What Fish Should I Add To My Tank?

[Besty42]

Hi, I was wondering how many more fish I can add for this size tank and the filteration I have. Here the info

The tank is a 240l Fluval Roma
The filter is a Hagen 306- Flow Rate: 1150 L/H
Fluval Mirrored M Series Heater 300watt

Gravel as tank bed, 5 fake plants, 3 fake logs, 1 small piece of driftwood

Stock list so far:
1 minnow ( poorly at min)
3 leopard corys
3 adolfoi corys
1 rusty pleco (2.5 inches)
6 cardinal tetras
6 platys, 1 platy fry

Tank temp 24-25 degrees
Ph round 7-7.5 (last time I checked, probs a bit lower after adding driftwood)

Any ideas on what to get yet? We were thinking of some more cardinals, but would love to have some interesting and lively fish to give the tank even more character.

 

[CezzaXV]

I'd look at some top dwellers. Have you considered gouramis? Mixing different types isn't encouraged as they may fight, but there are lots of different types to pick from and most of them would be suitable for a tank of your size.

 

[Besty42]

We did have two red robin gourami one male, one female, not knowing how delicate and hard they were to keep alive. Sadly the both passed away, from harassment from the male and the other we had no clue, started becoming black and pale and not eating, spitting out food. Have you had any experience with honey gourami? They might be the next fish we look at. Any unusual fish? Love to add layers of interest to the tank, the more you look the more you find!

 

[CezzaXV]

I've got a group of four honey gourami and they're beautiful. A lot of Maidenhead Aquatics sell an unusual colour morph of the honeys - mine are bright yellow and incredibly striking!

Prior to this I had a male dwarf gourami and I must admit I liked him more than I like the honeys. Trouble with dwarfs is they can tend to die for no good reason, but they're my favourite fish

 

[Besty42]

Thanks, ill keep an eye out for some honey gouramis in LFS, how many do you recommend for starting off? Just one? What other fish do you recommend?

Just another random question but are plecos prone to eating dead fish? Because I used to have 4 leopard corydoras but one completely disappeared, one day he was there and the next, gone! I've been wondering what could have happened to the poor guy, he's defineately not in there anymore.

 

[CezzaXV]

Honeys do best in groups. I've got four females to start off with, and am considering adding a male (and maybe another female). As with most gouramis, you don't want more than one males else they may fight.

I dont know much about plecs, but from what I've heard most fish will eat a dead fish if they find one. Have you checked under decorations, inside the filter etc?

 

[Besty42]

Yep, no sign!

 

[leighton_87]

Do you know what is wrong with your minnow?

If so is it contagious?

If not then don't add anymore fish until you know what it is. Don't want to infect new livestock and adding the fish may stress your current tank mates as make them more prone to whatever the problem is

 

[Besty42]

We went through an outbreak of ick around a month ago now. The temp of the tank was already on the high side for the minnow but the temp being raised more made them unwell. We didn't realise this till I checked on the Internet and turned the temp down again (slowly obviously!) Ever since then his body droops slightly,still comes to food but is less active then he used to be. His other 2 buddies got killed during the ick but all my other fish survived, not all the fish in the tank got ick just the minnows, a platy and a couple of cardinal tetras. Maybe he's lonely as all the other fish have more than one of its species? Or is the tank still too warm for him, it's in the area they are ok at though....

 

[Shelster]

I know minnows like to be in a shoal of about 8 ish, he may well cheer up having a shoal to be in.
I have 5 honey Gouramis and they are my favourite. I know some folk say they are very sensitive to water conditions, but as long as you keep on top of regular weekly water changes all should be good and don't let it put you off them.
I started off with one male and two females, then a week later bought two more females.
I purchased my stock from MA also.
The females have a faint grey line which starts from there eye and continues to tail fin, whereas the males have orangey red on tail fins and slight blackey grey under chin ( ha ha if that makes sense?!?). If you are unsure, the staff should be able to sex them for you.
They also love planted tanks and some floating plants if you can - although I'm still on the lookout for a decent floating plant, I often leave uprooted ones fr them to swim under.
Good luck in your search

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Considering your Hypostomus cochliodon should reach ~23cm SL, you should not be considering any new species for this tank. This catfish should be provided with a good amount of various softer bogwoods in its tank, it will knaw on them and provide plenty of "sawdust" for you to hoover up.

Up your social fish to 6 (minnow; leopard; adolphoi) per species at the most and call it a day.

 

[Besty42]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will be buying some bogwood for my tiny pleco (23cm, wow!) as all he has at the mo is a small piece of driftwood. I'll defo be adding some more minnows, probs another 4 to get a nice number of them. My corys seem happy as they are and the group of the adolfoi and leopard swim around together in a group and are much more active then when I just had the leopards. I would like to get some more tetras as they look beautiful when they shoal. Gouramis, maybe for a tank in the future? I hope so! Amano shrimp? Anyone have any info on them?

Thanks again

Would it be best to remove fake logs and add bogwood instead? I wanted a natural feel but my platys chomp pretty much all plants so went with plastic plants and fake logs. Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If you feel the fake logs could be of benefit, by all means keep them in the tank alongside the bogwood. I love real bogwood in my tanks, the two 4-footers behind me have ~30x12x6" of bogwod in each creating hiding places and a 3-dimensional hardsape for the fish in them.

 

[Besty42]

i will defo buy a piece of bogwood at some point. keeping in all fake decos as easier to maintain. maybe adding some foreground plants to hopefully encourage my family that the natural route is the way to go (all our decorations look natural but its not quite the same!). love to have a planted tank, going to start slow and see whether it will work for our tank or not.

 

[Besty42]

I just want to say thanks to everyone for the help, it's been really helpfull!