Upgraded Tank, New Fish - Advice Appreciated

[leeman]

Hi everyone
I recently upgraded from a year old 40l fishpod to a 120l fishpod. I added some new fish on with the old ones and wanted opinions on my choices.
Old tank transferred - 2 albino cats, 2 shrimp, 2 assassin snails, 3 neons, 2 danios, 1 dwarf gourami and a pleco.
Added new fish - 5 small angel fish, 4 tiger barbs.
Can anyone offer advice as to how the new guys will interact as im new to barbs and angels.
Any advice on habits etc would be great.
Thanks

 

[dbanner]

To be honest the tank is too small for angels. They need tanks of at least 18 inches high and around 3 feet long. Also tiger barbs are notorious for fin nippers. They go for most fish but they especially go for fish with long fins so mixing them with gouramis is not a good idea. Tiger barbs aggression does calm down when they are in big numbers. A minimum of 6 is required but the more the better. Around 10-12 would calm them down but IMO your tank is still to small to add those kind of numbers.

By "albino cats" do you mean albino corys? If so then these require larger groups as well... A minimum of 6. Same for the neons.

If it was my tank then I would of just upped the number of neons to say 15, up the number of corys to 6-8, keep the snails, possibly up the shrimp and add another 2 dwarf gourami (1 male, 2 female to avoid aggression)

What plec is it you have? The smaller types like bristlenoses and clown plecs only get to around 6 inches so that shouldn't be too bad for your tank although not ideal. Make sure you have a sand bottom (substrate) in your tank for the corys and plec as gravel can cause injurys (unless its smooth)

 

[leeman]

Thanks for the reply.
I hope i cover everything below.
I did mean corys yeah, sorry. They have been with me over a year now, quite happy too.
The new tank is 29" x 13" x 16 inches.
Not sure wat kind of plec, hes been with me a year now, hes about 5.5 inches.
Basically everything that was in the first tank that transferred over has been there over a year.
The new additions are mainly to fill a lot of new empty space.
I was concerened about adding 9 fish - that wasnt the plan, was supposed to be 4! but due to silly circumstances i ended up with 9 that needed a home or they would die!
I have added a second filter to hopefully help!
I dont know if the gourami is m or f - he mainly chills out alone though, behind the decor lol

 

[dbanner]

Could you possibly post a picture of the pleco so myself or others here could try and let you know which type you have? There loads of different types ranging from around 4-6 inches up to a massive 2 foot. Adding a 2nd filter will help as will regular tank maintenance like weekly water changes and gravel/sand vacs..

Sorry if I can across as harsh with anything I said, I wasn't trying to say that fish HAD to be in those certain numbers, I was just giving you the recommendations for them. The numbers are like a general thing for those type of fish as they are shoaling/schooling fish so they simply feel safer and become a lot less shy in bigger numbers. They will also act a lot more natural if that makes sence.

I would definitely stick to what I said previously about the tank being too small for the angel fish long term but you may be ok for a while. Also I wouldn't risk the tiger barbs in there with the fish you have, the last thing you want is your older fish having bits of or whole fins missing

I appreciate that you saved these fish from early death, that's a very good thing to but at the same time if you keep them you risk saving 1 fish and putting others at harm. Hard to take but at the end of the day not all fish are compatible. If I could I'd have tanks all over the house with different types of fish that iv rescued

 

[dbanner]

One thing I should of asked earlier before anything else is... Is the tank cycled ? And if so what are your water readings?

If not then you are basically know doing what's called a "fish-in" cycle and you will need to perform 90% water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites down. You can read all about cycling in the beginners section.

I would also keep an eye on you water readings to ensure they are where they should be as your tank has too many fish IMO

 

[leeman]

No no, ur not harsh at all, im here to learn!
I hope the tiger barbs stay tame in their group of 4, if not i will have to move them.
I will post a pic of the plec as soon as!
I guess i will just keep a good eye and hope for the best!

 

[leeman]

Tank is cycled yeah, i have a water testing kit, all my ph, nitrates etc are in check

 

[dbanner]

Ok well that's good, yes I'd keep an eye on the tank and readings for now, keep a close eye on the tigers

Hope all goes well

Will look forward to seeing your plec as well any other pics you post

 

[the_lock_man]

quite happy too.

FIsh are like wives - if something is wrong, they carry on as normal, and only let you know that something is wrong when it's too late.

A serious point, flippantly made - you don't know if the corys are happy or not. Please trust me when I back up Mr Banner, cories need to be in a group of at least 6 to be happy.

 

[leeman]

Fair enough point. All i can say is they have normal character, no strange habits etc. they eat well an i well i dunno - they certainly arent stressed mate. I know you say you dont know to its too late but the corys are 14 months strong now! I would have to assume an issue would have arisen before now. Fair enough i cant ask them if they are happy but they are thriving textbook style.
Just to update tank is all good, new additions are happy, its now day 8. All ph etc are perfect.