Overstocked?

[RichKlit]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting and i'm pretty new to the hobby just want to be sure i'm doing it right.

My name is Rich and i bought a used 25 gallon(96 liter)tank fully set up with fish,its fairly well planted and looks pretty good. My concern is its way overstocked.
It contains the following:

10 black neon tetras
10 neon tetras
2 albino plecos(bristlenose?)
1 dwarf powder blue Gourami (good looking but harasses everyone)
2 ram veil angel cichlid (not sure about these its the name he gave me for them)
2 dwarf albino frogs (skinny little guys)

So is it overstocked? The tank has supposedly been cycled and the water is clear and fish have been in tank for 3-5 months is what i was told. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If more info is needed just let me know. Thanks in advance for any help and i look forward to digging into the site, huge wealth of info.

Rich

 

[fluttermoth]

Hi Rich, to the forum

You're right, that tank is overstocked, although it's not as bad as it could be The first thing I would advise you to do is buy yourself a good, liquid based test kit. The API master test is the one we most often recommend, but there are more accurate ones out there if you want to pay a bit more (and buy them separately). Do you have a dechlorinator for water changes?

You need tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate; then you can monitor what's going on yourself; more fish problems are caused by poor water than anything else.

Rams and angels are two totally species of fish, so I don't know what's going on there! If you could post pics of them (you'll need to upload them to a hosting site, like Photobucket or Flickr first and use the IMG code in your post) and the plecs, some one will identify them for you

I don't know much about frogs but I don't think they should be kept with fish, as they don't compete well with them for food, which is probably why they look so skinny. You could try hand feeding them frozen (defrosted!)bloodworm. We do have a forum for amphibians further down the page; might be a good idea to post there about them.

 

[RichKlit]

Wow thanks for the quick response i will buy a testing kit tomorrow and will try to get some pics posted soon(not very computer literate haha). Will post results asap. Thanks again.

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Don't worry about the Dwarf Gourami, mine bosses everybody about. I was understocked at the time and bought him 2 silver females to take his mind off the other fish but since you're overstocked, I would suggest that you keep an eye on your fish and at the first sign of damage to another (ie: ripped fins, missing scales or other injuries) isolate him and/or the injured fish. In the worst case scenario you might have to trade him in at your local pet shop which is sad - I've had to do it two or three times with unusually territorial or aggressive fish. This is a worst case scenario mind you and probably wont come to that Would very much like to see some pics when you get them posted up here!

 

[RichKlit]

http/s1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj592/RichKlit/ is the link to photobucket where you should be able to see the photos.
My link

Well i think i figured out how to post the pictures. Anyone know what type of fish those are? The lighting is 2 24watt T5 lamps and is using a Fluval C3 filter. Any suggestions or comments? Some of the plants are not looking to healthy so once i identify them i can figure out how to care for them but i"m no green thumb at all but i badly want to keep and grow the plants.

I bought a test kit and everything is good although the water is a little hard, i bought a cheap API kit but going to buy better testing kit soon. The one thing that concerned me and maybe im wrong i really dont know, is the test kit showed no Nitrites or Nitrates 0 PPM? I'm new to this hobby but to me after doing some reading those test results make me think this tank is newer than i was lead to believe and may not have finished cycling. I'm totally guessing and really have no idea like i said i'm new and a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous haha. I just don't want to wake up and find all my fish dead. Anyways sorry for the ramble.

Thanks again love the forum.

Rich

 

[delta]

That's a lovely little set up you have there, really nicely laid out.

What's your ammonia reading?

 

[RichKlit]

Thanks tomtomtom & Fluttermoth for your advice! The Gourami started building a bubble nest today very cool, adding whatever little debris he can find to the nest. Had a new discovery to the tank today there are shrimp in there red ones which i believe are cherry shrimp only a couple i think and clear ones which i think are ghost shrimp the gourami chased the ghost shrimp so badly the shrimp jumped out of the tank. keeping a close eye on him as he really goes after everything in the tank. If he doesn't chill out i may take him to the LFS to see if they want him i dont want to but i want a calm tank.

Thanks Delta i will be getting an ammonia test kit later today.

 

[fluttermoth]

I think it looks quite a nice little tank. I'm fairly sure your plecs are bristlenoses, but I'm not 100%. The cichlids are balloon rams.

When you do your nitrate test, make sure you really bash the base of bottle #2 on a hard surface as it contains a powder that does like to precipitate out and give a falsely low reading.

 

[RichKlit]

I think it looks quite a nice little tank. I'm fairly sure your plecs are bristlenoses, but I'm not 100%. The cichlids are balloon rams.

When you do your nitrate test, make sure you really bash the base of bottle #2 on a hard surface as it contains a powder that does like to precipitate out and give a falsely low reading.

Thanks i appreciate all your help, after looking up some info on balloon rams i think they are both males, so far they are getting along but im going to try and find a female and get some more hiding spots for them.

 

[RichKlit]

Ammonia reading came back as .25ppm going do a water change tomorrow after work.

 

[tribalbrit]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting and i'm pretty new to the hobby just want to be sure i'm doing it right.

My name is Rich and i bought a used 25 gallon(96 liter)tank fully set up with fish,its fairly well planted and looks pretty good. My concern is its way overstocked.
It contains the following:

10 black neon tetras
10 neon tetras
2 albino plecos(bristlenose?)
1 dwarf powder blue Gourami (good looking but harasses everyone)
2 ram veil angel cichlid (not sure about these its the name he gave me for them)
2 dwarf albino frogs (skinny little guys)

So is it overstocked? The tank has supposedly been cycled and the water is clear and fish have been in tank for 3-5 months is what i was told. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If more info is needed just let me know. Thanks in advance for any help and i look forward to digging into the site, huge wealth of info.

Rich

I dont think you are over stocked. But the rams dont do well with gravel as they sift the substrate through their gills so sand is needed for them. I would take these along with the frogs to your lfs and swap them for a couple of female gourami's.
Looks nice by the way.