New here & questions about fish per tank!

[Lookimafish]

Hello! New here, not a new hobby of mine, but I’m delving into it a bit more! I have a 50 gallon, established (4 years) tank, freshwater tropical. My current residents are a pleco the OG of the tank. 1 Cory catfish (I know I need to get more, I had another, but the second died soon after I put him in his new home, I’m thinking stress. 2 angel fish, 2 snails, 3 high white fin tetra, 4 black skirt tetras. I’m always nervous to overstock my tank. I don’t have live plants and have a river rock bottom substrate (I’m aware, not ideal, but I really didn’t know what I was doing when I started and now it seems exhausting to change it currently lol)

my question is, how many more fish /could/ I add, and what would you suggest? I want everyone to be happy! I know my tetras can be little aholes.

 

[Lookimafish]

Advice of new substrate, plants and how to go about making that large of a change too would be appreciated.

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do water changes?

What sort of filter do you have on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

 

[Sgooosh]

i think you should get live plants and put the pleco in a 125 gallon if it is a common pleco. it will grow big and healthy

 

[Lookimafish]

I don’t plan on changing my tank size anytime soon! But, pleco has grown pretty big! He’s a happy boy!

tank dimensions are : 36Lx18Hx12W (inches)
I change my water about every month, 4ish weeks. 25% water change. I do my best to clean the gravel as well! It’s just harder with the large rocks.

the filter I have for the tank is brand new since my old one crapped out. Emperor 400, it’s a bit large for my tank but will do. I clean the filter also about once a month, and change the actual filters every few months too. ??‍ I’m not fully sure what’s best. But, my fish have been happy and thriving!

 

[Lookimafish]

What live plants and substrate would you recommend? Or even a new filter? My tank is 4 years old, but I’m still learning! Don’t have any friends that are into this!

 

[Sgooosh]

What live plants and substrate would you recommend? Or even a new filter? My tank is 4 years old, but I’m still learning! Don’t have any friends that are into this!

yes totally plus they look more natural and make water better

 

[FFGuest6357]

I would recommend getting a water testing kit.

this way you can test for things like ammonia, nitirites and nitrates. You can also test for water ph.

A 25% water change once per month doesn’t seem like enough.

as @Colin_T mentioned, there are a few other water parameters you need to find out before you start considering if and what kind of fish you can add.

I believe those tank dimensions put you at a 30gal tank, and if your pleco is a common pleco, that tank is way to small for that fish. Forgive me if you’ve mentioned the proper species of pleco that I didn’t catch.

 

[Fish4dawin]

This has been mentioned twice in this thread but GH is one of the most important factors that has to be given so that ideas can be suggested. All you need to do is go to your water company's site and put in your postcode and it should come up as General Hardness.

 

[Fish4dawin]

What live plants and substrate would you recommend? Or even a new filter? My tank is 4 years old, but I’m still learning! Don’t have any friends that are into this!

Live plants you could add could anubias, amazon swords, some floating plants like water sprite or amazon frogbit.

For substrate I would recommend all the time sand. Sand will benefit your corys. If your substrate is very large pebbles or gravel, then the cory's can damage their barbels and this prevents them from eating.

 

[Ellie Potts]

What live plants and substrate would you recommend? Or even a new filter? My tank is 4 years old, but I’m still learning! Don’t have any friends that are into this!

Welcome to the forum! Way to reach out to make sure you're doing what's best for your fish.

At some point you will have to rehome the pleco... they get massive (assuming it's a common Plecostomus). You'll want a school of at least 6 corydoras. They're really great in groups and you have the room for it.

I'd recommend water wisteria (fast growing, planted or floating), hornwort (fast growing, floating), java fern (moderate growth, tied onto things), and anubias (slow growth, tied onto things). I love duckweed, which floats at the top of the tank, but it's aggressive and may take over the tank so that's a bit controversial. Live plants are so much better and seriously help with keeping ammonia levels low.

I'd either get a substrate specifically for aquatic plants or get sand and put some root tabs in it. You can get sand for super cheap at home depot or some other hardware store, just make sure it doesn't have any additives or what not.

Definitely get a water test kit. They can be a little expensive but last forever. You'll notice that any time you post on here looking for help the first responses will be questions about your water parameters; having a test kit means you can answer.

I'd sell all of your fake plants and simply toss the gravel. It'll be a pain to do, but if you put all of the fish in a bucket for a couple hours while you move everything it should be fine. Make sure you properly clean all live plants you add so that snails don't infest your tank.

Water changes are usually best done weekly or biweekly (although you can fudge it more when you have lots of live plants). I would highly recommend getting a python water changing system. It's a siphon but better and has made my water changes on my 55 gallon so so much better! Same thing with replacing filter media - once a week or biweekly.

 

[Fish4dawin]

Welcome to the forum! Way to reach out to make sure you're doing what's best for your fish.

At some point you will have to rehome the pleco... they get massive (assuming it's a common Plecostomus). You'll want a school of at least 6 corydoras. They're really great in groups and you have the room for it.

I'd recommend water wisteria (fast growing, planted or floating), hornwort (fast growing, floating), java fern (moderate growth, tied onto things), and anubias (slow growth, tied onto things). I love duckweed, which floats at the top of the tank, but it's aggressive and may take over the tank so that's a bit controversial. Live plants are so much better and seriously help with keeping ammonia levels low.

I'd either get a substrate specifically for aquatic plants or get sand and put some root tabs in it. You can get sand for super cheap at home depot or some other hardware store, just make sure it doesn't have any additives or what not.

Definitely get a water test kit. They can be a little expensive but last forever. You'll notice that any time you post on here looking for help the first responses will be questions about your water parameters; having a test kit means you can answer.

I'd sell all of your fake plants and simply toss the gravel. It'll be a pain to do, but if you put all of the fish in a bucket for a couple hours while you move everything it should be fine. Make sure you properly clean all live plants you add so that snails don't infest your tank.

Water changes are usually best done weekly or biweekly (although you can fudge it more when you have lots of live plants). I would highly recommend getting a python water changing system. It's a siphon but better and has made my water changes on my 55 gallon so so much better! Same thing with replacing filter media - once a week or biweekly.

Adding to your post @Ellie Potts, anubias can be grown without being attached, I currently have one that is growing in sand. Every week I dose the tank with some plant stuff which helps the plants grow.

Also, you might want to add a heater to the bucket so the water doesn't deteriorate in temperature.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Adding to your post @Ellie Potts, anubias can be grown without being attached, I currently have one that is growing in sand. Every week I dose the tank with some plant stuff which helps the plants grow.

Also, you might want to add a heater to the bucket so the water doesn't deteriorate in temperature.

This is true of both anubias and java fern but only if you don't bury the rhizome which is a mistake a lot of beginners make. Good point about the heater - could use the one in the tank temporarily

 

[Sgooosh]

I don’t plan on changing my tank size anytime soon! But, pleco has grown pretty big! He’s a happy boy!

tank dimensions are : 36Lx18Hx12W (inches)
I change my water about every month, 4ish weeks. 25% water change. I do my best to clean the gravel as well! It’s just harder with the large rocks.

the filter I have for the tank is brand new since my old one crapped out. Emperor 400, it’s a bit large for my tank but will do. I clean the filter also about once a month, and change the actual filters every few months too. ??‍ I’m not fully sure what’s best. But, my fish have been happy and thriving!

dont change filters every month just wash out the gunk. your pleco maybe is healthy but tank maybe a little small if your pleco has grown to 12 in+ good job that means you made him full size! cleaning the filter doesnt get rid of bacteria which you need and getting a new filter is almost like restarting your cycle

 

[Essjay]

I change my water about every month, 4ish weeks. 25% water change.

The water change regime we usually recommended at is at least 50% a week. This removes a lot of the nitrate made by the good bacteria, and all the other things excreted by the fish that we can't measure.25% one a month leaves most of this stuff to build up in the water.