Rearranged Tank. Neep Help Stocking

[tylerchadwick]

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've been here. Here's what I got.

I've got 30 gallon tank we've had for a little over a year now. We started off with 4 albino corys, 2 blue gouramis, a sucker fish (starts with a p...), 2 green barbs, 2 albino barbs, and 2 tiger barbs. As of a month ago we were down to only 2 albino corys, the two blue gouramis, sucker fish, and 1 albino barb and 1 tiger barb. So 3 weeks or so ago, we went and got 4 new fish. 2 black tipped sharks (catfish), and two red eyed tinfoil barbs. Well, two week into having these new fish. Our albino barb died. The next day the tiger barb died. The we started noticing that the sharks were acting funny and what looked like ick. We started treatment for the tank, but the sharks died anyway. SO SAD. The sharks were still under their 14 day warranty. I take the dead fish in along with a water sample. They won't give me new fish until my nitrates go down. That's fine because I don't want to kill anymore fish. What I've figured out was I was putting way to many shrimp pellets in the tank. I've been changing 20-25 % of the water twice now in a week. Once I get the nitrate levels down (which were at 80 before my water change yesterday), I'll be getting a few new fish. Also, 4 days ago, we switched for fake plants, to real plants. I'll take a picture and post it up.

What do you suggest on getting for all level swimmers in my tank. Again, here is the current setup:
2 blue gouramis (near to full grown at least)
sucker fish (6 inches big)
2 fully grown albino corys
2 red eyed tinfoil barbs

Thanks in advance

 

[Fate2006]

Ok... first that sucker fish is more than likely a pleco... which grows way to big for a 30gallon tank, secondly the tinfoil barbs are more than likely Red tailed... not red eyed... if they have red eyes they're albino tinfoil barbs, which still get much too large for a 30gallon tank! I suggest rehoming those fish, get a few oto cats, 4 more albino corries and some more gouramis...

 

[tylerchadwick]

Ok... first that sucker fish is more than likely a pleco... which grows way to big for a 30gallon tank, secondly the tinfoil barbs are more than likely Red tailed... not red eyed... if they have red eyes they're albino tinfoil barbs, which still get much too large for a 30gallon tank! I suggest rehoming those fish, get a few oto cats, 4 more albino corries and some more gouramis...

I'll a picture or two. Your right about the red tailed, I always confuse the name because of the red eyes. Pterygoplichthys is the name of the sucker fish I referred to.

There will be no rehoming. I've got what I got. I've got nowhere else to rehome them too.

 

[demonmagus]

if you don't want to rehome will you get a much bigger tank?

 

[tylerchadwick]

No. Why do I have to rehome? The fish are not that big.

 

[fishboy619]

fish can grow quite big before you notice it.thats what happened with my first pleco, the shop sold it me only a few inches big, but after a few months, it had grown a lot bigger.i returned it to the shop and swapped it for corys.that was when i first started out,but im a lot more informed and know more about fish now. i wouldnt make that mistake again. its alot of the shops fault tho, it should have said it would grow bigger

 

[tylerchadwick]

Well, my mother in law had a pleco that never grew over 4 inches long in this same tank. I knew the fish would grow. The pleco is now 6 inches long. He has plenty of room to do whatever he wants. It's not like I just got the fish. The Gouramis, pleco, and cory are all over a year old. and that's just in my tank here, not counting the pet store. here are some pictures. Sorry they are lousy. Wow.....really lousy.
The tank is 36 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and 18 inches tall. View photos by link. Disregard the photos of my car. I'm trying to sell it.

http/s124.photobucket.com/albums/p36/tylerchadwick/

 

[fishfishfish]

for a sailfin pleco(Pterygoplichthys)needs at least a 120 gallon tank as they get to about 2 foot long.tinfoil barbs get pretty big too.too big for a 30 gallon.take them back and get different fish.get like 4 ottociniclus catfish.will be more active and clean more algae and only get about 2 inches.

 

[tylerchadwick]

Well, I just got back from Mr. Aquarium. I now know what you guys are talking about the pleco's getting huge. I saw some there that were over a foot long. Maybe I am wrong about the red tailed barbs. They are called golden red tail tin foil barbs.