Advice on a new tank.

[Fish on jeju]

Hello, I'm setting up my 45cm rimless glass cube (24 us gallon) for the second time, and registered here for a bit of advice.
First off, when cleaning the tank out i very slightly chipped two bottom corners. I'm sealing inside and out with everbuild aquarium sealant to give me peace of mind.
What I'm planning for the scape is.
Background plants only, screw vallisneria and red rubin sword. Driftwood and rocks midground, open area foreground.
Fish: 2 cobalt dwarf gourami, 8 gold lyretail mollies, 2 otocinclus.
My problem is i live on an island and everything, fish included, has to be ordered from the mainland, which means i will need to order my fish all at once. I have space to set up 1 quarantine tank so i guess i can put 1 species straight in the main tank and 2 in quarantine to introduce later on, but I'm not sure which order i should do this. I'm thinking put the mollies in the main tank first to reduce numbers in the quarantine tank.
Anyway any thoughts or advice on the setup is welcome. Thanks!

 

[Retired Viking]

Welcome to the forum What type of water do you have soft or hard and do you know what the GH and PH reading for your water is. Mollies are hard water fish while gourami are soft water fish. It is not healthy for fish to be in the wrong type of water.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Otos are a schooling fish, they really need a group of 5-6 or more to be happy, and they're also much better in an established tank that has had a few months to grow biofilm and algae for them to eat. Would be best to wait on those until the tank has been up and running for a few months, and get them in a decent number so they feel comfortable.

 

[Fish on jeju]

Thanks both. Most of the web research I've done says gouramis and mollies are both quite hardy and are good tank mates for each other, but I'll look into it some more.
I was confused about the otos - i read they are schooling and should be in at least a 4, but also saw in forums several people saying they had 1 or 2 with no issues. Again, plenty of time for more research, with the time it takes for me to get everything here, plus cycling, I'm looking at another 7 weeks minimum before I'm ready to buy fish.
I'm only really wedded to the idea of the gouramis, and want a small school of something to compliment them, and something to help clear algae. Would have gone with cherry shrimp for that last bit but the gouramis will make short work of them.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Some people do keep one or two otos, but that's for their own benefit rather than the fish's. In the wild they live in huge schools of thousands, they're a schooling fish, and all schooling fish feel safer and more comfortable with at least a small group of the same species. Also bear in mind that all otos in the trade are wild caught, so I think they already have enough to adjust to, without being isolated from their own species as well.

Being wild caught and quite sensitive fish, losses are also very common. I bought mine in two separate batches and despite going into an established tank, still lost one from each batch, and I'm told I did well to only lose one from each. They were also thin and frail when I first got them, they really go through a bad time when caught (often stunned by cyanide), kept in huge overcrowded tanks without much food, starved again during shipping, then going into clean store tanks without much to graze on... you have to be prepared that you may well lose some.

I used to keep eight otocinclus in a 15.5 gallon tank and they are great algae eaters (although they don't eat problem algae, so don't expect them to clear up hair or black beard algae), and when you see a group of them schooling together, you'll soon realise why they do better in a group. Feed some veggies like courgette and spinach, and some algae wafers when needed since a small group will often eat all the available algae in a tank, and otos often end up starving to death in some tanks.

I'm down to five otos in that tank now, no other fish at the moment, and they rarely touch any additional food I offer now but still have nice round bellies, so five of them are still finding enough to eat in that tank, which is pretty well planted:

I'll be getting some more to bump up their numbers again soon, so I imagine they'll go back to accepting some prepared foods I offer then. Please do keep us updated! They are a great fish and I recommend them, but they're also my favourite fish and are often kept improperly, so I just want to urge people to give these fish the best they can offer, they really deserve it.

 

[itiwhetu]

Some people do keep one or two otos, but that's for their own benefit rather than the fish's. In the wild they live in huge schools of thousands, they're a schooling fish, and all schooling fish feel safer and more comfortable with at least a small group of the same species. Also bear in mind that all otos in the trade are wild caught, so I think they already have enough to adjust to, without being isolated from their own species as well.

Being wild caught and quite sensitive fish, losses are also very common. I bought mine in two separate batches and despite going into an established tank, still lost one from each batch, and I'm told I did well to only lose one from each. They were also thin and frail when I first got them, they really go through a bad time when caught (often stunned by cyanide), kept in huge overcrowded tanks without much food, starved again during shipping, then going into clean store tanks without much to graze on... you have to be prepared that you may well lose some.

I used to keep eight otocinclus in a 15.5 gallon tank and they are great algae eaters (although they don't eat problem algae, so don't expect them to clear up hair or black beard algae), and when you see a group of them schooling together, you'll soon realise why they do better in a group. Feed some veggies like courgette and spinach, and some algae wafers when needed since a small group will often eat all the available algae in a tank, and otos often end up starving to death in some tanks.

I'm down to five otos in that tank now, no other fish at the moment, and they rarely touch any additional food I offer now but still have nice round bellies, so five of them are still finding enough to eat in that tank, which is pretty well planted:
View attachment 118394

I'll be getting some more to bump up their numbers again soon, so I imagine they'll go back to accepting some prepared foods I offer then. Please do keep us updated! They are a great fish and I recommend them, but they're also my favourite fish and are often kept improperly, so I just want to urge people to give these fish the best they can offer, they really deserve it.
View attachment 118395

I love otos they are really neat but must be kept in schools as stated

 

[vanalisa]

Wecome!

 

[AilyNC]

Welcome. I live on an island but unfortunately it's too big for any real island life experience. It's called ireland so really aiming for island tourists