What needs to be taken out of this tank?

[Mint]

I’m about to set up a 40 Gallon Breeder. This is a composite list of what I want in the tank. AqAdvisor says it’s alright, but I’m unsure, since it seems like a lot of fish. The filter will be 225 GPH and a canister filter. The tank will probably be somewhere around a slightly acid neutral when set up, since I’m putting driftwood and Indian Almond Leaves in it, but probably not super low. Also, I’m unsure how much bioload Kuhli Loaches produce (Since they’re so skinny), so I didn’t count them in the inch-per-gallon stocking. Here’s the tank. Basically, just say what needs to go. This is by no means a static thing.
-6x Kuhli Loach
-3x Honey Gourami
-15x Neocardina “Skittles” Pack Shrimp
-10x Neon Tetra (May be changed to Cardinal or Green Neon)
-6x Guppy (All male, to avoid breeding)
-5x Platy (All female, to avoid breeding)
-5x Dainty Cory
-5x Amano Shrimp
-2x African Dwarf Frog (Tank will have wide open space and broad leafed plants, so it won’t be hard to come to the surface. There will be some Amazon Frogbit and Duckweed on the surface of the tank, though.)

 

[GaryE]

First, one inch per gallon is meaningless, An inch of loach and an inch of Discus are different things, as you've noticed.

If you buy female platys from a store, they will breed. They store sperm packets internally, so one fertilization can produce as many as 200-300 fry, spread out over many months of constant refertilization. It's rare to buy platys that aren't gravid already. Plus the guppy males will drive them and the other fish mad, as their urge to reproduce gets twisted in all male tanks. Even the rocks will be checked out.

I had to look up dainty Corys - they aren't sold as that here. C habrosus is very social. I would go to 10 of them.

I would read up heavily on the frogs.

I would also look closely at the honeys. There are two fish sold under the name. One is a wild type fish that is small and fairly gentle. Males are beautiful, but only once they feel safe. The other is a hybrid that is larger and more aggressive - it might develop a taste for webbed feet.

 

[AquaBarb]

Heard on a fair few occasions now that african dwarf frogs and fish arent a great combo together. The fish tend to out compete the frogs at getting to the food due to the frogs poor eyesight

Fish wise you have a mixture of hard (platy/guppies) and softer (Tetra's/gourami/cories etc) water species so id recommend testing your water hardness to nail down a number you can better chose you for

 

[sharkweek178]

I'm not sure that platys and shrimp are a good combination. If the platys can't eat the shrimp, they'll keep trying to.

 

[sharkweek178]

Heard on a fair few occasions now that african dwarf frogs and fish arent a great combo together. The fish tend to out compete the frogs at getting to the food due to the frogs poor eyesight

Fish wise you have a mixture of hard (platy/guppies) and softer (Tetra's/gourami/cories etc) water species so id recommend testing your water hardness to nail down a number you can better chose you for

I agree with this but especially the last part. Knowing the water parameters is really needed here.

 

[emeraldking]

First, one inch per gallon is meaningless, An inch of loach and an inch of Discus are different things, as you've noticed.

Agreed!

 

[seangee]

The tank will probably be somewhere around a slightly acid neutral when set up, since I’m putting driftwood and Indian Almond Leaves in it, but probably not super low

Please post the actual values and units for your water hardness. We are looking for GH and KH. The information may be available from your water supplier. Simply adding wood and almond leaves is no guarantee of creating an acidic or neutral setup. Once we know the numbers someone can advise what will work in your water.
I would suggest you use a site like seriouslyfish.com to have a look at the needs of your choice, some obvious issues I see

• A mix of hardwater and softwater fish as already mentioned
• Neocardina are quite expensive as fish food (but the gouramis and the loaches will appreciate them)
• The filter you are planning is way too powerful for the loaches, gouramis and shrimps
• ADFs should not be kept with fish

I suggest you start with your water parameters. Then pick a region with similar water conditions and try to find compatible fish from that region that will work together. You also need to make sure the species you get have similar temperature requirements. Unfortunately sites like Aqadvisor are not terrribly useful

 

[ClownLurch]

First find out your water hardness and PH. Your plan is a disaster in waiting.

 

[Byron]

Agree with others here. First issue is the GH, KH and pH of your source water, as this is the water you have to work/live with, and different fish have sometimes very opposite needs.

Second, never bother with any site like Aquadvisor. While it may have some good aspects, no site can possibly factor in all the essential aspects that are crucial. It is less a matter of fish load as compatibility, and the latter means every aspect of the environment from water parameters (including temperature as well here) to numbers for the shoaling/schooling species, to the aquascape requirements for all species so they have what they absolutely need to be healthy/happy. Temperament compatibility is another, perhaps obvious, but here as others have mentioned you do not want frogs and fish together.

You also do not want cories with any loaches. And for either of these you must have soft sand. That's something else Aquadvisor can't tell you.

 

[Mint]

Alright, I’ll get it tested. I recently moved, so it hasn’t been tested yet. I do know it’s fairly hard, since I live in a area with a lot of limestone around it. If it is, I’ll look into using distilled or spring water. I’ll get rid of the frogs, but the kuhli loaches can most likely stay, because kuhli loaches only come out at night, so there shouldn’t be any competition with them and the Cory catfish. If ten Cory have to be kept, I’ll probably try to add them slowly, and hopefully that won’t be bad for the tank. As for neon tetras…I’ll look into other fish, but if you look online, plenty of people have kept guppies, platys, and neon tetra together, and a lot of websites recommend them as tankmates.

As for the female platy problem, literally everything else in that tank, including the other Platy, will eat the fry, so I’m expecting by the end of the six months to have only about three surplus platy. And, as for the honey gourami/shrimp problem, I guess I’ll look into getting a lot of bamboo shrimp, since those are way bigger. And filter…could downsize, sure, but I really don’t see why getting more filtration is a bad thing.

I’ve looked into environments modeling my water perimeters, but…they’re mostly cichlid tanks. Large, large cichlid tanks. I freaking hate most of the extremely hard-water cichlids, and a fourty-gallon is nowhere near big enough to house most of those guys. So, I’m definitely not going to model my tank after that. And while Aqadvisor isn’t the best for a lot of this, it does give me tempature, Ph, and water hardness recommendations, so it’s used for that. Inch-per-gallon is mostly just for rough recommendations. Rest of it is research on aquariums sites.
In all, I’ll probably just get my water tested and figure out a way to get this tank to work then.

 

[Byron]

the kuhli loaches can most likely stay, because kuhli loaches only come out at night, so there shouldn’t be any competition with them and the Cory catfish.

This is not the main problem here. And both are nocturnal anyway. I have several times had cories devour an entire clutch of eggs, or a shoal of cichlid fry, during total darkness. Not all fish sleep at night.

As for neon tetras…I’ll look into other fish, but if you look online, plenty of people have kept guppies, platys, and neon tetra together, and a lot of websites recommend them as tankmates

And plenty of people have had sick fish slowly die becaue of inappropriate water parameters. As for websites recommending them, there are many so-called fish websites that haven't a clue about keeping fish healthy. I will say there is a degree of overlap, but we cannot discuss this until we know the numbers for the GH (primarily) and pH. And if you go down the involved road of preparing water outside the tank, fine, but that is a lot of extra work and expense. I've done it.

As for the female platy problem, literally everything else in that tank, including the other Platy, will eat the fry, so I’m expecting by the end of the six months to have only about three surplus platy.

This is not the right road to keeping fish. Livebearers can be kept as males only. Given the dozens of fry from every female every month for several months...another headache. Unless you are OK with euthanizing the fry regularly.

And filter…could downsize, sure, but I really don’t see why getting more filtration is a bad thing.

Filtration will occur in any tank with or without a filter, according to the bi0logical system. More filters, or larger filters, does not improve filtration. The fish load must be in balance with the water volume, along with other factors like live plants, feding amounts, water changes, substrate cleaning. Water flow is governed by the filter, and sedate fish from quiet waters will be stressed by strong currents, and that means more sickness and early emise.