Tank Nearly Ready, Order Of Stocking And Quantities

[Ruskull]

Ok, on the basis that the Corys and the Cardinals need to be added later...

How many Pearl Gourami can I have in this tank?

What is the maximum sized pleco that I could house and it be happy? I don't want to go any buy something like a Common only to have to sell it on later in it's life.

Can anyone suggest anything else that would be happy with Pearls/Cardinals/Corys/Plecs?

With a tank that size you should be able to have two males with two or three females each! I'd probably start with six, two males & four females and keep a close eye on the males to make sure one isn't constantly chasing the other. Obviously try to make sure the males are similarly sized, same with the females.

 

[moochy13]

buy something a bit more unusual than a BN plec if you can afford it, you wont regret it.

 

[DBT85]

With a tank that size you should be able to have two males with two or three females each! I'd probably start with six, two males & four females and keep a close eye on the males to make sure one isn't constantly chasing the other. Obviously try to make sure the males are similarly sized, same with the females.

Nice! That'll certainly make the tank look a little less bare in the meantime

buy something a bit more unusual than a BN plec if you can afford it, you wont regret it.

One of my LFS had an LDA 033 Baryancistrus in but they get quite large I think and it was £55! Is that normal? I read they need fast flow though so it's not really suited to my setup currently.

 

[moochy13]

55 quid is not uncommon for some nice plecs, though whether its a good price for that plec i couldnt tell you. 'nice' plecs can cost betwen 15 quid up to however much you want to spend. searching around, you can get something a bit more unusual than a BN for 15-20 quid. price is quite dependant not only on type of plec, but also how big it is.

 

[DBT85]

Well I managed to find a couple of interesting Plecos on my travels today, an L142 (LDA033) Snowball and an L002 Tiger. I couldn't decide which I wanted... so I got both . I've just added them to the tank proper and one found the bogwood and one found the glass. Lights are off as instructed by the shop to allow them to settle.

Nowhere had any Pearl Gourami today though so I'm going elsewhere tomorrow to see what I can find.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Well I managed to find a couple of interesting Plecos on my travels today, an L142 (LDA033) Snowball and an L002 Tiger. I couldn't decide which I wanted... so I got both . I've just added them to the tank proper and one found the bogwood and one found the glass. Lights are off as instructed by the shop to allow them to settle.

Nowhere had any Pearl Gourami today though so I'm going elsewhere tomorrow to see what I can find.

I hope you know what you have let yourself in for... You need a 5-foot (minimum) high-end tropical riverine setup ASAP...
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/_species.php?species_id=31 "Provide powerheads and plenty of oxygenation. In the wild, these live in shallow, fast flowing, warm water. They are found in nature in temperatures as high as 32°C/90°F."
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/_species.php?species_id=735

Even before you add other fish, the minimum temp for your L142 in the maximum temp where L002 has been found, 27C.

If you have been sold what you think you have bought (many fish store mislabel L-numbers), finding suitable tankmates is not going to be easy... Do not think about any Gourami tomorrow, you need to get confirmation ID from somewhere specialist like PlanetCatfish, but provisionally you are looking for tankmates that like very warm water and massive current (~15x tank volume per hour, something like a tropical version of my Barilius)!

 

[DBT85]

Having read Goats reply last night and checking the links I went to bed telling the wife that Barry would have to be returned as we couldn't provide the home he needed.

I went down this morning and he was on his back, dead

Sorry Barry.

Not sure how I missed those links when I was checking on my phone in store yesterday.

A: 0.0, Ni: 0.0, Na: about 40 (like that from the tap)

I don't know if Maidenhead Aquatics have a retuns policy like some shops do. I'll have to find out later.

Poor little tyke.

EDIT: Just spoke to one of the girls there and they said if I bring a water sample in they'll sort me out with a voucher for the store.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

That's so sad to read, I briefly read their profile and saw getting through the first month is the challenge, but I never expected to read he didn't survive the first night

 

[DBT85]

I know

As soon as I read your post last night I checked the links and at once decided that first thing today he would go back.

Maidenhead Aquatics did a test and sure enough my water was fine. The Nitrates had actually dropped to about 10ppm between yesterday and this morning, confirmed by my own test. Seems the plants are living at least.

They gave me a voucher for the cost so I'm not out financially but he was such a beautiful fish and I don;t know if it was just the stress of moving that caused it or if it was my tank. It was only about 19 hours from purchase to death

Once I'd sorted that out and confirmed that my water quality was fine I headed to the MA @ Morden (huge!) and picked up 6 Pearl Gourami of about 5cm in length max. The guy said it would be quite difficult to get 4 females and 2 males as they are quite hard to tell apart at that age, however he spent a good 6 or 7 minutes taking his time trying to get them from about 16 that were in the tank.

They are about 30 minutes into their acclimatisation now.