Need Help With Stocking

[yakslu]

I have been cycling a new tank for two months now and have slowly been adding fish to it. The tank is a 29 gallon high (30 x 12 x 18) with some structures and fake plants. I have two filters running on it that add up to 50 gallons worth of filtering capacity. I also have a 20 gallon air pump running an aeration stone in the tank. Currently I have 8 tiger barbs (3 regular, 3 albino, 2 green) and two corydoras in the tank.

When I decide to finish stocking my tank I will be adding 1 flying fox and 1 starlight bristlenose pleco to the tank.

If I have the room I would also like to add a few more barbs to my school and I was strongly considering the African Spotscale Barb.

My question is would these additional barbs be a good decision and if so how many could I safely add to my existing school?

 

[waterdrop]

To me, you look to be in an appropriate range of bioload as far as overall amount of stocking goes (with your plan.) What I'd do is add the first two you are talking about and then let things just run for a while. Take nitrate(NO3) readings all along (once a week) and keep records in your aquarium notebook. Then look at the NO3 trend and see if its holding or creeping up. NO3 should ideally hold at about 15 to 20ppm -above- whatever your tap water NO3 level is (as a max.) If it wants to creep up then that's telling you not to increase the stocking any more. If it isn't, then go ahead with a very minor increase to the Barbs, but maybe only one or two as you're reaching your inch guideline max (for your first year or two as a beginner, that is.)

Note that I'm not saying your Barb choice is ok from a species standpoint. Tigers are mean as all getout and I have no idea whether your different type would be ok, but maybe some of the other members will come along and help with that.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fish_tank0311]

Just about the flying fox, they are very active, and you may find he will need a bigger tank soon, because they are VERY fast, always darting around the tank.