Hi! Welcome to the forum! Slightly worried about your stocking, a 6/7 inch common plec needs a much bigger tank more in the region of 6 foot surley it would be pretty much common sense that the plec needs a bigger tank?
Also the fish in most of your pics with long fins and a blueish body is a congo tetra, is this the one you are refering to as a siamese fighter? If so its not a betta its a type of tetra and needs a group however your tank is not large enough to house a group. Additionally judging by your stocking list in your signature your tetras all need to be in groups of at least 5 and so do your albino catfish....
Lovely looking tank but bad mix of fish Im afraid.
Hi,
Sorry the signature is old, i dont have any betta's anymore, there are currently:
2x albino catfish
4x Guppies
1x Congo Tetra
1x Black Widow Tetra
3x White Mollys (1 female)
4x Neon Tetras
1x Leopard Plec (4-5inches, may have exaggerated in the above post, i just measured him through the glass)
1x Hillstream Loach
So 17x Fish, my tanks surface area allows for 43inches of fish so at the moment im ok, i checked and i have a filter capable of over 150litres and an airline to help oxygenate the tank
But thanks for your concern
It has been like this for about 5-6months now and so far has been ok, suppose it may be luck but i take great care of the fish and maintain a good healthy water.
Hi there =) your tank looks good - full of cover and plants for the fish to hide in.
Just a few bits and bobs you need to know about your stocking:
2x albino catfish -
should be in groups of 4-6 as a minimum
4x Guppies -
fine =)
1x Congo Tetra -
very large tetra that needs at least 5 other congos and should really be in a larger tank
1x Black Widow Tetra -
good size for the tank but needs at least 5 buddies
3x White Mollys (1 female) -
if you have 1 female and 2 males you are putting her at a lot of risk from the males' attentions. We recommend 2-3 females per male to help spread out the attention.
4x Neon Tetras -
another shoaling fish that needs a couple of buddies
1x Leopard Plec (4-5inches, may have exaggerated in the above post, i just measured him through the glass) -
will reach 18-24 inches and needs a 6 foot tank. Once he hits 6-7 inches he needs a new tank. There are quite a few smaller plecs that would be perfect for your tank =)
1x Hillstream Loach -
this is a coldwater fish that needs very high oxygen levels.
It is quite correct that a higher surface area is better for the fish, but I would be rather worried if you planned to stock anymore as you already have 43 inches of fish if we take into account the average adult size of all of your fish (except for your plec, I only factored in 7 inches for him as he needs a new home whatever happens). 43 inches is double the inch-per-gallon rule that we use for normal community tanks. The surface area rule is good for working out if your tank has enough oxygen getting into the water but doesn't tell you anything about the space the fish need for swimming and to establish terriatories. A much more realistic guide is 1-1.5 inches per gallon. Good filtration doesn't let you have too many fish, it just makes a fully stocked tank safer and easier to care for.
Ideally you'd be looking at 25-30 inches of fish as a sensible maximum. Overstocking a tank, keeping fish that don't have enough space and not keeping fish in the right sized shoals/groups leads to stress on the fish (which may or may not manifest itself in behaviour) and stress compromises their ability to fight off diseases. Some people will use the fact that they don't get sick or dead fish as an example of how their tank is probably OK but I would simply say that we don't wait for a horse to get sick or die before we get it a bigger field, and we don't wait for a dog to bite someone before we decide to train it. Good fishkeeping is about providing a suitable longterm home for your fish and taking into account things like the need for family groups or extra swimming space or heavy duty filtration - basically adapting your tank for the occupants rather than requiring the occupants to adapt to what you want.
Obviously I'm not saying you do this - just explaining some of the reasons why it is wise to think about changing your stock around a bit.
TFF is a great place with loads of knowledge. We're not always the most fun place for new fishkeepers or people who do things in a very different way to us, but we're worth sticking with because we have a lot of exceptionally experienced members who are seriously handy to have around in a crisis, and we can always teach someone new something new, however experienced they are. I'm learning all the time!
