Dam I Feel Stupid Right Now.........................

[fish_keeper2]

ok basicly i got a yellow lab from petco today becuase it was on sale from 15 bucks to 2.50. the prob is that i didnt really have a spot for it ) . i would love to keep him if possible. right now he is in my 20 gal with the 5 tiger barbs, 1 rainbow shark, 1 blue spot gourami, and 1 bammboo shrimp. decro is just gravel, malaysian drift wood, and lots of live plants. atm he doesnt seen stressed or anything and seems happy..........he even trys to follow the tiger barbs around. will this set up be ok or do i need to do something else?



other questions:

1) if i can keep him in this tank then i plan to upgrade in the future to a 46 gal bowlfront and add my baby common plec till he gets to big. will this be ok?

2) if that works then can i add my baby guppies from my 5 gal to the gal to my 10 gal and get 2 more corries. total stock would be 5 or 6 guppies, 3 ottos and 3 corries. will this work and will there be room for a smallish central fish such a dwarf gourami or something?

 

[Ethos]

Lol, thats funny!
You know why?
Because I did the same thing....with different fish though.
I also had room for them..so i guess the only similarity is that we b oth boght them from petco on a huge sale!

I've heard they can be kept in 30G tanks....I guess he'll be ok for a while.
I have a lab and he's very mellow.
Chased, never the chaseie

 

[CatLover]

I once did a stupid thing and bought one yellow lab, and one electric blue to go in my community tank with plecos, gouramis, cories, tetras, etc. They died after a couple of weeks because it's just not the right environment. They belong in an Mbuna species tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hmm....Heres the forum's profile for yellow labs, says 30gals is the minimum tank size for them so even with your stocking aside the tank is still too small, i don't know much on african cichlids but from what i've gathered is that yellow labs don't mix with your stocking;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34733

Personally i would take him back to the shop, im not having a go at you but you should have exercised a bit more self dicipline when you saw a cheap on offer on a fish you havn't researched, buying you fish you don't know not only could be bad for the fish but also put your whole tank fish stock at risk .

Anyways...no expert on african cichlids as i said, but this is what i think you should do;

a. Get rid of the yellow lab and ugrade your tanks now and not just at some random point in the future, you have some overstocking issues which you already seem to be aware of and keeping this fish will only worsen them.
b. The 10gal stocking would work although personally i'd keep it to 6guppys, 3 otos and 3corys as it'll be fully stocked if you do that. Either way though you really, really, really need to get bigger tanks for the majority of your fish, keeping the common plec in the 5gal gal even though he is very small is just ridiculous, he will have no space to exercise grow whatsoever.

 

[Fishy412]

yes i would suggest getting a bigger tank soon or just taking him back. Yellow labs are one of the more peaceful mbunas but still too agressive for your tank. also the small tank size will probably cause him to claim the whole tank as his territory.

 

[fish_keeper2]

thanks. unfortunetly i cant take him back.....they will only do it if it was sick or something. i do know a great place in town that will take him though i just have to wait till a day im able to drive out there. ive known for a while that i need to upgrade my tanks and was going to but then i got caught up setting up my nano reef......but now that its going well i can put my time, energy, and money into my freshwater tanks.