Community Tank

[ShannonKoletti]

Hi everyone,

I recently stocked my cycled tank, and was wondering if my stock is adequate.
My tank is 100L and so far is housing;

7 x Male Guppies
11 x Neon Tetras
2 x Sailfin Mollies
3 x Male platies
3 x Congo Tetras
2 x Boesmani Rainbows
1 x Pearl Gourami
2 x Electric Blue Rams
3 x Corydoras

I'm a little worried about my Pearl Gourami as he just swims up and down the glass and only goes up for air, hasn't eaten yet but I only got him yesterday.

Once the larger growing fish mature I was planning to move them into a 200L permanent home.

I also really wanted to get some type of glass cleaning catfish, any suggestions that would work well with my fish? I was thinking of a longfin bristlenose. I had my heart set on an Ellioti Cichlid as had two before and they bred like crazy but I just think I've got too many in my tank at the moment.

 

[ShannonKoletti]

Just a little update, my Pearl Gourami is now making what seems to be a bubble nest at the top of the tank, I know my dwarf gourami's did this when I had them so I think that's what he's doing?

Also, should I be doing daily water changes with so many fish or every 2nd or 3rd day? It's a newly cycled tank so unsure, overnight my PH dropped from 7 to 6.6..

 

[Kiko1237]

As long as you are doing constant water changes the stocking should be fine just make sure you move the larger fish as they will create more waste in a already overstocked tank but if they are small you should be okay for now

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You say newly cycled tank, so I am going to presume the filters have developed the beneficial bacteria needed to convert ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate? This normally takes about 1 month.

All rainbowfishes need to be in groups of 6 or more, and the bigger species like M. boesemani need a tank at least 3 foot long. They also need some plant matter in their diet, duckweed is the best plant for them. Other than that a goldfish pellet or flake will help them.

Neon tetras might get eaten by adult Boesemani rainbows.

Mollies, Platies, Guppies and rainbowfishes need hard alkaline water, whereas the others prefer softer neutral to slightly acid water. If the general hardness (GH) is less than 250ppm you will probably have issues with the Mollies. And if the carbonate hardness (KH) is too low the pH will drop rapidly. Adding a couple of bits of limestone or some shells or coral rubble to the tank can help stabilise the pH. Don't add too much tho because they can raise the pH to about 8.4 if there is a lot in the tank.

Congo Tetras and Corydoras need to be in bigger groups of 10 or more.

How soon before you get the bigger tank?
If you have it now, move the pearl gourami, rainbowfish, mollies, guppies & platies into it now and make the water hard and alkaline, (pH above 7.4 and GH above 250ppm). Then use the smaller tank for the tetras & rams and have them in softer neutral to slightly acid water (pH 6.8-7.2)

 

[Lunar Jetman]

All rainbowfishes need to be in groups of 6 or more, and the bigger species like M. boesemani need a tank at least 3 foot long. They also need some plant matter in their diet, duckweed is the best plant for them. Other than that a goldfish pellet or flake will help them.

I'd go further and say they need at least a 4 foot tank to be comfortable. As you say Colin, you need around 6 in a group so 6 3-4 inch fish will take up a fair amount of space and therefore need lots to swim in.

Neon tetras might get eaten by adult Boesemani rainbows.

Possible but unlikely, although any fish that will fit in the mouth of its tank mate is potential food so you always need to be careful.

Mollies, Platies, Guppies and rainbowfishes need hard alkaline water, whereas the others prefer softer neutral to slightly acid water. If the general hardness (GH) is less than 250ppm you will probably have issues with the Mollies. And if the carbonate hardness (KH) is too low the pH will drop rapidly. Adding a couple of bits of limestone or some shells or coral rubble to the tank can help stabilise the pH. Don't add too much tho because they can raise the pH to about 8.4 if there is a lot in the tank.

Sounds like there's some issues with the water in this tank if the pH is dropping so I'd sort that out first before worrying about changing anything. In fact, I'd actually not bother messing around with water you've got from your local supply. It will be take some effort to change what you have and then you'll always have to keep it maintained at that level. You're better off finding fish that are suitable for your water rather than making the water suitable for specific fish.

Congo Tetras and Corydoras need to be in bigger groups of 10 or more.

I think those numbers are a bit excessive. Whilst, yes they would be ok, I'd say 5-6 of each would be enough as a minimum.

How soon before you get the bigger tank?
If you have it now, move the pearl gourami, rainbowfish, mollies, guppies & platies into it now and make the water hard and alkaline, (pH above 7.4 and GH above 250ppm). Then use the smaller tank for the tetras & rams and have them in softer neutral to slightly acid water (pH 6.8-7.2)

If you have it now, get it set up and cycled. Then see what you have so you can decide what to do with the fish.
If you don't have it, either get one or return the Boesmani and Congo Tetra straight away.

I'd also either rehome the Gouarmi or get a couple more as they really need to be in groups rather than on their own,

 

[ShannonKoletti]

I had my tank cycled for a month fishless with only live plants, and used filter media from my established 200L tank that's been running fine for 10 years.

I have vegetarian algae wafers for them which they're devouring as well as my corys. I'll be getting more of them once I have the money as they were about $20 each.

Congo tetras I have two 3 1/2 inch in my 200L tank, I had 3 but one sadly passed when the PH sky rocketed after adding Brine Shrimp as food for a few days.. never again.

My 200L tank is around 4 foot but I'm worried as have silver sharks in there and they're absolutely massive, so wanted everyone to get a bit of size. My new congo's are only about 1 1/2 inch.

I think I worked out the cause of the PH drop, I added a large piece of driftwood from an already established tank that has a plant on it, I think that's the cause?

I was told not to get more Gourami's as they fight each other?

I also have just come to find one of my guppies eye is portruding out with white flesh around it, and my other guppy was attacking its eye? I seperated the injured guppy, I think it's pop-eye caused by an injury? Not sure why my other guppies were attacking him.. no other fish go near them as they hang out at the very top of the tank. I noticed this one guppy a lot quieter but didn't have anything wrong, really stressed at the moment. Any suggestions? It's only one of his eyes

 

[Colin_T]

If you are using filter materials from an established tank, you add the filter material and then add fish virtually straight away. If you put the old filter material into a tank and left it for a month without fish or some form of ammonia, the beneficial filter bacteria will go dormant or die off.

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Congo tetras are tetras just like neons and cardinals and they have the same need to be kept in groups, so the more the merrier.

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Do not under estimate rainbowfish, they will eat small fish. I have first hand experience of Melanotaenia boesemani eating cardinal tetras. We had a 6ft tank with 20 x 2inch long boesemani in. We added 50 x 1inch long cardinal tetras to the tank. Everything was fine for the first 24 hours then the boesemani split into 2 groups and herded the cardinals into a corner and ate them. The boesemani where well fed but still attacked and ate a number of cardinal tetras. We separated them but it was too late for some of them.

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The pH should not fluctuate that rapidly from driftwood or brineshrimp. If you have very soft water (with no minerals) the pH might drop from a big piece of driftwood, but it should not go up from adding a few brineshrimp.

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Male gouramis fight but males and females can be kept together.

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If you can post a picture of the guppy with popeye we can have a look at it.

 

[ShannonKoletti]

I only added the established media about 4 days ago because I hadn't even thought of it to be honest, was just trying to be patient with my tank. I then added fish the next day.

My congos can go into my other tank so there will be 5, always happy to grab another guy they're my favourite fish so there can be 6, I've often seen a lot of people with only 1 and wondered how they worked in there? Always felt sorry for them being on their own.

My boesmani's can also be moved not a problem. My PH definitely changed when I added the frozen brineshrimp blocks, it had been the same for 9 years until I tried them as a treat and the next day the PH was very high.

How many females would I get for the one male? I didn't see any female pearl gourami's from the store I got it from? Only a bunch of males.

Here's a picture of my guppy, I'm really worried it will infect my other fish but it's only in the one eye so I assume it's an injury, his swimming is a bit strange like he'll relax then suddenly start swimming.. I just have him in the tank but in a seperate little floating container at the top. The pic isn't great but he has white fleshy bits hanging off it as well?

Thanks so much for responding again~

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Do not under estimate rainbowfish, they will eat small fish. I have first hand experience of Melanotaenia boesemani eating cardinal tetras. We had a 6ft tank with 20 x 2inch long boesemani in. We added 50 x 1inch long cardinal tetras to the tank. Everything was fine for the first 24 hours then the boesemani split into 2 groups and herded the cardinals into a corner and ate them. The boesemani where well fed but still attacked and ate a number of cardinal tetras. We separated them but it was too late for some of them.

I was tempted to let this go but I've never experienced this sort of behaviour from Boesmani Rainbowfish in all my years of keeping them. I will concede to almost any fish eating anything that they can get in their mouths, but a 2 inch fish eating something half its size? Really? I can't see a Boesmani getting a fish that size into its mouth as it won't open enough to swallow them.

Boesmani are actually quite timid fish and do well in community tanks as they don't really pose a threat to other fish. I'm actually in the process of restocking my tank so currently only have one just over 3 inches in size, quite happily co-existing with 10 Golden Tetra that I got about 6 weeks ago when they were all no larger than about 3/4 inch.

Maybe you got your measurements wrong I guess, if the cardinals were about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in size and the Boesmani were fully grown I would accept that they might have eaten them but as I said, most fish will eat other fish if they fit in their mouths...

 

[Colin_T]

With pearl gouramis you are normally fine with 1 male and 1 female. If you can't get any females don't worry too much. It is not essential they are kept in prs.

The guppy with popeye is not likely to be contagious. As long as the water quality is good the eye should heal by itself. If you want to try and help the guppy, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean and see how the fish looks the following day.

If the eye goes red then it has a bacterial infection. If the eye gets white fluffy stuff then it has a fungal infection. Just monitor it and see how it looks in a few days.

 

[ShannonKoletti]

Thanks for that, guppy died the next day unfortunately as well as one of my electric blue rams, my pump had an issue while I was at work and the air was off all day, pretty gutted but the other one is doing fine.

 

[NickAu]

Please note.

Shannon has a new post here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/ammonia-peak.448832/ dealing with high ammonia levels