Long story short, I got the same 65 Hex I had wrote about a while back for a song with all new equipment, but the person who had it knew nothing about fish or water chemistry and kept killing off everything they put in it, even though we had offered to help in any way we could. 
The four remaining survivors were moved from the heated tank today (which smelled horrid empty when we went to get it) to a yellow-water bucket with a goldfish that was probably all of 65 degrees warm. They had been in there at least a half-day. I'm not sure any of them are going to make it, but if they do, I think I want to keep them. The plan was to have the local store rehome them when we drained the tank so they would go straight from it to there, but now that they've been through so much I'd much rather give them a good home here - IF we have a good home for them.
There are:
2 very small tiger barbs
1 rainbow shark (Epalzeorhnchos frenatum) around 4 inches
1 regular Pleco, around 5 inches
Obviously I don't want to keep them if they're going to be crowded or dangerous in the future, but there's also the chance that they'll go to a home that puts them in a 10 gallon so I'm just as wary of that. I do have them temporarily in a 10 gallon as the 65 is going to need sterilized and scrubbed and it was too late (and one heck of a bad day) today to do it, but it should be up and running by tomorrow night if things go as planned. I wasn't too keen on having a hex tank since they are such a pain to try and stock properly, but for the price I couldn't pass it up, and I could always use it for something non fish if I do end up giving these fish away. (And hubby wanted to fill it with small cichlids, so there's also that.)
If those four will be okay in the 65, any suggestions for tank mates, aside from a lot more tiger barbs?
The four remaining survivors were moved from the heated tank today (which smelled horrid empty when we went to get it) to a yellow-water bucket with a goldfish that was probably all of 65 degrees warm. They had been in there at least a half-day. I'm not sure any of them are going to make it, but if they do, I think I want to keep them. The plan was to have the local store rehome them when we drained the tank so they would go straight from it to there, but now that they've been through so much I'd much rather give them a good home here - IF we have a good home for them. There are:
2 very small tiger barbs
1 rainbow shark (Epalzeorhnchos frenatum) around 4 inches
1 regular Pleco, around 5 inches
Obviously I don't want to keep them if they're going to be crowded or dangerous in the future, but there's also the chance that they'll go to a home that puts them in a 10 gallon so I'm just as wary of that. I do have them temporarily in a 10 gallon as the 65 is going to need sterilized and scrubbed and it was too late (and one heck of a bad day) today to do it, but it should be up and running by tomorrow night if things go as planned. I wasn't too keen on having a hex tank since they are such a pain to try and stock properly, but for the price I couldn't pass it up, and I could always use it for something non fish if I do end up giving these fish away. (And hubby wanted to fill it with small cichlids, so there's also that.)
If those four will be okay in the 65, any suggestions for tank mates, aside from a lot more tiger barbs?
