What Shall I Do? Pics

[danny_sims]

Hi everyone
i started my first topic when i made the mistake of not doing homework. (cycles) after one death my fish in cycle was completed after gaining some extremely dirty media. (2-3 weeks i have had perfect figures)
my main fish tank is a 300 litre aqua one.

6 days ago i got offered a free tank as someone i know needed rid for one reason or another.it was a 80 liter square aquarium and it contained the following.


2 x xl mollies (females heavily pregnant)
2 x male mollies


2 x female guppys
3 x pink tetra
12 x red small platties
2 x female gourami (dwarf i think)
1 x male dwarf gourami
1 albino rainbow shark (tiny)
1 x albino bn (realy realy tiny)
1 x plec??? around 2 1/2 inches
2 x silver sharks (tiny)
2 x bumblee bee goby
8 x clown loach. babys

all the fish are generally.
i quickly removed them from the small tank and placed them into my tank 6 fish every day. keeping an eye on parameters.
all fish now in and weverything is all ok. (ish)

these fish went in with my mollies rainbow shark and my little angel fish.

everything was going fine untill the bumblebee's settled in and then they just took over the ship and would attack all fish that came near it. (apart from the sharks)
it really did seem to be stressing the xl mollies who are heavily pregnant. so i quickly set my 120 litre tank i got from someone else in the kitchen.

using a aqua one cf1000 filter. (i know its to much filter for that tank but its all i have)
and then i eventually caught the bumble bee gobys and put them in that tank. (also removed some media from large tank)
so its another fish in cycle.

i have another 80 litre tank that i could set up so which way would you distribute the above fish so that they all live together happily.

i cant believe that the clown loach will grow so big. (i have fell in love with them)
i will upgrade my large tank in the future just to allow me to keep the clown loach.

help would be greatly appreciated in regards to the above.
danny

 

[timmer21]

Hi,

What i would do is do some research as i dont know musch about the bumblee goby, move the two you have to the 80ltr tank, maybe get a few more or somthing else to live with it.
The 120ltr tank i would set up for your live bearers, guppys, platties, mollies and possible the three dwarf gouramis. With lots of plants and hideing place, for all the fry you get.
Then your 300ltr keep the other fish but as you said you will have to get a bigger tank for the clowns, sharks and the tetras, they should be fine with the sharks ect until they get to big then might have to move to the 120ltr tank. Not 100% on this but quite sure you will have a problem with the silver sharks and the albino shark living together.

Hope ths helps

 

[danny_sims]

hi
i have been searching and searching. it seems as though there is mixed comments on the sharks together.
did i missread the part about the tetras? (when the outgrow the 300 litre?) was you talking baout the pink ones or the bumbleebee?
i think i need to get rid of the bumbleebee's as they are taking up a tank on there own and they are meant to grow really quickly.
what fish would be good in the 300 litre as top / middle dwellers as they all seem bottom dwellers other than the livebearers.
danny
thanks for the reply

where do i put the angel fish?

 

[Wills]

The fish in the third picture - is that what your calling a bumble bee goby? If so thats not a bumblebee goby its a Leporinus which is a type of headstander - quite aggressive at times but if you can keep them in groups they are a really nice fish.

Also not heard of issues between bala/silver sharks and albino/red tailed black sharks as they are different species its only redtailed sharks and rainbow sharks that you can only keep one per tank with as they are massively species intolerant. But mixing them with other "sharks" are not an issue since they are not actually sharks - the red tailed sharks are related to loaches and the bala sharks are related to barbs so totally different species.

What dimensions is the 300 liter? I think those Aquaone tanks are quite tall so Im guessing its around 4 foot long? If so yes your sharks and loaches need a bigger tank in the future but that said Bala Sharks are that big and active as adults I would perhaps consider rehoming them now to prevent issues in your tanks later as realistically to keep a shoal of 16 inch fish you need an 8x3 foot tank.

As for what to do now I would perhaps look at doing this

300 liter

2 x silver sharks
2 x leporinus - headstanders
2 x female mollies
2 x male mollies
6 x red platties
1 x albino rainbow shark
1 x plec
8 x clown loach

120 liter

1 x male dwarf gourami
2 x female dwarf gourami
2 x female guppys
3 x pink tetra - I would get more of these and up the school to about 6 or 8
6 x red platties
1 albino rainbow shark
1 x albino bn

So thats all the large fish in the 300 liter and then its upto you how you want to address the situation with the large fish like the balas and clowns etc. I think if you could get a tank like a Juwel Rio 400 - its roughly 5x2x2 foot and that would be a good tank for these fish - though obviously if you went for a 6x2x2 even better . Then I would get more of the headstanders and group them to about 5 or 6 and rehome the Bala sharks and maybe swap them for Denison Barbs if you wanted to swap them around and keep similar looking fish? - I think that it would be a nice tank at that point with the clowns, headstanders and a big common plec when he grows up.

I also split the platties between the two tanks - any breeding pairs of your livebearers should be kept in the large tank that way you have fish that are predatory to fry so your tanks do not get over run too quick.

Hope thats helped

Wills

 

[danny_sims]

firstly thankls for the extremely good responce (appreciate all your time and effort)
i think i need to ask if my local fish shop will take leporinus of my hands/swap them.
just had a read over the bala sharks for the past hour. (they seem to take time to grow does this mean months years???
i really liked the idea of the first poster stating a livebearer tank as i could get some credit at local fish shop for the fry.
also bn's seem easy to breed. (earier than others) good job i have a spare room.
i am more than willing to upgrade to a minimum of a 6x2x2 as the spare wall in the front room would allow 11x3x2
after how long would i need to upgrade to a min of 6 x 2 x2? if i kept the following in the 6x2x2

8 x clown loach
2 x bala sharks
1 x rainbow shark
1 x orange spot plec (pretty sure this is it)
would a large shoal of pink tetras go well with these also max number allowed

 

[danny_sims]

affinis leporinus is what i thought the bumblebee things where lol
after reading about them i might keep them but would need to behave.

 

[Wills]

What are the dimensions of the current 300 is it 4x2x2?

Out of all the fish the fastest grower is going to be the plec - based on the orange spot you mentioned I am thinking it will be a gibbicep pleco which is more common than some of the other orange spot plecs. But if the 4x2x2 is the tank now you can probably manage a year but the quicker the better. I have been wanting a bigger tank for ages now and it keeps getting pushed back and back and its a really bad situation to be in.

If you are keeping the fish you have at present and plan to get a 6x2x2 I would probably do something like

5 x Bala Shark
5 x Leporinus
20 x Pink Tetras
1 x Red Tailed Black Shark
8 x Clown Loach
1 x Gibbicep Plec

When all those fish get to adult size that is going to be an amazing amazing tank But like I say get the big tank asap. Though the fish are slow growing and in some cases will take years to get to adult size they will grow a lot quicker in the big tank which is not only more natural but also much healthier for the fish.

If you plan to breed your livebearers make sure your LFS is interested in buying them from you because a lot of LFS will not buy livebearers or even rehome them these days because of the massive amount of people that keep them and try and sell or rehome the babies they are inevitably inundated with. Basically the maths with the common livebearers that breed rapidly is

1 male + 1 female = 12 babies
12 babies = 6 males and 6 female
at 12 weeks old they can start to breed sometimes younger so
6 males + 6 females = 12 babies per couple = 72 babies plus the original 12 parents and 2 grandparents

So in your tank you have 18 livebearers of mixed sex and species but less the female guppies thats 16.

So start on the assumption that at 8 males + 8 females = 96 babies
Then at 12 weeks if the young all make it that = 1152 babies haha

Thats based on a split of 50/50 male and female and all fry making it through but its just a guide on how quickly large numbers of mixed gender livebearers can multiply. So just a thought on how you want to keep livebearers.

Wills

 

[danny_sims]

thanks again for the reply
that looks like a good set up
is there room for more/slight variation.
i really wanted golden nugget pleco or zebra pleco. do bn's work with plecs?
also could the clown loach be upped? and the rainbow sharks both seem good together???

 

[ian]

sorry to but in Danny, but i notice you have 2 non aquatic plants (back right and middle) in your big tank. I would take these out else you gonna be getting ammonia spike as they die off.

 

[Wills]

Zebra plecs are mega mega expensive with current prices being around £150 for a juvenile! For that reason I would not add them to anything else than a specialist tank just due to their expense because at the end of the day if it goes wrong its a lot of money gone.

Golden Nugget plecs would work in there and there are lots and lots of other plec species you could have in a 6x2x2 http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/numbers.php?mode=l&thumbs=16&start=240&genus_id=0 that website is always good reading when your looking for plecs

How many redtailed/rainbow sharks do you have?

Depending on just how big you do eventually go with your tank there is room for variation - I have been to an LFS today and seen an adult Leporinus today and they are such a magnificent fish and so big this one was about 8 inches and beautiful The only thing you cant change on the list with the fish in there are the numbers. They can go up like more clowns if you want but stick to at least 5 of the balas and headstanders. You could always have more clownloaches to start out with and thin the group as the other fish grow into the tank. Otherwise you will have a big tank with slow growing species and be tempted to put more fish in to start with then the fish grow and your overstocked but with slow fish like clown loaches it can work. I can also work as an investment as large clown loaches are worth quite a bit so in a few years when it comes to time to thin the clown school out you could make a bit of money from them.

On the list I made there possibly room for one or two nice large cichlids like a Severum maybe?

Wills

 

[danny_sims]

hi i have got
2 x rainbow sharks one standard and one albino.

so i can have those cichlids in with the community fish?
clown loach idea sounds good.
im going to find a tank asap.
i would proberly keep the 300 litre and move it to the bedroom (would have to ensure the floor is good enough.
i need to get rid of the angel fish. (shame it survived the fish in cycle without any problems but then so did one rainbow shark and that looks super.
just spoke to the person i got the fish from and he bought the leporinus from pier aquatics at 3 pounds each.
might need to get some asap to keep all fish at the same size so they all grow at a similar speed.
danny
i really appreciate this but my bank manager might not.
haha

 

[danny_sims]

just seen post regarding plants
now removed.
it was the middle front one?
thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, plants with white in the leaves grow "emerged," not "submerged."

 

[danny_sims]

hi
the leaves where dark green and red??? on the centre plant

 

[danny_sims]

hi
the leaves where dark green and red??? on the centre plant