What To Do?

[Devorax]

I have recently upgraded my 60l to a 90l, which has taken well. Now we have found somewhere for the 60l to go, so I was wondering what I might put in there.
Any ideas people?
I was thinking parrotfish, maybe a school of female bettas, just something different to our main tank. We already have:
guppies, neons, black widows, a betta, headstanders, rasboras, rummies, mollies, so was wondering if we could have a tank that was totally different to that one, something like oscars, angels or just something else. Feel free to tell me what you would do with it, I might just take your idea on!!

 

[Wipeout]

Puffer tank

 

[hollanda88]

Angels and oscar are both too big for that tank unfortunately,

dwarf chiclids?

andrew

 

[Athena]

Hello again

Sorry to sound confused but I thought the whole point of you acquiring a 90 Litre was so that you could share your current stock (listed below, all were in your 60 litre) between the 90 litre and 60 litre - if you don't you are still going to be very overstocked in the 90litre!

On your previous thread you asked for ideas of how to do the split and I posted this as a rough guide:

60 Litre

10 guppies
4 zebra danios
4 pearl danios

90 litre

1 bristlenose plec
3 sailfin mollies
1 swordtail
2 black widows
4 neons
4 rummies

I had also mentioned that you need to rehome the single clown loach - and that the betta would be better off in your small 25litre on his own. It's not good to put a betta in a tank with neons - or any other fish to be honest - they are just not good community fish. Have a look over on the Betta forum and post a query there about it, if in doubt.

I do hope you don't acquire any new fish to put in your 60 litre when you are overstocked in your 90 litre, otherwise you will be back on here in no time asking for advice on how to deal with unexplained fish deaths, or illnesses.

Sorry, not having a go at you - just worried that you may make another mistake and end up with more fish than you (or your filters) can handle.

All the best - Athena

 

[skittz]

PEACOCKS!!!!!!! lol they are the kind of fish u want to just sit there all day and look at them they come in so many different colours and are a placid fish so easy to look after also

wait hang on lmao my brother in law said (jokingly) to put a manta ray in there hahahaha

 

[Devorax]

Whilst I appreciate that Athena almost certainly knows more about fish and their well being more than I, I do question her judgement on the 'overstocking' of the 90l. Having transferred all the fish to the 90l, and giving them the filter from the 60l (only temporary unitl the eheim external one arrives in a day or two and then run side by side for a month), I fail to see how this is an overstocked situaion.
There is plenty of room for everyone, they all seem happier, all are more coloured than ever, and they show absolutely no signs of stress. All are feeding, all tests on the water are coming back fine (ie <0.1%ppm ammonia/nitrite) and they certainly don't give the impression visually of 'there are too many in that tank' like you can get at LFS'. No-one gets in anyone's way and there is no fighting or disagreeing of any kind whatseoever. I know that it is early days yet in the new set up and things might change once some of them beome more confident, but I really do question the validity of the 'overstocked' statement. Please don't get me wrong people, I am not trying to say 'I know best', I am only reporting what I see and what I see is a perfect little community that has shown positive signs more than they ever did in the 60l.
I have posted a thread in the betta section about suitable tank mates for Boris but somehow the thread digressed into a discussion on snails, which isn't quite what I had in mind. The clown loach will be moved on, I have a friend with a 100cm tank that has two already and the next time we go visiting, we will take our clown loach to them, along with the fry that she chooses to have as well.
I put this thread on to see what my options were, tbh, I didn't know if we were even going to keep the 60l. I know that it would make sense to split the current stock beween the two tanks, I just fail to see why I should unless something negative happens. Since everyting seems okay as it is, I fail to see why I should change it. As the old adage goes 'if something ain't broke, don't try to fix it'.
I know that reading back over this it seems like I am biting Athena's head off, that is not my intention, I do mightily respect her educated opinions, but I choose to disagree at present. I still welcome all opinions/comments and hope to receive more in the future. Thanks to all thus far.

 

[AdAndrews]

hello friend!- measure all of the sizes in inches of the fish you have in the 90 litre, excluding tail. post this and this will give you a rough guide.

note: when you get your new filter run it along current one, both together for about 2 months

good luck- POST THE SIZES

 

[stang1]

What fish do you currently have at the moment?

 

[AdAndrews]

no- let him measure up, it will only make things worse if you work them out as adult size, they have to be the size they are now. loads of things contribute anyway, the size of his filter, how long the tank has been setup, how frequent water changes are and the type of the fish and how much he feeds them

 

[Devorax]

I will work it out shortly, and I didn't get the filter cos got outbid on eBay in last 10 seconds

 

[stang1]

Working the fish out as adult size will tell you whether the tank is overstocked or not.

 

[AdAndrews]

lol fleabay!- post the fish along side with their sizes, and what size filter you have

 

[Devorax]

Right then. Sorry for the delay but me and the missus just had a debate on the sizes of our fish as we had hugely different opinions on them lol.
Right, here goes (cringing at the expected response)
1 Betta (m) 5cm
3 Sailfin Mollies (1m, 2f) at approx 4cm each=12cm
1 Swordtail (m) 4cm
5 Black Widow Tetras at approx 3.5cm each=17.5cm
9 Guppies (4m, 5f) at approx 3cm each=27cm
4 Pearl Danios at 3cm each=12cm
4 Zebra Danios at 3cm each=12cm
2 Headstanders at 4cm each=8cm
3 Rasboras at 2.3cm each=7cm
1 BN Plec 2cm (he is still a baby)
4 Neons at 2cm each=8cm
4 Rummy nosed tetras at 3.5cm each=14cm
1 Clown Loach 4 cm
Giving a grand total of 128cm of fish which tbh does not look like that in the tank. I can't see that if we lined up all our fish that they would be over 4 foot long. SO I think we may have been generous in our measuring (I actually arrived at some 150cm of fish....lol) and our measuring has been agreed on now as my partner came up with a lower amount.
I am going to put up a pic asap to show what I mean about not looking overcrowded or 'busy'.
The filter is an Interpet PF2 internal, which is capable of handling a 90 litre tank, or so they say. So people, go on and say it......

 

[AdAndrews]

just feed little and do water changes every 3 days, it will be fine as long as they have enough room to swim, oh and provide extra airation- 1 inch per gallon for the first 5-6 months after that 2 inch per gallon- work out in centimetres, i dont know what the sum is,

edit: i have worked it out, you have sumwhat doubled the 2 inch per gallon rule, tank is about 23 gal and you have 59 inch of fish, do 20% wc every day- i suggest you spread fish over 2 tanks- i was the overstocking king, but i have learnt my lesson, as i was fed up of deaths, thats what you will have if you dont be careful

good luck

 

[Devorax]

Water is being changed every other day or so as habit until we ge zero ammonia readings, because we do get a steady rise up to 1ppm in 2 days. We have a bubble column in the centre of the tank. And since I didn't get my bargain eheim filter, can anyone suggest a decent exernal cannister for me to hunt down please? Maybe then even if we are overstocked, a decent bigger-than-it-needs-to-be filter will keep everything acceptable. Pick coming as soon as I remember my photobucket login details....