I fear I overstocked

[heatherpooreks]

Hi,
I am new to the hobby of keeping fish. I have had my tank 5 weeks now. I fell in love with glofish and purchased 5 of them after setting up a 10 gallon glass tank. I put gravel down, added my 50 watt heater and plants and left it running with filters for two weeks before adding the glofish. I started reading about proper tank mates to "clean up" after uneaten food etc and decided on albino cori. I asked at the pet store if I had to get 4-6 or if I could just get 2-3. I was told that 6 was best and added sand to my gravel for them. I also rescued a petite beautiful female betta. She is not interested in anyone and I observed her over 6 hours to make sure she and the other fish would not fight. I am afraid however, I may have overstocked the tank? My ammonia level is at .25 after 3 days. I immediately did a 50% tank change and it went back to 0. I don't mind doing the tank changes at all, I just don't want to hurt my fish. I have been monitoring the water every two days and so far so good. Do I need to reduce or am I doing ok?

 

[HoldenOn]

Hi,
I am new to the hobby of keeping fish. I have had my tank 5 weeks now. I fell in love with glofish and purchased 5 of them after setting up a 10 gallon glass tank. I put gravel down, added my 50 watt heater and plants and left it running with filters for two weeks before adding the glofish. I started reading about proper tank mates to "clean up" after uneaten food etc and decided on albino cori. I asked at the pet store if I had to get 4-6 or if I could just get 2-3. I was told that 6 was best and added sand to my gravel for them. I also rescued a petite beautiful female betta. She is not interested in anyone and I observed her over 6 hours to make sure she and the other fish would not fight. I am afraid however, I may have overstocked the tank? My ammonia level is at .25 after 3 days. I immediately did a 50% tank change and it went back to 0. I don't mind doing the tank changes at all, I just don't want to hurt my fish. I have been monitoring the water every two days and so far so good. Do I need to reduce or am I doing ok?

Betta shouldn't be with glo fish. I'm assuming you got the glo tetra. You need a 20 long+ for those and the corydoras.

 

[heatherpooreks]

Betta shouldn't be with glo fish. I'm assuming you got the glo tetra. You need a 20 long+ for those and the corydoras.

So what do I do with the little guys?

 

[HoldenOn]

So what do I do with the little guys?

Will your fish store take them back? Or can you keep the betta in the 10, and get a bigger community tank. If you get a 20 long you can have a lot more corydoras and a few more tetras.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I also have all those fish (although my betta is a male so he is in his own 5 gallon tank). I have aa 29 gallon tank for the glo-fish and a number of other fish - it's not overcrowded because the glo-fish just need a LONG clear area to swim back and forth. So I too am sorry to tell you get a 29 or 50 gallon tank if you want those fish. It's not just about water changes it's about the health and happiness of the fish. I'm sure they are unhappy in such a small tank. You could probably keep the female betta and maybe even the cories in this tank depending on the species. I have had cories that are slow moving fish and others that school and use a larage part of the tank. The betta and cories will ignore each other since cories look nothing like a betta.

For about 2 weeks while I was working on my 29gallon tank I temporarily put the glo-fish in the 50 gallon tank and you could tell they LOVED it - at the time I didn't have it very stocked with anything but loaches so the glo-fish had the center of the tank all to themselves. They are back in the 29 gallon but I sure wish I had room for another 50 gallon (although the friend that cleans my tanks for me would kill me - we do 70% water changes each week and that's a LOT of water to move out of a 50 gallon tank.) I refuse to us my Python because 1. there is no way to treat the water while it's going in the tank and 2. All my dojos and other loaches are DETERMINED to go inside the tube and 3. It is NOT a timesaver, it takes 2 people to make sure you sink doesn't overflow and then getting all the water out of the hose is next to impossible (I have a 50 ft hose for it) and 4. It just loves to get tangled with my oxygen hose (obviously not a problem for most of you). Sometimes the old-fashioned bucket way is the best, although it takes her 19 trips to the bathroom to fill up the bucket for a 50 gallon tank! (she did it yesterday and today is at home with a heating pad on her back)

Save up your money FAST and get a 29 gallon tank - they'll be ok for a couple of weeks.

 

[Retired Viking]

I have a 55 gallon tetra tank with neon, glow light and ember tetra and they all need the room. Tetras are best in shoals of 6 or more. Do you know what type of tetra your glo-fish are based on, If they are skirted tetra you may need 8-12 because they become aggressive in smaller shoals. Tetras are also soft water fish as are cory. Do you know what type of water you have? It is unhealthy long term for fish to be in the wrong type of water. I raise both soft water and hard water fish in separate tanks and use RO water to soften my hard water.