Just A Couple Of Random Questions

[deanrar]

1. is it best to do 1 large water change a week or several smaller water changes eg 1 45% change or 3 15%?

2. is there any way to make my fish grow quicker (i've heard changing more water each weeks works but not tried it)?

3. what is the best temperature for keeping all my fish happy (34 gal tank with 4 cory cats (2panda, 2peppered), 1 kuhli loach, 2 dwarf gourami, 3 congo tetra, 2 mollies and a couple of algae shrimp at 25d or 77 degrees at the moment)?

4. from the tank and fish i just said is my tank overstocked?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

 

[confusion]

1. I think multiple water changes per week will just make you tired and resent your tank while not adding a lot of value. If you were overstocked or fighting a disease, that would make a difference.
2. Feeding your fish a diet appropriate to them will help. I think most of the fish you have are omnivores, so the standard flake food with an occaisonal treat with somethink like freeze dried bloodworms would work. Raising the temp of the tank will increase their metabolism, and may increase the speed of growth, but may cause other problems.
3. That's a pretty good temp.
4. You're about at the limit of stocking if I'm doing the math in my head correctly.

 

[deanrar]

thanks very much for your input and if any1 else has any ideas or views on any of the subjects let me know.
Cheers.

 

[Jamesham]

i think what confusion was right but imo i think that you could add a few more fish

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

1. One water change is good if the tank is fully stable/amtured water quality wise. However you should still test your tank for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates on a regular basis though which an accurate test kit/s in case any water quality problems do occur, you can deal with them imediately instead of let them go unnoticed.
Always use water conditioner/dechlorinator though on your tap water before it goes in the tank to remove the chlorine and any heavy metals etc in it from it. Never wash the filter sponge out in untreated tap water, only wash it out in old tank water to help prevent the filter bacteria living in the sponge dying off and causing water quality problems.

2. How large are each of your fish roughly and how long have you had them? Most of your fish are not very large growing ones either way, with the mollys being the largest growing (although probably won't exceed 3-4inches depending on your type of mollys).
Your fish are omnivores and insectivores, a varied diet consisting of both veg and high protein foods is best- there are a wide variety of foods you should be ble to get at your lfs. For example, algae wafers and catfish pelets are good for corys as these sinking foods are must more suited to them, while bloodworms, daphinia, krill and spinache are good for all fish (i would not personally advise tubifex as it has been known to come from sources contaminated with raw sewage, live tubifex can also pass certain parasites onto fish as well). Frozen or live foods are far better than dried ones as they are more nutritious and easier to digest for fish.

3. 25 degree's is an ideal temp for your fish.

4. For a 34gal tank it is not overstocked at all, but just to make sure it is 34gallons, what is the length width and height of the tank?
Although your tank is not overstocked, the stocking is still not completely desirable. Khuli loach should be in a group of at least 3, while mollys should be 2-3females per male or an all-male group of 5 or an all-female group of 3. Conga tetras are shoaling fish should be at least 5-6 ideally in your tank. Dwarf gourami's prefer a well/densely planted tank, so make sure you have a lot of planting with some clear open area's in the tank- tall and dense growing plants are the best .

 

[deanrar]

Again thanks for your replies and heres a bit more info: the gouramis, congo tetras and kuhli are all about 2 inches 2 and a half at most and the dalmation mollies are both about an inch and the corys are all tiny (less than an inch).
The tank is fully matured been going well for about 6 months or so now and i mainly have water wisteria growing tall and growing really fast and lots of other plants (not sure what types they are though) and I've also ordered a few different floating plants for the gourami. The tank is 34 American gallons I think (about 24'' long, 14.5'' wide and 24'' tall its the aqua one ar-620t ) and I always do around a 30% water change using Tetra Aquasafe dechlorinator.
I did have 5 congos but i left my tank with a housemate over xmas (for about 3 weeks) and when i got back 2 were dead in the plants and there was some fungus on a couple of the other fish (so i wasn't very happy) but i treated them for a week or so with myxazin and it all cleared up and with a few 50% water changes i have seen nothing since but the congos left seem happy flickering around eachother all the time and after researching i wnted to get more kuhli's but can't find anywhere local that sells them.
I feed once a day mixing flake, algae wafers, dried tubifex and frozen bloodworm at different times in the week and i have looked around for live food but just can't find any.
Thanks again all suggestions are welcome.