Need Stockin Advice Plzz

[sharz]

I have a 100 litre tank but to be honest its never filled right to the top so lets say its 90. Now in the tank i have 1 killiefish of sumsort but im not sure wat hes called 2 b honest.. hes grows only to 2" though so hes small. 5 cardinal tetras, 10 bumblee gobys, 2 dwarf gouramis, 2 blue rams, 1 male fighter/betta, 4 almino/algae shrimp, 2 apple snails, 2 khuli loaches, 1 horse face loach and a hoplo catfish (4"). now before u all attack me at one lol im fully aware im overstocked but the question i want to ask is how overstocked am i? my waters been fine, looks crystal clean, no nitrites and no amonia. no fighting expect for my betta sumtimes chargin at the rams but i think this is because they r a new addition. so do you guys think im am toooooo overstocked? or jus a lil bit? n if i am realy overstocked would regular water changes help or is the main issue space for the fish themselvs as apose to water quality? i have loads of plants btw.. jus thought id add that lol thank you n il be waitin for some stockin advice

 

[Mr._Fishy]

You are "tooooooo overstocked" (since there is an okay overstocked ). Your bb gobies don't even belong with the other fish since they are most likely brackish. What filtraton do you have? This is will limit your amount of fish you can have. What is your nitrates right before a water change?

Please try and type using correct spelling and such. It makes reading it much easier.

 

[Harlequins]

Definately way overstocked,taking into account that you say your tank is probably around 90 litres,then minus the thickness of your substrate??

From my reckoning you roughly have 26 gals minus tank not full with water/substrate and works out around 58" of fish!

kilifish 2"?
5 cards = 10"
10 gobies = 10"
2 dwarf gouramis = 4"
2 blue rams = 6"
betta = 2"
2 khuli = 8"
horsefaced loach = 8"
hoplo catfish 8"
shrimp/snails

 

[sharz]

You are "tooooooo overstocked" (since there is an okay overstocked ). Your bb gobies don't even belong with the other fish since they are most likely brackish. What filtraton do you have? This is will limit your amount of fish you can have. What is your nitrates right before a water change?

Please use the skills you learned in 4th grade grammar. They are useful. Really.

my gobys are actualy freeshwater, and to be honest i really dont apreciate the hostility you #16##### face. i thought this site was full of people willing to help but its obv not

 

[Wills]

Wow Mr.Fishy = rude.

Sharz your quite right this forum is generally full of lovely people who will help you out. Personally I think if you could rehome the hoplo, fighter and the horse face loach. The hoplo and the horse face due to size and also due to the horseface needing friends otherwise they are generally shy. But the fighter due to compatibility in community set ups they can often be a bit troublesome. You should have a nice balance then, though within that I see a few problems with the rams and the GDs in the long term what is the footprint of this tank? If its a 20 long so 3 foot long you should be okay but if its a 2 foot tank maybe think about taking one pair out before anything serious kicks off and get an other khuli loach

I bet 10 BB gobies look stunning!! Serious kudos to you for doing that and your quite right there are FW BBGs though there are a lot of brackish BBGs as well if you really want to clear it up maybe post an ID in the brackish section.

Might be a good idea to try and get an ID as well for the killifish as some are quite nasty or so I have heard just so you know what you have really there is a killifish section here as well and I am sure the chaps their can lend a hand

Hope thats helped
Wills

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as rude, it's not hard to type and use decent english at the same time though. I've just read way too many posts recently that have been typed like that (and worse) and I guess I kind of snapped. Your post wasn't particularly bad, it was just the straw that broke the camels back. Your overall question, am I overstocked, could have been answered by a simple search too. A hoplo cat alone needs a bigger tank (depending on the dimensions). That too could have been answered by reading the profile on this forum or by a quick google search. I'm not saying to not ask questions, I'm saying to try and search to answer the question before starting a new thread. I'm willing to help all I can, it just gets a little old typing the same thing 100 times. If I didn't want to help you I wouldn't even have replyed to your thread anyways.

Are you sure the bb gobies are fw? The fw versions are rather rare in trade. Did your lfs just tell you they are fw or are you sure they are real fw bb gobies?

 

[Wills]

So far as I know (certainly in my area) FW BBGs have been flooded in recently lot of people dont buy them so they stick around a lot I've never really had the tank for them but I do love them.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It isn't as simple as that. There's something like a dozen or so species in the BBG genus, Brachygobius. Telling them apart is, for the most part, impossible for the aquarist because of "species groups" containing several very similar-looking species. Scientists identify them by looking at dead specimens under a microscope, and need to count things like the arrangement of scales on the body. There's absolutely no way on Earth you can do this with a live specimen in a fish tank!

...

Does any of this matter? All BBGs will do extremely well in low-end brackish water (around SG 1.003-1.005). But many species are also found in freshwater, and all can be kept in freshwater aquaria without problems. Some species are also found in blackwater streams, with an acidic pH and virtually no hardness, where they are found alongside things like rasboras.

In short, BBGs are adaptable. In aquaria, keeping them in brackish water is possibly the ideal simply because the salt helps detoxify nitrite and nitrate. According to Schaefer (in Aqualog) the key advantage is you can fill a brackish water aquarium with live brine shrimp and let the BBGs feed on them all day long. The real problem with BBGs is food. Most specimens die because they starve to death, not because of water chemistry issues. These gobies are very difficult to feed, and when kept in freshwater communities simply don't get enough to eat.

Personally I wouldn't say the tank was overstocked. None of the fish are overly large, for example you can hardly equate 2 kuhli loaches with, say, the hoplo.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Personally I wouldn't say the tank was overstocked. None of the fish are overly large, for example you can hardly equate 2 kuhli loaches with, say, the hoplo.

2 8" fish in a 20g (hoplo and horseface) plus a bunch of other small ones in my mind is overstocked.

 

[sharz]

thank you very much for all your replies people.. extremly helpfull the hoplo isnt to big yet, hes about 4" but pretty fat lol and the horse face is prob 3" but comes acros smaller as hes very slim. Im gonna give the horse face loach to my friend as hes got a bigger tank but i want to keep the hoplo as i have had him for ages now, hes prob my oldest fish and hes the only real big guy iv got. So far i think i might get rid of the 2 rams and the horse face, beacause my fighter has not layed of the rams since i got them, i think hes actualy bit one of them the guy in the pet shop told me to put a small mirror in the tank so the fighter attacks that instead lol is that ok to do? Sounds abit stuppid to me as the figghter would prob be stressed al the time

 

[aly_starh]

hiya Sharz.

Regarding Bettas, the mirror should only be used for 10 minutes (max) a day, but still you will have to keep a close eye on him. This will make him flare and is also another way of excercising effectively
Too much mirror though will stress him out and could possibly lead to death of exhaustion.

So use it with caution.

Hope that helps.

 

[Wills]

Ah cool Which species of Hoplo is it as some max out at 4" personally I think its a bit too big for a 20g have you thought about the options of an upgrade? I think its a good idea with the rams and the horseface loach, how are the gourami getting on with the betta? I would seriously consider getting the betta his own 5gal (ish) tank. But sounds like your on the right track

 

[sharz]

I got rid of the 2 rams and 5 bumblbees today (so 5 left in my tank) and i bought 2 tiny otos instead and the horse face loach is going to my friends tomorrow. So im jus tryin to make abit more room for everyone. The fighter was abit bad with the gouramis to begin with but he left them alone after about a day and hes fine with them now, apart from the occasional charge, i think i have a agressive fighter to be honest because my friend had bumblees in his tank and they have shredded his poor fighters fins but mine seems to be doing fine and is prob the most agresive fish in my tank

 

[yhbae]

I just tried your stock plan on aqadvisor.com:

Your aquarium stock plan

I didn't add your hoplo since I'm not sure which hoplo species you have. Some of them do grow very big. I took out 2 rams and 5 bumblebees as you mentioned above.

Your overall stock level without hoplo is just about at your tank's limit. This is assuming your 100L tank has 36x12 footprint.

You have some shoaling species that likes to be in a larger group - you may want to look into those.

What kind of filtration do you have?

 

[sharz]

well i have two fluval plus 2 filters in ther that clean once a week when i do a water change. i gavei the horse face loach to my friend today so im happy bout that I think im just going to test my water tomorrow n see if my nitrates are high and check for any amonia, and if thats all good il keep it how it is as, if not then il have to look into gettin rid of a few more as I dont want it gettin polluted for the poor things. My hoplo is pretty meaty to be honest, about 3-4" and he's kind of fat lol like a round sausage, he's a very heavy eater.. even from when he was small.