What Do You Think Of My Tanks?

[NorthEastFisherman]

Hello everyone! Im technically new on here (I've been reading posts for about 1-2 months) and i just created an account cause i love helping people and learning about fish! I have three tanks a 10 Gallon, 15 Gallon, and a 29 Gallon. I will post pictures of the tanks if you guys would like and i just want to know what you think about them. I also need a little advice on stocking my 29 Gallon.

10 Gallon (Running for about 9 months or so):
Black Sand Substrate (Not enough i think), an Aqueon 10 Gallon Filter, Heater, Lots of unnamed Aquatic Plants (I believe umbrella plants), decorations and fish. Lots of algae in this tank for my Pleco i just bought). My fish include: 6 Ghost shrimp (Havent seen them lately) 3 Tiger Barbs (2 Female, 1 Male), 1 Guppy (Female, Used to have 4 Baby Guppies and hes the last alive), 2 Cory Cats (1 Albino, 1 Peppered), and 1 Bristlenose Pleco (Got em a few days ago looks like it has ich). All Fish are helthy besides the pleco who looks like he has ich but im not sure after looking at pictures of them. Im also thinking of getting 1-2 more guppies to accompany my single 2 month old guppy.

15 Gallon (Running for about 6ish months):
Gray sand substrate, Two Tetra 10 Gallon Filters, Heater, 1 Anubias Barteri, 1 Spiral Bamboo Plant, Cave made from rocks i found, decorations and fish. This tank has what i believe is black beard algae. My fish are: 3 Ghost Shrimp (Found one when doing a water change), 1 Redtail Shark, 3 Zebra Danios, 3 Gold Barbs (These fish got HUGE!), 1 Wag Swordtail (Male), 3 Cory Cats (2 Peppered, 1 Panda), and 2 Otocinclus.

29 Gallon (Running 2ish months):
Bronze colored gravel with local lake sand on top, 1 Aqueon 40 (I think) Gallon Filter, 2 Bamboo Plants, 1 Large Ruffled Sword, 1 Red Thin Plant (Forgot the name), a few smaller plants like Java Fern, decorations, and fish. The fish in here are: 1 Gold Gourami (Took him out of 15 Gallon), 1 Rainbow Shark, 3 Cherry Barbs (Two Female, One Male), 2 Julii Cory Cats (Havent seen one all day, thinking hes dead

), 3 Neon Tetra, and 3 Cardinal Tetra. All the fish in this tank except the Gourami were bought within 5 days ago and ive only lost 2 cardinal tetra (One was missing an eye).
When i finalize this tank this will be my fish stocking: 1 Gold Gourami, 1 Rainbow Shark, 4 Cherry Barbs (2 Male, 2 Female), 6 Neon/Cardinal Tetra (3N, 3C), 2 Julii Cory Cats, 5 Rummynose Tetra, and an Angelfish (not sure of type).

What do you think? Overstocked? Perfect? Maybe some other fish? More of a certain fish? I'd love whatever type of feedback you have bad or good. By the way my rainbow shark has been twitching like hes rubbing on the ground because i think the ich he has is bothering him and another cherry barb (the larger female). Im treating it now but maybe its something else? If you guys want pictures of the tank, fish, whatever! Ill take them and if you have questions for me id love to answer them. One last thing, Happy Holidays!!!

 

[Chad]

Of course we want pictures! We ALWAYS want picture.

 

[Baccus]

Definantly would love to see pictures

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The first thing I did notice however is that you only have 2 corys in your 10g tank, they are the most social fish and peaceful to everyone so a nice group of them will really make them show off and be typical food hunting bull dozers

. I can honestly say I have only once seen a bristle nose with ich, so it is possible for them to get it just not all that common. What ever you do don't treat the ich with salt with corys in the tank, they really wont like salt in the water.
I would watch the tiger barbs in the 10g too, they can be aggro little critters and less likely to bully other fish if they have a decent school of their own to argue amongst.

With the 15g I would again look at uping the numbers of corys, where possible its best to form a group of one type but if all the one type aren't available then a mix can work but they wont always hang out together. Also otocinclus are social litlle guys so they would also like some friends.

With the 29g tank I would opt for either an angel fish or a nice school of neon tetras, sadly neon tetras are on angel fishes natural menu when the angel is mature or at least big enough to eat the neons.

If you can let us know which country your in it will help us to know how your stocking is going UK and US gallons are very different, also tank dimesions will come in handy

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Looking forwards to seeing your pictures

 

[epic154]

want pics lol

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

I live in the USA and i dont have many pet stores near me and theres one problem with that. I have a petco but the fish arent so healthy and can die very easily but they have many species. And then i have a pet supplies plus with extremely healthy fish but not too many species they do allow specially ordering fish but sometimes they cant get the fish youd like. I'll go take some pics right now and post them in a little bit. WARNING: The ten gallon has ALOT of algae i didnt want to clean it because i wanted to get an algae eater so i wanted to keep as much algae as i could.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

First picture is the 29 Gallon with the gourami wanting to get some food.
Second is my rainbow shark in the 29 Gallon his ich is almost gone!
Third is my neons and cardinals hiding in the back of the tank.
Fourth is my 15 Gallon.
Fifth is a closeup of my Red tail.
Sixth is my three cories hiding in the cave i made them.
Seventh is a picture of them eating (I put the food in to get my cories out).
Eighth is my ten gallon the pleco is front and center.
Ninth is my tiger barbs. As you said they are aggressive but that was when i first got them now theyre little babies and hide when i come in the room.
Ill get the close up of my pleco in a second.

Sorry about the camera is the pictures above its not my good camera and the one that takes better pictures has a lens view of like 140 degrees so its looks awkward. This is my pleco close up do you think its ich?

 

[Baccus]

Yep he looks like he has a bad case of ich

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I know the problems of not having a great or good LFS nearby. You could stick with the place that can't always get the fish, just keep seeing what they can order in for you. Or you could look on places like Ebay or online Pet Classifieds, even this forum has Livestock for sale and you maybe able to find just what your looking for.
Even though the pictures are a bit blurry the tanks are looking good

. If you can get some more live plants in the tank with the neon tetras they will also probably spend more time front and centre, also a few more will help them feel secure. It is funny with plants in a tank, you would think the more plants the less you will see the fish, but 99% of the time its the other way around.
I remember the most amazing planted tank I saw a a kid, the substrate was all slopped high at the back and low to the front of the tank, and then all sorts of stem plants planted thickly making the tank look like a mini tropical rainforest. And then in this tank they had all sorts of tetras, and the tetras and other fish zooming in and out of the foliage looked like flocks of tropical parrots flying through a rainforest canopy. It is an image that has stayed with me, because at the time I had never seen such an affect.

If you can't get more corys or tetras straight away you could try putting a mirror up agianst the glass on one end of the tank. The fish then think there is at least double of their species, it worked for a zoo with flamingos that they where trying to breed. Since the flamingos only wanted to settle with a huge group of their own kind.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Thanks ill start treating that now. Im thinking of getting 1 albino and 1 peppered cory for my ten gallon cause you said they like their groups. I think my 15G is overstocked so i wont be adding any fish to that tank. For my 29 Gallon im going to get some pygmy cory cats if i can and ill eventually be adding rummynose tetra. Theres not much space in this tank for plants so im wondering what plants do you suggest? Maybe some brazilian pennywort and ill let it float? And i know how you feel with that tank youre talking about. I watched a professional aquascapist on youtube do work on a new tank and they gave him whatever resources and fish he wanted and he made it look amazing. It wasnt dense for the fish but the coloring was amazing and another thing is he made it viewable from all angles which is a pretty hard thing to do. My favorite tank is my 29 gallon and i wanna keep it like that. I think having some cories patrolling the floor for food and some rummynose tetra playing around the decorations like a playground would look great. Im also thinking about a borneo sucker being added eventually.

Oh another thing is do you order majority of your fish online? Or do you get them at the store? Im scared to order them online cause if they get sick and die itll be a huge hassel plus i heard shipping cost alot.

 

[Baccus]

I have purchased from online fish shops, usually a good shop will have some sort of replacement guarantee. Otherwise I have purchased fish and shrimp from fellow hobbiests and never had any issues. I a lucky in that for trhe past couple of years I have had a good pet shop that not only has a good range of fish, but will alsso order in species if they are available.
Anubis tied to some timber is always good, you can get dwarf types as well as verigated and its slow growing. There are also some smaller types of java fern. Mosses are always good to. And if you wanted to you could get some Amazon frogbit to float on the surface.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Need to work on your photography!

It's always difficult photographing fish, I'm a keen photographer and get really frustrated with poor pictures of my tank and particularly close ups of individual fish! What's the substrate in your first pic? Sand with some sort of gravel on top?

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Yeah i know the camera i used isnt that good

My better camera is an intova sp1 so its for mounting on helmets when i snowboard and such. In the first picture i bought some petco bronze colored gravel and put some local lake sand ontop because no store nearby had that colored sand. The gravel got mixed on top from fish, plants, deocrations, water changes, etc. It came out better than i thought itd be!

EDIT: The gourami would NOT sit still for a second. He loves when i come up to the tank and i have to stand far back for him to calm down but then my camera wont get a good picture.