Rummy Tetra Advice

[leviethan]

hello. i have had to swap my six pencilfish as they were too fiesty and got 6 rummy nose tetra in exchange. have had them before and they are brill lil fish. my question is this, can i get any more?? i have a 64l tank, with 2 filters at work, the other fish are 5 dwarf chain loaches, and a candy stripe plec l15. i'd love some more rummy's for a bigger shoal but dont know if i'd be pushing it? what does anyone else think?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

6 Rummynose Tetra
5 Dwarf Chain Loach
1 L015 (Peckoltia vittata... are you sure it is not a Panaque maccus?)

Sounds like a lot of fish already to me for a 64l, I personally would not consider a tank of less than 120l for that stocking (i would have called that tank fully stocked with just the loaches, who should reach a chunky 5cm and use a lot of the tank in a brisk/strong tropical current).

Hopefully you already know of the catfish ID issue I raised above, one is a meaty omnivore and one is a wood eater.

 

[CezzaXV]

So far all your other fish are mainly bottom dwellers so is say there's space as long as your nitrate levels are under control.

 

[leviethan]

the plec was sold to me as a l15. But i researched him and he is definatley a candy stripe. He's my lovely lad. Very friendly. i can understand you saying the loaches will get chunky but thier bio load cant be that bad that they'd need a 60l to themselves.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

the plec was sold to me as a l15. But i researched him and he is definatley a candy stripe. He's my lovely lad. Very friendly. i can understand you saying the loaches will get chunky but thier bio load cant be that bad that they'd need a 60l to themselves.

I'm saying exactly that... The loaches alone will have a bioload that will put this 60l system to its limits. Even if you keep ammonia and nitrites at bay (water can turn bad very quickly in such small volumes), the nitrates will build up to lethal levels over time even doing typical 30-50% weekly water changes, if you are feeding your fish enough food to let them grow to their expected size.

Sadly, many fishkeepers (including rather a worrying amount on this forum IMO) treat tanks of <75l like a tardis i.e. they fill them with fish far exceeding responsible limits, to the extent that their stocking really should be a tank of at least double the volume. A tank of this size is suitable for a group of six schooling fish typically <6cm (depending upon their activity levels eg. no Zebra Danios) with perhaps one singleton. When the tank is of ~100l volume, you can perhaps add two schooling groups of six that swim at different levels.

My smallest of six active tanks right now is a 54l (60x30x30cm), it holds a group of seven (7) Persian Killifish, that are ~4cm TL (mouth to end of tail) and very nearly fully grown.