The Problems Of Rushing Into A New Tank.

[Minotaur]

i think you're pushing your limit sweetie.

Yeah, I said that all along. But my partner is one of these people who wants instant gratification. He wanted a ready-made tank ready to go. I warned him about this.

I knew I would either have to re-home the bala or just expect that it wouldn't live long in a smaller tank. Well, it didn't live long.

I think the pleco is a common. I'm probably going to have to re-home him. I know someone who has a big enough tank. When I got him I had no idea what to expect.

 

[sheeno]

Well i did the same, again on the advice of the LFS...Thay no bugger all about fish.

I added the fish a week after installation,Five of the fish are dead after a week and remenants are poorly.

Im so gutted and i would love to solely blame the LFS but i should have researched a bit more myself.

 

[Minotaur]

Well i did the same, again on the advice of the LFS...Thay no bugger all about fish.

I added the fish a week after installation,Five of the fish are dead after a week and remenants are poorly.

Im so gutted and i would love to solely blame the LFS but i should have researched a bit more myself.

I hear ya. NOW I know what I needed to know then but didn't.

 

[Glod]

Congrats on getting things under control . I think some casualties were inveitable to be honest.

Just taking a look at your current stocking

1 powder blue gourami (2 inches)
2 gold gouramis (4.5 inches each)
1 pink kissing gourami (10-12 inches)
1 striped gourami (2 inches)
1 tiger barb (2 inches, but aggressive and nippy)
1 black skirted tetra (2 inches also prefers to be in a shoal)
1 clown loach (Could eventually reach 12 inches or more, slow grower tho.)
1 pleco (Like you said, gets to be big )
1 black mollie (6 inches, prefers salt in the water)
1 dalmatian mollie (6 inches, prefers salt in the water)
1 orange mollie (6 inches, prefers salt in the water)
1 rainbow shark (6 inches but a very active swimmer needing lots of swimming room)
Is there any chance you could arrange with your lfs to trade some of the fish back in for more suitable tank mates ?

I think your tank is about 30.25 inches x 12.5 inches x 18.75 inches in size, personally I'd consider 4 inches as large a fish as I would put in that tank. You could probably get away with a bristlnose plec which gets to about 5-6 inches long since they aren't that active swimmers.

If it were my tank I would look at swapping out the Kissing Gourami, Tiger Barb, Clown Loach, Common Plec, the Mollys (because of the salt preference) and the shark. Possible adding more black skirts to take the shoal up to 6 or replacing that with a shoal of other smallish tetras. Try and get a Bristlenose instead of the common and maybe look at Khuli loaches instead of the clown. Your tank is a decent size and there are lots of fish that are suitable for it, you just seem to have chosen some of the larger ones . If you want to have something like the mollies you could consider platys which have similar colours and only grow to about 2 inches.

Please don't take this as criticism, we all know that your first tank is a learning process. Then again, if MTS takes hold and you decide to get yourselves a 120 gallon to let things grow into you could always consider this one a grow out tank

edit : grr... I *still* don't know why it adds 3 lines instead of one when I hit enter....

 

[Minotaur]

No... no criticism taken at all. I appreciate the advice. Unfortunately the kind of "lfs" we have here is Petco and Petsmart... the large chains. No specialty stores. These chains sell everything from pet supplies to the animals themselves. So the chances of a swap are nil. Those stores are ruled by corporate sales and reutrn policies.
I'm stunned though at some of the sizes you mentioned... do you guys use different size inches over there? I never thought a pink kissing gourami got that big. Over here 10-12" is the width of a dinner plate!

 

[Glod]

Hehe, no, the inches are the same size Just our gallons are larger for some inane reason. If you prefer 2.54 cm to the Inch would be the conversion rate.
They have a pair of kissing gourami in a display tank in one of my lfs and the larger of the two is definitely 12 inches/30cm, the other a bit smaller. As I said I have no idea how fast most of those grow so can't really advise on how quickly they will outgrow your tank.
On the trading thing, not sure about legislation in the US but don't you guys have any laws along the lines of "must be fit for the purpose for which it is sold?". If the fish was sold to you for a smaller tank and it's going to be way too big it's not really fit for the purpose, is it ?
The only other thing that springs to mind would be maybe a small add in the local press to see if another fishkeeper nearby would be interested in rehoming them.
I understand how the prospect of returning fish to a chain can be like running at a brick wall, I've experienced the same thing over here. Luckily for me, as long as the fish are healthy the little mom and pop fish store in town will take them in or trade for something different. I'm in the process of replacing my platies, I love the fish to bits they have bags of personality but at the end of the day I don't want my tank to be permanently full of fry Adding something to eat them goes against the grain, they're too lovable

Edit: A quick note on sizes, in general I noted the larger end of the size scale for each of the fish, often they don't quite reach those lengths but it's still the safest guideline in my opinion.