideas would help!
Dylan
State your opinion on this idea as freely as you like

 

[K_Hedin]

Just give it a lightly flowing airstone so that the water keeps movement and stays oxygenated.

 

[ddgbumblebee]

Yep, have just added that then. Hopefully over the next 5 months or so these guys will eventually be ok to sell or something. Thnaks again for your support!
Dylan

 

[K_Hedin]

I don't know where you are at but Craigslist is always a good place to try and of course because you didn't have to put as much time and money in you can sell them cheaper than a lot of the stores and get some money back. And fry should only usually take like 2 months to big enough to sell off so they will be okay. At least to my understanding. Who knows I could be wrong but a little love and a little food and may a little more maintenance then usual and you could be selling fish like a mad man.



I don't know how you guys do it. I have platty's, molly's, tetra and nothing breeds. I even know I have males and females of both and a good temperature and still nothing happens.

 

[markandhisfish]

the snails will have almost certainly come in on the plants as eggs . if you want another method of controling them , have a look at some assassin snails . getting fish in the hope of being able to provide a bigger tank when they need it can backfire , as you never know what the future holds.