Question About Bottom Dwellers

Bigd5482 · May 28, 2009

Ok so this weekend will be able to add in some more fish as tomorrow will be a week with levels at 0 for amm and nitrite woot! Tank is a 29 gal.

Currently in tank :

5 guppies (3 males, 2 females)
4 tiger barbs
2 black neons

1 of the male guppies and 2 black neons going into my female betta's tank (already has 2 black neons in it) and tiger barbs being rehomed as well

So leaves mw with 2 male and 2 female guppies.

Final stocking list is :

4 guppies
3 honeys (1 male 2 female)
2 Rams (bolivian or balloon)
5 banded barbs or another type of shoaling fish
5 corry's

Now the main question was orginally thinking of getting a bristlenose cat also but after doing some reading they create a heck of a lot of waste and with looking at getting cory's didn't know if they could go together anyway. So was thinking of what other bottom/glass cleaning type fish I could get was thinking if there was any loaches that could go with this set up?

I also know I need to feed them the wafers and such already as well too.

Oh I know its off subject but wondered about changing to a sand bottom is it possible to put the sand on top of the gravel I know a decent amount would need to be used as the sand will sink through the gravel. But trying to take the gravel out to do the switch won't be a realistic task with it being planted and the driftwood in it and having the fish in there. So if putting sand on top won't work will probably just stick with the gravel unless for the corry's/loaches I need to have it then will just bite the bullet and do it.

Thank ya in advance

Curiosity101 · May 28, 2009

I have Kuhli loaches in with my cory cats and they co-exist happily enough. So they are a possibility for your set-up too I guess.

Other possibilities are dwarf chain loach and zebra loaches.

To answer the sand vs gravel thing. Corys + Loaches don't NEED to have sand, but it is much kinder on their barbels and allows them to dig around. I've seen my corys with their heads almost buried rooting around at night... It's fun to watch.
However so long as your gravel is smooth and relatively small then they really should be fine with it.

Duck and Dive · May 28, 2009

I keep both cory's and bristlenose. If you want a small shoal of cory's they really look good and are fairly energetic. Bristlenose plecs are less active and quite lazy. They don't produce a lot of waste, just the same as any normal fish of its size.

KieranP · May 28, 2009

Do them guppys not get nipped by the Tiger barbs?
I have always been told they are really bad fin nippers, and you dont get much bigger more fancy tails than guppys, aside from bettas, but maybe thats why your rehoming them!

I would have thought youd be better off with nice shoaling fish like tetras or white clouds rather than more barbs, they tend to get on with most things.

and the corys will be really fun, although make sure you get enough i lost 2 so had only 2 left and they then started to hide constantantly!
oh id go bolivian too, they seem to be hardier, and they still look awesome!

youngfisher · May 28, 2009

Just would like to point out - If you go for somthing that has a "possibility" it will not work, make sure you have a back up plan to rehome the fish etc.

bagu · May 28, 2009

hmmm if you want loaches, try and go for dwarf chain loaches, but i think you might be pushing it =]

Bigd5482 · May 29, 2009

Thanks for the replies think I'm back to going with the 5 cory's and 1 bn cat.

To answer question about tiger barbs nipping that is why I'm rehoming them they're going to my LFS. However they have yet to nip any of the guppies or the 2 black neons in the tank currently and they're basically full grown which surprises me. Normally they'll be less aggressive with 6+ but I only got 4 in there and they don't bother anything else almost makes me want to keep em but with my getting the honeys and that I don't want to take the chance.

and about the backup plan yes I've got that taken care of too in case something goes haywire :good: