Can I Get More Fish

[proton]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 54 Litre tank and have the following in my tank...
5 x Species of plants (not sure what they are called)
8 x Black Neon Tetras (adults)
2 x Khoolie Loaches (3 months old)
2 x Albino Plecs (1 month old)
2 x Angle Fish (2 months Old)
5 x Red Platy's (Adults)
2 x Dwarf Cichlids (2 months old)

I would like to add 3-4 Endlers into the tank as I think they a gorgeous and will brighten up the tank even more.
I have set up the tank so that the left hand side is the green/planted area, and contains all the plants and bog wood and fake rock, for the hiding fish, and the right side is open for them to swim around in.
So do I already have too many fish, or am i pushing it a little by adding 3-4 endlers?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 54 Litre tank and have the following in my tank...
5 x Species of plants (not sure what they are called)
8 x Black Neon Tetras (adults)
2 x Khoolie Loaches (3 months old)
2 x Albino Plecs (1 month old)
2 x Angle Fish (2 months Old)
5 x Red Platy's (Adults)
2 x Dwarf Cichlids (2 months old)

I would like to add 3-4 Endlers into the tank as I think they a gorgeous and will brighten up the tank even more.
I have set up the tank so that the left hand side is the green/planted area, and contains all the plants and bog wood and fake rock, for the hiding fish, and the right side is open for them to swim around in.
So do I already have too many fish, or am i pushing it a little by adding 3-4 endlers?

Hiya, the angels and the plec's will outgrow your tank, even as juvi's they shouldn't be in a tank that size. I make your tank to be aprox 12g so you should be aiming for about 12 inches of fish worked out on the adult size.

So assuming you re-home the angels and plecs which you will need to do, as they will become ill and die in your tank as it's way too small for them.

You'd be left with

8 neons - 8"
2 loaches - 4" (i don't know they're adult sized, made an educated guess, someone please feel free to correct me)
5 platy's - 10"
2 dwarf cichlids - 4"

That's 26" of fish you have so even without the angels and plecs you have twice as many fish in there than you should have.

So erm no you really can't add any more and you should definately think about getting rid of some.



sorry!

 

[catxx]

what kind of dwarf cichlid?

i would be woried that either the angel or the cichlid would eat the endlers. endlers are TINY. angels eat neon tetras in the wild, endlers are the same size.

oh and yes, you're tank is too small!

 

[dizzied]

Your tank is overstocked already.

 

[proton]

Bugger

Well the two cichlids i have are Kribensis...

So I will need to get rid of some fish, so if I get a 30 litre (7.5 gallons) tank put all the black neon tetras in there (8) two platy's and one of the albino plecs. It should more or less balance out both tanks?
I do want to get a biger tank, but i can only get it next year when i move to my new home.
So having the two tanks will help me move better as I can pop them all into one tank in the morning, and move the other tank (bigger one), and then move them to the big tank once the other one has been setup.

Then I can get a much larger tank 200 litres or more...

 

[kakihara]

I dunno about putting the plec in a 30 litre tank as the average size they get to is 6 inches, which is a bit big for a tank that size. I wouldn't put anything over 3.5 inches in there.

I have a 25 litre tank which I will be setting up in a few weeks and I'll probably end up with only 2 female Dwarf Puffers and an Otto in it!!

You'd defo be able to put all of the Neons in it and maybe 3 Platys at most but that's about it.

 

[proton]

Thanks guys,

OK so I would like to get the BiUbe (not the BiOrb) tank and it is 35 litres, so how would i split up the tanks then? I think rule No. 1 for noobs is don't Over stock or Over feed... Back to that "less is more"...

I was thinking putting the two angel fish in the BiUbe (due to hight) and the Neons and two Platys... And that would leave the tanks more or less balances right? Or does anyone else have a better Ideas?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I reckon the angels could easily outgrow the bi-ube within a year, if they don't you could do them serious damage by stunting they're growth, I would still advise you to get rid of them complete.y

The albino plec will grow to about 12" just in the first year of his life, he will then get to 18" he needs a tank 4'x1'x1' well before a year is up. If you can't do that now you must also re-home him.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I really don't think you can keep these fish. Unless you have someone with a bigger tank who can look after then for a year until you move and get your 200g you may have to part with them.

then I would keep the platy's and the kribs in the 12g, move the neon's and the khuli loaches to the 8g and you'd be about right.

 

[proton]

200g tank, wow, that would be one hell of a tank you mean 200L

 

[OohFeeshy]

Um, no.

 

[postmanpaul]

hi

You have a rather small tank beware as angels get territorial as the age and chichlids well they can be quite nasty if they dont have their space as angels virtually come into that catergory you have a potential war on your hands my advice is dont add wait and see what your current stock does.

 

[BigIan]

the plec will out grow any of those tanks it needs atlest a 4 ft by 18 by 18, to alow it plenty of turning room, the angels need ro be in a similar sized tank, they need 5-10 gallons a piece (that dosent mean a 10 gallon tank will be fine nothing less than a 55.
what are the water stats as i`m surprised the filter can eep up with all those fish

 

[pica_nuttalli]

200g tank, wow, that would be one hell of a tank you mean 200L

nope, two 12" plecos would just barely be ok in a 200g. so go on ahead and get rid of them.

and unless you can get a 20g tank (80L) for your kribs, find them a new home too. my adult pair terrorize an entire 60g community every time they start to breed. on more than one occassion i've had to remove the female because the male decided to turn on her. kribs only grow to be 3" long, but they can be mean little sods.

 

[proton]

Thanks again
OK guys one piece of good news is the plecs are bristlenose plecs, and i have done google's on the various names and they say the max size is around 6" (12-15cm) but need about 29g , I think i have two females, there are no bristles on their faces, and i've been told to only have one male in a tank as males are terratorial by my LFS.
(don't want any babies at this stage)

I have an Eheim 2007 filter and replace 10-15% water every friday while siphoning up the gravel. Don't have a water tester yet...

I do keep an keen eye on the fish (i sometimes watch them for 10 minutes at a time).
When I first set up the tank I got that infamous spot disease + fin rot, it has been treated and now I watch them like a hawk, for any odd behaviour/spots/missing fins. I have observed the following so far.

Platies - (3 Females, 2 males) Ultra active and always swimming everywhere, the greedy lot of the bunch, one dominant male chases the other male and female most of the time. Two Females to that bossy male, then one female and other male seem to be "loners" amongst the Platies. Althought the lone female becomes bossy when food around and chases all the other platies.

Plecs - Hide half the time and come out the other half, which is odd as i thought they only came out at night. So I do spot them on the windows sucking away on occasion and find it amusing everytime they are on thw side and i can see their mouth.

Neons - When the tank gets excited (i.e.) food gets dropped in, they zip about nipping the food, they don't seem to shoal like they did when first introduced to the tank. shoal once in a while though but hardly anymore.

Koolie Loach - The most "shy" of all. Come out when feeding time. On rare occasion they seem to swim up then down side of tank then along tank bottom then back to the one side and up and down and across again, and they seem to do this mostly together.

Angel fish - Well they seem to be the second most greedy of the lot. The minute you walk up to the tank they are in the front with the platies, doing that feed me act. They are slow swimmers though and are quite funny when trying to "catch" food they are the slow versions of the platies.

cichlids - have one with a purple tummy, the other has none, the purple tummy one seems to chase the other one on occasion, but they seem to keep to their own. The non purple tummy one seems to hide more than the other, and the purple one seems to have found all the holes and hidden itself here and there...

the only fin nipping i have observed is the fattest platy sometimes nips the fin on one of the angel fish, and it's always the same platy that nips the fin of the same angle fish... odd... now i hope i have not bored you with my observations... i will get another tank so i can seperate them somehow, i am considering getting another one the same size for now... and yes i know, i have too many...

(been edited - I have decided to get a 20gal tank, I found a new one on ebay with stand for £150 including filters and heaters) so that will defo help me out...

 

[proton]

Well I just purchased a second hand tank for £180 and it's a 56g tank (240L), so now I can move almost everyone to the new tank. That should be more than enough space... and maybe get some more fish. I think I will keep the small tank as a emergency tank...