An Unexpected Arrival

[Aestolia]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, haven't normally done the forum thing preferring to just read up on my own and ask the occasional question at the lfs. Last night I thought I saw a wee little one in my tank, but was tired and wasn't sure. This morning however I've counted the very least 5 new additions to my tank, and I think there's more.

Here's a shot of my tank.

It's 55g, with sand instead of gravel and live plants. In residence I've got a Pleco, Dojo Loach, 3 Dalmation Mollies, 2 Ghost shrimp, and a red tailed black variatus, oh yeah and a bunch of snails that came in with the plants, still trying to limit their numbers . Between the pleco, loach, shrimp, and plants, my tank cycles very well, and has been surprisingly low maintenance. Now I was content with that since after the gang grew up, my tank would be pretty much full. Now I've got a whole family to contend with and the place just isn't going to be big enough as the kids grow up.

I'm not worried about getting a trap or net, and rather content to have them grow up as they would out in the open. If some become lunch, well, that's nature doing what it does. I have a feeling though I'm going to need a second tank regardless.

Really I'm at a loss of what to do, and would appreciate any feedback.

 

[micko]

Removed the male, that's the only thing I could suggest. Oh, and increase your loaches.

 

[Crazycat lady]

I had 10 new surprise arrivals a week or so ago. unfortunately mu tank is rater small so I am getting a new smaller one for the babies. Mine are currently in a mesh breeding tank that is stuck to the side of the tank. they need high quality food for the first couple of months so some very helpful people on this site suggested i feed them on ground up spirulina(thats found in some of the wafers you feed the plecs, (took me agaes to discover that ) and baby brine shrimp. as for the snails i found a great tip on here to put a bit of cucumber or curly lettuce clipped to the side of the tank (with a peg or float it tied to side of tank with a bit of string. leave overnight and ween you get up the lettuce will be full of snails. then dispose of as you wish x I have the problem that the snail eggs clog up my filter x

let me know how the babies go as I'm new to fish breeding and would love to share experiences x

 

[Aestolia]

the issue is I only have the one tank at the moment, so removing the male isn't really an option, as for adding loaches, as I mentioned my tank's already at capacity, though if I get a 2nd tank I'm probably going to get some clown loaches. I tried the lettuce thing and they didn't go for it. I'll may try again later but for the moment they're not so bad. They give my Dojo a tasty snack, and help keep my sand moving, which is always a good thing.

I may see about getting a very small 2nd tank set up in my bedroom for the kiddies.

 

[Paradise3]

If you want to stop breeding, remove the females and take them back to the LFS or to a friend because they will just carry on dropping for up to 6 months after you have removed the male so the best option is to just have a group of males instead. You will quickly become overpopulated by keeping males and females together.
What type of pleco is it?
What are the dimensions of the tank?
Up the number of Dojo loaches to about 6 or 7 because they are much happier in a group and are much more active.
How many neons do you have?

If you can answer these questions I can help you a bit more.

 

[Aestolia]

I'll have to try and figure out which is which, I know to look for the triangular vs. long thin fin, but I guess I just don't see it. They all look like females to me. My pleco is just a common hypostomus plecostomus, or as I call him, plecopotamus. My dojo seems to be quite active on his own, but if I end up getting more loaches it does make more sense to get more of the same kind I'll be sure to keep that in mind. As for the neons, I've only got the one in the tank now and will be getting rid of it shortly. I mainly had them to get my tank cycle rebooted after my roomie accidently (WAY) overfed my tank. It killed off everything except my dear Plecopotamus... and the snails. So I did a massive tank and sand clean, all said and told probably like a 90 % change. seriously stressed my poor pleco out, but he's a survivor ;p

Now we have an understanding, I don't ask him to feed the fish, and he doesn't. It's nothing personal against neons I just don't find them terribly interesting.

As for my tank, as may be able to tell by the pic it's not a standard size, it measures 30*18*25, by surface area that gives me roughly 45" to play with. The pleco's the only full body fish in my tank, and it's a pleco. So I'm not too worried about him throwing my numbers off.

 

[Paradise3]

If your pleco is a Common Pleco he's going to outgrow that tank pretty soon... They can grow to 24" and need quite a large aquarium, I think some people on here tend to keep Common Pleco's in at least a 5'/6' tanks... They are also poop machines so if you want it to clean your aquarium, it won't do that technically... As for the last remaining neon, try to make sure he goes to a group please. The Red Tailed Black Variatus would be the shark kind or the platy kind? If it's the shark, I've had mixed reviews on their behaviour but more times than one I've been told the can get aggressive when they grow up.

All in all, if you wanted something that would help with algae, if you get it, and can be active this little suggestion stock list could help you.
6x Panda Cories
6x Dojo Loaches
5x Male Mollies(or platies, guppies, swordtails...)
8x Ghost Shrimp
And maybe some form of centre piece fish like a Betta or Gourami of some form.

Or.

9x Female Betta's
6x Panda Cories
6x Dojo Loaches
8x Ghost Shrimp

Hope this has helped.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Aestolia.
As others have already said, a common pleco that can grow to over 2 feet long is a bit big for most of us hobbyists. If you got lucky and bought a dwarf pleco or some of the less commonly available ones, you may be fine, but the typical one in a shop will be a common sailfin pleco that really does get that big with time.
Your fry look like mollies, not platies, but that information is no help if you don't want them. Again, others have already told you that a female will continue to drop fry for about 6 months after the last male is removed. I get a bit bigger final stocking allowable than you do for a 55 gallon tank but it is always best to stock lightly if you don't mind how that looks. The cover you have in the picture is not enough to have a very high survival of fry so population growth is unlikely to cause any problems.

 

[Aestolia]

Welcome to the forum Aestolia.
As others have already said, a common pleco that can grow to over 2 feet long is a bit big for most of us hobbyists. If you got lucky and bought a dwarf pleco or some of the less commonly available ones, you may be fine, but the typical one in a shop will be a common sailfin pleco that really does get that big with time.
Your fry look like mollies, not platies, but that information is no help if you don't want them. Again, others have already told you that a female will continue to drop fry for about 6 months after the last male is removed. I get a bit bigger final stocking allowable than you do for a 55 gallon tank but it is always best to stock lightly if you don't mind how that looks. The cover you have in the picture is not enough to have a very high survival of fry so population growth is unlikely to cause any problems.

Well they seem to be doing pretty good so far, It's a bit denser behind that drift in the front left. I had counted 6 it's been about a week and still fairly easily count 4-5. I'm still trying to find some people who are interested taking the little (or possibly some of the bigger) guys off my hands. But so far it looks like I'm going to have to break down and get another tank.

 

[OldMan47]

A typical drop of fry in my tanks is over 30 fry. Your count of 5 or less fry tells me that you have already lost most of your fry to predation. Your low survival rate can be directly attributed to your lack of adequate livebearer cover. If you have no desire to maintain large numbers of livebearers, that can be a blessing.