Please Help!

[AlanaRose]

I have a few questions! I'm sort of new to keeping such a mix of tropical fish and i am not sure if I am doing the wrong things! (I should have stuck to a tank full of cardinal tetras )

I have a 130litre tank.
It has
2 pictus catfish (quite small maybe 5cm in length)
2 mickey mouse platies
2 blue platies
2 black mollys
5 silver hatchetfish
and 2 julidochromis (not sure which type)

they are all getting along quite nicely but I want to add a medium size fish that is larger than they all are that will be quite vibrant in color.

Can anyone tell me if I am overcrowding my tank and if not what type of fish could I add to my mix?? My julidochromis are aggressive but only when it is feeing time and the hatchets stay up top and catfish down below so at the moment everyone is happy.

Also my pH is sitting around 8.4 and i can't lower it after trying with a solution for over a week. Should i persist trying to lower it or leave it for a while and just do weekly water changes???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well hello, welcome to the forum and to fishkeeping!

well the first thing to work out before we think about other species is to make sure you're doing everything right so we're not sending any fish to your tank if it's unsitable for them.

now i think the julidochromis are an african cichlid, right? i'm not too up on my african's but they are generally not suitable for community tanks, they may only be a little bit agressive now but that's because when you get fish from the shop they are nearly all juveniles, when they get to around 18 months old agressive fish will really come into their own and get a lot more fiesty. So while things may be OK now they may not stay that way forever. However I'm not that familiar with the specific species you mention so your best bet is to hop over to the african cichlid area of this forum and ask them if they are compatible with the rest of your fish long term, they will then advise you what action to take.

why are you trying to adjust the pH? In the vast majority of cases pH is best left well alone as it's tricky to adjust. 8.4 is quite high but the julidochromis will love it, the livebearers should be fine with it, not sure on the hatchets and pictus though. Can you test your tap water and let us know what the pH of that is? what sort of test kit are you using as well, is it liquid reagents or paper strips?

do you have any other test kits, it's normal to get ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so if you have these tests then can you run them as well please and let us know what the results are?

 

[AlanaRose]

Hey, thank you for replying, im using liquid test kit not strips. My ammonia and nitrite are all perfect!

My tap water is half rain and half bore water as i live in the country and we dont use mains water. The pH is around 8 straight from the tap.

The aquarium shop that sold me the julies told me that they would be OK in a community providing they grew up in that environment. I hope they don't change and become aggresive!!!

Do you think i have over crowded the tank already It doesnt look overcrowded at all but im very concious that many beginners do over crowd!

well hello, welcome to the forum and to fishkeeping!

well the first thing to work out before we think about other species is to make sure you're doing everything right so we're not sending any fish to your tank if it's unsitable for them.

now i think the julidochromis are an african cichlid, right? i'm not too up on my african's but they are generally not suitable for community tanks, they may only be a little bit agressive now but that's because when you get fish from the shop they are nearly all juveniles, when they get to around 18 months old agressive fish will really come into their own and get a lot more fiesty. So while things may be OK now they may not stay that way forever. However I'm not that familiar with the specific species you mention so your best bet is to hop over to the african cichlid area of this forum and ask them if they are compatible with the rest of your fish long term, they will then advise you what action to take.

why are you trying to adjust the pH? In the vast majority of cases pH is best left well alone as it's tricky to adjust. 8.4 is quite high but the julidochromis will love it, the livebearers should be fine with it, not sure on the hatchets and pictus though. Can you test your tap water and let us know what the pH of that is? what sort of test kit are you using as well, is it liquid reagents or paper strips?

do you have any other test kits, it's normal to get ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so if you have these tests then can you run them as well please and let us know what the results are?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hey, thank you for replying, im using liquid test kit not strips. My ammonia and nitrite are all perfect!

My tap water is half rain and half bore water as i live in the country and we dont use mains water. The pH is around 8 straight from the tap.

The aquarium shop that sold me the julies told me that they would be OK in a community providing they grew up in that environment. I hope they don't change and become aggresive!!!

Do you think i have over crowded the tank already It doesnt look overcrowded at all but im very concious that many beginners do over crowd!

great that ammonia and nitrite are perfect, i take it you mean '0' though. just a word of advice we much prefer it if you report the actual numbers you are getting rather than just saying the levels are 'fine' or whatever because what's fine for one fish may not be fine for another, so if we know the numbers and all the details of your set up then we can be much more accurate in the advice we provide.

well i'm afraid the aquarium shop seem to have spun you a bit of a line there, i strongly advise you hop over to the african cichlids section of this forum and double check that bit of advice.