What To Do?

[Noahsfish]

Recently(ish) I shut down most of my tanks and only have a 20, 10, and 5. One of my friends who keeps fish is actually a former lfs employee, who invited me over to take a look at his tanks a few days ago, and I was quite appalled to say the least...a filthy 10 gallon with a huge pleco and about 10 tiger barbs smashing into each other, a 5 gallon with a betta (his only OK tank in my opinion) and a 15 with 5 yoyo loaches and around 10-15 neon tetras. I tried to be polite as possible, but I couldn't help but ask if I could take some of the fish off of his hands. I told him that I'd stop by in a few days to pick up the loaches and half of his neons. I really don't want the neons, but I felt so bad for them in their current housing. My main concern is for the yoyo loaches though, I'm not sure what to do with them. Theyd go in my 20 gallon, which already has 6 cardinals and an opaline. I'm concerned that the loaches and gourami might fight, even though I have several caves and plenty of plants..I asked him if he'd be willing to return the loaches to the fish store and he instantly got defensive and said either I could take them or he would keep them....anyways, if I remember correctly don't neons prefer colder water? My 10 gallon is sitting at 78 and I'm also concerned that my badis might not get along well with them...I have my sterbais in the 10g temporarily until I can afford to maintain another tank (at least 30g hopefully).

 

[Ninjouzata]

Yo-yo's get quite big so none of your tanks are going to be able to house them properly. I do understand that it's better than where they were though.
They get up to 6" and I think the absolute bare minimum for them is a 55g, but keeping them in a proper shoal of 6+ takes up a lot of the bioload for a tank of that size.
 
Neon tetras are tropical, IIRC, seriouslyfish says 21-28C (70-82F?) Could you take the fish from him and then take them back to the LFS?
 
I'm sorry I can't say how the gourami and loaches are going to get along, have heard of the larger loaches bullying some fish.

 

[Noahsfish]

Well my opaline is around 4" and I believe the largest loach is 3-4"..I really want to help these fish but if they're going to cause problems with my other fish I might not risk it. I know almost nothing about yoyos, will they be agressive towards my cardinals too? Is 6.3-6.6 ph and 78 degrees fine for them? I may actually be able to get my roomates sister to take the loaches who has a 55g, if stocking permits..

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm sorry I'm honestly not sure, I've never had yo-yo's, though I do want some one day.
This might be of some use to you: http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/botia-almorhae/
 
Hopefully someone with more experience will come along soon :c

 

[Noahsfish]

so I ended up taking the loaches and neons, and I'm planning on finding a fish store that will take them. They seem to be doing fine and the gourami hasn't noticed them. They're actually smaller then I'd initially thought, maybe 2-3". They're great fun to watch and I might start up my 30g again so I can keep them for a while.