Hello, Thanks for taking the time to read my post I am fairly new to the Tropical fish aquarium. I have only had this one running for 8 months, but in this time it has run smoothly.

There are 10 cardinal tetras, 5 harliquin rasboras, 2 catfish and 3 mollies, all from day one. Today, I introduced 5 hockeysticks and one small Angelfish. My daughter wanted these. I would have prefered rummynoses, but it was her choice.

It seems to me that this has caused disruption. The Angelfish is trying to eat the baby mollies, and the hockeysticks are chasing the other fish causing the cardinals and harlequins not to school. The hockeysticks aren't schooling either as they are too interested in chasing the others. Have I made a msitake? The fish shop advised these were peaceful and would be happy in this community.

Any help is appreciated. Lisa

personally i would give it a while to 'settle' down while the newbies find their place in the community, but thats just me! if its still mayhem tonight/tomorrow, id think about splitting them up/getting a seperate tank for your daughters fish

what size of tank do u have?

It's an 80L tank. I was told not to house more than 30 small fish in this size. Is this right? They still haven't settled. All the other fish are trying to sleep but the hockey's are going nuts...

well ur too overstocked and this is the problem

Thank you for letting me know that. I am going from advice from the pet store with the owner having 25 years experience. I obviously shouldn't take his word as gospel. He probably just wants to sell fish at the end of the day.

May I ask your expert opinion on how many you recommend for a tank this size? Since you sound very sure that this is the problem, I will return the fish today. The last thing I want to do is sabotage the original fish with overcrowding.

Today they are all schooling and look happy. I think the member that said give them time to settle may have been right as they have calmed.

However, I came to this forum looking for expertise from fish lovers and appreciate the help. I will organize their return.

Many thanks

Your first set up is already enough fish for your 20 gallon. you should probably take the new fish out and set up a new aquarium. the extra load of fish would also produce more ammonia and having molly babies doesnt help. the fish would all be able to live together for a while but it would be cramped and some fish would eventualy become too stressed out, making them less tolerant to diseases, always hiding...etc



what kind of catfish do you have?? some kinds are very active and produce a lot of waste.

also do you own a test kit??? i had my tank running for months and tested the water one day...stats were INSANE!! i freaked out but soon made things stable.

hope this helps you out

Hi ficious thank you for your friendly reply, much appreciated. The catfish are sterbai cory. I bought a pair as the pet store suggested they enjoy company and live happily in pairs. Are these guys big waste producers?? They are incredible cleaners!!!! The best asset in the tank imo.

I don't have a test kit but a ph kit. I take a small amount of water from the tank to the pet store regulalry for checking. At last check it was fine. Although I did not check it yesterday before introducing the new fish as I had done a small water change the weekend prior.

I agree with you about the increased waste and stress levels on all the fish.

I wanted a ball park of how many is advised for this size tank ( I had been told 30 small fish) so I don't go over it since overcrowding was suggested to be the problem and you say the 20 that were in there was about right. Obviously why all has run so smoothly previously.

I will have to return the fish today/tomorrow. Actually when do you think would be best to do that without stressing them too much?? I can't get another tank for 5 fish, so that is not an option.

Also ficious, could you tell me if it would be okay to keep the Angel fish and return the hockeys? Will 1 extra fish cause too much trouble? Personally I'm not a fan of the Angel fish although it is a very pretty fish, it doesn't seem to have the kind temperament of the cardinals,harlequins and cory's, although it could be too early to tell what she is really like. My daughter is kissing the tank when the Angel comes to the surface and likes her very much.

Um what is hockeystick fish? Just never heard that name in LFS before.

hi what type of flow is in the tank.

Hockey Stick Pencil fish do not like fast flows in tank and require tonnes of floating cover, as they are very skittish. they will jump very far and high out of a tank.

I have never had any HSPF chase any other fish, Could you post some pix, as i do not think you have hockeys. as they have a mouth the size of a pin head and cant really do much apart from hover in the tank and pick at the tiniest particles of food.

Hi, I can post a pic as I haven't had a chance to return them yet. It's raining hard here in WA Australia. I do think they are hockeys but have also heard them called penguins. They sort of hang when they swim if that makes sense. Here's a pic. They rarely school like the others and seem to pinch at the fins of each other alot and the harlequins. The harlequins seem most affected as they are in the same area of the tank iynwim (the central swimming area)

oh and do you mean how fast the flow is? I keep the water level about 2cms from the top so the aquaclear runs on the highest setting of flow and this does have a small current on the surface st entry point but, 85% of the tank has no movement on the surface. Different if the water level drops though. Is that what you mean? Sorry I'm a little confused.

Aha

Penguin Tetras not Hockey Sticks, new there was something wrong with the description.


Penguin Tetra

Hockey Sticks are a Pencil fish that resemble Seahorses.

LFS' Do Like to confuse People with random names.

This post has been edited by Gill: Jul 18 2008, 07:33 AM

so they are penguin tetras , sorry I have not supplied the correct info Gosh my fish shop man needs an update!! Soo in that case is this normal behaviour of a penguin tetra...... to nip at it's rellies and hassle the rasboras?

yep as in the profile link, very nippy fish not suited to smaller reasboras.

Thanks for your help guys They have now been returned home to the pet store. He said he had never heard of them behaving like this, made me feel like I was lying. Now the tank is back to normal and nice and calm Harlequins are schooling again My daughter insisted on a bristlenose coming home with us though, hope he doesn't add much to be classed as overstocked.