My Son's New Community Tank!

[Ruskull]

I bought my son a used, established, 20 gallon high community tank that included the following:

(1) Marineland Penguin 150 Bio-Wheel Filter that's good for up to a 30 gallon tank.
(1) Metal Tank Stand
(1) Old looking Tank Heater
(1) Air Pump with a stone end
(1) Hood with a single florescent light fixture, the bulb says "daylight"
(4) Amazon Sword live plants, one of which is pretty large. They are all concentrated to the left side of the tank

The Fish:

(5) Neon Tetras that came with the setup
(5) Glowlight Tetras, the tank came with one & I added four more so he'd have company
(3) Ghost Shrimp, two of which are pretty large at 1.25-1.5 inches long
(3) Fancy Guppies which we added within a few days after getting the tank setup. It appears to be two males & a single female
(2) Black Kuhli Loaches that came with the setup
(1) Otocinclus that came with the setup
(1) Sailfin Molly that came with the setup which is about 3.5 inches long and he hides almost all the time
(1) Gold Gourami that we added which is spectacular in color and appears to be a male. He's about 2.5-3 inches long.

My question's are to do mostly with the Gourami & the Sailfin Molly. The Molly has always hid, even before we added the Gourami and we've noticed that the smaller Gourami seems to chase the larger Molly around sometimes. He basically kicks the Molly out of whatever territory or hiding place that the Molly finds. I really didn't expect that to happen since I did quite a bit of research at multiple sites which all considered these fish to be compatible. I recently learned that the Molly prefers salty water and the Gourami can't really handle much salt if any at all.

The good news is that I have become "bitten by the fish bug" myself and I want to add another tank altogether in my Master Bedroom. In a perfect world I'd like the new tank to be a Gourami tank that's either a 36 or 44 gallon corner style. What are the very best tank mates for a male Gold Gourami with two females, a male Pearl Gourami with two females? I'd like some sort of Pleco or two and maybe a small school of something else colorful?

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated and I apologize in advance for the long rambling first post

 

[mattyd1701]

Hi Ruskull Welcome To The Forums

i can not really comment on your problem you are having with the Gourami & the Sailfin Molly but Mollies do need salt in there water however a friend of mine has kept a large number of mollies in freshwater without salt for many years and his has been perfectly fine i had a dalmation molly in my tank with no salt and he was fine aswell (until my betta bullied him so i give him a home in my friends tank )

some people have kept Gourami & Mollies together in the same tank successfully and some have not, so im unsure with it you might just have a aggressive Gourami which just does not like the molly at all.

(you could try to trap the Gourami in a breeding net/cage to stop him getting at your molly and see if he calms down but i would check with somebody else first before trying this the breeding net/cages are not expensive but it might be worth a try)

hope somebody else can give you a better answer.

Good luck

 

[Ruskull]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to find one of them a new home. It's their night time now and I observed the Gourami is still going after the Molly, although it seems they've stopped at the moment. I really need to get another tank for one of them, probably the Molly, and I could move the 3 Guppies since they all appreciate the salt. Do you think it'll survive long enough for me to get another tank cycled?

Another option would be to get another Gold Gourami, preferably a female, and see if that helps by giving the existing Gourami something else to pay attention to. The sad part is that the Molly was the original tank owner's first fish and it just doesn't seem right to move him since it was his home first.

 

[Greg_DS]

If you have an established filter add some of the media into the new tanks filter and your pretty much good to go straight away!!

 

[mattyd1701]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to find one of them a new home. It's their night time now and I observed the Gourami is still going after the Molly, although it seems they've stopped at the moment. I really need to get another tank for one of them, probably the Molly, and I could move the 3 Guppies since they all appreciate the salt. Do you think it'll survive long enough for me to get another tank cycled?

Another option would be to get another Gold Gourami, preferably a female, and see if that helps by giving the existing Gourami something else to pay attention to. The sad part is that the Molly was the original tank owner's first fish and it just doesn't seem right to move him since it was his home first.

its hard to say if it will survive or not because some people have attempted a fishless cycle and its taken months others a few weeks, you could take filter media out of your current tank to speed up the process of establishing the new one. If you are worried about it surviving while cycling the tank you could push yourself to do a Fish-In Cycle not many people here recommend it but if you have no choice then its the only other way (that i know of!).

info can be found here
Fish-In Cycle Info

mollies are pretty hardy fish and should be ok doing a fish-in cycle, im unsure about the Guppies if they would tolerate the fish-in cycle or not so i would leave them in the main tank for now untill the fish-in cycle has finished.

if you are unhappy about rehoming the molly but still wish to do a fish in cycle once the cycle has finished establishing simply swap the molly back to original tank and move the Gourami to the new established tank.

 

[Ruskull]

If you have an established filter add some of the media into the new tanks filter and your pretty much good to go straight away!!

You know, I didn't even think of that! There could be one problem though, the Penguin Bio-Wheel filter came with a very used cartridge that the previous owner put in a ziplock bag. He said I needed to keep the good bacteria that was on the filter insert. I followed his directions and re-used that filter but the filter was so clogged that the bio-wheel wasn't even spinning. I read the instructions for the filter and it said "change insert every 2-4 weeks, but never change the bio-wheel cartridge." I changed the insert and the nitrites rose to 2 ppm. I immediately did a 50% water change & the nitrites were back to zero. The ammonia level stayed at zero throughout.

I'm just not sure if the media is good enough yet to start messing with it. I wish I knew this before I discarded the old filter cartridge.

 

[Ruskull]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to find one of them a new home. It's their night time now and I observed the Gourami is still going after the Molly, although it seems they've stopped at the moment. I really need to get another tank for one of them, probably the Molly, and I could move the 3 Guppies since they all appreciate the salt. Do you think it'll survive long enough for me to get another tank cycled?

Another option would be to get another Gold Gourami, preferably a female, and see if that helps by giving the existing Gourami something else to pay attention to. The sad part is that the Molly was the original tank owner's first fish and it just doesn't seem right to move him since it was his home first.

its hard to say if it will survive or not because some people have attempted a fishless cycle and its taken months others a few weeks, you could take filter media out of your current tank to speed up the process of establishing the new one. If you are worried about it surviving while cycling the tank you could push yourself to do a Fish-In Cycle not many people here recommend it but if you have no choice then its the only other way (that i know of!).

info can be found here
Fish-In Cycle Info

mollies are pretty hardy fish and should be ok doing a fish-in cycle, im unsure about the Guppies if they would tolerate the fish-in cycle or not so i would leave them in the main tank for now untill the fish-in cycle has finished.

if you are unhappy about rehoming the molly but still wish to do a fish in cycle once the cycle has finished establishing simply swap the molly back to original tank and move the Gourami to the new established tank.

Thanks for the reply. It looks like the 2 are avoiding each other for now anyway. I will plan to make my new tank a Gourami tank and move the instigator. Just to speed up the process maybe I can buy one of those 3 or 5 gallon cheapo all-in-one units as a temporary home for the Molly. This way I can add some salt and he won't be bothered by all the little fish & the bully. At least until I get the larger tank established.

 

[mattyd1701]

if they have stopped i would monitor for another day or 2 first and see if it continue been aggressive it might have calmed down now my Betta fish was aggressive to 2 of the tetras i first put in my tank 2 days later it just was not bothered by them anymore and now happily live in the same tank together if its calmed down it will save buying a new tank, cycling etc

 

[mattyd1701]

Oh by the way i would check the minimum size tank for a gold gourami im sure them fish can grow up to 6" so i dont think 3 to 5 gallons tank would be big enough to house them, some places recommend 1 gourami to 40litres of water so that works out about 10 US Gallons so you will need a 20 US Gallon tank just for the two! If they are small you could get away with keeping them in a small tank but once they start getting bigger your going to have to move them again.

Gold Gourami Info Page At Liveaquaria.com

you may be better off leaving the Gourami in your current 30 Gallon tank and permanently rehoming your molly with the guppies to a new tank as they are smaller fish and require a smaller tank size

your choice though good luck

 

[Ruskull]

Oh by the way i would check the minimum size tank for a gold gourami im sure them fish can grow up to 6" so i dont think 3 to 5 gallons tank would be big enough to house them, some places recommend 1 gourami to 40litres of water so that works out about 10 US Gallons so you will need a 20 US Gallon tank just for the two! If they are small you could get away with keeping them in a small tank but once they start getting bigger your going to have to move them again.

Gold Gourami Info Page At Liveaquaria.com

you may be better off leaving the Gourami in your current 30 Gallon tank and permanently rehoming your molly with the guppies to a new tank as they are smaller fish and require a smaller tank size

your choice though good luck

Thanks for the advice. I was planning on moving the Sailfin Molly to the smaller tank, not the Gourami, since they can deal with a smaller size aquarium better than Gouramis. Eventually the Molly would be returned to my son's tank when I transfer the Gourami to the bigger tank that my wife & I plan to get for our bedroom. The 3 to 5 gallon was just a temporary fix & I figured I could use it for a hospital/breeder tank down the line.

Update: The Gourami still bothers the Molly here & there but he just chases him out of whatever spot he's in & then eventually gets bored. It's not like his biting him or anything. I should have plenty of time to pick out a nice 36 gallon bowfront for the bedroom.

 

[Ruskull]

Update:

I added (3) small Otocinclus to the tank. They seem to get along with the original, almost 2 inch long, fat Oto that came with the tank. The original guy is more brown, with a camo look to his pattern while the (3) new guys are 1½ inhes long, silver gray on top with a distinct black stirpe down each side. Obviously 2 different variations of the same catfish but they sometimes school with the bigger, original one.

 

[Ruskull]

After I added the Otos I tested the ammonia and it was "0"

The nitrite was slightly high at .15 and the nitrate was neutral at 35

I know the tank seems a bit overstocked with 24 total fish and 4 plants but it's doing fairly well for a beginner