Fish count help

[Geordie Paul]

I have a 15 gallon tank with 4 corys, 3 neon tetra, and 1 gourami. Do I have any room left to add another fish? I'm looking for a small/medium sized community fish that doesn't need to be in a school. Any suggestions?

(My corys are at the bottom and the neons are always hiding so my gourami looks lonely swimming around the top half of the tank. My tank is heated to 79 degrees and I have a great filter my fish are really happy)

 

[Jimbob1223]

a trio of Guppies would make a great addition to your tank as they hang out in the top of the tank and would get along fine with your Gourami. If you want a single fish, then a honey Gourami could work but it all depends on the Gourami you have at the moment. if it is aggressive then a honey Gourami would get picked on otherwise that would work out good,

 

[Colin_T]

How long has the tank been running for?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?
What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of the water?
You can get this info from your water supply company's website or by calling them. If they can't help you, take a glass of tank water to the local pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Write the results down in numbers when they do the test, and ask what the results are in (eg: ppm or dGH).

Neon tetras and all tetras need to be kept in groups of at least 6 and preferably 10 or more. They naturally occur in groups of thousands so even 10 is a small number. The reason yours are hiding is because you only have 3 of them. Your gourami could also be picking on them.

You should only have 1 species of laybrinth (Betta or gourami) per tank. They are territorial and will fight if you have 2 males or males from different species.

If you post a picture of your tank and fish we can id the gourami for you and offer advice on decorating the tank so it is more suitable for your current fish. Set the cameras resolution to its lowest setting so the images are small enough to post on here.

 

[Geordie Paul]

How long has the tank been running for?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?
What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of the water?
You can get this info from your water supply company's website or by calling them. If they can't help you, take a glass of tank water to the local pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Write the results down in numbers when they do the test, and ask what the results are in (eg: ppm or dGH).

Neon tetras and all tetras need to be kept in groups of at least 6 and preferably 10 or more. They naturally occur in groups of thousands so even 10 is a small number. The reason yours are hiding is because you only have 3 of them. Your gourami could also be picking on them.

You should only have 1 species of laybrinth (Betta or gourami) per tank. They are territorial and will fight if you have 2 males or males from different species.

If you post a picture of your tank and fish we can id the gourami for you and offer advice on decorating the tank so it is more suitable for your current fish. Set the cameras resolution to its lowest setting so the images are small enough to post on here.

Thank you. I change my water regularly and haven't done a full clean out yet because my tank has only been running for a month. I'm not sure of the PH levels just yet but I have a nitrite remover in my filter as well. Here is a picture of the tank

 

[Geordie Paul]

a trio of Guppies would make a great addition to your tank as they hang out in the top of the tank and would get along fine with your Gourami. If you want a single fish, then a honey Gourami could work but it all depends on the Gourami you have at the moment. if it is aggressive then a honey Gourami would get picked on otherwise that would work out good,

My gourami does seem slightly aggressive so I'll probably maybe try the guppies then. Thank you!

 

[Essjay]

The reason that Colin asked about your water hardness is that at the moment you have all soft water fish. Guppies are not compatible as they are hard water fish. However, we don't know how your water is yet, so it could be soft or hard. If it's soft, your current fish are fine but guppies would not be. But if your water is hard, guppies would be better than the fish you have now.

If your water is soft you need to get more neons and cories (of the same species) before adding another species to the tank. Both cories and neons need to be in groups of at least 6, with more being better. The neons will come out more if there are more of them.
Do you have any plants in the tank, either real or fake? It sounds backwards but fish such as neons will come out more if there are plenty of hiding places.

Which species of gourami do you have? Some species are more aggressive than others, and a lot of gouramis grow too big for 15 gallons. I would keep only a honey gourami or a dwarf gourami or a group of sparkling gouramis in 15 gallons; all other species need a bigger tank.

 

[Geordie Paul]

The reason that Colin asked about your water hardness is that at the moment you have all soft water fish. Guppies are not compatible as they are hard water fish. However, we don't know how your water is yet, so it could be soft or hard. If it's soft, your current fish are fine but guppies would not be. But if your water is hard, guppies would be better than the fish you have now.

If your water is soft you need to get more neons and cories (of the same species) before adding another species to the tank. Both cories and neons need to be in groups of at least 6, with more being better. The neons will come out more if there are more of them.
Do you have any plants in the tank, either real or fake? It sounds backwards but fish such as neons will come out more if there are plenty of hiding places.

Which species of gourami do you have? Some species are more aggressive than others, and a lot of gouramis grow too big for 15 gallons. I would keep only a honey gourami or a dwarf gourami or a group of sparkling gouramis in 15 gallons; all other species need a bigger tank.

OK so my Gourami is a dwarf. Also my tank is hard water but I have packs in my filter that remove nitrites. They've been in it for a month and my corys have been moved from another tank that had hard water as well. They were in there for 6 months. They seem healthy and are eating properly. However if I add 2 more corys would you think that's over crowded for only 15 gallons?

 

[Colin_T]

What are the packs to remove nitrites?

In a normal healthy biological filter you get colonies of good bacteria that eat ammonia and convert it into nitrite. You get more bacteria that eat nitrite and convert it into nitrate. You don't need packs, cartridges or granules to remove ammonia or nitrite from a filter because the good bacteria does it for you. All you need in a filter is sponges and maybe ceramic beads.

Filter that are more than 2 months old should be cleaned at least once a month. You wash or squeeze the filter media in a bucket of tank water and when they are clean you put them in the aquarium. You wash/ rinse the filter case and impellor assembly under tapwater. Then put the filter materials back in the filter, fill it with tank water and get it going.

If the filter is less than 2 months old, do not clean it or replace anything in it unless it starts to overflow. then wash the filter material in a bucket of tank water as described above.

--------------------------
Water changes should be done once a week or whenever a fish gets sicks or looks unwell, or if you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.

I recommend a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every week to keep nitrates down and to help reduce the number of microscopic organisms in the water.

--------------------------
If you don't have a picture on the back of the tank you should put something on it to make the fish feel more secure.

You need some more plants in the tank. Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is a floating plant that can also be planted in the substrate. It would benefit all the fish. If you can find any then adding a couple more plastic plants and letting them float on the surface would help. You also want more plants in the substrate.

Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, Elodia/ Hydrilla, Amazon Sword plant, and narrow Vallis are good plants to try. Have the light on for about 12 hours a day. If you get lots of green algae growing then decrease the light by an hour and see how it goes.

--------------------------
Your gourami looks like a male coral blue dwarf gourami and is not likely to be causing an issue to the tetras. My guess is the tetras are not happy due to the small number (3), the white substrate and lack of plants.

Assuming the water quality is good and there is no ammonia or nitrite, and the pH and GH are suitable, you could add a couple more Corydoras and about 10 more neon tetras and they should be fine in the tank.

 

[Geordie Paul]

The pack is called Algone. I do 40% water changes every week however 75% plus gravel cleaning on a weekly basis seems a little much for me. I also use bio-support to keep healthy bacteria. Thanks for recommending more plants, I'll be getting more, and adding 7 neon tetra. I can't add a backdrop in the tank because the back wall is custom with the tank and is part of the filter.

 

[Colin_T]

The Algone is an ammonia adsorbing substance that prevents filter bacteria from developing by removing ammonia from the water. These products should not be used because they interfere with the filter development and you never know when they are full. So you have to replace them regularly, which is a waste of money and if you don't replace them in time, you get ammonia and nitrite readings and the fish suffer.

The Python Bio-Support is a liquid bacterial supplement that normally helps get filters working sooner by adding beneficial filter bacteria to the aquarium. If you use the Algone it removes ammonia and there is nothing for the filter bacteria to eat so the stuff you add will not live or grow.

You are wasting your money using these two products because they counter-act each other.

I would stop using the Algone and monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels over the next month. Reduce feeding during that time and do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading.

The bacterial supplement can be used without the Algone. When using bacterial supplements, I recommend double dosing every day for a week. Try to add the liquid bacteria to the aquarium near the filter intake so most of it gets drawn into the filter. If you have any left after a week just pour the rest into the tank near the filter. Then don't bother getting any more.

------------------------
If you get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link, you can drain water out of the tank and clean the substrate at the same time. gravel cleaners make cleaning the tank quite easy and stress free.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html