How Stocked Is My Tank?

[minnnt]

I would expect you to be able to add a few Corydoras aeneus back into your tank with no trouble. Another species of Corydoras would not have the benefit of making the existing one more socially active. Cories are very sociable fish but only with their own species.

That's true. Do you think adding 4 bronze corydoras, making a school of 5, would be OK?

I would say he would be a very happy little cory considering he has no friends at the moment!

As for pairing your keyhole, you would be adding a fish of the same species and variety to a tank that yours feels is his. So he probably won't think much to that. Also, as far as i know they're very hard to sex, so you could risk the chance of getting the same sex meaning they may not get on together. Also, if they do pair and do breed then depending on the temperament of the fish in question they may be aggressive towards your others and the neons might bare the brunt of it.

I would leave the keyhole as the boss centrepiece fish of the tank and the others as the more active showy members of the team along with the corys as the clean up crew.

Just my opinion, hope it helps somehow.

 

[Katty]

Thanks for the comment minnnt. I agree, that another keyhole might not work out.

I think I'll set up my QT tank today at least, and think about getting some more corydoras today or tomorrow. I'm thinking about 4. I don't know if I should get more green neons or not?

I'm hoping that I can find some bronze corys that aren't so dark colored though... The one bronze I have now matches the black substrate, so he's hard to see.

Also, another question. It think I should probably upgrade my filter since I think it's a little underpowered for whats in there now, (and I got paid today ) but, since I have to split the media in the current filter so that the filter on the QT tank will be cycled, should I wait a bit before upgrading the filter on the 20g so the bacteria have a chance to grow back, or should I just go ahead and upgrade to the new filter as soon as I get it and put what's left of the old media in it?

 

[minnnt]

Pay day is always a good day! You could up the 8 to 10 i think without a problem. The only problem with certain fish is that they darken to match the substrate better. If you buy 'lighter' bronze cory's they will probably just do the same. Also if you buy any other variety, although they possibly would stick together sometimes, i doubt they would shoal with the bronze. Could you rehome the sole bronze with someone else and then get a group of 5 or 6 of a different variety such as one of the albino's, peppered, leaopard, 3 line, sterbai, panda etc etc etc

 

[minnnt]

As for your filter, i would seed the QT filter with some of the existing media you have, then do the same with a new filter.

You could possibly run a new filter in your existing tank with the old filter until the new filter had cycled, but it may produce too much flow and current. Although it would be very clean water!

You could also buy the new filter, remove some media and place it in the existing filter in the gap created by the media you have put in the QT filter, then after a week or so remove it all and put it into the new filter. Sounds like a lot of faffing about, but at least you get to keep and make the most of your existing cycled media.

Maybe im just rabbiting on though. lol.

 

[Katty]

I just cleaned the 20 gallon, set up a 5.5 gallon QT with a filter with one big sponge and one small sponge from the 20 gallon, and left the 20 gallon with 1 big sponge and the ceramic bag. I had a leftover big sponge so I put that into the 20 gallon filter in the space that was left. Then I came back here to check the posts!

After reading what you wrote, I think I'll leave the 20g filter as-is for now, let the new sponge I put in re-grow some good stuff, then change the filter over in a couple weeks when the cories should be fine out of QT, and just jam everything from the old filter into the new one.

Rehoming the bronze would be a good idea, but I don't know anyone else who keeps fish, and I'd rather not take him back to the store. But that would make a lot more sense if I could do that.

I won't be able to see the bronzes as well, but with a bigger shoal they might be more active and "in your face" so it might be an OK trade off...

 

[Katty]

So I'm thinking I can get 4 bronze corydora and 2 green neons... Does that seem right?

And then either 1 Hagen AC 50 or get a Hagen AC 30 and run that alongside the current 20.

Just for laughs I checked a q a d v i s o r, it's giving me a stocking level of 96% with everything I have now plus the 4 bronze cory and 2 neons.

 

[minnnt]

I would say that sounds like a good plan!!

Keep us posted on how it all turns out. Get some pics sorted too!

 

[Katty]

Just got back from the lfs with four bronze corydoras. The man had a hard time getting them out and so they are a little scuffed up and very scared. I asked if they had green neons and he said they didn't have any left... I did see a single green neon but I wasn't going to bug him for one tiny fish, plus it was right next to a tank with a ram with ich so I didn't really want it anyways.

The bag is floating in the tank now. I don't think I'll bother looking around for just two green neons.

 

[minnnt]

Sounds great katty. Hope the corys settle in.