Hi Emma,
[…] also we have done a 90% water change then a 75% change this morning. ph is at 7.0 ammonia is at .15 I can not remember the rest (sorry brain like a sieve) but I do remember the pamphlet said they where good for a community fish tank.
It is extremely useful to write down the readings and keep them in the long term, for example in a notebook or a log of some sort. Ammonia at 0.15 after water changes is pretty bad. Basically ammonia is very toxic to fish: it can harm them in the long term (decrease life span, make them more susceptible to disease,
etc.) and it can kill them. The only safe reading is 0 ppm. I say that a reading over 0.25 ppm is guaranteed to harm the fish and that it is best to *always* make sure it is as close to 0 ppm as possible. Can you check your tap water ammonia before and after you dechlorinate?
Nitrite needs to be treated the same as ammonia: it is not toxic to the fish, but it will prevent them from being able to take in oxygen, so they will, in effect, suffocate. Again, keep as close to 0 ppm as possible and never let it reach 0.25 ppm. Also would be useful if you could check your tap water reading (pre-dechlorination) for this one too.
If the pamphlet said otherwise, then it is wrong and I would treat all of it with some scepticism.
I have read up on a few forums and compatibility charts 80% have said platys are a good fish to be with angels?? So that's why we have left them in the big tank for now, is there any reason why I should move them? I know kittykat has already said ph is way out and I would never dispute you in your reasons why, I'm just a little confused on how the opinions are so different?
Your pH is not way out, in fact it is more way in
but your water hardness (GH and KH) cannot be suited to all the fish you have because your fish have very different requirements.
Stocking is quite complicated. With regards to water parameters, read http
/blog.natureaquarium.co.uk/?p=498 and http
/blog.natureaquarium.co.uk/?p=561 , then make up your own mind. In short, soft water fish in hard water will have a hard time fighting off diseases, while hard water fish in soft water will have a hard time keeping their bodies functioning properly. Personally, I consider that it is ok for someone with experience to keep soft water fish in hard water, but not the other way around. I say for someone with experience, because that usually means that they know how to keep the water quality good, which decreases the likelihood of diseases and to stock well, which decreases the likelihood of physical damage (and so, infections).
From what I have observed, livebearer females have quite a bit more health problems in soft water than is normal, while fry mortality and deformity rates are higher.
Moving on to actual stocking, from a physical point of view, platys are ideal companions for angels because they do not nip and have short fins that will not be nipped. On the other hand, if you have soft water, it will cause health problems for the platys, especially for the females, and it would be best if the fry were eaten by the adults as I would expect a noticeable number of them to have health problems. If you have hard water, the platys will be fine, but the angels will be relatively likely to get fungus and fin rot. In the short term, ammonia and nitrite will harm your fish much more than not-the-perfect water parameters.
I didn't have time to give you a full stocking breakdown earlier, so I will give you one now:
My partner and me have just gotten a new 240litre tank and it was going really well at first only I red platy died in the first to weeks of having new fish,
The volume of the aquarium does not matter, it is the dimensions that do because the species that you can have are affected by the length of the tank and the bottom area, while the total number of fish is related to the total surface area. For the sake of giving you a stock breakdown, I will assume that you have a 120l*40w*55t cm aquarium (as the Juwel Rio is the only 240 litre tank that I can think off at this moment). The fact that it is a 120 cm tank does give you quite a few stocking options.
Then we added 5 mollies who after 3 days became very aggressive to some of the other fish in the tank. (4 angels, 2 gourami, 2 plec's, 8 platys and a Siamese fighter.) We lost 2 platy's and the male gourami in 36 hours due to being pecked at by the mollies. the also tried to have a go at one of the plecs but he saw them off so they did not cause any damage to him.
Do you know how to sex livebearers? You should be keeping at least 2f per 1m of the platys, or have all of them of one sex.
4 angels are not a great idea. Angels should ideally be kept in groups of 6+, less ideally as (proven breeding) pairs or, if no other option is available, individually. Keeping 2-5 is usually a bad idea because the dominant individual or pair will pick off the rest one by one. Having more fish gives them more security and spreads the aggression over more individuals. Once your tank has finished cycling, I strongly recommend that you get two more angels of the same size as your existing ones, but you need to be careful when introducing them as they do form territories.
What species are the gouramis? I assume it is one of the common species, in which case you might be better off having 1m 2-4f instead of 1m 1f. There are few popular pair gouramis, most do best in a harem configuration because males tend to be aggressive. Gouramis *must* have good water quality, which is probably why the original male died (any ammonia or nitrite in the water makes it poor quality).
What species are the plecos? Do you have bogwood and caves for them? Male plecos are territorial, so you may need to make sure that you have some females to keep them busy. Also, some common species of pleco are tank busters, growing up to 24" or more, so you need to make sure that they remain small! If they are a tank buster, the best option would be to take them back to the shop where they came from and make a scene to discourage the shop being so #40## irresponsible! I mean, how many average people have a 6+*2*2 ft tank that one of the large common plecos must have?!?
The angels are very likely to eventually shred the Betta if it's a male, assuming it does not exhaust itself to death trying to patrol a territory that large. If it looks ok, the Betta is probably ok to stay for the moment…
We spoke to the shop how took the mollies back no questions asked and replaced our male gourami and gave is a selection of fancy tailed guppys and 4 glass catfish as a replacement.
Fancy guppies are no-go with angels, only bad things happen, like shredded tails and fin-rot, when the two are mixed.
Glass cats are also a bad idea, especially since you have so few! They are a schooling species, which means that 6 is an absolute minimum and 10-15+ is an ideal number for them to be kept in. They are also very shy and do need quite good water quality. In short, a poor choice for a beginner.
Going by what your LFS have done and told you, I would consider them to be not very good. As a fishkeeper, it is *your* responsibility to know about your fish and the fish that you plan to have *before* you have them, so you will need to get into the habit of researching all your fish before you buy them. I recommend that you always look at at least 10 sources for information, and use common sense. As a general guideline, most schooling/shoaling fish do need to be kept in groups of at least 6 and ideally 10-15+.
If I had a 120*40*55 cm tank with neutral water, then I would consider a final stocking along the lines of:
* 6 angels
* 1m 2-3f of one pleco species
* 1m 3-5f honey or dwarf gouramis of one species or 1m 2f larger gourami species (lace, three-spot,
etc.)
* 10 dwarf chain loaches
* 20-30 harlequin rasboras (be careful, there are two other similar species)
In soft water, I would look at:
* 6 angels
* 1m 2-3f of one pleco species
* 15 Corys of one species
* 10 hatchetfish
* 20-30 2" tetras of one species (cardinals, rummy noses or taller bodied)
Of course, I wouldn't even dream of considering adding any more fish until the filter was fully cycled! Fully cycled means 7 days of double 0 readings (ammonia and nitrite) without any water changes.
While you cycle, to cut down the risk of ammonia and nitrite harming the fish, you can reduce feeding to once every 2-3 days until you're getting double 0s, after which time you can slowly increase the feeding to 2* per day before getting any more fish.
