Stock Advice Please - Stick

[Aquatious]

Hi folks,

I'm after a little advise if possible. I have a well-established tank that has been in my house for a year (and set up at my friends for years before that)!wwwd. Over the last few months I've started putting more fish in it, and I've done the typical thing of listening to The Man At The Shop rather than researching it myself. Now I realise I've a mistake there, I think I've ended up with a tank that won't be sustainable for the future due to the mix of fish I have.

Here is the tank - it is 5' long and holds about 320 litres.

Here is my list of fish

First the biggies (bigish now or could get big in the future):
1 x 12" plec
5 x 3" silver dollars
1 x 3.5" and 2 x 2.5" silver sharks
4 x 2" iridescent sharks - o dear - just read how big they can get … but they are gorgeous!
2 x 3" and 3 x 2" clown loaches

Now the smallies:
4 x glass catfish
1 x neon tetra (h!dad 13 and I have no idea how this one survived!)
2 x kribensis
2 x sword tails (male and female)
2 x convicts
2 x random cories
2 x gouramies - dwarf?
2 x Denison barb?
1 x a small yellow sucky catfish
3 x small barbs
1 x small plec

I've added up their lengths approximately and reckon I'm about at 110 ish. I read you can have 0.7 inch per litre which would mean over 200" that I appear to not be overly stocked and could either have more fish or let these ones grow

So I've ended up with a right old mix of stuff. I'm more than worried about the iridescent sharks - I keep reading they can grow to the size of a small car... my tank is big but not sure it is big enough for 4 of those? Although it'll take years to get big anyway they'll get to a size where they suck up the small fish. I think the dollars and silver sharks should be ok and also the clowns (although they get quite big too).

I've reads that convicts can be aggressive. They are a breeding pair (had babies that didn't survive). They are actually friendly enough except they claimed a cave and do defend that (just chasing the other fish not actually biting as far as I can tell). They don't go out of their way to be aggressive though so I may have got lucky.

The fish appear to be getting on ok with each other at the moment - it is a lively tank but they aren't appearing to eat each other! However as the bigger fish get even bigger I can see most of the little ones getting hovered up and some of the biggies might just get too big?

I did have one thought - If I got a second tank (!) I could keep all the biggies in this one and move the smaller ones into the other tank. That might be the best of both worlds...

Any helpful thoughts and comments would be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[dbanner]

You are already overstocked. You need to add up the length of the potential adult size of these fish and not the sizes they are now. My tank is 5 foot and holds 450 litres and it's still not big enough for some of these fish.

From having a quick look through them I can tell you that the iridescent sharks are waaaay too big for your tank. Also the silver sharks need a tank of 6 foot long or more because of their potential size and the fact that they are very active. Same goes for the clown loaches. These get big and need a tank of 6 feet or more. Again the Denison barbs also known as redline torpedo barbs may be small now but get a decent size and need to be in bigger groups. 4-6 would be ok but you can't add anymore fish to your already waaaay overstocked tank.

The ones I'd be keeping an eye on would be the iridescent sharks and the convicts. Convicts, for their size can and have been known to cause havoc in a tank.
If you was going to get a second tank for the bigger fish then it would need to be bigger than the tank you have now.

 

[dbanner]

Also you'd be looking to up the number of neons to around 10, up the number of corys from 2 to around 6-8.

All in all I'd rehome the ID sharks and loaches, rehome the smaller plec (1 creates a lot of waste... 2 would need ALOT of filtration), rehome the silver sharks and small barbs, rehome the convicts.

Then up the numbers of the others I mentioned

 

[Aquatious]

I was afraid that might be the answer!

From what I'm reading you can't really keep the iridescents - they'll outgrow pretty much anything you put them in. It would seem a shame to keep them for a few years and then have to get rid of them. I doubt anyone would buy them big anyway?

I've checked with the fish shop, and they've offered to have the iridescents back once bigger so I wouldn't feel too bad about keeping them for a bit. If I aimed to get a 6 footer when the other fish start getting bigger (shh don't tell my wife I'm eying up that wall), would that be suitable for the silver sharks and clown loaches? Or have I got too many potential bigguns even for that? I don't mind planning for a second larger tank as I have the room for another.

 

[dbanner]

Your right, iridecents get huge.

As for the silver sharks (if they are Bala sharks) and the clown loaches I would of thought a 6 foot long x 2 ft high x 2 ft wide would be good for them. You will need sand on the bottom of the tank if you haven't already got it. This is for the plec, corys and clown loaches. I'd choose either the corys or the loaches as they both stay on the bottom of the tank and you don't want to many fish shuffling around.

I'd also pick between either the silver sharks or the torpedo barbs. Again you don't want too many big fish ideally.

I once had 5 torpedo barbs, 1 opaline gourami, 1 gold gourami, 1 bristlenose plec, 2 kribs, 6 sterbai corys and 5 peppered corys together in my 260 litre. I sadly had to rehome the torpedoes after a while as they needed a bigger tank lovely fish and 1 of the few barbs not known for fin nipping....

 

[dbanner]

Also I mentioned rehomeing The convicts as they will get too aggressive for the like of the corys, swordtails and possibly the gourami. My kribs used to pick on my gouramis and my goiramis wasn't the dwarf kind either. A convict will also get to a size to possibley consider neon tetras as food

 

[Aquatious]

Thanks - that's really useful info. I do like the smaller fish, but to be honest the loaches, sharks and dollars are the ones that really float my boat. And the big pleco because he dances I don't think I'd get the same enjoyment from the tank without these, so I'll start planning for a second tank The main thing is I have no major hurry to sort any of this - as I have room for another tank I can take my time and make sure I get it right this time.

The current tank has sand - big gritty sand though like a beach - or do you mean finer sand that's easier to dig through?

The chap at the shop (possibly not as much of an expert as he appeared) had some bigger torpedos in a separate tank (probably 5") and he said they fully grown... That doesn't sound too big considering the silvers. They were very pretty at that size.

I suspected tetras would be no good due to their size but I put 6 in as an experiment. They survived a month so I put another 6 in. 3 days later - one left hehe. I didn't see which fish ate them but I guessed the dollars (vegetarian? but I didn't think they would spit them out!). The one that is left is quick as you like and must be hard as nails!

Thanks again for the advice

 

[dbanner]

Well keep the silver sharks, loaches and dollars and work around them. You could keep the plec too. Just upgrade to a 6 footer when you can

5-6 inch is Max size for a torpedo but it's because they are so active and need to be in groups. I had 5 but 6+ is better. You could keep them in your tank but not with the fish you've got now. Sharks will need bigger

Sand in general would be better for them than gravel. Iv used play sand, finer sand and now black sand.