How The Stocking?

[millie1]

good/bad??

5 congo tetras
3 rainbow fish
3 gourami
2 plec
3 guppys
dave george(sucker fish)about an inch
albino shark




200 litre(ish) tank,

i dont think im overstocked - they all get on well and very happy together

anything else i could add???

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi millie, need a bit of clarification on species, can you let us know what species of rainbows, gourami, plec and sucker fish you have?

 

[millie1]

think its a golden spot plec,,,
the gourami are 1xhoney something- only going to grow 7cm and the dwarf ones (2)

the rainbows im not sire - i bought them as one thing but they really arnt lol i bought them as boesmans....

dave george is the clean up crew - just a littel sucker thing - no idea what he is exactly

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok, well discounting the unidentified sucker fish then you are reasonably stocked, not quite full but certainly enough for a new tank, once the tank has been running smoothly for 6 months+ then you can start thinking about some more additions.

can you post a pic of dave? some of the 'sucker mouth' species start off very small and cute but end up 2 foot long and super agressive! Best to ID him now rather than wait for things to go wrong.

 

[millie1]

sucker mouth catfish.... found him lol!

what could i add in a few months??

open to all suggestions really.....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have you found a latin/scientific species name?

you'd be best off increasing the number of rainbows, they're a shoaling fish and will be best in a nice big group so get another 3 at least.

for me i like big shoals so all i'd do is get more congos and more rainbows rather than get any different species but that's personal preference. I wouldn't get anymore bottom feeders as you have enough for that size tank IMHO so maybe look for another shoal of tetra/rasbora/danio type fish that you like?

 

[millie1]

he's a Algae Eater
Gyrinocheilos aymonieri - apparantly lol

didnt realised he woudl grow so big..... ?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

oh dear, that's what i suspected!

he will need to be re-homed, if you return him to the lfs now they will most likely take him back, once he's grown a bit and got all agressive you'll struggle to re-home him and he'll munch his way through the rest of your fish.

lesson learnt - research fish before buying them!

 

[millie1]

why are they so bad??

do they eat the smaller fish??

hes never bothered at the moment - he;'s only about an inch or so though.... how big is he likely to grow?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah they're lovely when they're small munch away on algae and never bother a soul, then they mature and once they get past 3/4" then they stop eating algae, turn agressive and carnivorous and will attack, kill and eat small community fish. i think they max out at around 18"

 

[millie1]

if i move/get rid of some fish - would i be able to keep him??

what wouldnt he eat? lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

done a bit more research, adult size is closer to 10" than 18" but still pretty big, agression shouild be expected by 5"

in terms of the size of the tank you have yeah it's probably just about big enough, but it's not brilliant for them, you'd most likely have to get rid of all the fish you have now and change to an agressive community with things like the smaller cichlids that he wouldn't pose too much of a threat too.

I'm no expert on them though so maybe asking in the loach forum for some more advice would be a good idea.

 

[millie1]

ok thanks

slihtly off topic but

went into the pet shop this morning and saw the biggest plec ever!! he must have been almost a foot and a half - he was huggggeeeee!!! shame my tank wasnt twice as big as i would have had him he was only £15.....