Sorting Out The Fish

[steve_jones83]

So have finally sorted my tank out but apart from being over stocked, I have a poor balance of fish.

Basically I have made the beginners mistake of getting so excited about having fish I never really researched anything first. Thus I spent a year just putting various types of pretty fish in the tank. Unfortunately, some of these have died over time. But instead of replacing, it's been a case of going back to the shop and seeing a breed I haven't seen before and bought them instead.

So I left with:

2 blue gourami
1 yellow gourami
2 firemouths
4 corys
2 Congo tetra's
2 black neon tetra
1 black tail shark
2 serpae tetra's
4 black widow tetra
3 Colombian tetra
2 rosy barb
1 Odessa barb

This is all in a 125 litre. As a naive customer, I went with the LFS stores advice that I could have 30+ fish in there. Thankfully I found this site.

I have been advised to remove the firemouths and congo's but can't bring myself to because their my favourites but I would like to get a shoal.

What would you advise taking back to store?

I was thinking of taking the black neons, Odessa, rosy's, serpaes, and maybe the yellow gourami back and getting a little shoal, maybe 5 harlequins etc

Appreciate your advice.

 

[fluttermoth]

Wat are the dimensions of the tank, and what's the hardness of your water?

I understand that you're fond of the firemouths and the congos, but this is not a suitable tank for them. To be fair to the fish, you either need to return them, or get a larger tank; you need a four footer for those two species.

 

[steve_jones83]

Sounds fair, gutted though. Firemouths my favourite and congo's the wife's favourite.

Any other ideas?

 

[snake007]

As already said, take back the firemouths and the red tailed shark as they both grow to large and are incompatible with your current stock.
Some of your fish are schooling fish and are in too smaller numbers, IMO I would -

Return the yellow gourami,
Return The firemouths
Depending on the type of cory, up the shoal to 8
Return the congo tetras
Up the neons to 6
Return the shark
Return the serpaes and the columbians
Keep the widows
Return all the barbs.

So your stocking would be -

2 Blue Gourami
8 Cory Cats
6 Black Neons
4 Black Widow Tetras

Your pretty much fully stocked there.

 

[onidrase]

If the tank is 30 inches long and 12 inches wide, you can keep 1 firemouth. But I wouldn't advise keeping both.

If you do this, you can keep them with larger schooling fish that can hold their own(I keep mine with tiger barbs, but you'd be better off with black skirt tetras or bleeding heart tetras or similar deeper bodied tetra species) and up the number on the corydoras. Then take everything else back.

Blue gouramis IME are vicious little things. I wouldn't want them period.

 

[steve_jones83]

Thanks for the advice all.

Have some great ideas now for re-stock.

I think I ben lucky with aggressive fish, I have had them all since they were young so none are aggressive. The firemouths pretty much keep themselves to themselves and not been territorial at all. Had to take a lot of barbs back in the past because they wouls attack ill fish but the tank currently are all really placid. But then again, I dont watch them all the time so it culd be going on.

Better get sorted then

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Congos get very big for a tetra, they need alot of space to give their colours off in the best way. here's one of my younger ones

 

[onidrase]

Thanks for the advice all.

Have some great ideas now for re-stock.

I think I ben lucky with aggressive fish, I have had them all since they were young so none are aggressive. The firemouths pretty much keep themselves to themselves and not been territorial at all. Had to take a lot of barbs back in the past because they wouls attack ill fish but the tank currently are all really placid. But then again, I dont watch them all the time so it culd be going on.

Better get sorted then

They're all not aggressive when they're younger. Just wait till they get older. I'd be more concerned about the gouramis than the firemouths, tbh. But I wouldn't keep 2 FM's unless you had a 4 foot tank. I've never had 2 blue gouramis get along past the 4 inch mark, how big are yours? Mine have always killed each other around that age, and then started going after smaller tank mates.

 

[steve_jones83]

One is about 3 inches the other 2. One of the firemouths I have had for 2 years and the other for 8 months. Guess Bruno and Tyson have to go back