I have 37.5 gallon tank that is long and wide. I originally planned to do Gouramis and Angels. I had a Black Angel that I named Portia. She is a serial killer so she is now in prison in a 10 gallon tank with a lowly snail all alone. She seems to be quite happy there. Institutionalized I think. I ordered 2 gold veils 2 koi angels and 6 three spots ( by accident I meant to order 3) I traded 3 of those for a pearl with my LFS and I already had a GOld that had lived for about 6 month with sailfin mollies in my breeding tank very healthily. The Gold is beautiful. The gouramis are big and stay up to the top of the tank. The mollies just reg fancy tail mollies 5 females and 5 males are in the middle and at the bottom are 2 butterfly rams and 1 blue rams the serial killer killed the other blue that I had. The blue is a nice big size. I also have ghost shrimp, 2 african frogs, as well in the tank. So far so good. I do not mind any of them becoming food. Oh yeah and a 3 snails and tonight I purchased 2 high fin plecostmus because I see the algae coming. I will probably keep the tank covered in the day and open at night. Does anyone have any ideas of what I should do to keep this balance the way that it is now. I llike the tank as it is now. I do not like live plants as they get into my filters so I use the silk plants. It is an eclipse tank. I plan to take pictures of the tank before I move the computer out of my bedroom tomorrow. I am moving my office to the living room as winter is coming fast and I want to enjoy my hearth. I am also setting up a new 60 gallon in the living room. Anyone have an idea of what I should put in it. I do not like Salt I stuck on the fresh water species. I would like more action in the 37.5 tank as it is in my bedroom and I watch it a lot. The 60 will be in the living room so it too must have action. Sandi
Be careful with those blue and gold gouramis, especially if they're boys. I have a gold gourami who was a terror and now lives in a 10 by himself. He constantly harrassed my blue. Good luck with your tanks
Your tank is fine now but will soon become extremely over-stocked. Sailfin plecs get to over a foot - often up to 18". They also preffer to be kept one to a tank as they are territorial. Even your 60 gallon wouldn't be enough for either long-term. Idealy, you should re-home both. The algae you see coming on can be easily fixed using an algae scraper. Also, the reason it's there to begin with is probably high levels of nitrAte in your tank - usualy this is due to over-stocking or over-feeding and/or too much light. All these problems can easily be fixed by re-homing some fish, feeding less and reducing the hours of light to a minnimum of 8. A 35 gallon is also too small for all those gouramies. Gold and blue gouramies are the same species (trichogaster trichopterus) - often called the 'three-spot' gourami. Unfortunately, males can become extremely aggressive and the females aren't exactly peaceful either. If you have more than one male, re-home the extra ones as they'll end up killing each other. Mollies also grow quite large - reaching 4" easily. They should be kept at a ratio of 2 females to every male. The reason for this is that the males will constantly chase the females trying to breed with them and this stresses the girls out. If you have 2 to each male, the attention is devided so no single fish gets stressed. You should re-home 3 of your male mollies to fix this problem (adding more females is not an option). The reason your angel became a 'serial killer' would have been lack of space and being kept alone. The 4 angels you want to keep in the 35 gallon will also prove problematic in time if they pair up and attempt to breed. Similarly, it's no surprise that one ram killed another. Rams should be kept as pairs. When you keep 3, the 2 pair up and the remaining fish ends up being killed. Usualy with fish the problem is not the individual fish itself but the circumstances and the environment it is living in. Your current plan involves keeping 3 pairs of cichlids and 5 (I think) large gouramies in one tank with 10 large-growing liveabearers. My advice to you - move all these fish into your 60 gallon. Keep 3 of your male mollies in the 35 and re-home the sailfin plecs. Don't add anything else to the 60 gallon until everything's mature. Even then, you're probably best off just adding a few peaceful bottom-dwellers or a group of medium-sized, peaceful schooling fish and leaving it at that. The 35 gallon with the 3 males can then be stocked further with some small, active species but don't buy on impulse - EVER - and research each fish you're getting before you buy it or bring it home. I'd also suggest you reffer to the 'ingh per gallon guideline' when choosing fish. This guideline states that for every inch of ADULT fish you need a gallon of water. For example - an angelfish needs at least 6 gallons to itself. However, note that this does NOT mean an angel is fine in a 6 gallon tank! Minnimum tank sizes still apply so an angel should not be kept in anything under 30 gallon. Also, there are situations (such as with schooling or territorial fish) where the guideline doesn't tell you everything. Each of those gouramies you have, for example, will become territorial with maturity. I'd reccomend at least 10 gallons for each (thus the 60 gallon is ideal) but without having more than one male three-spot. Anyway, you say you want an active tank and one that looks full and balanced. I assure you that if you udnerstock and pick your tank's inhabitants carefuly, that what you'll get BUT you need to be patient for the fish to grow out and you have to provide them with ideal conditions or they won't be active or thrive. Good luck with your tanks.
