Bud's community tank

[budified]

Hi all!

Finally got my tank cycled after a little over a month, and have added my first round of fish.

The tank is, of course, shared with my 6 year old son, and so I am attempting to make him happy to partake in the obligations as well as the gratitude of hosting aquatic pets.

For our first round, we have introduced the following:

6 Harlequin Rasboras
1 Black Kuhli Loach
1 YoYo Loach
1 Amano Shrimp

I know the Amano shrimp won't likely last as they prefer slightly cooler water than a community tank can provide, but it has survived the month long wait in another uncycled tank and my son wanted to put him in the new tank, so we did.

I am considering adding another 5 Kuhli' to the mix as they tend to like having same species company, and another small shoal of schooling fish, a small species pleco and possibly a single female betta.

The tank is 30 gallons and seems if I get a group of calm water dwellers it would work great as the rasboras seem to enjoy the end of the tank with the most water movement. I will also be adding a few live plants, and already have driftwood and some small tank decor items giving a large option of hiding places for the sissies.

I was thinking a group of 4-6 spotted molly's would make a great addition, making a total of:

6 Harlequin Rasbora
4-6 Spotted Molly
6 Black Kuhli
1 YoYo Loach
1 Amano Shrimp
1 female Betta
1 Bristlenose Pleco

Run through the AqAdvisor site, this is a perfect stock for my tank, besides the YoYo Loach which apparently needs 3 gallons for itself and seems as though it can be aggressive towards almost every other mate I will be adding, so it may have to go...

Any thoughts on the stock?

 

[BettaBettas]

I say you should definitely do research before you purchase fish, amano shrimp need to at least be in a group of 3, kuhli loaches also enjoy a specific environment of which idk if you acquire, do not add a female betta, they travel in at least groups of 6 and are aggressive, if not even more than a betta. also for a 30 gallon tank, and idk this is just my opinion your tank seems slightly overstocked if you where to add what you said you wanted to. also in my opinion, yes the loach will most likely have to go.

 

[budified]

Going by the AqAdvisor if I go for that community minus the YoYo Loach it will be at 97% stocked. It didn't mention anything about betas or amano shrimp needing to be in groups as it did with other fish, so thanx for that info.

After a bit more research I have brought the list to this:

6 Spotted Molly
6 Amano Shrimp
6 Kuhli Loach
6 Harlequin Rasbora
1 Bristlenose Pleco

Which AqAdvisor gives me results stating this, which shows the least conflict of any of the combinations I have entered:

 

[NickAu]

do not add a female betta, they travel in at least groups of 6 and are aggressive,

Since when do female Bettas need to be in groups of 6?, A single female Betta should be fine,

kuhli loaches

Kihli Loaches need to be in a group of at least 6 they prefer soft water and a sand substrate, Pea gravel is fine as long as its round ( No sharp gravel types)

Thats just plain nonsense.

You cant keep 1 Molly they are a social fish and need hard water.

 

[budified]

NickAu thank you for that, I have changed my mind anyways on the Betta, but was still considering the Mollies. I may still give it a shot, but would you suggest another schooling fish that would be a suitable fit for the tank?


Here are a few pictures if the setup now, today I added a Rubbernose Pleco and a handful of live plants.

 

[budified]

After realizing I had the plants mixed up, I rearranged to comply with each of their lighting requirements.

 

[budified]

I have now made the final adjustments to the setup of the tank, in conjunction with the first 30% water change, and the setup seems to work well for the fish I have chosen.

Check it out, any critiques are welcomed.

 

[NickAu]

Nice tank.

YoYo loaches form complex social hierarchies and should be maintained in groups of at least 5 or 6 specimens, preferably 10 or more. Your tank is too small for YoYo loaches.

 

[omega59]

Very nice never seen plants like this. I do like the balloon mollies. Btw, you might wanna remove that hose pushing water, it's blowing your fish they seem stressed. I hope it doesn't knock them against anything.

 

[budified]

Nice tank.

YoYo loaches form complex social hierarchies and should be maintained in groups of at least 5 or 6 specimens, preferably 10 or more. Your tank is too small for YoYo loaches.

I had planned on getting 6 YoYos, but started with 1 and 1 Black Kuhli and from the high activity of the one YoYo I had assumed 6 would be too much for the tank. I will keep the 1 to inspire me to get a bigger tank I think (and some cichlids of course), then when I get more he will hopefully be the leader of the pack in the new tank. Would they be alright in a cichlid tank if the cichlids were small to start off?

Very nice never seen plants like this. I do like the balloon mollies. Btw, you might wanna remove that hose pushing water, it's blowing your fish they seem stressed. I hope it doesn't knock them against anything.

I chose to do the sand plant dishes for the Kuhli's, but they seem to prefer hiding other places. The Molly seem to enjoy picking at the leftovers that settle there and a couple of them hide in the round dish when I'm moving around

The filter output is shooting along the back wall of the tank, the rasbora seem to absolutely love it, not sure if it bothers the others but they don't seem to have a broiler slowly floating and happily schooling around. The pleco also loves to sit in the flow.


I was actually thinking today about making a sponge cover for the intake and run the outflow into the under gravel filter to create the push through the bottom. The filter is 3× what I need for the tank, and will suck fish in without proper protection. The filter does not have the original intake cover.

 

[NickAu]

My suggestion is to return the YoYo and get some Kuhlis. Its not fair on the YoYo to make it live on its own.

This is how loaches live in happy groups, On their own they stress too much.

They even beg for food as a group.

 

[omega59]

I seen these loaches at my LFS, they do they big wow. But they are pretty interesting to watch. Maybe you should consider Corey cats?

 

[budified]

Nice clowns, I had one of those many years ago, knew nothing about them so only had one, he didn't appear as happy as those guys do. I guess I could return the one YoYo and wait until the LFS gets more Black Kuhli in stock, should be this week they told me...

 

[budified]

I added 6 more Amano Shrimp today, as I found they will be just fine at 77° so they are not the ones I need to be concerned about the temp.

I also added a red LED bubbler and have it shining down on the shipwreck. It looks pretty cool and from what I understand, general consensus is that plants need red light and it being on all night shouldn't be a problem.

Anybody have opinions on the matter?

Here is a pic of the entire tank, showing the relative portion of the tank that is lit up and what is not...

And here is a pic of the shipwreck to highlight why I did it.

Once the plants grow in it will look even better I think.

It looks really nice at "dawn" and "dusk" hours, I like to leave a small amount of time between tank lights shutting down and darkness in the room to simulate day/night transitions.

 

[budified]

I zeroed my thrmometer today and realized that my aquarium was actually 4 degrees colder than the thermometer read, meaning the cooking thermometer I checked it against was actually 8 degrees off. I lowered the temp from what I thought was 81° down to what I thought was 77°, but in reality I lowered it from about 73° down to 69 or 70°...

Hopefully my molly's will become more active again.