160 Litre - Finished Stocking?

[JenJ]

I recently bought a second hand tank, and having been all round the houses with various ideas for stocking, and rehomed a fair few inherited fish to my lfs, I now think I'm pretty much there.

The tank is 100 x 40 x 40cm and 160 litres, running an Aquamanta EFX1000 (rated for up to 300 litre tanks).

I currently have the below stocking:

2 cupid cichlids
3 honey gouramis
12 tiger barbs
6 blue tetra
6 diamond tetra
7 panda cories
1 false julii cory (inherited hence singleton status)

Just a couple of notes on stocking, as I know it's not textbook...

Quantity - theoretically I'm borderline fully/overstocked, but all are currently young and small, and realistically I don't expect every single one of them to survive the next couple of years. The tank is well planted, with lots of hiding places in bogwood/coconut shells/plants, plenty of swimming room on the top half, and I do weekly 50+% water changes.

Tiger barbs - I bought 12 to minimise aggression to other fish, and so far the only sign of fin nipping has been to a couple of attempts on new fish, to see if they're food. Once realised they're not, they've stopped. Have seen no signs of aggression.

Cupid cichlids - there doesn't seem to be much information available about these, but with mine, they seem very unaggressive, and were certainly very submissive to my kribs (before I rehomed them) which were much smaller than the cupids, so I think they're peaceful in the community set up. Hence my question...

I'm happy with the numbers of everything else, but am wondering if the cupids would be best in a group. If so, how many more should I add?

I also have an understocked 60 litre with 7 cories in that I can move fish to if things get awkward in the main tank.

 

[leighton_87]

I'll start by saying I have no experience with cupid cichlids but a quick google search would suggest that a group of 5-8 is the minimum that should be kept.

However, the same site says that they grow to 10cm and a group that big needs a 5 foot tank minimum.

Maybe you should consider swapping these for another cichlid.

 

[JenJ]

Thanks. I have done some googling, and the results have been quite sparse in detail, and varied on guidelines, including plenty of suggestions for pairs in a 110 litre tank

. I don't know what to believe!

They are a dwarf cichlid, so I don't imagine they'll struggle for space in my tank. One thing I seem to have picked up on is that most in the trade are males, so getting a pair may be tough. I think mine are both male, but they're hard to sex when young so who knows...

A full pic of the tank this evening...