Abi's Qualifying Week

abih2005 said:

Well 40l is a rough estimate, I ended up taking out some rocks to reduce clutter and increase shoaling space. I presume it's ok for me to get 7 harlequin rasboras as advised earlier in this thread? Peter wanted to know what other fish we could get, he didn't really appreciate hearing that there's not enough room for very many more!

Have double checking the stocking threads, harlies seem to be on the big size for the tank I have. I've made a note of spotted/glowlight/mosquito and bridget rasboras as possible alternatives instead.

Click to expand...

It`s only a personal opinion but I would stick within the recommended stocking limits for a couple of months. Then if the water quality was still at double zeros 12 hours after a routine pwc, I would add a couple of more fish to the shoal, keeping an eye on parameters

I now have five sparkling gourami - I spoke with the aquarium owner for ages, since I'm a tad nervous about fish keeping he suggested a teeny tiny fish might be best to start with - since I had seen this fish mentioned on starter fish threads I figured it was a good option! I have two females and three males. Pictures to follow once I figure out how to upload them!

abih2005 said:

I now have five sparkling gourami - I spoke with the aquarium owner for ages, since I'm a tad nervous about fish keeping he suggested a teeny tiny fish might be best to start with - since I had seen this fish mentioned on starter fish threads I figured it was a good option! I have two females and three males. Pictures to follow once I figure out how to upload them!

Click to expand...

Nice choice, and if you`re lucky you may get to hear them chirp

No chance of that - I'm deaf! They're pretty adventurous already, mind you my tank is cycled and so they're nice and comfy - what a difference the right advice makes! Thank you everybody!

Now then, presuming this lot survive a week without fluctuating levels, what would be ideal companion fish for them? As far as I'm aware Gourami aren't shoaling fish so I figured something for the bottom layer - pygmy cories?..
.

Yay fab choice Abi, I look forward to the pics.

Yep Pygmys would be fine if you can get them. I have Gouramis and Pygmy Corys in the same tank. I actually really want to get more Pygmys but I am pretty much full.

pics pic pics!

abih2005 said:

No chance of that - I'm deaf! They're pretty adventurous already, mind you my tank is cycled and so they're nice and comfy - what a difference the right advice makes! Thank you everybody!

Now then, presuming this lot survive a week without fluctuating levels, what would be ideal companion fish for them? As far as I'm aware Gourami aren't shoaling fish so I figured something for the bottom layer - pygmy cories?..
.

Click to expand...

Corys would be good and they may not bother the hundreds of fry your gouramies will start to produce once they`re settled

Wow, congratulations Abi! I'm delighted you got double zeros even after having the media out of the filter. That can be counted as even another good test in addition to the qualifying week that you have truly achieved robust bacterial colonies and are off to a great start with your environment. Keep an eye on those stats though as the taking of stats gets to seem really, really boring once you get fish and have more interesting things to look at!

And great choice with the Sparklings. Even though everyone knows I'm about the biggest fan of harlequins around, I used to have just about every type of Gourami in my previous stretch in the hobby and really like that fish type. Sparklings though are one of the ones I never had and so I find myself more curious about them and will be interested to hear tidbits of news from you. People seem to report that they are really hardy and get along really well with tankmates. I'd like to hear confirmation of that. Pygmys we already know are a great choice thanks to OM47.

Anyway, best of luck in your first weeks with fish in this tank and again, congrats!

~~waterdrop~~

Ahhh thanks! Quick question - there are five gouramis in there at the moment, should I stock more to prevent colonies dissipating? I was thinking four or five pygmy cories or the same of glowlights?

Really struggling with pics, I've resized them in paint to 600 pixels wide but still can't upload it.

It won't matter now Abi. As long as when you buy new fish you don't more than double what you already have in there (so 5 glowlights/pygmys next week) then your filter SHOULD easily be able to catch up.

Testing...

Teeny tiny!

Close to surface. Hungry?

*yawn*

OK - I'm gonna stop now...

great shots!

Lovely fish Abi. Well done and congrats on getting there!

stats holding at 0. One of them is teeny compared with the others, we've named her special needs fish since she doesn't mix well. Two of the others have a weird thing of going to the surface, appearing to breathe, flick then burp? Very odd indeed.