Potential Stocklist For A 40G Breeder

[EelohEel]

S'been a while, not that you'd remember since I didn't post much! I had a 30g a while back (maybe a year and a half ago,) which you all helped me a ton with and I was super happy with it. Had celestial danios, ember tetras, some peppered cories... Sadly, with my infinitely terrible luck, while I was out of town for 4 days a fuse blew at my house, and I lost a lot of my fish: All of my danios, half of my embers, half of my cories... I didn't have the money or heart to start over with my stock, so I downgraded to just do the best I could for the guys I had left.

After a long hiatus, decided I want to give it another go. I'd donated my 30 gallon to a friend who needed a tank on short notice for a rescue, I think I want to go a little bigger this time; I am thinking a 40 gallon breeder tank, since I enjoy the wider and shorter look of the tanks. I've been throwing around stocking ideas, and I've got a list which doesn't vary massively from my old stock, but there is some variation. Just wanna know what you think! The tank is going to be heavily planted with fairly strong filtration and sand substrate.

10 Congo Tetras
10 Ember Tetras
6 Peppered Cories
2 Dwarf Gouramis

I intend to keep it at about 76 degrees with a 7.2 PH.

I also have some 'randoms' that I've picked up over the last year that were going to endure a poor fate if I didn't take, which I intend to put in there as well as long as everyone gets along. I would not consider them part of my 'permanent stocking plan' though, they are with me because I couldn't bare to leave them where they were and I'll keep 'em safe while I have them. My god I need to find a new job, working at a retail pet store is killing me. Alas, you do what you can in this job market. They are:

A very peaceful male betta
2 black Khuli loaches
3 guppies (2 females, 1 male.)

Right now my 15g has 3 ember tetras, 2 peppered cories, the 2 khulis, the three guppies and the betta and they seem to get along fine, but I am thinking that the 15g will probably remain the bettas home since I don't think Gouramis would take to sharing their home with a betta.

Does this sound appropriately stocked, and do you anticipate any compatibility issues? I was thinking of doing a small shoal of upside down catfish too, but I think that would push my stocking over the safety zone.

(this is months out, by the way, I am just an obsessive compulsive planner.)

 

[FishFanatic04]

The kuhlis could use a few extra in number. They are schooling like the cories.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'd swap out the Peppered Corydoras for a more tropical loving species like sterbai, Peppered are sub-tropical and do far better at 15-20C for most of the year.

Synodontis nigriventris do far better in 10+ groups, they are very social, just like Corydoras. Personally, I have 12 (after losing one recently in my Ich disaster) after starting out with the final three from one LFS, they are still very reclusive and nocturnal besides sometimes scurrying around at mid after feeding time. When I set up my night vision video camera a while back, the whole group could be seen out mid and high water from ~0100 in the morning (~90 minutes after I had retured to bed). In contrast, my new of ten Microsynodontis sp.1 are very bold diurnal water current junkies, swimming out in the open around my ~8cm Ilyodon xantusi teenagers and their ~2cm fry.

 

[EelohEel]

I'd swap out the Peppered Corydoras for a more tropical loving species like sterbai, Peppered are sub-tropical and do far better at 15-20C for most of the year.

Synodontis nigriventris do far better in 10+ groups, they are very social, just like Corydoras. Personally, I have 12 (after losing one recently in my Ich disaster) after starting out with the final three from one LFS, they are still very reclusive and nocturnal besides sometimes scurrying around at mid after feeding time. When I set up my night vision video camera a while back, the whole group could be seen out mid and high water from ~0100 in the morning (~90 minutes after I had retured to bed). In contrast, my new of ten Microsynodontis sp.1 are very bold diurnal water current junkies, swimming out in the open around my ~8cm Ilyodon xantusi teenagers and their ~2cm fry.

DEFINITELY no room for a shoal of more than a few upside down cats, so I'll mark those out and maybe look at getting a small shoal of otos or a rubber nose isntead. As far as the peppered cories, the main reason I want to have those instead of another species is that I already have a few, and I am certainly not in the market to get rid of something I've taken in. I want them to have a shoal again like they used to, but in my little hubjub 15 gallon there is no room to add more. If they won't do well in the warm water, then perhaps they too can stay in the 15 and I'll consider one of the more tropical species for the new tank. With the Khulis, I definitely do not want more; They are two that were returned to our store and we didn't have room to put them in isolation and didn't want to put them back in our tanks since they had been in a foreign tank, so I ended up taking them for lack of a better idea. They'll stay in my care by themselves unless I do manage to find a local home for them with someone who already has a shoal, which has not happened yet. While they are not anywhere near as shy as I've heard, they are definitely not my ideal fish and not something I am focused on.

... speaking of which, if anyone wants 2 black khuli loaches or two peppered corydoras and already has an existing shoal for them...

... Also, just to get this out of the way: I don't intend to stock my tank with fish from my retail pet store. OH GOD NO. I do my shopping for aquarium things at a much more reliable and ethical LFS. I generally avoid admitting I work at a pet store, but work is work. Alas.

I had trouble deciding on the congo tetras; I already really like Bloodfins and Lemon tetras, I'm still a little up in the air.

Thanks for the suggestions / questions, guys!

//edit; Also realized I totally just hypocrit'd myself. What I meant was that I wouldn't dump / get rid of something I took in to a poor home or unreliable destination, but if a better home came for my random rescue fishies I'd let them move on since the situation I put them in isn't ideal for them. I really need to stop 'rescuing' fish, I only have so much room for aquariums and quarantines. Better than that time I rescues some crawdads from getting flushed, I was really clueless what to do THAT time.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Well 2 khulis together is better then one all alone. Maybe you will find someone to take them.

I would happily take the khuli's but I am in TX

 

[EelohEel]

Well 2 khulis together is better then one all alone. Maybe you will find someone to take them.

I would happily take the khuli's but I am in TX

Yeah, I'm not big on shipping live animals, though if someone were close enough it might be an option. I figure two guys in a heavily planted tank isn't too bad, the feel pretty secure and I see them all the time. Definitely better than one. I actually worry more about my cories, I rarely see them so I really want to get them in a real shoal. They just aren't really thriving, understandably.

 

[thereverendturtle]

I disagree on the cories needing such low temps, they are so many generations removed from wild stock that they thrive and reproduce at more common tropical temps. My bigger concern would be a large Congo tetra eating a small ember tetra...