Over Stocked Or Room For More?

Sailor

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Hey, I was wondering what you guys thought about my stocking level.
I have:
3 Giant Danios
2 Gold Gouramis
2 Kribensis
2 Pim. Pictus
1 Rosy Barb
1 Platy
All in a 55gal. Everybody seems to be happy and getting along great, but I wanted to add more. I was thinking some small schooling fish, but wanted some more opinions. I was also at the lps today and they had some keyhole cichlids would they get along with the others? The tank stats are Am. 0, Rite 0, Rate 10, ph 7.
Thanks for any help!
 
I might add three or four more Rosey barbs and a couple Keyhole cichlids. They are as peaceful as you will find for a cichlid.
 
You are not fully stocked, but your current stocking needs changes as it is not very desirable in the long term.
a. Giant danio's are shoaling fish and do best in groups of 6+.
b. Platys are sociable fish and will suffer when isolated their own- find out the gender of your current platy and then find it a suitable amount of males or females depending on its gender (generally speaking, its best to either have an all-female group of platys, or have 1male per 2-3females).
c. Rosey barbs are shoaling fish and like the giant danio's, do best in groups of at least 6+ of their own kind.
d. Pictus are predatory fish and are capable of devouring small platys or barbs as they mature- you should avoid these fish if you want to have small fish in your tank;

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/pictus.htm

e. The gold gourami is a colour morph of the blue/opaline gourami and three spot gourami and thus is very similar in behaviour and requirements to these other two gourmi's. Males can become particularly agressive and territorial as they mature and both male and females can grow up to 6inches long- you should find out the gender of your gourami's as they could cause you a lot of trouble as they mature in the future.
f. Kribs shouldn't really be mixed with slow moving fish like gourami's or fancy fish like guppys as these fish can become victims of kribensis;

http://www.justbajan.com/pets/fish/species...ensis/index.htm


You need to decide right now on what you are going to keep and what you are going to get rid of as far as you stocking goes as if you keep all your current fish together as they are, you are bound to suffer a lot of problems with them. You also need to work a lot of the numbers of certain fish types, you have two shoaling types of fish which are in numbers far too low etc. You have space for more fish depending on your tanks dimensions, but i would strongly advise sorting out your current stocking before you add anything entirely new to the tank.
How long has the tank been set up?
 
Awesome, this was the kind of reply I was hoping for, someone to steer me in the right direction.
The tank has been set up for about 3 months now. How about this for stocking?
3 more Danios so a total of 6, I like them they really liven up the top of the tank.
I would like to keep my M and F Gouramis, right now the female is in a hospital tank battling fin rot. So I’ll have to wait and see about her, cant return her with fungus all over her.
I defiantly want to keep the Kribs, there’re my favorites in the tank
I would also like to keep the two Pim. Pictus
The platy can be re-homed as well as rosy barb.

With this revision what other fish would you recommend, is a pair of Keyholes out of the question?
 
Awesome, this was the kind of reply I was hoping for, someone to steer me in the right direction.
The tank has been set up for about 3 months now. How about this for stocking?
3 more Danios so a total of 6, I like them they really liven up the top of the tank.
I would like to keep my M and F Gouramis, right now the female is in a hospital tank battling fin rot. So I’ll have to wait and see about her, cant return her with fungus all over her.
I defiantly want to keep the Kribs, there’re my favorites in the tank
I would also like to keep the two Pim. Pictus
The platy can be re-homed as well as rosy barb.

With this revision what other fish would you recommend, is a pair of Keyholes out of the question?

If your gourami's are male and female, this could be a problem as male gold gourami's can become quite agressive towards other gourami's (even females of their own kind). Not everybody experiences issues with keeping male and female gold gourami's together, but a lot of people do- you may want to rehome either the male or the female now so you just have the one (the female is a lot less likely to be territorial or agressive as she matures) or wait and see what happens (i would personally go for the first option);

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cl...;articleid=2571

Gourami's prefer tanks with some heavily planted area's, tall and dense growing plants are very good (particularly ones which grow to the the top of the tank/water surface), so it is important to get some plants suited to your tank set up that the gourami's can take shelter in when they feel the need to :good: .
Pim pictus are quite also sociable fish, a group of three would be good- how long, wide and high is the tank? They are carnivore/insectivore fish so giving them an appropriate diet, they can be moved onto dried foods, but as with all fish, frozen or live foods are the most nutritious and healthy for fish. They prefer a tank with a mix of large open space, dense planting and caves- these fish usually grow to about 5-6inches in aquariums.

I honestly don't know much on keyhole cichlids, so can't help you there.
 
Dimensions 122 x 33 x 51cm/48" x 13" x 20
Surface area 0.4 sqm/4.31 sq ft/ inches sq in
Volume 205 l./45 gal. (54.16 US gal.)
Probable volume 185 l./41 gal. (49 US gal.)

So although the tank is just under 55gals, it has a good length to it and group of three pim pictus should be fine in there :thumbs: .
Have you considered going for any pleco's or other catfish? Planetcatfish.com has thousands of different types of catfish listed;

http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/

Catfish can be some of the most strikingly beautiful and/or interesting fish to keep, there are so many varieties which vary a great deal in colour, size, shape, personality etc :good: . Check out planetcatfishes' Cat-elog or forum for more info.
 
and a couple Keyhole cichlids. They are as peaceful as you will find for a cichlid.


I wouldn't go with keyholes if I were you. Of the dwarf cichlids I would say they are the most aggressive (well them and kribs) so I'm not too sure but i don't think they'd get along too hansomely if you have two pairs. Why not try a pair of rams or apistogramma if it's dwarf cichlids your after?...or just the kribs on their own


greg
 

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